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Is there any evidence that he was known as "Charles Dickens Jr"? It seems awfully like an Americanism to me. And if not, should the article not be moved to be placed under his full name? Or "Charles Dickens (1837-1896)" or somesuch? Angmering 12:14, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
- For naming articles, we use the Principle of least astonishment, which is to use the name most people know or use nowadays, the one they will look up, or the one editors will use as links the most often. At least now, he is known as "Charles Dickens, Jr", for his books or his introductions, and that's also how he's cited, so that's what we use. Please see also Wikipedia:Guide_to_writing_better_articles#Principle_of_least_astonishment
- Now of course, you're right that it would be interesting for the article to find out if he was called like this at some point during his lifetime, or if that's a posthumous naming. But it would be for adding an informational paragraph to the article, not for changing the article's main title. (A similar thing exists with the man who published as "Edgar A. Poe", because he hated his adoptive father but loved his adoptive mother, the Allan's family, but is now universally known as Edgar Allan Poe – Poe would probably hate his article using the Allan name, but that's the name readers expect to find, and so that's what we use.) — Komusou talk @ 11:18, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
- P.S.: Also, on the practical side, think about writing (and reading) such an article without the shortcuts "Dickens Sr" and "Dickens Jr" throughout. That's a bit hard, my old horse ;-) — Komusou talk @ 11:25, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
- P.S. bis: Looking at the GoogleBooks copies of All the Year Round, the top of 1870 and 1871 articles (right after Sr's death and Jr becoming editor) reads, "[Conducted by ¦ Charles Dickens, Jun.]" (that's exactly what was printed then, it's a scanned image of the original pages, the "¦" is the fold, and it's not a June thing, the date is on the same page and can be for instance "[December 10, 1870]"). Also, the library summary of a later edition provides data including, "Editors: 1859-June 1870, Charles Dickens; June 25, 1870-1895, Charles Dickens, Jr." (so, even if that's a modern librarian who typed that, it shows it's current practice) — Komusou talk @ 09:04, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
