Template talk:Family name explanation

Discussion on the wording of the Hispanic American naming template

See here It would be better if any change in wording (if agreed upon) could be made to the template, instead of singling individuals out for having surnames from outside of Spain. Unknown Temptation (talk) 12:02, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Support changing the Hispanic American template so it's like the East Slavic template. Anythingyouwant (talk) 22:01, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 26 July 2026

Description of suggested change: Please change the Hispanic American template so it's like the East Slavic template. The East Slavic template says, "In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Aleksandrovitch and the family name is Imyarek." So the Hispanic American template should be edited likewise: "In this name that follows Hispanic American name naming customs, the first or paternal surname is Bolívar and the second or maternal family name is Palacios." The current template works okay if the name that follows Hispanic American naming customs is a hispanic name, but sometimes it's not. See BLPN discussion. Thank you. Anythingyouwant (talk) 22:06, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

Diff:

−

In this Hispanic American name, the first or paternal surname is Bolívar and the second or maternal family name is Palacios.

+

In this name that follows Hispanic American naming customs, the first or paternal surname is Bolívar and the second or maternal family name is Palacios.

Anythingyouwant (talk) 22:06, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

Would appreciate response to this request. At the BLPN discussion (linked above):

• User:Unknown Temptation said "How about something like 'In this name that follows Hispanic American customs, X is the paternal surname and Y the maternal surname'." I replied, "I support solving the problem either way: by doing a custom hatnote or by changing the specific hatnote at Template:Family name hatnote."
• User:SpyroeBM said "I do understand your point and wouldn't mind tweaking the hatnote for Fujimori and other Hispanic American's subjects on Wikipedia for the following wording which is spun off the formatting used for the East Slavic names hatnote: "In this name that follows Hispanic American naming customs, the paternal surname is Fujimori and the maternal surname is Higuchi." I agreed: "I support your proposal to modify the hatnote so it says, 'In this name that follows Hispanic American naming customs, the paternal surname is Fujimori and the maternal surname is Higuchi.'"
• User:WhisperToMe then replied, "I agree that 'naming customs' is a good way of putting it. Names of people in Hispanic America can come from many ethnic origins."

So there's consensus for the proposed edit. Please implement it, User:Santiago Claudio, User:Jonesey95, User:Paine Ellsworth, User:Primefac, User:Gonnym, User:Mathglot (these are the last several people who have edited the template). Anythingyouwant (talk) 14:02, 23 August 2026 (UTC)

 Done. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:41, 24 August 2026 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 29 August 2026

The hatnotes generated by this template have extra links which distract the reader. Please remove overlinking to everyday words, such as "family name", "given name", etc. For an example, see Li Qiang. fgnievinski (talk) 01:03, 30 August 2026 (UTC)

Even if they are everyday words, there are too many synonyms (family name, last name, surname) and not every reader would immediately understand what is meant.

In case of Li Qiang, the hatnote links to three articles: Chinese name, Chinese surname, and Li (surname 李). I wouldn't mind rewording the hatnote to skip one of the links, something like "The [[Chinese surname|surname]] in this Chinese name is [[Li (surname 李)|Li]]" or "In [[Chinese surname|this Chinese name the surname]] is [[Li (surname 李)|Li]]", though the wording is awkward in these two options. —⁠andrybak (talk) 17:27, 30 August 2026 (UTC)

There's already a link to "Chinese name", where the details are all explained. A hatnote shouldn't have more than a single wikilink. fgnievinski (talk) 23:20, 30 August 2026 (UTC)

I disagree with the statement immediately above. Linking to both "Burmese name" and "given name" in this hatnote is entirely appropriate. Many readers will be familiar with the English-language-speaking-world terms "first name" and "last name", but those terms are not universal or appropriate in some types of names (marital name, patronymic, title, toponymic), which is why we do not use them and need to use more precise language and link it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:22, 31 August 2026 (UTC)

• I am not too familiar with Chinese names, and am glad to have the links that are there so that I may choose if and what to click to learn more about the topic. Overlinking at English Wikipedia means, for example, linking China or family name. Linking Chinese name, Chinese surname, and Li (surname 李) at English Wikipedia is exactly what is needed in this note aimed at English-speaking readers. I am opposed to this request. (Also, this is not a hatnote that attempts to help readers locate a different article [than] the one they are viewing, so any restrictions on number of links in hatnotes do not apply here.) Mathglot (talk) 08:49, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

Chilean names (and maybe Mexican names)

Pardon my ignorance and apologies if this is not the right place to do this, but with the wording of the Hispanic American hatnote being changed in this edit request into the following: "In this name that follows Hispanic American naming customs, the first or paternal surname is Bolívar and the second or maternal family name is Palacios." due to this this BLP discussion on the Peruvian subject Keiko Fujimori, shouldn't the Chilean naming hatnote (e.g. "In this Chilean name, the first or paternal surname is Tabilo and the second or maternal family name is Álvarez.") be depreciated as the Hispanic American hatnote naming covers the naming conventions of Chile. Also wouldn't that apply to the Mexican naming hatnote, as it follows the typical Spanish (and by extension Hispanic American) naming formatting (unless I am missing something)? Thanks, SpyroeBM (talk) 23:32, 7 September 2026 (UTC)