Talk:Jean Le Rond d'Alembert

Jean-baptiste?

In the French article he is named just Jean le Rond, without "Baptiste", and there is no source here for this expanded name. Is this name a confusion with Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre? Laugh Tough (talk) 21:01, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Elected into the Academy... when?

There are In 1741, after several failed attempts, d'Alembert was elected into the Académie des Sciences. and In 1754, d'Alembert was elected a member of the Académie des sciences in the article. Can they both be correct?  Latin Beau  04:21, 17 March 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 29 November 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 22:54, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

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Jean le Rond d'Alembert → Jean Le Rond d'Alembert – "Le" should be capitalized. Pinacotecus (talk) 23:06, 28 November 2025 (UTC) This is a contested technical request (permalink). 162 etc. (talk) 21:55, 29 November 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 02:10, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

A quick search shows that sources use both "le Rond" and Le Rond". It's not immediately clear that the uppercase is more common. What are you basing this on? 162 etc. (talk) 01:12, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

Indeed, the uppercase spelling "Le Rond" is by far the most common, as stated in the French article Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (see name spelling notes, translated below):

This spelling is the one adopted by the main French bibliographical references:

• The Le Robert encyclopedic dictionary, 2019 edition, p. 45 (which files the entry under the letter A and explicitly mentions “Jean Le Rond d’Alembert”);
• The Académie Française, in its biographical notice;
• The Petit Larousse encyclopedic dictionary, 2008 ISBN 978-2-03-582503-2, under the letter A, p. 1104;
• The Encyclopædia Universalis, February 1985, Vol.1, p. 693;
• The Quid encyclopedia, 2001, p. 262.

• Support per nomination. This entry appears in 87 other Wikipedias, a large majority of which, including French Wikipedia, use "Le". Moreover, in addition to the links provided above, English-language references, such as Britannica, also use "Le". —Roman Spinner (talk • contribs) 02:19, 30 November 2025 (UTC)
• Support. Biographies of d'Alembert (e.g. by Joseph Bertrand) show that his name was Lerond, from the name of the Saint-Jean-Lerond church where he was found as a baby. — Hucbald.SaintAmand

Note: WikiProject Music theory, WikiProject Biography/Science and academia, WikiProject France, WikiProject Physics/Taskforces/BPH, WikiProject Philosophy, WikiProject History of Science, WikiProject Physics/Taskforces/Fluid dynamics, and WikiProject Mathematics have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 02:19, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

• Support per French Wikipedia.--ReyHahn (talk) 09:31, 7 December 2025 (UTC)
• Support, per Launay, Françoise (2012). "Les identités de d'Alembert". Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie (47): 243–289. doi:10.4000/rde.4949. — by the way, this source states that his birthname was Jean Le Rond (changed to Jean d'Aremberg in 1718) and that the second and third names "Baptiste" and "Louis" only appeared in 1730. This contradicts this Wikidata entry. However, that entry is semi-protected, so I can't change it — can someone take care of it?

By the way, @Hucbald.SaintAmand:, that source seems much more precise and much more documented than the biography by Joseph Bertrand, and it contradicts it on several points. For instance, Bertrand claims (without source) that d'Alembert's birthname was Jean-Baptiste Lerond, whereas Launay claims it was Jean Le Rond (citing original documents). To me Bertrand does not seem like a reliable source (probably not surprising, since the standards for doing research in history have evolved since the 19th century). Malparti (talk) 00:01, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.