Forum:Unnamed individuals

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I would like to suggest that unnamed characters use a more in-universe name in their infoboxes. By this I mean an infobox would state "unnamed policeman" rather than "Policeman".

I was discussing this issue with User:Mini-mitch (discussion here). My suggestion there was that it should be "unnamed girl" rather than "Little Girl" (that is, within the article, not the title).

At the moment the vast majority of articles use the name as credited e.g. Vicar. I was unaware this was the case as it seems to me that some credits, such as little girl, are unneccesary within the article.

Anyone have an opinion on this? (See Policeman (An Unearthly Child) and Coolie (The Talons of Weng-Chiang) for more examples.)----Skittles the hog--Talk 21:10, April 23, 2011 (UTC)

For the little girl in The Impossible Astronaut, surely her name in her infobox should be 'Little Girl'. It is perfectly in universe, as she is referred to directly as 'Little Girl' by a homeless person. Is that in-universe enough to count as a name in an infobox? Tardis1963 06:38, May 13, 2011 (UTC)

Tardis1963 makes what seems to me a good point. However, I find many of these a articles to be a bit ridiculous and support the idea of changing the references to "Unnamed X" with, of course, exceptions like Little Girl. Boblipton 14:58, May 13, 2011 (UTC)

I was unaware of the point raised by Tardis1963 but, like you say, the point still stands outside such exceptions.----Skittles the hog--Talk 16:02, May 13, 2011 (UTC)

I've thought about Tardis1963's point a bit more and it seems likely that at some time we will know more about the character; at that point the character name -- which is, I would imagine, the point of the infobox -- will be given, with "Little girl" as an alias.Boblipton 20:26, May 13, 2011 (UTC)

Well, infoboxen are a weird hybrid of in-universe and out-of-universe material, since they contain information as to the actor and appearances. From a strict in-universe point of view, the "little girl' wouldn't know who portrayed her, nor the name of the episodes in which she appeared. So I'm not at all bothered by "Policeman" or "little girl" in the infobox. Since the point is snapshot info, you can safely keep it simple. However for the article's lead, where things are definitely in-universe, I do tend to start things with:

An unknown policeman once helped the Doctor . . .

czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  <span style="">23:03:21 Fri 13 May 2011