Forum:Initials - Periods and Spaces

Forums: Index > Article Content > Initials - Periods and Spaces

Participation in the Muppet Wiki Forums requires a full understanding of the Rules and Etiquette.

---

There seems to be some inconsistencies with how we handled double-initial names -- is there a space after the first period or not? Should it be "B. P. Richfield" or "B.P. Richfield"?

In some cases with real people there's a consistent personal variant to standard style (see k.d. lang) but most outside conventions are to place a space after the period (see J. K. Simmons). Below is a list of examples on the wiki (I'm sure I'm missing some, feel free to add).

Why do we have J. P. (with space) but P.J. (with no space)?

What are our naming conventions? Is there a reason for these differences or just oversight? -- BradFraggle (talk) 16:22, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

I don't think we have a naming convention for this. The inconsistencies seem to come in part from how the search function works and having the foresight to know whether or not a reader is going to remember the correct number of dots and spaces. I believe that engine has improved over the years, but it used to be a task to search for someone with a name like this and not get the desired results. I think the proper format is Initial Dot Space Initial Dot Space LastName, but I think the omitted first space has become shorthand. As with the "two spaces between sentences" rule, which I personally think is silly unless you're on a typewriter, I prefer the omitted first space. —Scott (talk) 18:22, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

Spacing is formally proper and a long time ago we actually agreed and moved some (it was long enough ago that Danny was active in the discussion), but between time and Fandom changes, I can't find any record. There was consensus to use spaces and some pages moved, but it just never ended up consistent. For characters, screen credits also waffle depending on fonts or sometimes even leave out initials (and in some cases, it's never on-screen anyway); grammatically, it should be "B. P. Richfield," but credits used B.P. and merchandise just used either depending. On the whole, I'm more for either punctuating as real people do when it's a stylistic thing or to what's used in text when there's a clear and consistent source, but otherwise, I'm not terribly bothered by inconsistencies or eager for en masse moves. For the real people listed, only "J.M. Lee" is just how the page was started (his book credits and bios etc. always use spacing). The others, we know that's how they style their initials. -- Andrew 18:49, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

---

With a Space Characters: P. T. Bunkum A. B. C-more I. C. DeForrest J. P. Grosse F. N. Jones D. X. Machina I. M. Pig H. T. Stone J. G. J. P. Real People: J. J. Abrams G. W. Bailey George H. W. Bush M. C. Gainey H. B. Gilmour E. Y. Harburg B. B. King A. A. Milne B. J. Novak J. K. Rowling J. K. Simmons O. J. Simpson J. D. Smith B. D. Wong

Without a Space Characters: T.J. Bear J.P. Braithwaite [cite] B.P. Richfield T.V. Sett [cite] B.J. D.K. P.J. P.K. T.R. Real People: Dwight R.B. Cook [cite] k.d. lang T.R. Knight J.M. Lee [cite] J.R. Martinez J.R. Young

Sources