Sample Chapter - Books

Seven-Problem Approach to Indexing Names 15• Persons assuming higher status and, therefore, relevant titles(royalty, nobility/aristocracy, and religious persons)• Persons changing their principal names or choosing to use severaldifferent names• Persons possessing both their given names and a commonly usednickname• Persons whose names are Romanized and/or spelled differently indifferent languages (see following section for treatment)HistoryHistory texts often include the variant names of these individuals:Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg-Saalfeld, later King Leopold I of BelgiumHenry of Bolingbroke, later King Henry IV of EnglandIoann Veniaminov, later St. Innocent of AlaskaKarol Woytila, later Pope John Paul IIJoseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVIAgain, indexing these alternatives will depend on what appears in the text, and,if more than one, the emphasis given to each. In Chapter 15 on religious names,Mertes advises on treatment of the two popes mentioned in these examples. Thesame applies to other religious personages who may have had one name for theirlay identity and adopted another when they entered an order or achieved sainthood.Lightfoot, writing on Thai names in Chapter 13, points out that Thai royalty tendto possess long, complex names and titles, which will not usually be necessary forindexing Western texts. She advises indexers to keep to the given name and a shorttitle. Cronshaw mentions in Chapter 7 that the names of Spanish kings used to beAnglicized—for example, Felipe as Philip—but authors now commonly prefer thevernacular. Indexers will, of course, be guided by the usage in the text.Aristocrats may be born with titles, which sometimes change during their lifetimes,or may accede to titles after accomplishment elsewhere. The indexer is luckyif the last name doesn’t change, as with books I indexed where the British politicianRobin Butler became Sir Robin Butler and later Lord Butler of Brockwell, andSir Bernard Montgomery later became Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. InChapter 16, Griffith-Jones also mentions Margaret Thatcher, later BaronessThatcher. But sometimes the change can be more dramatic, as with the example ofBenjamin Disraeli, later made Earl of Beaconsfield after a long career in politics(see earlier discussion).