[AccessD] A Rose by any other name is still a rose; was (normalization question)

Arthur Fuller artful at rogers.com
Mon May 17 00:17:26 CDT 2004


As I pointed out in a previous msg on this thread, I know 5 John Reids,
and all of them are in the software biz. Go figure. Them Irish, they do
like to propagate! Check Chicago for example :) (Does anyone else LOVE
Miller's Crossing? My fave movie of all time.)

I googled my own name and then ran 411.com (a phone number database) and
found a painter of the same name died early in the last century and no
less than 20 identical names in Canada alone.

In short, names alone don't cut it. Add something unique and you have a
chance. Phone numbers are candidates, but it could happen that 2 Arthur
Fullers reside at the same address (unlikely I admit, but possible).
Even SSNs have been demonstrated to be non-unique (counterfeit IDs, bad
coding, identity theft, etc.).

I don't have a solution. I simply recognize some of the deep problems
herein. (Sometimes a single Gustav Brock could work for several
companies simultaneously, and have multiple addresses -- at company 123
he lists his address in Denmark; at co. 234 he lists his address in
Germany; at co. 345 he lists his address in Rotterdam.) Resolving all
these to a single actual Gustav is problematic to say the least. Suppose
Gustav also has multiple passports and multiple citizenships. I know
several Canadians who have multiple citizenships, and this can decidely
work against them. One friend of mine, a Canadian citizen born of French
parents but born in Canada, spent a year in France and suddenly found
himself drafted into the French army. (Granted this occurred in the 60's
and the laws may have changed since, but at that time France took the
position that any child born of French parents was a French citizen and
therefore entitled to the privilege of being drafted.)

And while we're on the subject of names, I am a big fan of Indian and
Pakistani music, but owning over 100 CDs in these genres has not helped
me deduce the family naming schemes in the slightest. For example, the
best tabla player in the world (IMO) is Zakir Hussain. His father is
Alla Rakha. His uncles are Ravi Shankar and Ali Ahkbar Khan. Could
someone with knowledge of these familial naming schemes please explain
same? Does anyone on this list comprehend these naming schemes? I would
truly appreciate enlightenment in this area. 

Vaguely related, my second wife, from Spain, is named Samanth Ruskin
Lema. The middle name comes from her father, the last name from her
mother. Her mother's name is Flora Azucena Castro Lema, and Flora's
father's surname was Castro. She married a man whose surname is Ruskin
but nowhere in her name is this indicated. It is only indicated in the
names of her children. 

I would be interested in replies from those non-North-American listers
to learn what your naming schemes are. Given a mother whose name is W X,
and a father whose name is Y Z, what will be the "family name" of their
offspring? In the case of Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain, there is no
relationship whatever. I have no idea how they come up with their
progeny's names. But I want to generalize the question and learn about
the world's naming schemes.

I have probably taken this thread way off-topic and apologize to the
moderator(s) for this. But I find this question incredibly interesting,
and even if distantly, it bears upon SSH's original question.

International replies invited and encouraged. Maybe you should reply to
me directly rather than clutter the AccessD thread with this stuff. But
I am seriously interested in learning about the world's naming schemes.

TIA,
Arthur





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