Board Thread:Administrative/@comment-16461120-20160218162200/@comment-61022-20160219151839

I agree with this.

Also, on the issue of naming conventions in general... I think the simplest universal rule would be to name the pages after the characters second most commonly used name in a particular reality. I think that would clear up any exceptions we'd have for characters who got married, legally changed their name, and so-on. In most cases this would be the character's real birth name or most commonly used alias.

I think we can justify it by quantifying how many years a character gets referred to by a particular name.

Examples:

Luke Cage -- Although his legal name is Carl Lucas, since basically his first appearance he has used the alias Luke Cage (which later he legally changed his name to that) since he has gone by Luke for the past 44 years that's what he is commonly known as.

Wolverine -- Even though he was mostly known as Logan for the first 24 years of publications he has been in, for the past 15 years Marvel has been reinforcing that his name is James Howlett.

Ben Reilly -- Even though he was basically a clone of Peter Parker when he first appeared in 1975, since he resurfaced in 1994 and forever more thereafter he has been called Ben Reilly.

The Wizard -- Here's a great example: He's been known as Bentley Wittman since his name was first revealed in in 1983. For the past 33 years Bentley Wittman is what he has been consistently been called other than The Wizard. Except once in in 1994 when he tells some prison guards he legally changed his name to "The Wizard". Since then that has never been mentioned again and Wittman has consistently been called by his birth name and has never corrected people that he legally changed his name (probably because when he mentioned it the last time he got made fun of, Bentley is sensitive about those sorts of things) I would say we name him after his birth name.

Madelyine Pryor -- Has been consistently identified by that name since she first appeared in 1983. She wasn't identified as a clone of Jean Grey until six years later. However even after that they consistently referred to her as Madelyine

The Stepford Cuckoos -- All clones of Emma Frost, but since their first appearances of 2001 they have all gone by the unique names they were given.

Invisible Woman -- She's been married to Reed for 51 years, and it's unlikely she's going to get divorced anytime soon, so her page should be Susan Richards as opposed to Susan Storm -- at least in universes where she is married -- because that is what she is more commonly known as. Whereas....

Mary Jane Watson -- Even though she was married to Peter in 1987 and was married for 20 years of publication, their marriage has not existed for 8 and their lack of marriage has been reinforced just as much as Wolverine being named James Howlett.

The Original Hulk --- Even though he's been identified as Robert Bruce Banner since the letter pages in, he's consistently been referred to as Bruce Banner. The whole "Robert" thing is because Stan is terrible at names and has crappy memory and that was how he saved face for accidentally calling him Bob Banner in three different comics by mistake. As such the page should be named Bruce Banner. It's the most common, and also it's less to type :P

Deadpool -- Even though claims that he stole the Wade Wilson name from T-Ray and that his name might be Jack, we still call him Wade Wilson, not Jack, or "Wade Wilson" (Earth-616). Its been 17 years since that allegation has been made and never brought up again.

End Examples.

When it comes to how a page should be named, I think we should go with what is more commonly used. I'd say if a character gets married or legally changes their name, we should give it three years to see if that new name becomes the second most commonly used name and rename pages accordingly.