Board Thread:Policies/@comment-867021-20121204173530/@comment-61022-20130113060021

I would have to agree that when it's clearly the same character in another reality, then they should have the same name. The Magneto idea is a perfect example. The real name retcon didn't happen until 2008, and there are countless alternate realities where Magneto is addressed by one of his aliases (Erik Magnus, Erik Lehnshire etc.) which was used because those were the aliases used at the time that the alternate realities were created. It just makes sense to use their mainstream names unless the characters are not the same person.

It avoids confusion and makes everything more organized. The only thing I would recommend since the characters are not "officially" named in certain universes (Like one-off What If? worlds or cartoons that have long since stopped airing) we should use the mainstream name to categorize them (IE: The page name) but the "Real Name" field should have whatever they are referred to a blurb in the "Notes" area explaining why the page is organized as such.

For example, the Magneto from Earth-92131 (The X-Men cartoon from the 90s) He is referenced as Erik Lehsherr in the cartoon. The cartoon ended years before the Max Eisenhardt retcon.

I would suggest changing the page name to Max Eisdenhardt (Earth-912131) but keep the "Real Name" field as Erik Lehnsherr. Then in the Notes section identify that Max Eisenhardt is the mainstream Magneto's name, but in the cartoon he was never named as such as the cartoon ended in the 90s and the Eisenhardt name was first used in 2008 to clarify things for readers.