Style / Aliases

The locales should be used to indicate an alias is a name used for an entity in a particular language and/or country. The most common name used for the entity in a given locale should be marked as primary. This includes the locale of the main entity name itself; as such, the primary alias name in said locale is expected to match the main entity name.

Aliases for a specific locale can be translations into the language in question, but this is not a requirement. An alias is valid for a locale as long as it is commonly used as a name in that language. It can also be a transliteration, or even exactly the same as in the original language for the entity.

The locale should not be more specific than it needs to be: the default choice should be the main locale for a language, and country should only be included when necessary. If a name for an entity is used in all English speaking countries, “English” with no country is sufficient. If a specific country uses a different name (usually for legal reasons) then the name used in that country should be set to the locale + country combination.

On the other hand, adding the same name in different languages (without specifying a country unless relevant) is always valid and appropriate, even if the name is the same as in another language that is already present.

The alias type for a localised name should generally be the appropriate variation of “Entity name” (“Artist name”, “Label name”, “Release name”, etc.).

Aliases (other than search hints) should generally follow the same guidelines as entity names (the artist guideline for artist aliases, the titles guideline for release and release group aliases, and so on).

Examples

• Bamberger Symphoniker is officially known as “Bamberg Symphony” (a translation) in English, so that’s its primary English alias. Other names that see some use, like “Bamberg Symphony Orchestra”, are added as non-primary English aliases.
• Пётр Ильич Чайковский is most often known as “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky” (a transliteration) in English, so that’s its primary English alias. Other names that see some use, like “Peter Tchaikovsky”, are added as non-primary English aliases.
  • Different transliterations are used in other locales, such as “Pjotr Tšaikovski” in Estonian and “彼得·伊里奇·柴可夫斯基” in Chinese.
• Julio Iglesias is most often known as “Julio Iglesias” in most languages, so that’s his primary alias also in English, Polish and many other locales. In Latvian, a localized name (“Hulio Iglesiass”) is used instead.
  • Note that the full legal name (“Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva”) is a valid Spanish alias (marked with the “Legal name” type) but, since it’s nowhere near as common when referring to him in Spanish, it is not the primary alias for the locale (which is still “Julio Iglesias”).
• Nine Inch Nails have a primary alias of “ナイン・インチ・ネイルズ” in Japanese; since they are mostly known by their English name in Europe, their primary aliases in most European locales (including English, Spanish, French, etc.) are just “Nine Inch Nails”.
• Yazoo are normally known as “Yazoo” in English, but are known as “Yaz” in the United States for legal reasons, so they have the primary English alias “Yazoo”, and a more specific primary English United States alias “Yaz”.
• ファーストタイム has the primary English alias “First Time”, and of course the primary Japanese alias “ファーストタイム” (matching the release group name).

The sort name should be in the appropriate form for the alias locale, since different languages sort names differently (for example, use kana for Japanese sort names). As such, the primary alias sort name in the locale of the main entity name does not have to match the entity sort name for artists, and in fact it often will not (given that the sort name guidelines for artists call for Latin sort names).

• Johann Sebastian Bach has the Russian alias “Иоганн Себастьян Бах”, with the sort name “Бах, Иоганн Себастьян”.
• Микола Віталійович Лисенко has the Ukrainian alias “Микола Віталійович Лисенко” (matching the artist name), with the sort name “Лисенко, Микола Віталійович” (despite the artist sort name being “Lysenko, Mykola”).
• 日本武道館 (Nippon Budokan) has the Japanese alias “日本武道館”, with the sort name “にっぽんぶどうかん”.

For artists, aliases should follow the normal artist sort name guidelines.

In most cases, sort names for non-artist aliases should be the same as the entity name, with the following exceptions:

Articles (such as “the”, “a” and equivalents in other languages) at the beginning of the name should be moved to the end, separated by “, ” (comma and space). If extra title information is part of the alias (for example on releases or recordings), keep it after the article.

• The sort name for The Electric Record Company is “Electric Record Company, The”.
• The sort name for The Downward Spiral is “Downward Spiral, The”.
• The sort name for The Downward Spiral (redux) is “Downward Spiral, The (redux)”.
• The sort name for Les Bourgeois is “Bourgeois, Les”.

Stylised characters (e.g. the use of symbols like “$” to represent “s”) should be changed to the letters they represent (but diacritics should not be removed).

• The sort name for Sm:)e Communications is “Smile Communications”.

Generally, dates are only practical on aliases when the name started or stopped applying at a specific time and it is useful to indicate so. As such, do not add dates for an alias when they give no additional information, such as “artist has name X since their birth/foundation” or “release has name X since it was released”. In cases where an entity has gone through different names, mark no longer applicable names as ended and indicate the dates the names were valid, if known.

• The Chicks have an ended English alias “Dixie Chicks” (with begin date 1989 and end date 2020-06-25), and a current English primary alias “The Chicks” (with begin date 2020-06-25), since they changed their name on 2020-06-25.
• The EagleBank Arena has an ended English alias “Patriot Center” (its official name from its opening date on 1985-10-04 to 2015-06-30), and a current English primary alias “EagleBank Arena” (with begin date 2015-07-01), since the naming rights were sold and the arena was renamed on that date.

Legal names for person artists are most commonly entered as aliases (but they can sometimes be added as separate artist entries when needed to link several performance name artists, see the artist guidelines).

Artists usually have only one (current) legal name; if the name changes, the previous one(s) should be set as ended (with dates, if known).

Use the most complete legal name you can find as a legal name alias (including middle names, patronymics, second surnames and any other official parts of the legal name).

If the artist performs under their legal name, it is enough to add it as a legal name alias (on the appropriate locale). Do not add it again as an “artist name” alias for that locale (it can still be added to other locales if applicable).

• Julio Iglesias has the full legal name “Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva” (two surnames as per the Spanish convention, and in this case two first names). Since this is a Spanish legal name, it is listed under the Spanish locale.
• Александр Николаевич Скрябин (Alexander Scriabin) has the full legal name “Александр Николаевич Скрябин” (first name, patronymic and surname, as per the Russian convention). Since this is a Russian legal name, it is listed under the Russian locale.
• Mari Jürjens has had the legal name “Mari Jürjens” since her marriage in 2014 (as it is also her performance name, it is marked as primary for its Estonian locale). Her maiden name, “Mari Pokinen”, is also a legal name alias, but marked as ended on the date she took the new one.
• Vernon Duke was born in the Russian Empire under the legal name “Владимир Александрович Дукельский”. In 1939 he became an American citizen under the legal name “Vernon Duke”. Both of these are valid legal name aliases, but the Russian one is marked as having ended in 1939.

Do not add deadnames as artist aliases unless they have specifically been used as credits in the artist’s music and as such are needed to identify who an old credit in a release is referring to. Deadnames that do not fulfill an explicit need should be removed.