Template talk:NASA Astronaut Group 2

Rendering of names on wikilinks

My rationale for changing the appearance of the names: I feel this is the style we should use. I appreciate that WP:COMMONNAME governs article titles, but the text on this infobox should follow some different standards:

• Use semi-formal, actual birth names; add common nicknames in parentheses when these contradict the birth name. Common nicknames (e.g. James - "Jim", "Edward - "Ed") sound too disrespectfully informal (especially since so many of them are dead). Of course the astronaut's public image as national heroes led to popular use of the nicknames, but this is well enough documented in the articles and doesn't need to be copied here.
• "James Lovell" is sufficient; "Jim" is a common-enough nickname that "James 'Jim' " just sounds stupid
• Conrad went by "Pete", but this was a given nickname, not his middle name; thus "Charles 'Pete' " makes perfect sense.
• Generally don't use middle initials or suffixes, for simplicity; but Ed White is a singular exception because his name was commonly rendered by NASA on PR (and his spacesuit name tag) as "Edward H. White II". And "Edward White" just sounds funny, like something's missing. I don't think middle initials or suffixes were otherwise used on the suit tags, though I could be mistaken if you have evidence (contemporary, please) to the contrary. JustinTime55 (talk) 14:40, 11 May 2017 (UTC)