Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

51 views
Policies & Practices > character name issues

Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Emilie (new)

Emilie (scribblyowl) | 6 comments I've been adding some character data to books, and I noticed that Hawkeye is the name associated with the character of Clint Barton. There's another character within the Marvel universe that also goes by the alias Hawkeye (Kate Bishop); also, the policy on character data is to use the first and last name of a character and put any aliases in the alias field. So, is it okay if I edit the character data for all the Marvel titles with Hawkeye so that Clint Barton is the main name and Hawkeye is an alias?
(I'm new to being a goodreads librarian, so I just want to check that doing this is okay!)


message 2: by Emilie (new)

Emilie (scribblyowl) | 6 comments There seems to be a general lack of consistency across all titles in how superhero names are dealt with. Some characters have the alias as the primary names, some of them have the full name, and some of them have the alias with the full name in parentheses. If there's a consensus about what the standard should be, I'd be happy to take the time to do some serious organizing.


message 3: by Banjomike (new)

Banjomike | 5166 comments I suppose it would make sense to use:

SuperHeroName (SecretIdentity)

With characters who have had multiple real names it would at least keep all the Superman, Captain America, Batgirl versions together.


message 4: by Emilie (new)

Emilie (scribblyowl) | 6 comments This does kind of pose a problem in choosing which superhero name to use in cases where one character is strongly associated with multiple superhero identities, though. Also, I think that different characters who have used the same superhero identity should be kept separate; for example, the role of Robin has been filled by five different significant characters, all of whom have also gone by other superhero aliases (some of the past Robins are currently solo superheroes like Nightwing, Red Robin, etc.)
I'm not trying to be obtuse, I just want to be sure that I choose something sensible so that the next librarians to come along don't feel the need to change all the names again to some other format ^^'


back to top