“Most Common Surname” List uses NAME tag rather than SURN tag in list.

[Norwegian-Sardines]

See forum entry: https://www.webtrees.net/index.php/en/forum/help-for-2-0/35775-confirmation-on-surnames-handling

For Spanish and other traditions where the surname is actually made up of multiple independent surnames, the list identifies that the SURN tag (surname index) has a high number of entries, but when it displays the name in the list it uses all of the many names rather than the index singular name, for example.

1 NAME Juan /Pérez/ /Sánchez/ 2 GIVN Juan 2 SURN Pérez, Sánchez

if Pérez has a high number of surname members the list displays “Pérez Sánchez”, rather than just “Pérez”.

[Norwegian-Sardines]

Updated from the forum:

I think that this issue here is two fold,

1. The “All” list shows duplicates, which is generated because (I think?) the list uses the combined NAME tag surnames rather than the indexed singular surname.

2. The “Most Common Surname” list shows duplicates because (I think?) the list uses the combined NAME tag surnames rather than the indexed singular surname. A multi-surname individual should be listed in the Most Common list under each surname “Pérez” and “García” not twice under “Pérez García”

EDIT: I understand the GEDCOM issue of not using the SURN index which is the correct answer. And I do understand to some extent that the most common surname list is complicated, but this needs to be understood as an issue for some who see the names in a particular way!

[fisharebest]

This is working as designed.

But it was designed for the situation whereby if you have surnames "Smith", "Smith-Jones" and "Robinson-Smith", then you would want all three shown whenever you need to display SURN=SMITH.

I don't know how webtrees could distinguish this situation from the Spanish/Portuguese style names.

[Norwegian-Sardines]

Based on what you are saying then, I have been mistaken all along that multiple surnames should not be entered as follows!

1 NAME Jose /Perez/ /Garcia/

Because it is seen by webtrees as /Perez Garcia/, therefor the data entry person should just put the surname together to make it easier on them! 1 NAME Jose /Perez Garcia/

The only time a person should split the surnames is when they are written as /Perez/ y /Garcia/ so that the "y" is removed and the surname becomes /Perez Garcia/!

[fisharebest]

Based on what you are saying then, I have been mistaken all along that multiple surnames should not be entered as follows! 1 NAME Jose /Perez/ /Garcia/

This is the correct way to enter Spanish names.

Jose will be listed under both Perez and Garcia.

The issue is that the lists of common names show all the variants.

Suppose you have the following names in your tree.

1 NAME /Foo/
1 NAME /de Foo/
1 NAME /Foo-Bar/

If "Foo" is your most common surname, we'll show all the variant. e.g. "Foo, de Foo, Foo-Bar (987)"

Showing all variants is a good thing.

But when you apply this logic to Spanish/Portuguese names, it shows every combination of the surname with another surname. This isn't so good.

The difficulty is that using a database query, it is not possible to distinguish Spanish/Portuguese surnames from surname variants. Indeed, a site may have a mix of different name types.

[wkitty42]

On 7/28/21 1:08 PM, Greg Roach wrote:

The difficulty is that using a database query, it is not possible to distinguish Spanish/Portuguese surnames from surname variants. Indeed, a site may have a mix of different name types.

seems like this is when an additional field for NAME is desired to indicate the language of the name... something like this may be desired for other fields with similar predicament...

[Norwegian-Sardines]

Jose will be listed under both Perez and Garcia. I don't see this happening, Jose is listed under Perez but not Garcia in webtrees v2.0.21 when entered in the NAME tag not until you enter 2 SURN Perez, Garcia do you get the index set for the second surname.