Naming Conventions

Order and capitalization

There are no strict rules when it comes to proper names. The correct way of writing a name depends on the individual, and may differ between people for the same name in the same country. Even for a given person, capitalization of name particles (i.e. van, von, di, de, la, etc.) may vary depending on the context in which the name is used. The most common usage is not to capitalize the particle when the full name is being used; however, the particle is capitalized if the last name is being used by itself. For example:

Patrick de Guman (first name being used)
Van Damme (first name not being used)

To further complicate things, names are used and displayed in a variety of combinations. So one way of storing it may be best for some types of listing but not for other purposes (such as sorting) and vice versa.

In listing the series or episodes by an actor or actress, we use names in the form 'last name, first name(s)'. Some examples:

Ocampo, Diether (last name, first name base on screen name)
dela Cruz, Angelika (name particles first)
Hunks, The (group name with an article)
Pokwang (single word as a screen name)

We make an exception for stage names that don't resemble normal names; thus, for example, Little Richard, Meat Loaf, 50 Cent, Cedric the Entertainer, Boys II Men, and Herbert the Rooster are not reversed. This is also true when a title is an intrinsic part of the name: Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II. (For now, you should explain in a comment line if you want a new name formatted this way.)

Whenever we have reliable information on how a specific name should be written, we try to use it. When that information is not available, we use the following rules to decide how to store it:

All name particles (de, du, d', den, der, des, la, le, l', ten, ter, van, von, etc.) belong to the 'last name' part of a name. In other words, everything that is clearly not a first name belongs to the last name part, regardless of nationality.
The first letter of every separate word in a name are always in lowercase format.
Particles "delos," "delas," and dela," should have no space in between.

Examples:

van Buskirk, Dayna (not: Buskirk, Dayna van)
de Niro, Robert (not: De Niro, Robert)
delas Alas, Ai Ai (not: de Las Alas, Ai Ai)

Once again these are generic rules, to be enforced only when we lack 100% reliable information on a how an individual's name appears in film credits.

If we determine that Herr Otto Von Grunt always or mostly has his 'Von' uppercase in credits we use the latter version.

Asian names

For sorting purposes and consistency, all the names in Telebisyon.net are stored in "lastname, firstname" format within the database itself. For example:

Mel Gibson is stored as Gibson, Mel
Paul Newman is stored as Newman, Paul
James Earl Jones is stored as Jones, James Earl

When displaying tv credits, the names are converted to the more common/clearer "First Last" format (i.e. Cruise, Tom is shown as Tom Cruise).

The Chinese and some other Asian nations, however, write their names putting the family name first. In Chow Yun-Fat's case, for example, Chow is the family name (like "Reyes") and Yun-Fat is the given name (like "Mark").

In this website, we use the traditional name in sorting and listing names:

Chow Yun-Fat (not: Chow, Yun-Fat)
Joo Ji Hoon (주지훈) (Korean characters retained in parenthesis)

Suffixes and prefixes

Where a name includes a suffix (III, Jr.), we do not use a comma to separate it from the name, regardless of how it appears on screen. It is treated as an integral part of the surname. Thus, Downey Jr., Robert . Similarly for the corresponding suffixes in foreign languages, like père, fils, hijo, etc.

Courtesy titles like Mr., Dr., Sir, and degree indications like Ph.D., are not considered part of the name, and are not included in the primary name, even if that is how the name appears on screen. They are included as alternate names. (Exception: In the silent era, it was not unusual for women to be credited as, e.g., Mrs. John Smith - in such cases, Mrs. is an integral part of the name, since John Smith is an entirely different person.) Suffixes indicating professional affiliation, like ASC, CSA, MPSE, etc., are never included; such guild memberships can be noted in biographical trivia.

Accented characters

We store names according to how they appear in on-screen credits. If someone's given name is José but he has always been credited as Jose, we will use the latter form, regardless of what is on his birth certificate. This means that in many cases accents will be ignored, especially for people working in English-language films. If an individual is credited on some films with an accented letter, we record that fact for each film for which we know it to be the case and the name with an accented letter will be noted as a AKA ('also known as'), in other words a pseudonym.

By default, we ignore accents in names unless we know for sure that they appear in on-screen credits.

Group names

When a group with identifiable members appears on screen, we credit according to the way they are credited in the production. Thus, if The Hunks are credited that way, we would not enter "Ocampo, Diether (as The Hunks); Rosales, Jericho (as The Hunks); Agassi, Carlos (as The Hunks); Palanca, Bernard (as The Hunks); Pascual, Piolo (The Hunks)" Instead, they would simply be credited as "Hunks, The".

Primary name

The general rule is that the primary name for a person is the one they are most often credited as. Thus, even though John Wayne was once credited as Duke Morrison, and even though that's closer to his birth name of Marion Michael Morrison, his primary name in the database is John Wayne.

We make an exception to the rule if we have reason to believe someone will be using a different name for all future credits - for example, if they changed their name because of marriage. However, we require at least one credit using the new name before making the change (and sometimes more if there are a lot of existing credits). For people who are no longer active, we do not accept such name changes.