Talk:Williams

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Formula One racing team formed and run by Frank Williams. The team was highly successful throughout the 1980's and 1990's.

Umm, no. "Williams" is a family name. Hardly anyone who uses the name means "Frank Williams' racing team" by it. Please see naming conventions. --LMS

Hardly anyone in the US, maybe. That's what the team is called - same as Ferrari, or to take an example you might be familiar with, Penske. To anybody with a casual interest in F1, the name is unambiguous. What other article could conceivably go here? But, anyway, what do you suggest - call it Williams racing team?

Oh, and by the way, I just read naming conventions, and there doesn't seem to be anything applicable except the comment on disambiguating names. However, what are we disambiguating it with here?

With the simple fact that "Williams" more often means some person's last name. Except for some people in Australia, it seems (remember, this is an international 'pedia), nobody is going to expect to find an article about the Williams racing team under "Williams" as an exact title, and to someone familiar with the family name and not with the racing team, it sounds really weird.

Anyway, this isn't the first time we've come across this sort of problem. It's solved by making the problematically-titled page a links page. So you'd put a bunch of links to people like Roger Williams on the Williams page, as well as a link to Williams racing team. I'm not sure if the latter is what you'd want to use, but I'll assume so (you can redirect like writing this at the top of the page: #REDIRECT pagename). --LMS

OK, then, but then shouldn't Ferrari be shifted to Ferrari car company and so on?

Not under the rule of 'most common name'. If I stand on a street corner and say 'Ferrari' most people - except on racing days - will assume I'm pointing to a passing or parked vehicle, not referring to a racing organization. If I said 'Williams', most people would assume I was greeting an acquaintance. In my line of work (teaching at liberal arts colleges in the U.S. northeast) if you say "Williams" you mean the college in Williamstown, MA. --MichaelTinkler

Well, that's a matter of debate, I guess. I would answer your question "yes": "Ferrari" can mean a lot of things, and if you want to talk about the automobile, why not put it at Ferrari automobile (or soon, Ferrari (automobile) will be permissible)? And if you want to talk about the company, then why not Ferrari Automobile Company (or whatever it is precisely called)? Similarly with "Ford." Articles about the car companies and the cars should be located at precisely-named titles, I think.

I can easily see someone plausibly defending putting an article about the Ferrari automobile line on a page named simply Ferrari. --LMS

Given that 'Ferrari' is a relatively uncommon name, it could have two items on the page separated by a horizontal register. Ferrari automobile and Ferrari racing. Dr. Enzo already has his own link. --MichaelTinkler

Anyway, that's all as clear as mud ;) Thanks for bothering to explain.

People:

Removed - this is not a sensible use of disambiguation. A list of people with the same family name serves no useful purpose, and we don't bother with it for any other family names.Enchanter

The list has returned. I found this page by typing 'Williams' when Icouldn't remember the first name of the person I was looking for. It's a useful feature. Anyway, added actor Kenneth Williams. He didn't do much Television, but he did some and is still remembered for it. -- Daran

Things:

Removed - similarly Williams College is generally known by it's full name, not just "Williams". The same goes for Williams tube.Enchanter

Williams Syndrome, also called "pixieism"? I've never heard of that term. The Williams syndrome wiki page doesn't mention pixies at all, and a Google search had only one result using the term "pixieism" in reference to WS - which appeared to be copying from this article - and, anyway, has been changed to remove the reference to the term. While some believe there's a historical connection to elfin qualities, it's always discussed using terms related to elves, not pixies. As delightful as the term "pixieism" sounds, I don't think it's appropriate here. Going to rephrase it.

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