Hello.
"Linnaeus is the only human being customarily referred to by a single initial." This may seem a bit persnickety, but this seems open to question. The "M" and "Q" of James Bond are readily recognised by a great number of people, despite there referring to a fictional character. Many people also recognise the "C" in "B.C" when reading history books.
Additionally, there may be people who are customarily referred to by a single initial within a local or temporary context. In fact, when the identity of the person being referred in this way to is made clear by the context, the practice of using a single initial occurs with no explanation, indicating that it is a readily understood method of naming a person. RichS 09:09, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
- It's not a question of identity or a custom but of standardizing scientific data: "Author names are being standardized against Brummitt and Powell’s Authors of Plant Names (1992). Some names are unambiguous and have been easy to standardize - Linn. has been converted to L., Fern. to Fernald, T. & G. to Torr. & A. Gray, and H. & A. to Hook. & Arn. - but others have required careful checking in the original literature. For example, determining which ‘Gray’ is the author of a name: is it S. F. Gray, A. Gray, J. R. Gray, or one of 10 other Grays? (94 percent of authors names have been standardized)." Jclerman 02:16, 5 October 2005 (UTC)
- Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Carolus_Linnaeus"