author names in mathlib

Stream: mathlib4

[Nick Adfor]

As an added information, I should introduce some cultural background about #33257 because it causes some signature problem.

As Chinese does not use Western characters to spell their name, many strange network names (maybe just the passport name, or as complicated as Nick_adfor to invent a totally new nickname) appears. Also, some of the coorperation work is communicated on Chinese platform WeChat. As the Zulip guys might be confused about this post as a repeated work, these information should be given as background.

(I'm not sure if Mathlib PRs really need to list everyone involved as authors—including the issue reporter, the solver, and even the AI. By that logic, I might as well add DeepSeek as an author too... So really need it?)

[Violeta Hernández]

(I really should get back into learning Mandarin, feels like there's an entire half of the internet that I'm missing out on!)

[Nick Adfor]

Violeta Hernández said:

(I really should get back into learning Mandarin, feels like there's an entire half of the internet that I'm missing out on!)

Here might be something irrelavent with mathlib code but the author name in mathlib really introduce some Mandarin memes. As in WeChat people are likely using various nickname varing from favorite anime character or self-made meaningless English name (at least not their Chinese name on ID card and passport).

It may cause some problem which the author name in Mathlib should be: the nickname or the passport name? Anyway in academia, no matter how strange their WeChat name is, the author must have their passport name on it. I don't know if Mathlib should have such a rule :(

[Violeta Hernández]

Mathlib doesn't really use nicknames, but it doesn't have to be the literal passport name either. Whatever you'd want be called if you were to give a conference, say.

[Violeta Hernández]

I haven't been able to change my legal name yet, but I've been contributing as Violeta for years regardless.

[Notification Bot]

5 messages were moved here from #mathlib4 > Seeking help with the proof: A graph is bipartite iff it has by Yuyang Zhao.

[Yuyang Zhao]

When translating names from Chinese and some other cultures, there are also two common conventions for the name order. I noticed that you placed the family name first in the PR, while I followed the convention used by others in mathlib that places the family name last.

[Yuyang Zhao]

In fact, many people place the family name first on zulip but place the family name last in mathlib.

[Artie Khovanov]

Plenty of people contribute to academia using a name that differs from their government name, for various reasons. I think whatever goes is fine as long as folk are reasonably consistent and don't take the mickey.

[Nick Adfor]

Yuyang Zhao said:

When translating names from Chinese and some other cultures, there are also two common conventions for the name order. I noticed that you placed the family name first in the PR, while I followed the convention used by others in mathlib that places the family name last.

Oh, Adfor is "family name" because its pronunciation sounds like a common Chinese family name (Though no one in my family has the name Adfor).

[Eric Wieser]

Since I don't see it mentioned above: if a name that refers to you is in an Authors: comment but it is not your preferred academic name, you are welcome to make a PR to correct all the instances in mathlib at once. Please don't do this on behalf of someone else.

[Yuyang Zhao]

Nick_adfor said:

Oh, Adfor is "family name" because its pronunciation sounds like a common Chinese family name (Though no one in my family has the name Adfor).

I mean the other two co-authors.

[Nick Adfor]

Yuyang Zhao said:

Nick_adfor said:

Oh, Adfor is "family name" because its pronunciation sounds like a common Chinese family name (Though no one in my family has the name Adfor).

I mean the other two co-authors.

Okay, I'll take care of this

[Nick Adfor]

I've editted co-author just before.

[Nick Adfor]

Eric Wieser said:

Since I don't see it mentioned above: if a name that refers to you is in an Authors: comment but it is not your preferred academic name, you are welcome to make a PR to correct all the instances in mathlib at once. Please don't do this on behalf of someone else.

I should say that it's a difficult decision just like adding someone's name on the list of authors, so does which name, which institution, which email to choose, though Mathlib may not be as complicated as the real academia. But here the "on behalf of" really helps correct a small error about the order of first name and second name. It might never be a problem for English country.