7 - Headings for persons

Summary

Having looked at main and added entries in AACR2 Chapter 21 we now, at last, come to the rules for establishing the actual forms of name to be used. Chapter 22 deals with personal names, and Chapters 23 and 24 with the various kinds of corporate body.

These rules, of course, apply whether the access point is main entry or added entry, as we always use the same form of name for the same thing.

Choice of name

As with the other chapters, we still have a little preliminary work to do before we actually arrive at the form of name as it is to appear in a heading. That is to say, we have to choose the version of the name that is to be used as the basis for the heading. You can most easily understand this by means of an example:

William Shakespeare's name has been spelt in various different ways over the years, such as

William Shakespeare

William Shakspere

and different editions of his works have used different forms of the name. But we want all his works to be entered under the same form of name, and this means deciding on one of them. The purpose of the first part of this chapter is to help you decide which name to use as the basis for the heading if a person uses, or is known by, more than one.

In looking at a person's name we have to use ‘the name by which he or she is commonly known’. This is meant to be a simple rule (and in application it usually is), enabling you to base the heading on the form of name by which the person is known, even if you know something about the person which perhaps other people don't.

For example, you may know that the name is really a pseudonym. But if this is how the author chooses to be known, it is nobody's business whether it is a pseudonym or not. Likewise, because Hilda Doolittle chose to be known as H.D. that is the basis of the form of her name in a catalogue.