Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-7302713-20130510215247/@comment-26975268-20130512192451

Still not seeing the problem. There's nothing wrong with Matron, and, between Joan and Redfern, Joan is the clear choice. Also, Mr Smith is the equivalent of Smith. So, all that considered, the following is the number of usages of both first name and surname.


 * John: 9
 * Smith: 28
 * John Smith: 13 (although we couldn't use it anyway)

So, clearly, in this case "Smith" prevails. Therefore, he should be called "John Smith" when first introduced to an article, and then "Smith" afterwards. That's not, of course, saying that "John" is wrong...