[WikiEN-l] Naming convention: popularity vs. correctness

Mon Feb 10 12:35:55 UTC 2003

Erik Moeller wrote:
> When dealing with the name of a people, it is proper to go by
> popularity alone. When dealing with a language (or, like Occam's
> Razor, a philosophical concept), the opinions of scholars must weigh
> more than the Google count alone.

I would add that these "rules" _tend to be true_ (maybe), but that it
does depend on the particular case.  I would say that when dealing
with the name of a people, popularity is a strong factor, but also
what they call *themselves* is a strong factor.  How hard it is to
spell, how likely the "correct" term is to become popular in the near
future, etc., all of these can be taken into consideration.

--Jimbo