Constructing name authorities using the NCA Rules

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These brief guidelines have been distilled from the National Council of Archives Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names (the "NCA Rules"). They cover simple forms of personal and corporate names. You may need to refer to the more detailed original version for more complicated names and these are available online at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/naming-rules.pdf

The tidyer and validator on Janus have been adapted to correct or flag up some common discrepancies or mistakes contained in name authority records. Follow the link for more information about the tidyer.

Contents of a personal name

1. surname
2. forenames
3. dates
4. title
5. pre-title
6. epithet

All these elements are covered below. Of these, the most important are surname and dates; the rest are "mandatory where applicable", and the title and epithet can actually be optional, depending on the individual case.

There are lots of useful examples in the appendix to the NCA Rules, but here's a few we did earlier:

Frank Roberts should be described as Roberts, Sir Frank Kenyon (1907-1998) Knight, diplomat.

1st Lord Norwich becomes Cooper, Alfred Duff (1890-1954) 1st Viscount Norwich of Aldwick.

1. Surnames

This should come first: eg "Marlowe, Christopher ...".

1.1 Compound surnames: if the surname consists of more than one unhyphenated proper name, start off with the last word: eg Ralph Vaughan Williams would become "Williams, Ralph Vaughan ...".

1.2 Hyphenated surnames: as above, but just keep the hyphen: eg Cecil Day-Lewis becomes "Lewis, Cecil Day- ...".

1.3 Surnames with prefixes: as above, start off with the last name, and keep the rest in direct order: eg Thomas De la Rue becomes "Rue, Thomas De la ...". If a preposition or article is attached to the surname without a space, treat it as an integral part of the name, as "Lefanu, Nicola Frances ...".

1.4 Family names or titles: use the family name to start off with, rather than the title. So the Duke of Wellington would actually begin "Wellesley, Arthur ...".

1.5 Changes of name: use the last or most recent name, even if this change takes place late in the individual's life (the only exceptions may be with married women, see below), so: 1st Lord Mountbatten is described as "Mountbatten, Louis Alexander ... ", not "Battenberg ...", which is what he started off life as.

1.6 Married women: a woman who marries and adopts her husband's surname should be entered under this name (you can get in the maiden name in the epithet section, no. 6, of which more below): eg Jackie Kennedy becomes "Onassis, Jacqueline Lee ..." (Onassis being her last change of name).

1.7 Maiden names: a woman who doesn't take her husband's name, or reverts to her maiden name after a divorce, comes under her maiden name: eg "Mitford, Nancy Freeman ...". A woman who consistently uses her married name socially, but her maiden name professionally, should be entered under her maiden name.

1.8 Names in European languages: even in languages which don't follow English naming patterns, as always, begin with the last word of the surname or its equivalent: eg "Meitner, Lise ..." or "Gaulle, Charles André Joseph Marie De".

Janus will highlight examples of personal names where the first element of a name is not followed by a comma. This should help you spot double-barrelled names which have not been formed correctly.

2. Forenames

All forenames should be recorded in full, so as to identify individuals precisely.

2.1 Unused and variant forenames: if all elements of the forename aren't normally used, or if the person is known by a variant or abbreviated form, the forename should still be given in full: eg T S Eliot becomes "Eliot, Thomas Stearns" and Rudyard Kipling "Kipling, Joseph Rudyard". As with surnames, the last or most recent form should be used.

3. Dates

Preferably, these will be life-span dates (eg "Blackwood, George (1876-1942) ..."), or birth or death dates (eg "Cudlipp, Hugh (b 1913) ...", "Grey, Henry (d 1554) ..."), or (if necessary) an approximate period covered by his/her activities (eg "Reeves, John (? 1752-1829 ..."), using a question mark rather than "circa", as this is more precise (although "circa" may be used for an approximate date, meaning 5 years before or after).

On the Janus webserver, we have adopted the convention of surrounding dates with round brackets. The question mark should stand in front of the date, separated with a space, and as it applies to only one date, it should be repeated if both birth and death dates are uncertain. Each single year date should consist of the full 4 figures, and should not be abbreviated.

Janus will make a few basic corrections to dates contained in personal name authorities and will surround dates with round brackets or change "1911-" to "b 1911".

4. Titles

Covering the peerage and significant offices or ranks:

4.1 Peerage titles: the last, latest or highest title should be used (you can put intermediate titles in the notes area, if these are well-known). A territorial designation should be included if it forms an integral part of the title: eg 6th Lord Harewood becomes "Lascelles, Henry George Charles (1882-1947) 6th Earl of Harewood". Burke's Peerage and The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) are useful sources for territorial designation.

4.2 Unnumbered titles: do not use numbers for the titles of life peers and courtesy titles: eg "Wilson, James Harold (1916-1995) Baron Wilson of Rievaulx".

4.3 Renunciation of titles: where the last, latest or highest peerage title is not adopted or renounced, use the most commonly used name/title instead, adding the unused title at the end, preceded by "formerly" in the case of renounced titles: eg Tony Benn should be "Benn, Anthony Neil Wedgwood (b 1925) formerly Viscount Stansgate".

5. Pre-titles

Only the titles Lord, Lady, Sir, Dame and Hon may precede the forename. If the pre-title Sir applies, use Baronet or Knight as a qualifier at the end with the initial letter in upper case, i.e. Knight or Baronet (Baronets should be numbered). Academic, clerical, military and naval titles and ranks do not count, but come under epithets instead (see below): eg Sir Thomas Phillipps becomes " Phillipps, Sir Thomas (1792-1872) 1st Baronet"; Lady Julia Abercrombie is "Abercrombie, Lady Julia Janet Georgiana Duncan (d 1915)".

Please note that Lord or Lady should only be applied as a pre-title to the younger son of a duke, duchess, marquess or marchioness or daughter of a duke, duchess, marquess, marchioness, earl or countess.

Janus will flag up instances of personal name authorities which contain either Sir or Baronet/Knight to remind you that both should be included.

6. Epithets

An epithet is a word or phrase describing a person's status, position, occupation, characteristics, nationality, activity, alternative, previous or subsequent name, etc. Use the most appropriate; you can have more than one, but don't use to excess. Initial letters are in lower case for an occupation, e.g. "Ritchie, William (1790-1837) physicist", but in upper case for formal or official titles, etc: e.g. "Ritchie, William (1816-1862) Advocate-General of Bengal".

When adopting an epithet used in the NRA, please still use Janus conventions for capitalisation as explained above.

When listing multiple epithets, use 'and' with commas except before the 'and', eg "Picken, Laurence Ernest Rowland (1909-2007) biologist, sinologist and musicologist". Do not confuse a maiden name or peerage title with the epithet, eg "Stephen, Sir James (1789-1859) Knight, civil servant".

In the event of a name authority record being submitted by more than one repository but with differing epithets, it is recommended that the repositories concerned first search the National Register of Archives (NRA) as an independent source, and adopt the NRA example (if found), before entering into a discussion between themselves.

6.1 Other titles: academic, military and naval titles and ranks can be used; choose the last, latest or highest: eg "Arbuthnot, Marriot (1711-1794) Admiral", or "Arnold, Thomas (1823-1900) Professor of English Literature".

6.2 Women's maiden and married names: if a woman is known under both married and maiden names in different spheres of life, "née" or "afterwards" may be used in the epithet: eg "Campbell, Elizabeth (1659-1735) née Tollemache, wife of 1st Duke of Argyll".

6.3 Order of multiple qualifiers: the recommended order for qualifiers is

• pre-title
• dates
• née, afterwards etc
• peerage title
• office or position
• career or occupation
• alternative name

Contents of a corporate name

The NCA Rules define a corporate body as "an organisation or group of persons that is identified by a particular name and that acts, or may act, as an entity". Corporate bodies may be clearly or informally defined and can include government agencies, universities, Colleges, even exhibitions and conferences.

A corporate name may include some or all of the following components and should contain as many of these components as are required for precise identification of the body described:

• Name of corporate body
• Name of jurisdiction or territorial authority
• Name of subordinate body
• Additions and qualifiers

1. Name of corporate body

The general rule is to choose the name by which the corporate body is commonly identified from papers etc issued by it. The name should be written in natural language order using capital letters for 'words of substance' (i.e. not the, of, etc). For example:

• University of Cambridge
• Churchill College

If there is a well-established use of a name, other than the corporate body's legal or formal name, then the conventional name may be used, e.g. English Heritage (not Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England).

2. Name changes

When a corporate body changes its name, a new form of the name authority record should be created.

The NCA Rules recommend that cross-references are used between different forms of the names. Janus does not yet have the capability to present and cross-reference authority records in the full format specified by the International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (ISAAR(CPF)). This means that any cross-references, or alternate forms of the name which are entered by those Janus contributors who use the Cantab database, will not be available to researchers consulting Janus. Until ISAAR(CPF) records are available on Janus encoded in the new DTD Encoded Archival Context (EAC), it is recommended that contributors index using the name that the corporate body was known by at the time (or for the majority of the time) of the record(s) being described and consider using other free text sections (e.g. administrative history) of the catalogue to include former and later names if appropriate.

3. Initials and Acronyms

Initials should be used if a body is legally or formally known by them. The NCA Rules recommend that cross-references should be used from the full form of the name (see above for advice on dealing with this recommendation on Janus). For example:

• BHS (not British Home Stores)
• CERN (not European Organisation for Nuclear Research)
• SDP. Social Democratic Party

4. Special rule for companies

The registered name of a company sometimes includes terms (or abbreviations of terms) which indicate the status of the company and these should be included in the name. For example:

• Woodhead Publishing Ltd
• Ernest Doe & Sons Ltd
• John Lewis Partnership

5. Omissions

Omit an initial article unless the sense of the body disappears without the article, e.g. 'University of Cambridge', not 'The University of Cambridge'.

6. Subordinate bodies

A subordinate body should be entered directly under its own name if it has an identity separate from the parent institution. Please refer to the NCA Rules for all the exceptions to this rule (NCA Rules 4.9.2.), but note the following which are relevant to the records on Janus.

Subordinate bodies should be entered as sub-headings of their parent bodies if the name of the parent body is needed for identification. For example:

• Churchill College. Admissions Office
• University of Cambridge. Faculty of Classics

Or if the name of the subordinate body does not convey the idea of a corporate body e.g. University of Cambridge. Bridget's

Do not include intermediate levels of the hierarchy unless they are needed for precise identification of the subordinate body.

7. Corporate bodies associated with a jurisdiction

The NCA Rules recommend that a national level should be included if required to distinguish the corporate body from another with a similar name. This would be relevant for government departments or the armed forces. The precise rule for the British Isles (see section 4.3.D and footnote 14 of the NCA Rules) is very complicated as the British Isles can be rendered in a number of different ways, depending on the date of formation of the corporate body. Having sought advice from the Historical Manuscripts Commission it seems simplest to omit a national level for the British Isles. This approach has been adopted by the majority of other networking projects. So:

• United States. Army
• India. Army
• Army. King's Own Rifles

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