Here's a follow-up to the "Common name for Karen Baker / Karen M. Baker / Karen Baker Landers"-thread (here). Now that we've figured out that her common name is Karen Baker Landers, how do we parse that?

Documentation, as is always the case for parsing matters, is scarce - the only thing that came up in the previous thread was this:

Quoting tweeter:

Quote:
Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
Now is anyone going to start discussing parsing? 

May i introduce you to Ms. Landers: see references to her within the article

If Karen Baker is also used, then surely Baker Landers should be her last name?

Quoting JeroenX:

Quote:
If Karen Baker is also used, then surely Baker Landers should be her last name?

Unfortunately, it's not that easy. It would sure help a lot if we had a blanket rule saying that all maiden names belong in the "last name" field, but unfortunately, there's no such consensus. How a user parses such a name often depends on said user's cultural background - which, by the way, is why we won't ever solve the parsing problems. Anyway: as of yet, all we've got are three different sources referring to her as "Landers" or "Ms. Landers".

One of the big parsing problems in the database is caused by exactly this: many Dutch, German and British users (among others) tend to automatically put all maiden names in the last name field, while American users tend to automatically put them in the middle name field. Both parties may be right in some cases, wrong in others. Most of the time, though, there simply is no clear answer. All in all, this results in thousands of non-linking, double entries for the same people in the database... :-(

Interesting reading material - including an Invelos ruling - here.

Yes in the US it is common for the maiden name to become the middle name.

Is it she in Twitter?
http://twitter.com/SEAGLASSWMN

Quote:
Name karen baker-landers

And Facebook to ask. 

So we're getting conflicting evidence. Tough, but if her Twitter data have been entered by herself, then I feel that should take precedence. So I'm with the Martian.

Quoting TheMadMartian:

Quote:
Quoting VirusPil:

Quote:
Is it she in Twitter?
http://twitter.com/SEAGLASSWMN

Quote:
Name karen baker-landers

It does seem to be the same person...she mentions finishing Wolfman, and Karen M. Baker was the supervising sound editor.  I vote Karen/ /Baker Landers.

Agreed. If she herself posts her name as karen baker-landers seems like it should end there. How many times have we heard something like "how do you know how he or she actually writes her name". Well in this case I believe we do know.

I would think it's case closed at this point, but we're only on page 1...   

I agree to a point but c'mon. Twitter wont verify everyone. Only the big names. And those have easily found sources (most of the time).

Are you honestly saying you think we should avoid using something like Twitter in all cases unless it is a verified account? In this case she has a whopping 8 followers. She doesn't even register on twitter's radar as needing to be verified. I have more followers than that!    (wait... unlees that's not really my account I've been looking at.  )


Edit: I see you edited you post. I agree caution is OK but at some point you have to just trust someone somewhere. Who's going to create a fake account for someone that doesn't have many people who care what they have to say to begin with?!?