Gebruiker:Vinkje83/Translated talkpage of Brigitte Cuypers

This page contains a translation of Overleg:Brigitte Cuypers, for the benefit of non-Dutch readers:

---

In a majority of sources, including some interwiki's, I see 'Brigitte'; in a few cases 'Brigette'. The article was renamed, but where do we find a reliable source for a final determination how to spell her name? Erik Wannee 4 feb 2017 23:07 (CET)

Actually I saw in almost all interwiki's Brigette, as well as the links to ITF/WTA and FEDcup (de latter being not that surprising, as it is (I think) a spin-off of the ITF). It looks like the name was changed from Brigitte to Brigette at some point, because in 2012 Vinkje83 asked at the French wiki how the spelling should be, and it seems that it was different then. Edoderoo 4 feb 2017 23:22 (CET)

Looking at it again, I see on WikiData mostly Brigette, but in the fr/en-links indeed again/still Brigitte. Fortunately Wikipedia is not a source, but ITF/WTA are. Edoderoo 4 feb 2017 23:24 (CET)

Since we did not reach a conclusion, I adapted the article to consistently use the 'e-version' and I added a footnote saying that we don't know. That seems fair to me. And it hopefully prevents people from 'improving' the title all the time.

In the meantime we wait for a really reliable source, such as a picture of her ID, the publication of an autobiography and/or own website or an article explicitly writing about this. Erik Wannee 5 feb 2017 08:48 (CET)

The creation of this article escaped me, last February. Hence my belated reaction now.

In 2012 the confusion was as big as it is now, therefore the assumption that the spelling might have changed since, is not warranted.

Back then, I consulted many sources, and finally I chose for the i-version, based upon:

1. her biography on the usually well-informed "Blast Encyclopedia of Female Tennis Players" on the tennisforum.com
2. this Afrikaner web page, which currently does not respond, unfortunately; in case this page never turns up again, only my assurance remains that this is/was a serious source.

Further I notice that, of the three fellow wiki's that have an article about her, not only fr-wiki but also en-wiki names her as Brigitte; only it-wiki uses the e-version. Her English article's references comprise three paper sources, provided by colleague Wolbo who is usually very well-informed.

On the Internet I find the following 'paper' source (a book from 2003) in the Afrikaner language: here. In that source she is called Brigitte.

Vinkje83 24 mrt 2017 10:50 (CET)

After Vinkje83's trigger I ran through the sources available to me and, as one might expect, it produces a mixed result. The 'official sources' WTA and FedCup (ITF) use the e-spelling. The English wiki normally follows them (unless the name has diacritics). The reason for choosing the i-spelling is, that a vast majority of the other reliable sources use this way of spelling. An overview:

1. 'Concise Dictionary of Tennis (Hedges) – Brigitte
2. 'Word of Tennis' 1978, 1979 and 1980 yearbooks (Barrett) – Brigitte
3. 'Tennis - The South African Story', book published at the 75th anniversary of the South-African tennis federation – uses both Brigitte and Brigette (!), but predominantly the i-spelling
4. '1978 Colgate Series Media Guide' biography – Brigitte
5. World Team Tennis player's fiche of the Hawaii Leis – Brigitte
6. American newspaper cutting from 1978 – Brigette
7. American newspaper cutting from 2015 – Brigitte

Right now I cannot dig up the publication 'USTA Player Records 1978', used at the en-wiki, but considering these sources the i-spelling seems more probable than the e-spelling, although both ways of spelling occur in trusted sources. Wolbo 24 mrt 2017 20:04 (CET)

The nice thing about the WTA website is that one can sometimes find (scanned) original documents there. By coincidence (I am working on Sandy Collins) I hit upon the WTA ranking list of December 31st, 1978. With, lo and behold, at place 32: Brigitte Cuypers. This type of document is not text-searchable, so you don’t find it using Google. Vinkje83 24 mrt 2017 22:18 (CET)

Nice find. Also 'Women's Tennis 1968-84' (Dolan) writes her name consistently as Brigitte. Wolbo 25 mrt 2017 00:41 (CET)

The 'Player Records 1978', published by the USTA, resurfaced. On page 182 the name is written as Brigitte. Wolbo 26 mrt 2017 16:12 (CEST)

@Wolbo – Thank you for your extensive research.

@Erik Wannee and Edoderoo – Can you both live with my renaming the article back to the i-version? The vast majority of the sources use this spelling. Vinkje83 26 mrt 2017 21:31 (CEST)

I have no preference, but I advise to mention both ways of spelling in the article, and that we are not sure which is official. Edoderoo 26 mrt 2017 22:11 (CEST)

I agree. Vinkje83 26 mrt 2017 23:28 (CEST)