FolkLib Index - Domain Alphabetization Rules

      This page lists the alphabetization rules for this domain, i.e. how musician's last names are ordered. Thanks to the Oshkosh Public Library Information Desk Staff for their assistance in finding the following pages, and their expert advice:

The 12 Filing Rules [Archive]
18 Filing Rules For Proper Alphabetizing [Archive] - (PDF Format) (get Acrobat Reader)

      There does not seem be 100% agreement on every alphabetization rule, and sources like books either follow varying rules, or make up their own. To be clear, each source should document the rules they use. This is why this page was created.

| A/An/The | de/di | Ft./Mt. | Mc/Mac | O' | St. | Van |

• Unless stated otherwise below, last names are listed in the order that would result if they were sorted by computer. For example,
  Martin Family
  Martin, Arthur
      generally,
  lastname, firstname
      For varying reasons, a few pages list musicians in last name order, but in "firstname lastname" format. However, everyone on those pages has a link to their primary "lastname, firstname" entry. Because of this, there are literally thousands of names that do not exist anywhere on this domain in "firstname lastname" format. If you search for them that way, they will not be found.

• "A", "An" and "The" are not listed under "A" or "T". For example,
  Weavers, The
  Good Group, A

• "de ", "di " are always listed under "D" and not by the name following. For example, "de Broux" is listed under "D", not "B". Like Van below, all last names with "de" or "di " are listed together, whether they are followed by a space or not, or whether they are capitalized or not, and are alphabetized as if there were no spaces. For example,
  de Angelis
  DeHaven
  della Casa
  Del Monaco
  de los Angeles

• "Ft." / "Fort", "Mt." / "Mount" - are variously used on different sites to refer to cities like Fort Atkinson and Mount Morris. All references on this domain to such cities follow the spelling used on the city's "Official" Web site.

• "Mc" and "Mac" - are listed between "Mb" and "Md", in order by the capital letter following the "c", because sometime names are misspelled by leaving out the "a", when it should have it, or putting it in, when it shouldn't. If you're not sure whether it has an "a" or not, you only have to look here in one place, under "Mc". For example, "McDonald" and "MacDonald" and listed together. If the letter following "Mac" is not capitalized, the name is listed between "Mab" and "Mad".
        So this is clearer, most of the time, "Mc" is preceded by a space, For example.
  MacDonald
    McDonald
  MacFarland

• "O'" and "O " are listed before "Oa", For example,
  O'Beirne
  O'Toole
  O Tuama
        However, if the preferred spelling is "Ni" instead of "O ", the name is listed under "N". For example,
  O Dhomhnaill - See Ni Dhomhnaill
  Ni Dhomhnaill, Triona ... not "Dhomhnaill, Triona Ni"

• "St. " - All last names beginning with "St. " are listed as if they were spelled "Saint", and are listed between "Sah" and "Saj".

• Van - like de/di above, all last names with "Van" are listed together and alphabetized as if there were no spaces. For example,
  Vandervelde
  Vander Velden

Known links to this page:

• None. Please write if you know of anyone who links to this page.