Talk:Brian Eno

Names

In the "Early life" section, Brian Eno's name was claimed to be "Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno", but the cited reference, David Sheppard's biography "On Some Faraway Beach", states "Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno". The discrepancies are the presence of the title "St.", and the alterations to the saint's Christian name, Jean-Baptiste. It is not usual to include the title "St." in a confirmation name. Although it is reasonable to translate a saint's Christian name, it is not reasonable to partially translate it, i.e. Jean to John, but not Baptiste to Baptist, and it is even more unreasonable to inset the French word "le", a word that doesn’t appear in the original French name.

A Roman Catholic website of confirmation names gives "John Baptist" as the confirmation name associated with John Baptist De La Salle; no "St", and a fully-translated Christian name, with no extraneous "le" inserted. Even the saint’s surname, "De La Salle", is not considered necessary.

Unless Eno has included his confirmation name in his name by deed poll, it is not part of his legal name, so he would not be able to include it in the name on his passport or driving licence. He does not even seem to use a "stage" name in which his confirmation name appears. Why would someone who describes himself as a "kind of evangelical atheist" (see section "Personal life") want to use a Roman Catholic confirmation name?

Recently there has been activity in the article regarding Eno's confirmation name. On 9 February 2024, an edit removed it from the name at the start of the lead section, with the edit summary "We don't need confirmation names in ledes unless they are significantly used by the bearer". Since then this confirmation name has twice been added then removed.

Incidentally, on 21 February 2024, an edit removed the forename "George" from Eno’s birth name in the "infobox" with the edit summary "Removed 2nd middle name of George from the born category. George does not appear on his birth certificate or first marriage record, but does on Companies House and various electoral registers. Assuming Eno added George later in life." This edit has since been reverted, perhaps due to the lack of a normal cited reference.

I have changed the name in the "Early life" section to agree with the cited reference. The "Other names" in the infobox still includes the "Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno" name. Maidenhair (talk) 14:08, 26 May 2024 (UTC)

Catholic citation

In attempting to cite that Brian grew up Catholic, I came across a fine quote from him in The Guardian. In attempting to add it as a note (efn), I have apparently done something wrong. It doesn't get displayed when the link ('[a]') is clicked. Help! Paulmlieberman (talk) 17:31, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

 Fixed by paul2520

The usual method would have been to use a "cite news" template, with the quote, if required, as a |quote= parameter. From the Efn template documentation: Explanatory footnotes or Efn are footnotes which provide something other than, or more than, a reference to a source that supports the accompanying text.

Maidenhair (talk) 12:30, 17 July 2024 (UTC)