Talk:Gian Carlo Wick

Untitled

Should the name lose the dash? He was Italian, and Italian double names are joined or completely disjoint. --141.108.14.171 (talk) 13:41, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I agreed with the above, and changed the article for a redirect. It is somewhat ambiguous, but rigorously I believe there is no hyphen, see Gian Carlo Wick during the 1930's by Eduardo Amaldi - no hyphen there, and Amaldi would know. I believe the hyphen is to indicate that his first name is "Gian Carlo", rather than "Gian", but that's my guess. Bdushaw (talk) 13:53, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

The National Academy of Sciences uses the hyphen. Johnbod (talk) 14:07, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

Name without hyphen

I believe the name is better without the hyphen. One can find plenty of references to "Gian-Carlo" and references to "Gian Carlo". Most of the papers by him do not indicate he used a hyphen, and I noted the biography by Eduardo Amaldi "Gian Carlo Wick during the 1930s" is without the hyphen (20th Century Physics: Essays and Recollections : a Selection of Historical ...). Amaldi and Wick were co-workers so Amaldi would know. I suspect the hyphen was to indicate that his first name was "Gian Carlo" rather than "Gian", as some might read it. Bdushaw (talk) 13:58, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

I saw the NAS citation. There are valid, and strong, citations either way. But I don't believe Wick used the hyphen in his own publications, and his close associates also did not use the hyphen. As I say, I believe the hyphen was to indicate to readers that calling him "Gian" was not correct, its "Gian Carlo"; his middle name was not Carlo. The NY Times obituary does not use a hyphen, nor does the biography of Wick by his friend and colleague, E. Amaldi. My own view is to change the article title to not have the hyphen, and note in the text that he was "Gian Carlo". Sans hyphen is more authentic. Bdushaw (talk) 15:04, 15 February 2018 (UTC)