Should `Doe, Jane nee Smith MA` read `MA` as a credential? The maiden name keeps it, where it gives up `PhD` and `Jr.`

[derek73]

After a maiden marker, an unambiguous suffix comes out of the maiden name and an ambiguous credential acronym does not, and nothing is reported.

>>> parse("Doe, Jane nee Smith PhD").maiden, parse("Doe, Jane nee Smith PhD").suffix
('Smith', 'PhD')
>>> parse("Doe, Jane nee Smith MA").maiden, parse("Doe, Jane nee Smith MA").suffix
('Smith MA', '')
>>> parse("Doe, Jane nee Smith MA").ambiguities
()

It is not a comma question: Jane Doe nee Smith MA gives maiden Smith MA too, and John Smith nee Jones R.A.I. gives maiden Jones R.A.I. where John Smith R.A.I. gives suffix R.A.I. and reports. 1.4.0 had no maiden field; it read the MA and the R.A.I. as suffixes.

Why now. #531 made the end of the given part after a family comma read an ambiguous credential as the comma-less spelling does, and report it either way. The maiden clause takes its words before that slot exists, so this is now the one trailing position where a word of that class (ba, do, ed, jd, ma, and dotted acronyms) is read in silence. #530 moved John Smith nee Jones R.A.I. into the maiden field from the other side.

The question. Should the words-to-spare rule and the case lean apply at the end of a maiden clause, so Doe, Jane nee Smith MA gives maiden Smith, suffix MA, while Doe, Jane nee Smith Ma keeps maiden Smith Ma? And whichever way it reads, should it report suffix-or-name?

For: every other trailing position now reads this way, the clause already gives up PhD and Jr., and a degree is not part of a birth name. Against: a maiden name of one word has nothing to spare (Doe, Jane nee MA), and two-word birth surnames ending in Ma or Do are real, so the lean would be carrying the whole decision in one-case records.

Names to decide against

• Doe, Jane nee Smith MA / Jane Doe nee Smith MA: maiden Smith MA, silent
• Doe, Jane nee Smith Ma: the cased contrast, a name under either answer
• DOE, JANE NEE SMITH MA: one case, no evidence in the writing
• Doe, Jane nee MA: nothing to spare
• John Smith nee Jones R.A.I.: the dotted half
• Doe, Jane nee Smith PhD, Doe, Jane nee Smith Jr.: controls, already suffix

Related: #531, #530.

Found during #531 (PR #532).

[derek73]

Closed by #534.

The clause now ends at a trailing credential, and says so. parse("Jane Doe nee Smith MA") gives maiden Smith, suffix MA, which is how 1.4.0 read the MA and how Jane Doe MA has read all along. Jane Doe nee Smith Ma keeps maiden Smith Ma, the writing declining it as it does outside a clause. Either way the decision is reported as suffix-or-name.

The two questions this issue asked: yes to both. The words-to-spare rule and the case lean apply at the end of a clause, through the double check #424 built for the numeral, asked of the word itself: the clause gives the word up only where the name left behind would read THAT word as a credential. That is what keeps John née Jones Smith Ma whole, the name #424 left the acronym out to protect.

The objection raised here, a maiden name of one word having nothing to spare, is answered by a floor: the stop never takes the first word after the marker. Jane Doe nee MA keeps maiden MA and reports. That differs on purpose from née PhD and née V, where a certain post-nominal makes the marker decline.

After a family comma the clause is read by #531's slot, carve-out included: Doe, Jane nee Smith DO gives suffix DO, Doe, Jane nee Smith do keeps its maiden name, and Doe, Jane nee Smith MA do keeps MA do together. One name is a restoration rather than a change: John Smith nee Jones R.A.I. gives suffix R.A.I. again, as 2.3.0 did, the unreleased 2.4 work having moved it into the maiden name.

Measured over 2,016 generated pairs, a clause and the same name without it disagreed about the trailing word 984 times before and never after, outside one accepted class: a head written wholly in one case cannot see the case of a word inside the clause (DOE, JANE nee Smith Ma reads the credential). One invariant bounds all of it: a word the clause gives up ends the parse in suffix, or the clause keeps it and reports. So Doe, Dr. nee Smith MA and Jane Doe, Jr nee Smith MA keep maiden Smith MA, the take leaving no name word for a reader, and a delimited clause, Jane Doe (nee Smith MA), is settled by its delimiters and reports nothing.

Not reached, and asked separately: a title after the clause. Jane Doe nee Smith MA Prof. is unchanged.

The rule is rules.md#M2; the reasoning is under M2 and S2 in docs/design/decisions.md.