Naming convention for the father of a child born to a single mother

Private User

3/4/2023 at 8:48 AM

I recently had a Geni user challenge me on how I entered a profile for a child born to a single mother.

My understanding of human reproduction is that a human child is gestated from a fertilized egg inside of the mother. The fertilization of the egg can occur naturally from the sperm of the father, or artificially from the sperm of a male donor, followed by implantation of the fertilized egg into the uterus of the mother.

Regardless of the fertilization source, therefore, all children born to a single mother have a biological father. If the name of the father is not known, I enter his name as NN NN and his birth year "About" the same as the birth year of the mother.

I'd like to know what naming convention you all are using for the father of a child born to a single mother. I'd also like to know how you responded if you were challenged similarly by other users.

Private User

3/4/2023 at 10:17 AM

This is probably part of the bigger question. - and disagreement. Over is it ever appropriate to put anything, and if so when, when one does not have a name - and what one puts if one does not have a name.

Yes, everyone has a biological father. Everybody also has several sixth great grandfathers, etc. Personally, I disapprove mightily of folks entering a string of "second great grandfather". "Third great grandfather". Etc. And do not find it the least bit improved by instead a string of folks each named "NN NN"

As I recall, Geni did purposeful programming to support showing a person with just one parent.
I am fine with the child being shown with just one parent.

I am more likely to enter inknown father of Michael Smith as: First Name: Father of Michael - Last Name: Smith
or if not using father's surname - as First Name: Father of Michal Smith and leave last name blank or put "unknown"
Ages of fathers can vary so much, I don't think putting the birth in as about mother's is a particularly good idea.

I expect folks will disagree with my choices at least as much as yours.

Private User

3/4/2023 at 5:17 PM

Private User Thank you for your comments.

I like your idea for entering "Father of Michael Smith" as first name and NN for surname.

Leaving the birthyear blank causes Geni to bracket the birthyear by 30 years which is a bit much in my opinion when describing a romantic union that resulted in the birth of a child.

I haven't decided what to do going forward; I was soliciting the opinions of others and for that I thank you.

I also haven't decided whether to report the challenger as a vandal. They deleted the profile that I entered for the unknown father. That is not a mature or respectful action. Neither for that matter was their attitude when I attempted to reason with them. For the record, the single mother is Max Family to me in the single mother's mother's line, and Max Family to the vandal in the single mother's father's line.

But I have already spent more time on this than I ought to have for one profile and for now I will close.

Alex Moes C

3/5/2023 at 8:04 PM

Private User deleting of a profile managed by another user is vandalism.

The value of a profile with the data you describe is absolute zero.

To be absolutely correct the profile would be named "NN" in the First Name field. Putting NN in both First and Last name fields is nonsensical given that NN basically translates to "Name Unknown" so you are calling the is profile "Name Unknown Name Unknown".

Use of descriptors, such as "Father of Michael", is strongly discouraged.

A mix such as "Father of Michael" in First Name and "Smith" in Last Name would in most cases just be an assumption, what evidence do you have the father's name was Smith? Likewise giving the father a birth date circa the mother's DOB is just inventing data.

Unless you have other profiles to hang off the unnamed parent (like a known aunt, uncle, cousin, grandparent) then leaving that node of the tree empty is the proscribed course. A valid reason to create a Placeholder profile would be if the mother later married and that husband could be mistakenly connected as the father.

Alex Moes C

3/6/2023 at 4:21 AM

PS NN is an abbreviation of the latin nomen nescio, literally "I do not know the name".

Without context on a profile this could indicate that the person making the profile does not know the name because they haven't researched it, or because they did their utmost but could not determine it. The name may be lost to history, or maybe it was never known at all.

Private User

3/6/2023 at 5:05 AM

Alex Moes Thank you for your comments, explanations, and recommendations.

I agree with you that inventing data is not a good thing. One can always put a note in the Overview section of the child's profile to indicate that the name of the child's father is not known.

If I run across this situation again I will enter the child with the mother as the only parent. Should the mother later marry, I will create the Placeholder profile for the first husband to indicate that the mother's second husband is not the father of the child.

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Naming convention for the father of a child born to a single mother

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