Select Surname List aims to provide accurate, clearly sourced information about surname meanings, origins, historical records, and naming traditions. When mistakes occur, our responsibility is to investigate them, correct established errors, and explain changes that affect readers’ understanding.
This policy describes how corrections are reported, assessed, and recorded on SelectSurnameList.com.
Our Approach to Corrections
We welcome evidence that challenges or improves our content. A correction may concern a factual mistake, an unsupported interpretation, a misleading omission, an inaccurate citation, or an error in a table or research tool.
Our approach follows the general editorial principle that mistakes should be acknowledged and significant corrections made visible to readers. The Society of Professional Journalists includes this principle in its guidance on accountability and transparency. This reference does not imply affiliation or endorsement.
How to Report an Error
Please submit correction requests through our Contact Us page. To help us investigate, include:
- The URL or title of the affected page.
- The exact statement, figure, or passage in question.
- An explanation of what appears incorrect or misleading.
- Your suggested correction, if available.
- Supporting references or enough information to locate the evidence.
Useful supporting details may include a book’s author, edition, and page number; an archive collection and record reference; or a dataset’s title and publication year.
You do not need to provide a complete alternative explanation to raise a legitimate concern. Identifying an unsupported claim or a citation that does not support the text is also helpful.
How We Assess Reports
We aim to review reports as promptly as reasonably possible. The time required depends on the issue’s complexity, source accessibility, and the amount of verification needed. We do not promise a fixed response or resolution time.
Review should consider the published wording, its cited evidence, the material supplied by the reader, and other relevant sources where necessary. We may request additional details.
Reports involving potentially harmful misinformation about identifiable people, sensitive personal information, or errors affecting many pages receive particular attention. Where a serious concern cannot be resolved immediately, we may add a notice, qualify a claim, or temporarily remove the affected material while reviewing it.
Corrections, Clarifications, and Updates
Different changes require different explanations.
A correction addresses information that was wrong, such as an incorrect date, mistranslated term, misidentified record, unsupported family connection, or calculation error.
A clarification improves wording that could reasonably mislead readers, even if the underlying statement was not entirely incorrect. For example, a passage may need to explain that an origin applies to one regional form of a surname.
An update adds relevant evidence or later information without necessarily making the earlier account erroneous.
An editorial edit improves spelling, grammar, formatting, or readability without changing meaning.
These labels should describe the substance of the change. A factual correction should not be presented merely as a routine update.
When We Publish a Correction Note
Changes that materially affect an article’s meaning, evidence, or conclusions should include a dated note on the affected page. The note should briefly identify the problem and explain what changed.
Significant corrections should appear where readers are likely to notice them. Altering the text without explanation is insufficient when an error changes the central account.
Minor typographical or formatting fixes generally do not require a note. However, a spelling error that changes a surname’s identity, a date, or a cited reference may require acknowledgment.
Correction notes should avoid unnecessarily repeating sensitive information or harmful allegations.
Disputed Surname Interpretations
Disagreement does not always establish an error. A surname may have several documented origins, and researchers may interpret historical forms differently.
When credible evidence supports competing explanations, an appropriate response may be to expand the discussion and identify the uncertainty. We should not replace one interpretation with another solely because it is more familiar or widely repeated.
If a published claim lacks adequate support, it should be qualified or removed even when a definitive replacement explanation is unavailable. Family tradition can