Talk:Walter de Silva

Name
Why there's an apostrophe in his name? Where did you get that? Nomad (talk) 15:12, 15 May 2012 (UTC)


 * All the references appear to include the apostrophe. 72Dino (talk) 15:15, 15 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Out of 10 references, one link is dead, one gives two variants - Desilva and de'Silva, which means they have no idea how to spell it, three links actually lead to the same article on the same webpage, three don't mention his name at all and one spells it as "Walter de????????????????????Silva".
 * In this article (you can use an online translator) the journalist is asking specifically how his name is spelt and gets a clear answer - Walter de Silva. Nomad (talk) 16:36, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd go with the New York Times, which is the most reliable source of all of the ones in this article. They include the apostrophe in this article. 72Dino (talk) 16:45, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, that's your personal preference but doesn't persuade me. New York Times is neither a linguistic nor automotive organization. So I wrote to VW AG press service and asked them how to spell their chief designer's name. Let's see what the say (if they say). Nomad (talk) 16:51, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * You bring up an interesting point. Almost every single published mention of the subject's name in reliable sources (including all the automotive enthusiast magazines) showS "de'Silva", yet this site at Volkswagen shows de Silva.  That does not mean that the copywriter at Volkswagen is correct and the rest of the world is wrong, but the lack of consistency is interesting.  An email will probably fail both WP:RS and WP:V.  I personally would leave it as it is as the WP:COMMONNAME, but hopefully others will weigh in. 72Dino (talk) 17:14, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I think VW's website is more reliable than "the world" represented by the New York Times and a two Internet portals.
 * WP:COMMONNAME is a tricky bit. Everyone calls Windows "mustdie", yet the article is called Microsoft Windows. Nomad (talk) 14:36, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

By the way, more than just the New York Times and two Internet portals use the spelling de'Silva. See also: Audi, Autoblog, Wired, Autoweek, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, etc. Also, here is a copy of an Audi press release with de'Silva. I'm not sure why we are seeing it both ways, but there is not a consensus to remove the apostrophe at this point. 72Dino (talk) 15:51, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
 * But note that if you leave the Russian article mentioned above untranslated, the name in Russian appears not to have an apostrophe - maybe no names do - but halfway down, under a picture of the great man, the article's own transliteration is de'Silva WITH an apostrophe. 86.181.117.134 (talk) 15:19, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Being Mr. Walter Italian does not imply anything regarding the spelling of his last name, which I expect to convince you to be understood as de'Silva. I found a resource which clarifies definetely this discussion: there is one book, the only book which performs a "coverage of the successful designer" Walter de'Silva, written by Riccardo Felicoli. Yo may find it on the web.--Industrias Intelectuales (talk) 20:53, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Incidentally, "de'Silva" is redirected only to "Silva". If you don't know to add "Walter", you won't find him. 86.181.117.134 (talk) 17:08, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page moved per the reliable sources using each version, tipping in favor of the apostrophe-less version that appears to be "official" (and not contrary to common name). -- JHunterJ (talk) 19:21, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Walter de& → Walter de Silva – This last name is Italian and Italian last names only have an apostrophe in it if it begins with a vowel, e.g. d'Imagio, d'Adagio. Please see this article about apostrophes. I'd like to emphasize that the Italian version of this article uses the spelling without an apostrophe.

I'd like to present the prooflinks: http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/info_center/en/themes/2010/10/Summit_Meeting_of_the_Designers__Giugiaro__Warkuss_and_de_Silva_analyse_the__Golf__phenomenon.html

http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/info_center/en/news/2007/01/personnel_changes_in_the_volkswagen_group.html

They clearly state the correct spelling of the designer's name and I'd like to believe the company knows the correct name of the person they hired. BadaBoom (talk) 12:41, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Oppose the move. Numerous reliable sources include the apostrophe. Examples (as noted in an earlier section on this talk page) include The New York Times, Autoblog, Wired, Autoweek, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, etc. Also, here is a copy of an Audi press release with de'Silva. 72Dino (talk) 14:15, 7 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Strangely enough, the second link I posted came from you. So, basically, it's media prooflinks Vs. grammar, knowledge and common sence. Has it occurred to you that maybe the media are using the wrong name because they found it in Wikipedia? And Wikipedia in turn uses their articles based on the wrong name in Wikipedia to preserve the wrong spelling? BadaBoom (talk) 05:14, 8 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Support, per Seattle Post Intelligencer, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times, and Irish Times. Certainly there is RS for both forms. But if it is not on the Volkswagen site, that would suggest that it is some kind of typo that has gone uncorrected. Kauffner (talk) 11:42, 9 June 2012 (UTC)
 * This continues to be perplexing. Volkswagen shows it without the apostrophe, Audi (also his employer) includes it. 72Dino (talk) 14:32, 9 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Audi is not his employer. They are his reports. De Silva oversees the whole VAG design, but Audi is independent within VAG, is called Audi Group and includes Audi, Lamborghini and Ducati. Chief designer for Audi Group is Wolfgang Egger who replaced Luc Donckerwolke. BadaBoom (talk) 08:45, 10 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Support per nom and what appears to be his official bio at VW, a Financial Times article and this one in La Repubblica. I tend to concur with the suggestion that the apostrophe is a media-perpetuated typo. Favonian (talk) 16:51, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Walter de Silva. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.cardesignnews.com/site/home/display/store4/item64899/
 * Added archive https://www.webcitation.org/5u8lULHDB?url=http://www.cardesignnews.com/site/home/display/store4/item64899/ to http://www.cardesignnews.com/site/home/display/store4/item64899/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 13:27, 5 December 2017 (UTC)