Best way to handle old German names?

Question

For Palatine and other German immigrants the name fields don't seem to work very well since the middle name is usually the most important name yet sometimes isn't displayed in categories. Also the handing of  the original German version of the name and the more commonly known Americanized version once they emigrate is inconsistent. If you put the Americanized version in the nick name field which seems logical you wouldn't see it in categories either. Basically in the categories you see profiles like "Johann Summer" and yet he is commonly known as "Adam". Actually there can be a bunch of profiles with the first name "Johann" since they is very common saints name.

Is there a style guide or standard way to handle German immigrant names? I have tried putting both the saints name and the rufname together in the first name field like "Johann Adam". Is that a good idea?

Comments

Yes.  All forenames should go in the "first name" field, and the name by which they were most commonly name is either the "preferred" name, or the "nickname".

Answer 1

In principle, there are no middle names in Germany. If someone is born in Germany, all given names which are in the birth certificate belong in the field "Proper First Name". There are only a few exceptions, e.g. patronyms in East Frisia or North Schleswig.

If a name (which is very rare) is underlined, this is the call name, otherwise every person can choose his call name freely between his first names and he can also take one of the others if he does not like the first one anymore. This often happens when there are several people with the same first and last name in one place.

The current call name belongs to the "Preferred Name" field. If he should emigrate now or carry a nickname, like Fritz instead of the official Friedrich or Heinz instead of Heinrich, this comes into the field "Other Nicknames".

See also: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Deutsche_Vor-_und_Familiennamen

and

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Germany_Project_Name_Field_Guidelines