Couple of missing nicknames/full names

[canolaflowers88]

I'm working on using the data on legislators for a research project to match with DoS press releases, and wanted to list a few issues with names I'm having:

Historical

• bioguide=B001271: Rep. Benishek's full first name is "Daniel." It's in the data as only "Dan".
• bioguide=P000593: Rep. Perlmutter's full first name is Edwin. It's in the data as only "Ed".

Current

• bioguide=R000605: Senator Rounds full first name is "Michael". It's in the data as only "Mike".
• bioguide=J000295: Rep. David Joyce's entry does not indicate that he often uses the nickname "Dave".
• bioguide=C001055: Rep. Case's full first name is "Edward". It's in the data as only "Ed".
• bioguide=W000779: Rep. Wyden's full first name is "Ronald". It's in the data as only "Ron".
• bioguide=S001185: Rep. Sewell's full firstname is "Terrycina". It's in the data as only "Terri".
• bioguide=T000467: Rep. Glenn Thompson has "GT" as a nickname, which is not included in the data.

Of course, if instead of name (nickname) there was a consistent application of a nickname property under the name data, I would not complain either!

[JoshData]

There's a tension between storing legal/formal first names (whatever legal/formal might mean), which might match certain documents, and names that the legislators themselves use and are recognized by by members of the general public, which is often different. For GovTrack, I want to display recognizable names because often legal/formal first names are not recognizable. And since I do most of the work to add new legislators, I get to do what works best for me. :)

This is actually documented in the README's definition of the name->first field.

For example, for Rep. Sewell, her name appears as Terri on both House.gov and on https://sewell.house.gov/, as well as fec.gov. So that's it.

For nicknames, I don't think there's a benefit to storing a nickname that is likely obvious. So for Joyce, having Dave as a nickname when David is the first name seems unnecessary. I wouldn't want to display "David (Dave) Joyce" on GovTrack. We could update the first name to be Dave if that's a better choice.

[canolaflowers88]

Thank you for the prompt response! Understood on the standards you're keeping for the dataset; I'll admit my use case is pretty niche because it sometimes sources foreign government documents that tend to lean toward "full" names that aren't always recognizable (e.g., the Chinese MFA). I appreciate all the good work being put into curating all this data & will make adjustments on my end. I would also appreciate the update for Rep. Joyce! I noticed his first name is shown as Dave in most sources, including on joyce.house.gov. Thanks again.

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On Fri, Sep 19, 2025 at 4:19 PM Joshua Tauberer ***@***.***> wrote: *JoshData* left a comment (unitedstates/congress-legislators#1019) <#1019 (comment)> There's a tension between storing legal/formal first names (whatever legal/formal might mean), which might match certain documents, and names that the legislators themselves use and are recognized by by members of the general public, which is often different. For GovTrack, I want to display recognizable names because often legal/formal first names are not recognizable. And since I do most of the work to add new legislators, I get to do what works best for me. :) This is actually documented in the README's definition of the name->first field. For example, for Rep. Sewell, her name appears as Terri on both House.gov and on https://sewell.house.gov/, as well as fec.gov. So that's it. For nicknames, I don't think there's a benefit to storing a nickname that is likely obvious. So for Joyce, having Dave as a nickname when David is the first name seems unnecessary. I wouldn't want to display "David (Dave) Joyce" on GovTrack. We could update the first name to be Dave if that's a better choice. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1019 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BXAUI2COGFJTQQTCOQJW7QL3TRQLFAVCNFSM6AAAAACG76GWQGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTGMJTGY4TSNRQHA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>