How to build a Dictionary for items with many names?

Q & A
#1

I am tracking stories in different sources where the same individual is given a different name according to the source. Further more the name of the individuals change over time.
So I want to record the individuals per source and that given name and then compare the stories of two different sources. For that i need a function (Dictionary) that can link two different names together. It is not just two different names. Sometimes it is more than 50 names.
How can I accomplish this task?

#2

I’m not quite sure I understood about the dictionaries.
Let’s assume the following problem:
I have several individuals whose names change over time. I want to quickly see on the timeline who is called by which name at which time.

I would proceed as follows:

  1. I would assign an unchangeable ID (could also be a nickname or so) to each individual. I would also use this, for example, when defining characters in Aeon Timeline.
  2. I would create an arc on the timeline for each individual.
  3. I would create an event for each name that the individual has, starting when the name is assigned and ending when the name is no longer valid. This event is assigned to the individual’s arc.
  4. If it is important to know the source of the name, I would create the sources in Aeon as items and assign them to the events.
  5. If necessary, the whole thing can be broken down even further, for example by adding naming ceremonies as separate events.

I hope this helps.
Cheers, Peter

Edit:
If you only want to use the timeline for this one purpose, you can also use characters instead of arcs. The important thing is that you can split the screen based on this.

#3

thank you for the answer!
Sorry i have written about two problems in my answer.

  1. individual that changes name over time and/or has many names he is called by.
    For this you answer works - thank you
  2. I am tracking sources that describe the same events (yet with individuals that bare different names). so i am working on a hypothesis individual A=B=C=D. As this is not set in stone, i want to be able to change that quickly, as i might discover A=C=D and B=M.

that is why i thought a dictionary might be good for the following for the two problems above:

  1. I can say in the dictionary “X”=(a list of 50+ names) and then once i have tracked the story of all 50+ names with dates I can say later: please display only name “Z” whenever a name in the list of (“X”) is used.
  2. I would track different names per source and then later i want to build a hypothesis dictionary where I can say A=(list B, C, D) and then say please display only name “O” whenever a name “A” or name in the list of (“A”) is used.

hope that makes it clearer. how would you tackle those two problems?

#4

Well, Aeon Timeline is the right tool to show changes over time. Other things could perhaps be implemented through clever improvisation, but it could ultimately fail due to the program’s limited import and export options.

Perhaps you should play around a bit with the method I suggested. A key aspect of this is the ID of each individual. You can quickly see which names are assigned to an individual in a grid view, which could be the spreadsheet in your case (I myself still have Aeon Timeline version 2, where everything is called slightly differently).
In my case, I would have one column per individual (i.e. per arc) and one row per name. If you have created your sources according to my suggestion, you should also see columns for the sources in this grid, so that both names and their sources can be identified at a glance.

If your requirements go beyond pure visualization and you want to transform and rearrange your data in some way, another tool would be a better choice.
I use Python on a daily basis, so I would probably write myself a script for that. Someone else who knows SQL well would probably put it into a database.

#5

thank you for that answer!
Yes i see, a DB is required ultimately as you pointed out in the end (as that is what i really want to do, one step further than just visualising). Was hoping this functionality is hidden somewhere.

#6

As a tips for another software…

You can get this done in Obsidian with a combination of YAML, Aliases and the Dataview and one of the timeline addons…

If you learn how to use the dataview addon, you can create some simple automated views with a query, where you just add the parameter you want, just like you can do in Python or SQL…

I am not totally sure how to get that result in to one of the timeline addons, but it should be possible.

You can add one Note per Persona and have hundreds of Aliases for that Persona, you can add Notes for each Source and have aliases for those to, and then add wiki-links from one Note to another, regardless of what the Note represent…

The limitation is the timeline, there are still only simple timelines available as addons for Obsidian or Foam, but you might also be able to use some of the other advanced addons that may include timeline views…

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