Talk:Weymouth, Massachusetts

Shouldn't the "Reference" section be differently titled? Most of the information in there is just trivia. The only one in there that is a reference is the one where it's referenced from the movie. I think it should be retitled to "Trivia".

--Schlagwerk 16:57, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Nicknames

A few informal nicknames for Weymouth have been added to this article in the past, but none of them appear to really be mainstream or widely accepted.

The usual suspects are "Weytown" and "The Dub". I haven't been able to find any literature from the city where it calls itself either of those names, neither seems to appear in the Patriot Ledger archives, and I don't even see any businesses using those names in the phone book. The only places I do find either of these names is on the Web, and then it's pretty much limited to MySpace and a defunct personal bulletin board.

A "real" nickname will be easy to verify. I can find loads of written evidence that Boston calls itself "Beantown", Plymouth calls itself "America’s Hometown", Brockton calls itself "City of Champions" (and used to be widely known as "Shoe City"), and Massachusetts calls itself "The Bay State". Evidence is sorely lacking for the Weymouth nicknames.

Before any more nicknames go into the article, can we get some evidence that the town (as opposed to a few kids on MySpace) actually calls itself by them? --iMeowbot~Meow 02:16, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Nicknames Response

Rarely do I chime in to these discussions, but your recent posting caused me some concern so I thought I would reply.

According to Wikipedia, “One of Wikipedia's core policies is that articles must be written from a "neutral point of view", presenting all noteworthy perspectives on an issue along with the evidence supporting them. Wikipedia articles do not attempt to determine an objective truth on their subjects, but rather to describe them impartially balancing all significant viewpoints.”

Turning to the question of nicknames, Merriam-Webster defines a nickname as: 1 : a usually descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing 2 : a familiar form of a proper name (as of a person or a city)

I would argue that “Weytown” or “The Dub” are two nicknames for Weymouth. They are familiar forms of a proper name. I am 31, a former resident of Weymouth, and have both heard and used the terms. I also know of many people from Weymouth who have heard and used the nicknames. While I would admit I haven’t heard many octogenarians refer to Weymouth as “The Dub”, most of the young people of Weymouth use the name, including all of its offshoots: E-Dub (East Weymouth), S-Dub (South Weymouth), N-Dub (North Weymouth) amd Dub-Dub (Weymouth Landing). In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a person in Weymouth under 25 who hasn’t heard the nicknames. If we use the demographics from the site, this accounts for about 28.6% of the town, which is a significant number. (Please note, this figure would be slightly lower if you discount children who are not of school age.)

So, if we are to keep with the Wikipedia spirit in remaining neutral by balancing all significant viewpoints, we should not censor the nicknames. We might want to list them as unofficial nicknames, but we should not dismiss them. The nice thing about Wikipedia is that it is not static. It provides up to the date information on people, places, and things. It’s also a great resource to use when “official” sources lag behind. For example, prior to this summer the terms “supersize”, “unibrow”, and the verb “google” did not exist in the dictionary, although they were all commonly used words. Wikipedia had entries on each, which is why many people use the site.

In closing, I will call you out on your challenge. You claim, “a ‘real’ nickname will be easy to verify.” Well, once the school year starts, walk into Weymouth High School and do a survey. You will find everyone uses the nicknames. Heck, the principal probably does too! 68.33.172.126BMan.