[nashalo]

Not totally on topic, but on threads about researchers, I see this trend that when we're talking about a male researcher we only mention the family name but when talking about a female researcher we're using mostly the first name.

Case in point, at time of writing there are 26 mentions of "Timnit" vs 16 mentions of "Gebru" on this thread.

I don't think there are bad intentions behind this, but it really comes off as infantilizing so maybe we'd be better off calling her "Gebru"?

[4bpp]

Ethiopian names seem to generally not follow the western first name/surname pattern, instead using the Semitic system where you list the male lineage (cf. https://ethnomed.org/culture/ethiopian/). I remember this information receiving some unusually mainstream exposure thanks to the moments in the limelight that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tedros_Adhanom enjoyed this year.

(Now, I don't actually have enough of a sense of Ethiopian ethnicities to be confident as to whether this holds true for all of them and whether Timnit Gebru belongs to one for which it does, but the case of @DrTedros certainly left me with a general heuristic saying that referring to her as Gebru may be an ignorant foreigner move whereas using the "first" name (as US academics generally refer to each other anyway) is almost certainly safe.)

[machinelabo]

There could be many other reasons:

- Outside media continues to refer to her as Timnit including NYTimes which affects HN users

- If someone’s name is Gorot Trzebiatowski (please forgive me if you have such a name), most people would go with Gorot because it is shorter and easier to pronounce / write. Subconsciously, these things happen.

You’re right - No need to assume malice where probably there isn’t. This is conspiratorial thinking - find some pattern of data that supports mainstream narrative and make conclusions from it. This is what QAnon conspirators do all day.

Although I’m curious about your motivation for analyzing this :-)

[web007]

I haven't noticed this elsewhere, but haven't been paying attention. It'll be interesting to see how much I notice it henceforth - interesting and probably disappointing.

Regarding first/last name confusion, how many people here on HN _know_ which is her first name and which is her last? It's a lot easier for Western Anglicized speakers to get it wrong with non-Western non-Anglicized names than with "Jeff Dean", whether intentionally or not.

[spunker540]

I’d love to see the HN discussion on a study titled “An analysis of unconscious bias on HN”!

Great point though