The remainder of this paper describes the processes involved in standardizing name spellings. There are two very distinct processes involved in standardization: 1) given a number of spellings, determine which ones are variants and which ones ought to be established as their standards; and 2) given a number of standard spellings, determine which of these is the appropriate standard for a paricular spelling. The term name grouping is intended to distinguish the first sense. This process establishes possible standards and involves the judgements of experts as they assign membership in the groups through the use of an administrative system. The second sense of standardization is adding value to the name identifiers of entities to be linked. The modules of this process are part of the query system. The analysis involved in establishing a particular standard, i.e., name grouping, must take place before that knowledge can be used by the query system in assigning that standard to a particular spelling found in a data base of individuals.
The last section reviews an important topic relating more to the study of record linkage for persons, in particular the use of multiple kinds of personal names as identifiers.