Should BCh, BChir and BMBCh be listed credentials? (Jane Doe, BM BCh gives given BM, middle BCh) #1361

#1338 made two capitals before credentials after a comma read as the credential run (rules/C5, paired initials after the comma). That needs every word behind the pair to be a credential. BCh, BChir and BMBCh are not listed, so the pair still reads as the given name in front of them.

Measured on master 670b349, 2026-11-12:

The words' other readings (tools/vocab/query.py --word):

• bch is excluded as a credential (Should a word that is a title or credential only by one of its chunks count as one in brackets and at the end of a name: (Msc.Ed), John Smith Lt.Gov? #1131, 2026-11-07): "the second half of the split MB BCh (rules/S12), kept out as chb is".
• bchir is excluded as a credential (Should B.Pharm, C.Psych and M.Kes be listed credentials, now that Ahmed Ali M.Hassan loses its surname to the same guess? #998, 2026-11-09): it is the Tunisian surname Bchir, with Wikidata 2 family bearers, and ORCID and PSC 3 names, none after a comma.
• bmbch holds no reading.

Bearers (tools/name_usage.py bch bchir bmbch, 2026-11-12):

How often (2026-11-12, local corpora as cached, the ClinicalTrials.gov officials' data as of 2026-10-21; a word counts with its periods removed):

• Names holding one of the three words:
  • ctgov-officials 354: bch 241, bchir 61, bmbch 52;
  • ORCID 4, PSC 1, FEC 1, GOV.UK 1.
• The C5 shape (two or more words before the comma, two or more after it, the first two ASCII capitals): 49,656 ctgov names. Of these, 175 still read the pair as the given name.
  • 114 have an unlisted word behind the pair: bch 48, bchir 11, bm 8, med 6, ph 5, mfpm 4, bmbch 3, hons and (hons) 3 each, lcat 3, (oxon) 2, mchir 2, then one-offs.
  • 62 hold a BCh, BChir or BMBCh spelling: the pair is BM in 40, MA in 12 and BA in 10.

Proposal:

• When: BCh (Bachelor of Surgery), BChir (its Cambridge form) or BMBCh (the Oxford Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) stands in a name.
• Then: list each as a credential, written BCh, BChir, BMBCh. Give bchir a family reading as well, which puts it in the ambiguous class (rules/S4), so the surname keeps its reading.
• Because: a ctgov official's degrees after a comma are the run Read two capitals before credentials after a comma as a credential (#1323) #1338 reads, and these three are its commonest unlisted words.

Measured with Lexicon.default().add("bch", "bchir", "bmbch", kind="credential").add("bchir", kind="family") against the default, over every name in the corpora holding one of the words:

• Every ctgov move gains suffix words: bch 47, bmbch 45, bchir 9. The FEC move reads a trailing BCH as a credential before another one.
• Variant A's three moves outside ctgov are the surname Bchir read as a suffix (Amani Bchir-shaped). B keeps all three as the family name.
• Each exclusion's own concern:
  • MB BCh and MB BChir still read suffix, with or without a comma: Jane Doe MB BCh, PhD, Doe, Jane MB BCh.
  • Reports move. With bch listed, MB BCh no longer merges into the split MBBCh. The merged pair no longer reports suffix-or-name (68 ctgov names lose that report, and some lose a comma-structure report). Under B, the four ORCID and PSC Bchir surnames gain a suffix-or-name report while keeping their reading.
• Accepted: the MB BCh pair stops being reported, because it is read as two listed credentials rather than as one split credential.

Open:

1. Should bch stay excluded for its S12 role? If so, the 47 bch moves are given up, and only bmbch (45) and bchir (9) ship.
2. bm (8 in the C5 shape) and mchir (2) are the next unlisted words. Should they join this batch or stay out?
3. Should the near spellings BMBCh, BM BCh and BMChB (1) all be handled through S12's split pair rather than one word each?

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