questions73

Thanks for your reply. I did realise chemicals had names before IUPAC came into being . My point in bringing up IUPAC is that if someone asked me why a chemical had a particular name, I can usually refer them to the IUPAC nomenclature guidelines. Admittedly there are still many chemical names that are not part of the IUPAC system (element names, old nomenclature rules, INCI*). I guess my question boils down to this: where would I find a list of current and previous government titles/names**? Is this sort of thing studied by academics? *International nomenclature for cosmetic ingredients. **I refer to names/titles like "Magistrate, Ranger, Constable, Marshal, Sheriff, Warden, Coroner, Registrar, Ombudsman", rather than descriptive titles like "Chief Information Officer; Science advisor; Royal historian; social worker".

Before coming here I checked an introductory law textbook and another on "constitutional and administrative" law. The books do mention various titles. However, I am interested in the ones that are less well known; do not exist yet; or are not currently being used. I have also looked at the legislative drafting guidelines for the parliamentary counsel office - and the American equivalent websites (House/Senate Office of Legislative Counsel). The American websites have much less information. I have been trying to find the answer to this question for a long time. It is something that has always bugged me. I think you have misunderstood what I am asking. I am having trouble putting my question into words. For clarification: I have a good understanding of how governments work (US, Australian, UK etc). I mean titles for everyday public servants. Presumably they will not appoint a commission of inquiry for this purpose:-P So for example, we have Rangers that maintain forests/parks. What if the government identified a need for a new type of worker. For example someone who only works in mountains. An obvious title would be "Mountain Ranger". However, let us pretend that in country A, the word "Ranger" is constitutionally protected and can only be used to describe one type of conservation worker. A new title would be needed. Otherwise you would end up with something like "maintainer of parks and forests in mountainous areas". This is a rather cumbersome title. The reason I am wondering this is that the United States seems to have many government positions that have titles (even more than the UK - which is where most of their historical titles would come from) and I have always wondered how they come up with them. I am not a fan of the US legal system, but one thing I do like about it is that it seems to use titles in a way that is less cumbersome than other countries that I have looked at. The use of "deputy Sheriff" to refer to a bailiff at the local level and "deputy Marshal" to refer to a federal bailiff is preferable in my view to putting "federal/local before the term you wish to use. SWAT officer (not a historical term) is preferable to "member of armed offenders squad". FBI is preferable to "Organised and Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand". I guess I am looking for the government equivalent of IUPAC nomenclature. Instead of naming chemicals, they would be naming government positions. Thank you for your responses. My background is in chemistry, I just find the way the government works to be really interesting.

Hi there, I have no idea what background would be required to know the answer to this question (although I am sure it is not a science background) so I thought I would post it here in the "other topics". What sort of person would you consult if you were planning to create a new type of government official/department and needed to come up with a title for them/it? The people who draft laws (which create these new positions/departments) are Lawyers. As far as I can tell, they are not educated in historical terms used to describe government positions. As an example: Country A has a three tier court system: District Court; Court of Appeal; and Supreme Court. A law is passed creating a court below the District Court. This new court is termed the "Magistrates Court". The bailiffs of the Magistrate Court are referred to as deputy marshals. Whereas the bailiffs in the other courts are referred to as deputy sheriffs. This is a poor example because I know that "deputy sheriff" and "deputy marshal" are titles that are well known. However, assuming these titles were not well known, who would a lawmaker seek advice from to come up with a title? Obviously you would need some sort of historical background, but what historical subject would teach you this sort of stuff. For common titles, it would be simple just to use the Internet. However, someone has to put the information on the internet to begin with. Who is that person? Terms/titles I can think of: Bureau Ministry Office Department Registrar Sheriff Marshal Bailiff Magistrate Ombudsman Commissioner Commission State County District Also, how would I find out about the hierarchy of these titles/terms. For example, I know that a county/shire is within a state/region. What about marshal vs sheriff? For the avoidance of any doubt, I am not asking you to tell me about marshals, sheriffs, magistrates, etc. I have only used these as examples. I already know about the relationships/history behind the titles I have mentioned in this post. I am asking how a lawmaker would go about getting the answers to these sorts of questions. I have used examples of titles that I am already familiar with. I have wanted to know the answer to this question for a long time. I hope someone here can help.