info.lifespan.dev/notes/2026/02/02/what-s-in-a-name

What's in a name?

A thing can go by many names over time. People are good examples, but it’s true of other things too.

For example…

These are spans of time when the same physical building had different names and was used for different purposes. If the thing represented by the span is the building itself, then we can say all sorts of things about it and its relationship to its name and role.

There are loads of other examples. People go by different names at different times and in different contexts, like musicians who change their names, or people who go from maiden to married names.

Lifespan handles this by treating names as things that spans have, using a has_name connection (which is itself a span) to say when this was the case.

So instead of the default:

ca77ab40f418 = Red Hot Chili Peppers

we can say

ca77ab40f418 has_name Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem – 1982 –> 1983

It’s true, y’know

and

ca77ab40f418 has_name Red Hot Chili Peppers – 1983 –> now

Some interesting things to think about here…

…including maybe doing something like spans/@2013-01-01/red-hot-chili-peppers…