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 :Hi ! I agonized a bit over the title, to be honest, and despite the WP:BOLD move I am quite open to suggestions. I admit I dislike ""Count"" because readers will probably assume that he was a count of the sort encountered in Western Europe, whereas this is a simple local gubernatorial title, copied by Bulgaria from the Byzantines. And per WP:NCP titles or positions should not be part of the article title, unless they are part of the clear WP:COMMONNAME, e.g. Empress Matilda. There is AFAIK no conclusive evidence on usage however; although a number of prominent English-language writers (Curta, Fine, Treadgold, Jenkins, Whittow) use ""Count Nicholas"", it is not predominant usage, at least from what I have seen. I've seen the transliterated Bulgarian form ""Nikola"" used alongside the Byzantine form ""komes"" by a Bulgarian author (Antoljak in Samuel and His State), for instance, and any other possible variation (the great Obolensky for instance eschews the title altogether). Stephenson's usage, which you point to above, would probably ""support"" the current name, i.e. a person named Nicholas, who held the office of komes. As I said, I have no strong preference, and would even accept ""Count Nicholas"" on the strength of the authors cited above, but somehow I feel it is too weak a basis. Unless you have a better overview of the literature, then the best thing would be to ask for a WP:RM to establish consensus among interested editors.    "