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This page documents an English Misplaced Pages policy.It describes a widely accepted standard that editors should normally follow, though exceptions may apply. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.

Shortcuts WP:NAME WP:NC

This page in a nutshell: Article names should be recognizable to readers, unambiguous, and consistent with usage in reliable English-language sources.

This naming conventions page sets out Misplaced Pages's policy on how to name articles. It is supplemented by guidelines that advise on how to apply the principles set out here, advise on managing conflicts between them. The naming conventions should be interpreted in conjunction with other policies, particularly the three core content policies: Verifiability, No original research and Neutral point of view.

For information on the procedure for renaming an article, see Help:Moving a page and Misplaced Pages:Requested moves.

Deciding an article name

Article titles should name or describe the subject of the article and make Misplaced Pages easy to use. Article titles do this if they are:

• Recognizable – Use names and terms most commonly used, and so most likely to be recognized, for the topic of the article.
• Easy to find – Use terms that readers are most likely to look for in order to find the article (and to which editors will most naturally link from other articles).
• Precise – Be precise, but only as precise as is necessary to identify the topic of the article unambiguously.
• Concise – Keep it brief. A good article title is to the point. This makes finding and recognising the article easier (and makes life easier for editors linking to it).
• Consistent – Similar articles generally should share similar terms. This may be true of a series of articles sharing a common topic or articles describing different topics but from a common field.

In addition, article titles are constrained by unavoidable technical restrictions, including the necessity that titles be unique for every article.

Most articles will have a simple and obvious name that satisfies most or all of these. If so, use it. It may be necessary to balance or trade-off one or more of the above guidelines against the one another. In such situations, article names are determined by consensus. Consensus on naming articles in specific fields, or with respect to particular problems, is stated and explained in the guidelines below. When no consensus exists, it is established through discussion, always with the above principles in mind. At all times, the choice of an article name should ultimately be agreed upon in terms of what is in the best interest of readers over editors and of a general audience over specialists.

Redirects should be created to articles that may reasonably be searched for or linked to under two or more names (such as different spellings or former names). Conversely, a name that could refer to several different articles may require disambiguation.

Use common names

• WP:NCCN
• WP:COMMONNAME

Articles are normally titled using the most common English-language name of a person or thing that is the subject of the article. If the article's subject has no evident name, a concise, recognizable and neutral description is used instead. In determining what this name is, we follow the usage of reliable sources. As part of this, the name chosen for an article, while in common use, should be neither vulgar nor pedantic: readers will not expect such names to be the title of an article in an encyclopedia such as Misplaced Pages.

Occasionally, specific subject domains may follow a standardised precedent that is not strictly the common name (e.g. articles relating to flora or medicine). Where so, the choice of article titles adopted should follow a neutral and common convention specific to that subject domain but which otherwise adheres to the general principles in naming articles on Misplaced Pages. The decision to adopt such a convention may be influenced by factors such as where:

• Several common names are available for articles across the subject domain
• There is no obvious method to determine which names are the most common or otherwise suitable common names are ambiguous

Be precise when necessary

Articles are named as precisely as is necessary to indicate their scope accurately, while avoiding over-precision. Readers should not have to read into the article to find which of several meanings of the title is the actual subject, but there is no virtue in excess. Misplaced Pages also has disambiguation pages to help readers find the meaning they want. When (as with Paris), the unmodified term has an overwhelmingly predominant meaning, we use the simple term for that article; see WP:PRIMARYUSAGE.

All articles must, by the design of Misplaced Pages, have a unique name. If there are several articles with the same name, it may be that one concerns the primary topic for that name; if so, that one keeps the common name, and the others must be disambiguated. It may be that using an alternative common name for a topic is the simplest way to disambiguate; if not, add a disambiguator in parentheses. The articles should be linked, to help readers get where they want to go, either to each other or to a disambiguation page, normally called topic or topic (disambiguation).

Subsidiary articles

Do not use an article name that suggests a hierarchy of articles. For example, an article on transportation in Azerbaijan might be considered a subsidiary article of the main article Azerbaijan, but it should not be given a name like "Azerbaijan/Transport" or "Azerbaijan (transport)" – use Transport in Azerbaijan. (Forward slashes are nonetheless used to create subpages in non-article namespaces. See also the technical restrictions on their use.)

Occasionally, subsidiary articles may have more complex names than normal, especially if they are only intended to be accessed by a link from the main article. For example, Isaac Newton has the subsidiary article Isaac Newton's early life and achievements. However, if a common name for such a topic is available, that is always preferred.

For how to link between main and subsidiary articles, see Misplaced Pages:Summary style. It is also important to avoid content forks.

Controversial names

The purpose of an article's title is to enable that article to be found by interested readers, and nothing more. In particular, the choice of title is not influenced by disputes about whether a name is "right" in a moral sense. Note also that the use of one name as an article title does not preclude the use of alternative names in appropriate contexts in the text of articles.

Nor does the use of one name for one article require that all related articles use the same name. The advantages of consistency and of common usage should be considered; there is often some reason, such as anachronism, for inconsistencies in common usage. For example, Misplaced Pages has articles on both Volgograd and the Battle of Stalingrad.

Editing for the sole purpose of changing one controversial name to another is strongly discouraged. If an article name has been stable for a long time, and there is no good reason to change it, it should not be changed. If it has never been stable for a long time, and no consensus can be reached on what the name should be, default to the name used by the first major contributor after the article ceased to be a stub.

Any potentially controversial proposal to change a name should be discussed and advertised at WP:RM before any change is made. However, debating controversial names is often unproductive, and there are many other ways to help improve Misplaced Pages.

Where articles have descriptive names, they are neutrally worded. A specific example is that the term allegation should be avoided in a title unless the article concerns charges in a legal case or accusations of illegality under civil, criminal or international law which have not yet been proven in a court of law.

Disambiguation

See the sections of the disambiguation guideline dealing with naming the disambiguation page and naming the specific topic articles.

Use English words

Articles are named in English unless the foreign form of a name has greater recognition by English-speaking readers. The choice between anglicized and local spellings should follow English usage (e.g., Besançon, Søren Kierkegaard and Göttingen, but Nuremberg, delicatessen and Florence). Other significant forms of the name should be given in the first line of the article. Sometimes the usual English version will be the same as the local form, as in Madrid; sometimes it will differ somewhat, as in Franz Josef Strauss; and rarely, as with Mount Everest, it will be completely different.

National varieties of English

All national varieties of English spelling are acceptable in article names; Misplaced Pages does not prefer any national variety over any other. American spellings should not be respelled to British standards, and vice versa, unless there is some other advantage to the encyclopedia; for example, both color and colour are acceptable and both spellings are found in article titles (such as color gel and colour state). However, an article title on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should use the variety of English appropriate for that nation.

Prefer standard English over trademarks

Article titles follow standard English text formatting in the case of trademarks, unless the trademarked spelling is demonstrably most common usage in sources independent of the owner of the trademark. Items in full or partial uppercase (such as Invader ZIM) should have standard capitalization (Invader Zim); however, if the name is ambiguous, and one meaning is usually capitalized, this is one possible method of disambiguation.

Exceptions include article titles with the first letter lowercase and the second letter uppercase, such as iPod and eBay. For these, see the technical restrictions guideline.

Name construction

• Use sentence case: The initial letter of a title is almost always capitalized (for exceptions, like eBay, see the technical restrictions page). Subsequent words in a title are not capitalized unless they would be in normal text. (See special rules on capitalization in bird naming.)
• Use the singular form: Article titles are generally in singular in form. Exceptions include nouns that are always in a plural form in English (e.g. scissors or trousers) and the names of classes of objects (e.g. Arabic numerals or Bantu languages).
• Avoid abbreviations: and acronyms are generally avoided, unless the subject is almost exclusively known by its abbreviation, as with NATO and Laser. (The abbreviation "UK" for United Kingdom is acceptable for use in disambiguation.) See Naming conventions (abbreviations).
• Avoid definite and indefinite articles: Do not place definite or indefinite articles (the, a and an) at the beginning of titles unless they are part of a proper name (e.g. The Old Man and the Sea) or otherwise change the meaning (e.g. The Crown).
• Use nouns: Titles should be formed from nouns and the gerund of verbs (i.e. -ing form). Adjective forms (e.g. democratic) should redirect to the article titled as a noun (Democracy).

Special characters and formatting

There are technical restrictions on the use of certain characters in page titles. The characters #, <, >, , |, {, and } cannot be used at all and there are certain restrictions on titles containing colons, periods and some other characters. Technically all other Unicode characters can be used in page titles. However the following should be noted:

• Provide redirects to non-standard keyboard characters: If use of diacritics (accent marks) is in accordance with the English-language name, or other non-standard characters such as hyphens and dash, provide a redirect from the equivalent title using standard English-language keyboard characters.
• Avoid acent-/quote-like characters: Accent-like and/or quote-like characters (e.g. ʻ, ʾ, ʿ, ᾿, ῾, ‘, “, ’, ”, , combining diacritical marks combined with a "space" character) should be avoided in page names. A common exception is the curly apostrophe ' (e.g. Anthony d'Offay), which should, however, be used sparingly (e.g. Shia instead of Shi'a).
• Do not use non-language characters: Non-language characters such as "♥", "★", and "*", such as those found in advertisements or logos should never be used in titles.
• No not use bold or italic formatting: Formatting, such as italics or bolding, is technically achievable in page titles, but is used only in special cases. An example of such an exception is to produce italics for taxonomic names of genera and species. (See italics and formatting restrictions.)

Titles containing "and"

Sometimes two or more closely related or complementary concepts are most sensibly covered by a single article. Where possible, use a single name covering all cases: for example, Endianness covers the concepts "big-endian" and "little-endian". Where no reasonable overarching name is available, construct an article title using "and", as in Acronym and initialism; Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9; Promotion and relegation. (The individual terms – such as Acronym – should redirect to the combined page, or be linked there via a disambiguation page or hatnote if they have other meanings.)

If there is no obvious ordering, place the more commonly encountered concept first, or if that is not applicable, use alphabetical order. Alternative names using reverse ordering (such as Initialism and acronym) should be redirects.

Avoid use of "and" in ways that appear biased. For example, use Islamic terrorism, not "Islam and terrorism".

Specific conventions and guidelines

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Several exist to give guidance on consensus in areas where particular issues exist. A list of current topic-specific conventions is to the right. Other cases cases, where specific pages outlining these conventions do not exist, the conventions are outlined below.

Bands, albums and songs

In band names and titles of songs or albums, capitalize words that are not coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), prepositions (in, to, over), articles (an, a, the), or the word to when used to form an infinitive. Note that short verbs (Is, Are, and Do) and pronouns (Me, It, and His) are capitalized. Do not replicate stylized typography in logos and album art, though a redirect may be appropriate (for example, KoЯn redirects to Korn).

When necessary, disambiguation should be done using "(band)", "(album)", or "(song)" (such as Anthrax (band) or Off the Wall (album)). Use further disambiguation only when needed (for example X (U.S. band), X (Australian band)). Unless multiple albums of the same name exist (such as Down to Earth), they do not need to be disambiguated any further. For example, Down to Earth (Ozzy Osbourne album) is fine, but Off the Wall (Michael Jackson album) is unnecessary. Disambiguate albums and songs by artist and not by year unless the artist releases multiple albums with the same name. When a track is not strictly a song (in other words a composition without lyrics, or an instrumental that is not a cover of a song), disambiguation should be done using "(composition)" or "(instrumental)".

Politics, government and legislation

For elections, use the format "Demonym type election, date" e.g. Canadian federal election, 1867. For future elections of uncertain date, a format similar to Next Irish general election can be used. For special elections or elections of sub-national parliaments follow the format provided by Scottish Parliament election, 2007 and Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2007.

For UK legislation, acts should be titled with the short name form and then the year, without any comma between them ("Foo Bar Act 1974"). There should be a redirect from "Foo Bar Act" if the act is uniquely named. If several acts have the same short name, then "Foo Bar Act" should redirect to the primary topic if one exists; otherwise it should either serve as a disambiguation page (as at Representation of the People Act) or redirect to "Foo Bar Acts" (plural), which should be an article about the series of acts.

If two acts are passed with the same name and year in two parliaments as different enactments of the same piece of legislation then have just one article (as with Act of Union 1707). However if the two acts are different pieces of legislation, use parenthetical disambiguation based on jurisdiction or entity, as in European Communities Act 1972 (UK) and European Communities Act 1972 (Ireland).

Sports teams

In cases where there is no ambiguity as to the official spelling of a club's name in English, the official name should be used. No ambiguity means that:

• The name is used on the English-language section of the club's official website
• The name has been adopted at least by a significant section of the English-language media and it is recognizable
• The name is not easily confused with other clubs' names.

In cases where there is some ambiguity as to the official spelling of a club's name in English, the name most commonly used by the English-language media should be used.

Where an article is clearly about a particular sport you do not need to put a prefix or suffix (like RLFC, CCC or FK) throughout the article text but merely in the title. For example, FC Barcelona is the article name but throughout the body Barcelona is sufficient. However, for cross-sport references it may be appropriate e.g. "St Helen's share Knowsley Road stadium with St Helen's FC". Do not extend this to nicknames as they may confuse unfamiliar users.

For North American teams, use both place and nicknames (e.g. Detroit Red Wings rather than Detroit or Red Wings) as non-Americans may not know who the Bears or the Falcons are and it aids cross-referencing. Furthermore, where there is more than one team from a city – New York Giants and New York Jets, for example, this specificity is essential.

Proposed naming conventions and guidelines

Proposals for new naming conventions and guidelines should be advertised on this page's talk page, at requests for comment, the Village Pump and any related pages. If a strong consensus has formed, the proposal is adopted and should be listed on this page.

New naming conventions for specific categories of articles often arise from WikiProjects. For a list of current and former proposals, see Proposed naming conventions and guidelines.

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Name mush by culture (essay)
• Misplaced Pages:Non-unique personal name

Notes

1. It is technically possible to make articles appear to have the same title, but this is never done, as it would be highly confusing to readers, and cause editors to make incorrect links.
2. This paragraph was adopted to stop move warring. It is an adaptation of the wording in the MOS which is based on Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Jguk
3. When it is not practical or aesthetically pleasing to place all of them in the first line, place one or two significant forms in the first paragraph and the others elsewhere in the article.

• Misplaced Pages policies
• Misplaced Pages naming conventions
• Misplaced Pages content policy