Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 17:04, 29 April 2006

This page documents an English Misplaced Pages naming conventions. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

Please note these conventions for naming city names are merely guidelines, not rules written in stone. They are free to be amended, but it is wise to discuss any major amendment on the talk page first.

By country

Africa

Where possible, articles on places in Africa should go under placename. Where disambiguation is needed, they should go under ]. Thus Addis Ababa but Shire, Ethiopia.

Asia

Hong Kong

Where possible, articles on places in Hong Kong should go under ]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under ]. Thus Quarry Bay but Stanley, Hong Kong.

India

Articles on places in India go under ]. When disambiguation is needed, articles go under ] (e.g. Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh).

Philippines

Where possible, articles on cities go at ] (e.g. Dumaguete City). When disambiguation is needed, articles go under ] (e.g. Valencia City, Bukidnon). All municipalities are under the format ] (e.g. Valencia, Negros Oriental).

Australia

All Australian town/city/suburb articles are at ] no matter what their status of ambiguity is. Capital Cities will be excepted from this rule and preferentially made ]. The unqualified ] should be either a redirect or disambig page. Local government areas are at their official name.

Europe

In absence of a common English name, the current local name of the city should be used. When mentioned in a historical context, if there is not a common English name for the city in that historical period and context, use the appropriate historical name, with the current local name in parentheses (if it is not the same word) the first time the city is mentioned. See Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (geographic names) for details.

France

See Misplaced Pages:France-related topics notice board for details on naming conventions.

Italy

Places in Italy are disambiguated by province (abbreviated name in parentheses) as is the universal custom in Italy. Thus: Manciano (AR), Manciano (GR).

Ireland

Where possible, articles on places in Ireland should go under ]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under ]. Thus Castlebar but Westport, County Mayo. This same convention applies to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Norway

WikiProject Norway#Naming details article title conventions.

United Kingdom

Where possible, articles on places in the UK should go under ]. Where disambiguation is needed, they should go under ]. Thus Skegness but Boston, Lincolnshire. Where county definitions have changed, policy is under discussion, but Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (places)#Counties of Britain may be helpful.

Northern Ireland

Where possible, articles on places in Ireland should go under ]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under ]. Thus Omagh but Cookstown, County Tyrone. This same convention applies to the Republic of Ireland.

Isle of Man

Where possible, articles on places on the Isle of Man should go under ]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under ]. Thus Castletown but Peel, Isle of Man.

Poland

Use the common English name or in absence thereof, the current Polish name. When mentioned in a historical context, if there is not a common English name for the city in that historical period and context, use the appropriate historical name with the current Polish name in parentheses (if it is not the same word) the first time the city is mentioned.

Switzerland

WikiProject Swiss municipalities details conventions for article titles.

North America

United States and Canada

The canonical form for cities in the United States and Canada is ] or ] (the "comma convention"). (Exceptions are New York City and Quebec City.) Those cities that need additional disambiguation include their county or parish (for example Elgin, Lancaster County, South Carolina and Elgin, Kershaw County, South Carolina).

Mexico

Mexican geographical articles go under ] when possible: Acapulco, Hermosillo. If disambiguation is needed, ], is used (the "comma convention", as in Nogales, Sonora, or Córdoba, Veracruz). The cities that share names with states have been placed at ]], with the state taking the ] location: for example, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, (city) and Oaxaca (state).

South America

Brazil

Brazilian cities go under their disambiguated name when possible. When there's ambiguity, the convention used is ]. An exception happens when the city name and the state name are the same: Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (state), São Paulo, São Paulo (state).

Fictional cities

In order to make the distinction clear, cities which represent a fictional setting do not follow the same naming convention as real locations, even if the fictional city is said to be within a real state, province, or other subdivision. For example:

• Sunnydale, not "Sunnydale, California" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
• Avonlea, not "Avonlea, Prince Edward Island" (Anne of Green Gables)
• Gopher Prairie, not "Gopher Prairie, Minnesota" (works of Sinclair Lewis)

When necessary to disambiguate with other articles, preference is given to using the author's name (literature), the name of the work (television or movies), or other connective quality.

• Castle Rock (Stephen King)
• Dunwich (H. P. Lovecraft)
• Springfield (The Simpsons)
• Haddonfield (Halloween)
• Metropolis (comics)

• Misplaced Pages naming conventionss
• Misplaced Pages naming conventions