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Naming conventions are Wikipedia's policies on how to name articles. The conventions are supplemented and explained by the conventions of specific fields. This policy should be interpreted in conjunction with other policies and not in isolation. In particular editors should familiarise themselves with the three core content policies Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.
The overarching principle of our naming convention is
Choose the article title that most readers of the article would expect to be used by the encyclopedia that we aspire to be.
Essentially, we choose the title that best accords with the encyclopedic values that we uphold. These values are :
In general, the convenience of our editors is not one of our values when it comes to naming articles. However, in some fields where ambiguity is very common, article titles are preemptively disambiguated—that is, all articles are given a disambiguation suffix, whether ambiguous or not—in order to simplify linking.
These values may conflict with each other, in which case we must seek the best compromise title. For example the book commonly known as Gulliver's Travels is actually entitled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. The latter name is clearly the correct name, yet the former name is far more accessible. Thus there is a conflict between the values of correctness and accessibility; in this case the argument for accessibility is more compelling than the argument for correctness. To address this use a redirect, so that the article is at Gulliver's Travels with the correct title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World redirected.
The ideal article titles should be accessible to as many readers as possible. This principle is often phrased as "use the most common name" or "use the most easily recognised name". Wikipedia determines the recognizability of a name by seeing what English language reliable sources call the subject.
The importance of this value varies according to the inherent accessibility of the topic. For topics that are themselves highly accessible, it is fundamental; this explains why our article on the United Kingdom is at the concise title United Kingdom rather than longer "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". For highly specialised topics, on the other hand, accessibility may not be as important as correctness and precision.
One implication of this value is that article titles generally should use English. If there is a choice between an anglicized and a native spelling, follow English usage; for example Göttingen but Nuremberg.
In situations where there is a single correct name, and all other names are incorrect—for example the title of a book—it is often desirable to use the correct name as the article title.
It is important to distinguish between correct and standardised. Just because the nomenclature of a field has been standardised does not mean that only standard names may be accepted as correct. The degree to which a departure from standard nomenclature is to be considered incorrect must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Ideally, an article's title should give the reader a good idea of the topic of the article. Imprecise and ambiguous titles fail to do so.
Ambiguity arises in two ways:
When a title lacks precision, there are three possible strategies:
The neutral point of view is a fundamental Wikimedia principle and a cornerstone of Wikipedia. With respect to article titles, it means that the ideal article title should not imply the taking of a position in a debate.
With respect to descriptive titles, neutral article titles are considered very important because they ensure that article topics are placed in the proper context. Descriptive article titles are expected to exhibit the highest degree of neutrality.
With respect to proper noun titles, it is important to recognise that the use of a biased name may not imply endorsement of that bias. There are many examples of biased names that have become very widely accepted and used, to the extent that their use is merely a convention.
A special case relating to neutrality of titles is that pertaining to national varieties of English. All national varieties of English spelling are acceptable in article names. American spellings need not be respelled to British standards, and vice versa; 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.
In some areas it is considered important to maintain consistency across a large collection of articles. An example is that of royalty and nobility; this is an immensely complex area, where people may be entitled to use many names, and many names are ambiguous. As a result, the titles of our articles on royalty and nobility are governed by Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles). This convention ensures accurate, precise and unambiguous names, but may result in uncommon names; hence Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, not "Queen Elizabeth", "Elizabeth II" or "Queen Elizabeth II".
Other areas where a consistency-based approach has been adopted include our articles on ships.
Even where a consistency-based approach has been adopted, exceptions are commonly made for topics that are very well known under some other name. For example Wikipedia:Naming conventions (astronomical objects) has adopted the official designations as the titles of comet articles, but makes exceptions for extremely famous comets.
Note that consistency is one of several values, the relative importance of which varies on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, unless a naming convention is explicitly adopted, an article's title should not be used as a precedent for the naming of any other articles.
The purpose of an article's title is to enable that article to be found by interested readers, and nothing more. In particular, the current title of a page does not imply either a preference for that name, or that any alternative name is discouraged in the text of articles. Editors are strongly discouraged from editing for the sole purpose of changing one controversial name to another. If an article name has been stable for a long time, and there is no good reason to change it, it should remain. Especially when there is no other basis for a decision, the name given the article by its creator should prevail. Any proposal to change between names should be examined on a case-by-case basis, and discussed on talk pages before a name is changed. However, debating controversial names is often unproductive, and there are many other ways to help improve Wikipedia. An incomplete list of controversial names includes: Roman Catholic Church vs. Catholic Church; BC/AD vs. BCE/CE; Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia vs. Republic of Macedonia vs. Macedonia; Palestinian Arabs vs. Palestinians vs. Palestinian People. There are many others.
![]() | This page in a nutshell:
|
Naming conventions are Wikipedia's policies on how to name articles. The conventions are supplemented and explained by the conventions of specific fields. This policy should be interpreted in conjunction with other policies and not in isolation. In particular editors should familiarise themselves with the three core content policies Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.
The overarching principle of our naming convention is
Choose the article title that most readers of the article would expect to be used by the encyclopedia that we aspire to be.
Essentially, we choose the title that best accords with the encyclopedic values that we uphold. These values are :
In general, the convenience of our editors is not one of our values when it comes to naming articles. However, in some fields where ambiguity is very common, article titles are preemptively disambiguated—that is, all articles are given a disambiguation suffix, whether ambiguous or not—in order to simplify linking.
These values may conflict with each other, in which case we must seek the best compromise title. For example the book commonly known as Gulliver's Travels is actually entitled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. The latter name is clearly the correct name, yet the former name is far more accessible. Thus there is a conflict between the values of correctness and accessibility; in this case the argument for accessibility is more compelling than the argument for correctness. To address this use a redirect, so that the article is at Gulliver's Travels with the correct title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World redirected.
The ideal article titles should be accessible to as many readers as possible. This principle is often phrased as "use the most common name" or "use the most easily recognised name". Wikipedia determines the recognizability of a name by seeing what English language reliable sources call the subject.
The importance of this value varies according to the inherent accessibility of the topic. For topics that are themselves highly accessible, it is fundamental; this explains why our article on the United Kingdom is at the concise title United Kingdom rather than longer "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". For highly specialised topics, on the other hand, accessibility may not be as important as correctness and precision.
One implication of this value is that article titles generally should use English. If there is a choice between an anglicized and a native spelling, follow English usage; for example Göttingen but Nuremberg.
In situations where there is a single correct name, and all other names are incorrect—for example the title of a book—it is often desirable to use the correct name as the article title.
It is important to distinguish between correct and standardised. Just because the nomenclature of a field has been standardised does not mean that only standard names may be accepted as correct. The degree to which a departure from standard nomenclature is to be considered incorrect must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Ideally, an article's title should give the reader a good idea of the topic of the article. Imprecise and ambiguous titles fail to do so.
Ambiguity arises in two ways:
When a title lacks precision, there are three possible strategies:
The neutral point of view is a fundamental Wikimedia principle and a cornerstone of Wikipedia. With respect to article titles, it means that the ideal article title should not imply the taking of a position in a debate.
With respect to descriptive titles, neutral article titles are considered very important because they ensure that article topics are placed in the proper context. Descriptive article titles are expected to exhibit the highest degree of neutrality.
With respect to proper noun titles, it is important to recognise that the use of a biased name may not imply endorsement of that bias. There are many examples of biased names that have become very widely accepted and used, to the extent that their use is merely a convention.
A special case relating to neutrality of titles is that pertaining to national varieties of English. All national varieties of English spelling are acceptable in article names. American spellings need not be respelled to British standards, and vice versa; 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.
In some areas it is considered important to maintain consistency across a large collection of articles. An example is that of royalty and nobility; this is an immensely complex area, where people may be entitled to use many names, and many names are ambiguous. As a result, the titles of our articles on royalty and nobility are governed by Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles). This convention ensures accurate, precise and unambiguous names, but may result in uncommon names; hence Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, not "Queen Elizabeth", "Elizabeth II" or "Queen Elizabeth II".
Other areas where a consistency-based approach has been adopted include our articles on ships.
Even where a consistency-based approach has been adopted, exceptions are commonly made for topics that are very well known under some other name. For example Wikipedia:Naming conventions (astronomical objects) has adopted the official designations as the titles of comet articles, but makes exceptions for extremely famous comets.
Note that consistency is one of several values, the relative importance of which varies on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, unless a naming convention is explicitly adopted, an article's title should not be used as a precedent for the naming of any other articles.
The purpose of an article's title is to enable that article to be found by interested readers, and nothing more. In particular, the current title of a page does not imply either a preference for that name, or that any alternative name is discouraged in the text of articles. Editors are strongly discouraged from editing for the sole purpose of changing one controversial name to another. If an article name has been stable for a long time, and there is no good reason to change it, it should remain. Especially when there is no other basis for a decision, the name given the article by its creator should prevail. Any proposal to change between names should be examined on a case-by-case basis, and discussed on talk pages before a name is changed. However, debating controversial names is often unproductive, and there are many other ways to help improve Wikipedia. An incomplete list of controversial names includes: Roman Catholic Church vs. Catholic Church; BC/AD vs. BCE/CE; Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia vs. Republic of Macedonia vs. Macedonia; Palestinian Arabs vs. Palestinians vs. Palestinian People. There are many others.