Welcome! Are you interested in orders, decorations and medals? Would you like to improve Wikipedia's coverage on this topic? Then we would like to invite you to help us in our project!
Two main issues arise here: How we should deal with multiple instances of the same medal name, as awarded by different countries, and how foreign medals, which have their own non-English names, should be named.
Disambiguation
In any case where the same name is shared, disambiguation is the key. To take an example, a medal by the name of the
Cross of Valour is awarded by both Australia and Canada. As a result we turn this page into a disambiguation page, as per the usual Wikipedia
disambiguation guidelines. The medals in question are then moved to individual pages, named according to the convention Medal Name (Country). Therefore the Australian medal is to be found at
Cross of Valour (Australia) and the Canadian at
Cross of Valour (Canada). The disambiguation qualifier should always adopt the conventional short form of the country's name, never an abbreviation or initials - eg United Kingdom, notGreat Britain or UK; United States, notUS, USA, America, etc.
Non-English language awards
The basic rule is that the names of foreign-language awards should be translated into English except where there is an established track-record of referring to it by its foreign-language name. Therefore we use
Iron Cross in favour of "Eiserne Kreuz",
Pour le Mérite in favour of "For the Merit" or "Merit Award", and
Param Vir Chakra in favour of "Bravest of the Brave Award". This effectively means that the article will reside at the customary English-language name. Having said this, editors are encouraged to create redirects for all reasonable permutations and variations on the name, whether in English or in the native language.
Selecting the right category
The main category for this topic is
Category:Orders, decorations, and medals. This should not be used for articles about individual orders, decorations, or medals - instead these should be directed to the appropriate national sub-category. Only articles of pan-national importance or those dealing with the topic itself should be placed in the main category.
Please use the
Template:Infobox Military Award in all articles relating to decorations and medals. This provides all the key information in a smart, easily accessible format. Other Project templates can be found
here - feel free to add to this list if you develop your own templates.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
orders, decorations, and
medals on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Orders, decorations, and medalsWikipedia:WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medalsTemplate:WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medalsOrders, decorations, and medals articles
AusTerrapin 15:42, 1 September 2007 (UTC) Australian honours system, United Kingdom honours system, United Nations peacekeeping/making medals, categorization/taxonomyreply
Dreadpirater 03:59, 29 October 2007 (UTC) Medals/awards of the United States Intelligence Community and Air Forcereply
F4wkez 20:57, 30 October 2007 (UTC)Nordic medals mostlyreply
Robert Prummel (
talk) 04:50, 29 December 2007 (UTC) I wrote hundreds of articles on orders on the Dutch and other Wikipedias. I illustrated many of them with photo's from my extensive collection. I also made a lot of drawings.reply
Examples of my work:
[1] all Dutch decorations, collars on
[2] and
[3] . Can I join?
Royalhistorian (
talk) 08:40, 18 January 2008 (UTC) My interests are in dynastic and chivalric orders. I am especially interested in Papal orders. I am also interested in the orders listed on my website at Lindgren
[4] under World Orders of Knighthood and Merit.reply
Yopie 11:01, 2 February 2008 (UTC) Chivalric orders, orders and medals of Czech rep., Czechoslovakia and Slovakia.
Groovenow (
talk) 18:48, 18 April 2008 (UTC) All British Commonwealth ODM, but in particular, British Victorian and Canadian medals from all periods.reply
Oliver Nouther (
talk) 11:19, 14 March 2010 (UTC) - British and Australian Honours and Awards, and method of wearing.reply
Kimontalk 20:16, 19 March 2010 (UTC) - Various orders and decorations in general. More focus on those of the Orthodox countries. Also, their heraldic privileges.reply
Bullmoosebell (
talk) 19:08, 12 August 2011 (UTC) I'm a
Combat Medic in the
United States Army and I'm interested in cleaning up and creating articles on awards, decorations, badges, et cetera, to help properly reflect a servicemember's honor and lineage.reply
ChevronTango (
talk) 21:33, 9 November 2011 (UTC) - Vector Graphics of the UK and Commonwealth awards, military and civil. Examples of my work
herereply
Fdutil (
talk) 23:30, 15 January 2012 (UTC) - Soviet, Russian Federation, French and Belgian awardsreply
PЄTЄRS J V ►
TALK 18:47, 22 January 2012 (UTC) - Orders of the Russian Empire (tsarist Russia)reply
Gbawden (
talk) 11:48, 24 April 2012 (UTC) South African military medalsreply
JTiainen (
talk) 15:35, 4 July 2013 (UTC) Scandinavian (Especially Finnish) , German, Baltic Imperial- and Soviet Russian awards. I have hundreds of pictures on my web site and in my hard disk. Let me know how I could authorize Wikipedia to use freely any pictures needeed from
http:\\www.finnmedals.net?reply
Kintrix (
talk) 13:33, 27 October 2013 (UTC) Generally most of my experience and interest is in US Awards, in particular US DoD and State military medals, though after some recent experience I've started looking at European orders and medals as well.reply
Taming (
talk) 25th DEC. 2013 UK and Commonwealth ,soviet and chinese medals and decorations.
Tjlynnjr (
talk) 23:25, 4 August 2014 (UTC) Interested in all, to include "challenge coins".reply
BoonDock - John Dovey Mostly South African and Commonwealth medals with a passing interest in the UN Medals.
BoonDock (
talk) 19:54, 17 September 2014 (UTC)reply
Charlesvvvv (
talk) 13:12 7 July 2016 (UTC) Mainly interested in the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of the Black Eagle, and other European Orders.
CsikosLo (
talk) 13:57, 22 July 2016 (UTC) US Army medals and awardsreply
Jionunez (
talk) 05:33 16 October 2016 (UTC) Particularly interested in more obscure medals and orders, especially those not limited to military personnel or heads of state.
Isaiasad2 (
talk) 07:57, 8 november 2016 (UTC) US Medals and European Orders such as the Golden Fleece and the Garter.
Kiltpin (
talk) 10:25, 16 November 2016 (UTC) Just general interestreply
Doctordrew Honours and Awards of the English-Speaking World (e.g. the US, UK, and Major Commonwealths)
MarkZusab (
talk) 01:19, 6 November 2018 (UTC), interested in working on various American and foreign government awards, learned of this WikiProject after creating
DEA Purple Heart Awardreply
MarkoOn - Croatian orders, decorations and medals.
Vulphere - Indonesian orders, decorations, and medals. --
Vulphere 15:16, 10 March 2021 (UTC)reply
Finnusertop – Highest state orders of any country. You can also contact me if you need help with Finland/Finnish sources. –
Finnusertop (
talk ⋅
contribs) 22:49, 14 April 2021 (UTC)reply
Duke of Somewhere (
talk) 17:10, 27 April 2021 (UTC) - Awards and Decorations (especially orders) of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.reply
Statesmannnn - Orders and Medals of People's Republic of Bulgaria
Xuanxuan.shen - Orders and Medals of People's Republic of China
Robin S. Taylor - Orders of chivalry in the Commonwealth of Nations
1000mm (
talk) 00:59, 4 July 2022 (UTC) - Norwegian awards, but also foreign ones awarded to personell in the Norwegian armed forces. Mainly active on no-Wiki, updating bios with ribbon bar graphics and info. Founder of a FB group where we discuss and identify ribbons on photos of military personell. Willing to participate in translating Norwegian medal names to English, and elsewhere my knowledge can be of use.reply
Nick Metcalfe (
talk) 12:55, 11 September 2022 (UTC) - UK & Commonwealth gallantry awards, in particular Queen's Gallantry Medal, Colonial Police Medal For Gallantry, Burma Gallantry Medal.reply
ISUtahraptor (
talk) 01:16, 22 October 2022 (UTC) - African orders and decorations, specifically Rhodesia and South Africa.reply
User:Lambik1982 (
talk) - Orders, decorations and medals of Belgium, Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, NATO and important awards for valour from over the world.
ChaseYUL99 (
talk) 09:35, 8 January 2023 (UTC) - Orders, decorations and medals from Canada.reply
Thornfield Hall US military decorations and uniforms, mostly navy and air force
DEnglish (
talk) 23:44, 9 August 2023 (UTC) – Keen German>English (UK) translator. ODM interests: German (all eras, regimes, and historical territories), UK (incl. Empire & Commonwealth), and freemasonry (mainly UK, but internationally too).reply
Christian292004 15:56, 20 December 2023. My main interest is in US military decorations.
Welcome! Are you interested in orders, decorations and medals? Would you like to improve Wikipedia's coverage on this topic? Then we would like to invite you to help us in our project!
Two main issues arise here: How we should deal with multiple instances of the same medal name, as awarded by different countries, and how foreign medals, which have their own non-English names, should be named.
Disambiguation
In any case where the same name is shared, disambiguation is the key. To take an example, a medal by the name of the
Cross of Valour is awarded by both Australia and Canada. As a result we turn this page into a disambiguation page, as per the usual Wikipedia
disambiguation guidelines. The medals in question are then moved to individual pages, named according to the convention Medal Name (Country). Therefore the Australian medal is to be found at
Cross of Valour (Australia) and the Canadian at
Cross of Valour (Canada). The disambiguation qualifier should always adopt the conventional short form of the country's name, never an abbreviation or initials - eg United Kingdom, notGreat Britain or UK; United States, notUS, USA, America, etc.
Non-English language awards
The basic rule is that the names of foreign-language awards should be translated into English except where there is an established track-record of referring to it by its foreign-language name. Therefore we use
Iron Cross in favour of "Eiserne Kreuz",
Pour le Mérite in favour of "For the Merit" or "Merit Award", and
Param Vir Chakra in favour of "Bravest of the Brave Award". This effectively means that the article will reside at the customary English-language name. Having said this, editors are encouraged to create redirects for all reasonable permutations and variations on the name, whether in English or in the native language.
Selecting the right category
The main category for this topic is
Category:Orders, decorations, and medals. This should not be used for articles about individual orders, decorations, or medals - instead these should be directed to the appropriate national sub-category. Only articles of pan-national importance or those dealing with the topic itself should be placed in the main category.
Please use the
Template:Infobox Military Award in all articles relating to decorations and medals. This provides all the key information in a smart, easily accessible format. Other Project templates can be found
here - feel free to add to this list if you develop your own templates.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
orders, decorations, and
medals on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Orders, decorations, and medalsWikipedia:WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medalsTemplate:WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medalsOrders, decorations, and medals articles
AusTerrapin 15:42, 1 September 2007 (UTC) Australian honours system, United Kingdom honours system, United Nations peacekeeping/making medals, categorization/taxonomyreply
Dreadpirater 03:59, 29 October 2007 (UTC) Medals/awards of the United States Intelligence Community and Air Forcereply
F4wkez 20:57, 30 October 2007 (UTC)Nordic medals mostlyreply
Robert Prummel (
talk) 04:50, 29 December 2007 (UTC) I wrote hundreds of articles on orders on the Dutch and other Wikipedias. I illustrated many of them with photo's from my extensive collection. I also made a lot of drawings.reply
Examples of my work:
[1] all Dutch decorations, collars on
[2] and
[3] . Can I join?
Royalhistorian (
talk) 08:40, 18 January 2008 (UTC) My interests are in dynastic and chivalric orders. I am especially interested in Papal orders. I am also interested in the orders listed on my website at Lindgren
[4] under World Orders of Knighthood and Merit.reply
Yopie 11:01, 2 February 2008 (UTC) Chivalric orders, orders and medals of Czech rep., Czechoslovakia and Slovakia.
Groovenow (
talk) 18:48, 18 April 2008 (UTC) All British Commonwealth ODM, but in particular, British Victorian and Canadian medals from all periods.reply
Oliver Nouther (
talk) 11:19, 14 March 2010 (UTC) - British and Australian Honours and Awards, and method of wearing.reply
Kimontalk 20:16, 19 March 2010 (UTC) - Various orders and decorations in general. More focus on those of the Orthodox countries. Also, their heraldic privileges.reply
Bullmoosebell (
talk) 19:08, 12 August 2011 (UTC) I'm a
Combat Medic in the
United States Army and I'm interested in cleaning up and creating articles on awards, decorations, badges, et cetera, to help properly reflect a servicemember's honor and lineage.reply
ChevronTango (
talk) 21:33, 9 November 2011 (UTC) - Vector Graphics of the UK and Commonwealth awards, military and civil. Examples of my work
herereply
Fdutil (
talk) 23:30, 15 January 2012 (UTC) - Soviet, Russian Federation, French and Belgian awardsreply
PЄTЄRS J V ►
TALK 18:47, 22 January 2012 (UTC) - Orders of the Russian Empire (tsarist Russia)reply
Gbawden (
talk) 11:48, 24 April 2012 (UTC) South African military medalsreply
JTiainen (
talk) 15:35, 4 July 2013 (UTC) Scandinavian (Especially Finnish) , German, Baltic Imperial- and Soviet Russian awards. I have hundreds of pictures on my web site and in my hard disk. Let me know how I could authorize Wikipedia to use freely any pictures needeed from
http:\\www.finnmedals.net?reply
Kintrix (
talk) 13:33, 27 October 2013 (UTC) Generally most of my experience and interest is in US Awards, in particular US DoD and State military medals, though after some recent experience I've started looking at European orders and medals as well.reply
Taming (
talk) 25th DEC. 2013 UK and Commonwealth ,soviet and chinese medals and decorations.
Tjlynnjr (
talk) 23:25, 4 August 2014 (UTC) Interested in all, to include "challenge coins".reply
BoonDock - John Dovey Mostly South African and Commonwealth medals with a passing interest in the UN Medals.
BoonDock (
talk) 19:54, 17 September 2014 (UTC)reply
Charlesvvvv (
talk) 13:12 7 July 2016 (UTC) Mainly interested in the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of the Black Eagle, and other European Orders.
CsikosLo (
talk) 13:57, 22 July 2016 (UTC) US Army medals and awardsreply
Jionunez (
talk) 05:33 16 October 2016 (UTC) Particularly interested in more obscure medals and orders, especially those not limited to military personnel or heads of state.
Isaiasad2 (
talk) 07:57, 8 november 2016 (UTC) US Medals and European Orders such as the Golden Fleece and the Garter.
Kiltpin (
talk) 10:25, 16 November 2016 (UTC) Just general interestreply
Doctordrew Honours and Awards of the English-Speaking World (e.g. the US, UK, and Major Commonwealths)
MarkZusab (
talk) 01:19, 6 November 2018 (UTC), interested in working on various American and foreign government awards, learned of this WikiProject after creating
DEA Purple Heart Awardreply
MarkoOn - Croatian orders, decorations and medals.
Vulphere - Indonesian orders, decorations, and medals. --
Vulphere 15:16, 10 March 2021 (UTC)reply
Finnusertop – Highest state orders of any country. You can also contact me if you need help with Finland/Finnish sources. –
Finnusertop (
talk ⋅
contribs) 22:49, 14 April 2021 (UTC)reply
Duke of Somewhere (
talk) 17:10, 27 April 2021 (UTC) - Awards and Decorations (especially orders) of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.reply
Statesmannnn - Orders and Medals of People's Republic of Bulgaria
Xuanxuan.shen - Orders and Medals of People's Republic of China
Robin S. Taylor - Orders of chivalry in the Commonwealth of Nations
1000mm (
talk) 00:59, 4 July 2022 (UTC) - Norwegian awards, but also foreign ones awarded to personell in the Norwegian armed forces. Mainly active on no-Wiki, updating bios with ribbon bar graphics and info. Founder of a FB group where we discuss and identify ribbons on photos of military personell. Willing to participate in translating Norwegian medal names to English, and elsewhere my knowledge can be of use.reply
Nick Metcalfe (
talk) 12:55, 11 September 2022 (UTC) - UK & Commonwealth gallantry awards, in particular Queen's Gallantry Medal, Colonial Police Medal For Gallantry, Burma Gallantry Medal.reply
ISUtahraptor (
talk) 01:16, 22 October 2022 (UTC) - African orders and decorations, specifically Rhodesia and South Africa.reply
User:Lambik1982 (
talk) - Orders, decorations and medals of Belgium, Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, NATO and important awards for valour from over the world.
ChaseYUL99 (
talk) 09:35, 8 January 2023 (UTC) - Orders, decorations and medals from Canada.reply
Thornfield Hall US military decorations and uniforms, mostly navy and air force
DEnglish (
talk) 23:44, 9 August 2023 (UTC) – Keen German>English (UK) translator. ODM interests: German (all eras, regimes, and historical territories), UK (incl. Empire & Commonwealth), and freemasonry (mainly UK, but internationally too).reply
Christian292004 15:56, 20 December 2023. My main interest is in US military decorations.