Wikipedia:Naming conventions (places)

This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention.

Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

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WP:PLACES

Naming conventions (places) are guidelines on how to appropriately name articles about countries and regions, and places within each country or region. This style guideline is intended to make this process more efficient by giving article titles a consistent look, and avoiding distracting information.

It is important to note that these are conventions, not rules written in stone. As Wikipedia grows and changes, some conventions that once made sense may become outdated, and there may be cases where a particular convention is "obviously" inappropriate. But when in doubt, follow convention.

Generally, article naming should give priority to what the majority of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making linking to those articles easy and second nature.

In addition to following the naming conventions it is also important to follow the linking conventions. Following consistent conventions in both naming and linking makes it more likely that links will lead to the right place.

Check for the name

Always search for the shortest form of the name. When the short form "ShortName" does not yet exist, while starting a new page, always check the What links here link on the creation page before saving it. If the name has already been used in articles for another purpose, use a Wikipedia:Disambiguation page instead.

This will give some inkling about how the name has already been used in existing articles, and whether a long form has already been established for that administrative division of a particular country.

Follow local conventions

There are several methods in common use for the form of place names. Usually, the shortest form is preferred. However, certain place names always have a disambiguating term as well.

Generally, use the official English name for the place and its type.

Example: the country has "oblasts" and its government officially translates them as "area", "region", or "zone", then they should never be renamed "province" to conform to another country or some master schema.

If there is not an official translation, then a general equivalent or obvious cognate should be used, until a better solution is found.

When there is any confusion, use "ShortName" or "ShortName Term" (capitalized) as appropriate, until locals or someone familiar with the country can offer a more correct version. Either form can easily be changed to a disambiguation page later.

Nota Bene: The testimony of locals and people familiar with the country should be considered above Google evidence. Google is very likely to have many results from news organizations and wire services. These remote reporters may be ignorant about local naming standards.

ShortName Term

When the place has an official English form that includes a capitalized "Term", or the native language usually appends a descriptor that is capitalized, then that form of the term should be used in articles.

Example: Moscow Oblast

A redirect page should be added to catch and repair references in the lowercase form.

ShortName term

When the place has an official English form that includes a lowercase "term", or the native language usually appends a descriptor that is lowercase, then that form of the term should be used in articles.

Example: ???

A redirect page should be added to catch and repair references in the capitalized form.

Term of ShortName

When the place has an official English form that includes a "Term of", or the native language usually has a prefix descriptor, then that form of the term should be used in articles.

Examples: District of Columbia, Province of Rome

A redirect page should be added to catch and repair references in suffix form.

Determine prevalent usage

There are two methods in primary use for the long form of disambiguating place names. One uses commas between the administrative divisions, the other uses parentheses enclosing the administrative divisions. There are also hybrid variations.

In most instances, one or two administrative divisions will suffice. Sometimes disambiguation will require several administrative divisions, followed by the country.

Note that, whichever common method ("Comma" or "Parenthetical") is selected, the Pipe trick provides less typing effort when creating links to the disambiguated articles.

Comma method

Is the place name mostly used as a full named link in other articles?

Then, this entity name should be as complete as possible, with the disambiguation in comma form, ready for use in a sentence.
- Format:
  - "ShortName, HigherDivision"
  - "ShortName term, HigherDivision"
- This reference is unlikely to occur in the text without the "term" or without the "HigherDivision".
Check all parts in the same manner as the short name.
Assuming no conflicts, name the article "ShortName term, HigherDivision", and use "ShortName term" as a redirect or disambiguation page.
If there are more conflicts, disambiguate "HigherDivision" using the same method.

Parenthetical method

Is the place name mostly used as a short name reference in other articles?

Then, this entity name should be as simple as possible, with the full disambiguation in parentheses.
- Format:
  - "ShortName (HigherDivision, HighestDivision)
  - "ShortName term (HigherDivision, HighestDivision)
- In many cases, most of the other references to "ShortName" are a list of related places. There is no need to indicate the complete geographic location multiple times in the text of those articles.
Using the full disambiguation will make administrative divisions clear at a glance.
Note: full disambiguation within parentheses uses the comma method, not nested parentheses.

Hybrid methods

"ShortName (term), HigherDivision" does not work with the "pipe trick", and is considered ugly by some editors. This should be used rarely and only with consensus.

"ShortName term, HigherDivision (HighestDivision)" can lead to inconsistent usage, and can impede future disambiguation efforts. This is deprecated (not recommended).

Parenthetical terms (deprecated)

For other kinds of articles, the most common method uses a disambiguating term in parentheses. This simple method would distinguish "Pontiac (automobile)" from "Pontiac (city)" with a minimum of effort.

Experience has shown that place names needing disambiguation will likely have many counterparts elsewhere, both within the same country and between several countries. Later disambiguation at higher levels can require hundreds of edits. It is best to nip the problem in the bud — use the most complete form of disambiguation at the earliest opportunity — thus helping future editors in advance.

For place names, the use of simple parenthetical terms such as "(district)", "(province)", "(town)", or "(village)", instead of administrive divisions, is deprecated (not recommended).

Maintain consistency within each country

Where a place name article is found to be ambiguous, choose a fully disambiguated name, move the article, and change the old page (now a redirect page) to a disambiguation page, or a redirect to a "(disambiguation)" page. Don't forget to check the What links here for double redirects, and update any articles that reference the old page.

A notice should be posted on the appropriate talk page (such as: "Administrative divisions of France", "Provinces of Pakistan", "States and territories of India") that asks for discussion about the move.

All place names in an administrative division should share the same form. For example, when one article has been moved from "ShortName" to "ShortName district", then all the districts within a country should be moved to that form.

There is no expectation of consistency between countries.

Use English but foreign and historical names can be acceptable in some cases

Per Wikipedia:Resolving placename conflicts: use modern English names for titles and in articles. Historical names or names in other languages can be used in the lead if they are frequently used and important enough to be valuable to readers, and should be used in articles with caution.

General issues

If the name of a place has changed over time, what name do we use to refer to that place? When places 'change ownership' during the course of time, what convention should be followed?

Cities

For more information, see: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (city names)

Streets and highways

U.S. Highways should be listed as is found in Category:U.S. Highway System.

As for city streets, the rule of "most common usage" is recommended, if the streets are notable (for example Hollywood and Vine). For non-notable streets, there is not currently consensus on whether individual articles should even exist. A 2005 debate about the matter can be seen at Wikipedia:Deletion policy/Roads and streets. See also: Wikitravel

Countries

In general, country-specific articles and categories should be named using the form: "(item) of (country)". For more information, see: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (country-specific topics).

Specific issues

Australia

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

The state of Victoria is at Victoria (Australia) due to all the other uses of Victoria.

Geographic features will be named according to the unqualified [[Feature]] format if unambiguous. Ambiguously named features will normally follow the [[Geographic feature (State)]] format, with the following exceptions:

Ambiguously named features that cross state borders use [[Geographic Feature (Australia)]];
Ambiguously named features that are ambiguous within a state use districts or regions, [[Geographic Feature (LGA, State)]], e.g. Mount Eliza (Gippsland, Victoria) (although option may exist here of simply using Mount Eliza (Gippsland) where there is little risk of confusing the location of the feature);
Ambiguously named features that are co-located and therefore cannot be distinguished on location use [[Geographic Feature (type)]], e.g. Wolfe Creek (crater) and Wolfe Creek (watercourse) (used only where there is no other Wolfe Creek outside of the Australian state in question); and
Pathological case: Features that include co-located features of different types AND features in other states use [[Geographic Feature (State-ian type)]] e.g. Arthur River (Western Australian river).
- where appropriate, due consideration should be given to the guidance contained in Wikipedia:WikiProject Lakes#Naming, Wikipedia:WikiProject Mountains#Naming conventions and Wikipedia:WikiProject Rivers#Naming.

Counties of Britain

We should use the current, administrative, county. E.g. Eton is in Berkshire, not Buckinghamshire.

This approach is consistent with most local and national government literature, some private sector literature, will be familiar to most readers and writers, and indeed the approach will apply even if boundaries change again. It is also easy for people to find out where a particular village is, as maps with administrative boundaries are freely available online. While historic county maps do exist, it is hard to find one with maps of modern urban areas and city and borough boundaries transposed against historic counties. It is also consistent with other encyclopedias such as the 1911 Encyclopedia, which specifically calls Cromarty a 'former county'.

We should mention historic (or ancient) counties in articles about places and in references to places in a historic context, but only as an afternote. If a place is a unitary authority and not administered by a county council, it is acceptable to use ceremonial counties as geographic references, as this is often more in line with common usage. As has been pointed out, it is not useful to state that "Luton is a town in the county of Luton".

In historic references we should make sure to note that the county at the time was not the same as the county now, if relevant.

Articles about counties should not be split up and should not be disambiguation pages. They should treat the counties as one entity which has changed its boundaries with time. We should not take the minority position that they still exist with the former boundaries. We should mention that this position exists, especially on pages like Yorkshire and Middlesex.

With respect to the areas covered by unitary authorities, we should only call them counties if they (a) are legislatively defined as such, and (b) are significantly larger than the town they are centred upon, or have no such centring. If the formal title is Borough (formerly "County Borough") then that is the form to be used. So we would refer to the Borough of Milton Keynes, the Borough of Swindon, and the County of York, but we would say just Leicester, Derby, Stoke-on-Trent.

Metropolitan counties should be treated as counties - the fact that they no longer have councils has no relevance on their legal status.

With respect to which version of the historic boundaries we should acknowledge as having historic importance - the versions before the 1847 revisions would probably be best - they include many more anomalies, like Islandshire and other exclaves.

Examples of acceptable things:

Coventry is in the West Midlands, and within the historic borders of Warwickshire
Most of the pigeons were found at Abingdon, then part of Berkshire
Middlesex is a historic county of England, now mostly covered by Greater London*
Southwark is a village in the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. It is in the ancient borders of Surrey
Stoke-on-Trent is a city in the English Midlands, it is a part of Staffordshire for ceremonial purposes, although it is administered as a unitary authority

Examples of unacceptable things:

Coventry is a town in Warwickshire, and administered by the metropolititan administrative "county" of West Midlands
Brixton is a place in Surrey, England within the former metropolitan "county" of Greater London and in the London Borough of Lambeth.
Middlesex was a county of England. It was abolished in 1965 after being gutted in 1889 to form the County of London. The end.

Addendum

* Some people have claimed that this contradicts the rest of the above policy, so an explanation is in order. No administrative or ceremonial county of Middlesex exists, it therefore exists purely as an area name and is in fairly common usage, the same applies to Yorkshire. In all other cases where an administrative county or ceremonial county exists, for the purposes of Wikipedia, these are treated as single entities which have changed their borders over time, so referring to the historic county area as a still existing entity is not acceptable, as is stated clearly above. If a county is still commonly used as an area name in its historic area, and is relevant, than that should be noted

N.b. it should be noted that the above 'interpretation' was added after the policy was passed and was not voted on. Editors might therefore not consider it to be canonical in comparison with the policy proper.

It should also be pointed out that six users have privately told User:G-Man that they support this addendum, although of course it is unknown how many other users support or oppose this addendum but have remained silent.

This does not form part of the policy, but attempts to reason that it is not self-contradictory, as has been alleged. If you have comments they go on the talkpage.

These examples were intended to demonstrate that (a) it is totally acceptable to refer to counties as 99% of people do, and regard the 1844, 1889, 1965 and 1974 changes as changes. (b) as a concession it is important to mention continued use of the placename. Thus we should mention Middlesex Crown Courts, Middlesex bank of the Thames, Middlesex as a formal postal address location, etc.)

States in the U.S. and provinces of Canada

Always write these out in full: not everybody understands the two-letter abbreviations that are often used in North America.

Note also that Newfoundland is not a Canadian province; it is an island that comprises part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Countries of Europe

There have been many changes as the result of two World Wars (e.g. the disappearance, reappearance, and change in area of Poland) and of many other conflicts (e.g. the breakup of Yugoslavia) and peaceful political reorganisations (e.g. the division of Czechoslovakia, or the reunification of East and West Germany). In case of name changes, the current widely accepted English name or in absence thereof, the current local official name is to be used. When mentioned in a historical context, the current local official name can be additionally accompanied by the appropriate historical name in parentheses, where reasonable. This applies both to articles' contents and titles. A historical name can be used in article title only in case of a redirect to the appropriate article titled with the official name.

The list of European regions with alternative names and the list of country names in various languages should be consulted when preparing articles.

Country specific guidance

Country specific guidance has been developed and should be followed:

Germany - Follow the naming conventions specified in Wikipedia:WikiProject Germany/Conventions
Norway - Follow the naming conventions specified in WikiProject Norway
Switzerland - Follow the naming conventions specified in WikiProject Swiss municipalities
Irish issues - Naming issues for Ireland are expanded upon at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Ireland-related articles)

Romanization of Cyrillic-alphabet place names

Place names in China

Place names in Ireland

Place names in Japan

Place names in Korea

Place names in New Zealand

Main page: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (New Zealand)

Since most places in New Zealand have unique names, the standard convention (where it is necessary to distinguish a place in New Zealand from one elsewhere) is simply to use the form "Placename, New Zealand", irrespective of whether the place is a town, river, or whatever. In those rare instances where two places in New Zealand have the same name then the following rules are used:

If both places are the same type of place (e.g., both towns), the Regional names are used (for example, "Waverley, Taranaki" and "Waverley, Otago").
If the two places are different types of place, then parentheses are used to disambiguate (for example, "Lake Tekapo" and "Lake Tekapo (town)")

Rules of Maori place names are still under discussion, but at present, where the usual name of a place is Maori, macrons are not used in the name. Where the usual name is English but there is also a Maori name, macrons are used in the Maori name. Thus Whakatane is simply Whakatane, but Christchurch is also listed within the article as Ōtautahi. In the rare instance where a place officially has both Maori and English names and both are used equally, both names are used in the article title, separated by an oblique (e.g., Whakaari/White Island). The order in which the two names are listed is not fixed.

Note: conflicts with general Wikipedia:Naming conventions (landforms)#Rivers dab not with comma