Wikipedia:Naming conventions (settlements)
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This page is a naming conventions guideline for Wikipedia, reflecting how authors of this encyclopedia address certain issues. This guideline is intended to help you improve Wikipedia content. Feel free to update this page as needed, but please use the discussion page to propose major changes. |
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Please remember that these conventions for naming settlements are merely guidelines, not rules written in stone. They permit the exercise of common sense, and have occasional exceptions. They are free to be amended, but it is wise to discuss any major amendment on the talk page first.
[edit] Coverage
[edit] which articles
- cities, towns, villages
- municipalities (partial, see also Wikipedia:Naming conventions (country subdivisions) )
- in the future: communities, neighborhoods, census designated places
[edit] which issues
- english vs. local name(s) (if existend)
- disambiguation
- when to disambiguate
- primary topic
- preemptive dab
- how to disambiguate
- comma convention
- parenthesis
- use of settlement term, e.g. "X (city)"
- when to disambiguate
[edit] General rules
The general rule is to name an article about a city or town with a name that does not conflict with any other town or concept as city name. The rest of this naming convention contains guidelines about naming the articles where disambiguation is required. Articles about cities and towns in some countries should be "pre-disambiguated", by having the article named as if there is a name conflict, even if one is not known at the time of writing the article. In these cases, a redirect should usually be created at the primary name, pointing to the new article, until such time as a disambiguation page is actually required.
The most common way of disambiguating town and city names is to follow the name with a comma, a space and the name of the state, province, or county that it is in, or the name of the country if no second-level administrative region applies. Note that this is different to the common ways of disambiguating other kinds of places and objects, which usually place the disambiguating term in parentheses instead of after a comma.
The primary goal of this naming convention is to achieve consistency within each country. It does not necessarily achieve complete consistency across countries. Hence the remainder of the page is divided into specific guidelines for individual countries where required.
If disambiguation is needed this can be done
- X, Y (currently the most used method)
- X (Y)
- X (city)
where Y is a higher level entity, e.g. a province or the country.
Using "X, Y" is a little bit like saying "X (city in Y)".
[edit] By country
[edit] Africa
Where possible, articles on places in Africa should go under placename. Where disambiguation is needed, they should go under [[placename, nation]]: thus, Addis Ababa but Shire, Ethiopia. An exception to this is South Africa, where a [[placename, province]], disambiguation convention has evolved for when a city cannot go at placename.
[edit] Asia
[edit] Hong Kong
Where possible, articles on places in Hong Kong should go under [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under [[placename, Hong Kong]]. Thus Quarry Bay but Stanley, Hong Kong.
[edit] India
- This is a proposed addition to the naming convention, for which there has not been any clear consensus established.
Articles on places in India go under [[placename]]. When disambiguation is needed, articles go under [[Cityname, State]] (e.g., Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh). For cities that shares its name with other countries (e.g., Hyderabad) the disambiguation style preferred is Hyderabad (India).
- This is another proposed addition to the naming convention, for which there has not been any clear consensus established.
Articles on settlements in India follow the dab-layout rules used by all other settlements around the world, i.e. use comma not brackets. When disambiguation is needed, articles go under [[Cityname, Specifier]] where Specifier can be "India", a state name or a district name.
[edit] Philippines
Where possible, articles on cities go at [[Cityname City]] (e.g. Dumaguete City). When disambiguation is needed, articles go under [[Cityname City, Province]] (e.g. Valencia City, Bukidnon). All municipalities are under the format [[Municipalityname, Province]] (e.g. Valencia, Negros Oriental).
[edit] Australia
All Australian town/city/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.
[edit] 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 Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) for details.
[edit] Belarus
- Major cities (voblast (province) capitals) are named by the most common English usage
- All other settlements are named by national rules
- Exceptions always exist; may be discussed case by case.
[edit] France
See Wikipedia:France-related topics notice board for details on naming conventions.
[edit] Italy
Places in Italy are disambiguated by province (abbreviated name in parentheses) as is the universal custom in Italy. Thus: Manciano (AR), Manciano (GR).
[edit] Ireland
Where possible, articles on places in Ireland should go under [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under [[placename, County x]]. Thus Castlebar but Westport, County Mayo. This same convention applies to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
[edit] Norway
WikiProject Norway#Naming details article title conventions.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Russia
This naming convention covers all types of inhabited localities in Russia: cities/towns, urban-type settlements, and all kinds of rural localities.
Always use common English name of the settlement. In absence thereof, use romanized Russian name, as per the WP:RUS guidelines.
- When the name of the settlement is not unique within Russia, use comma-separated name of the federal subject on the territory of which the settlement is located (e.g., Oktyabrsky, Republic of Bashkortostan). If the name of the settlement is not unique within a federal subject, precede the federal subject disambiguator with the name of the district on the territory of which the settlement is located (e.g., Vesyoly, Shovgenovsky District, Republic of Adygea).
- When the name of the settlement is unique within Russia, but conflicts with the name of another settlement in a different country, disambiguate the name with "Russia" (e.g., Dimitrovgrad, Russia).
- When the name of the settlement is completely unique, but conflicts with the name of a different concept, use the parenthesized settlement type as disambiguator (e.g., Olga (urban-type settlement)).
[edit] Switzerland
WikiProject Swiss municipalities details conventions for article titles.
[edit] United Kingdom
Where possible, articles on places in the UK should go under [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is needed, they should go under [[placename, county]]. Thus Skegness but Boston, Lincolnshire. Where county definitions have changed, policy is under discussion, but Wikipedia:Naming conventions (places)#Counties of Britain may be helpful.
[edit] Northern Ireland
Where possible, articles on places in Ireland should go under [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under [[placename, County x]]. Thus Omagh but Cookstown, County Tyrone. This same convention applies to the Republic of Ireland.
[edit] Isle of Man
Where possible, articles on places on the Isle of Man should go under [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is needed, articles should go under [[placename, Isle of Man]]. Thus Castletown but Peel, Isle of Man.
[edit] North America
[edit] Canada
The canonical form for cities in Canada is [[City, Province/Territory]] (the "comma convention"). For the territories, please note that the canonical forms are "City, Yukon" (not "City, Yukon Territory") and "City, Nunavut" (not "City, Nunavut Territory"), but "City, Northwest Territories". For the easternmost Canadian province, the canonical form is "City, Newfoundland and Labrador"; although they might be referred to as such in casual conversation, a city's proper legal designation is never just "City, Newfoundland" or "City, Labrador".
Places which either have unique names or are unquestionably the most significant place sharing their name, such as Quebec City or Toronto, can have undisambiguated titles. Localities that need additional disambiguation include their county or parish.
A Canadian city's article, however, should never be titled simply "city, Canada" (e.g "Halifax, Canada"), although it is permissible to create a title of this type as a redirect to the properly titled article. Similarly, a title that uses the province's two-letter postal abbreviation should never be the primary article title, although creating a redirect is permitted.
For communities whose names derive from the French language, the original French name should be used (and spelled according to French orthographic rules, including accents) unless normal English usage clearly and unequivocally defaults to an alternate spelling or name. For example, places of national significance, such as Montreal and Quebec, are almost always spelled in English without accents, and thus should not be accented on Wikipedia. (This does not apply, however, to institutions such as the Université du Québec which merely include those names within a longer name that isn't usually translated when used in English.) In most cases, however, standard English usage is typically more ambiguous, and thus we should default to the original French name. Do, however, create a redirect at the unaccented title.
However, a redirect should not be created at a translated title (e.g. "Rapids of St. Mary" for Sault Ste. Marie or "Wolf River" for Rivière-du-Loup), unless evidence can be provided that the translated name is actually in use by a significant number of speakers. (For example, a translated redirect should be created at "Three Rivers, Quebec", as this name was historically used by some English speakers for Trois-Rivières.)
[edit] Mexico
Mexican geographical articles go under [[Placename]] when possible: Acapulco, Hermosillo. If disambiguation is needed, [[Placename, State]], is used (the "comma convention", as in Nogales, Sonora, or Córdoba, Veracruz). The cities that share names with states have been placed at [[Placename, State]]], with the state taking the [[Placename]] location: for example, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, (city) and Oaxaca (state).
[edit] United States
- Changes have been proposed for this guideline; see Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (settlements).
The canonical form for cities in the United States is [[City, State]] (the "comma convention"). Those cities that need additional disambiguation include their county or parish (for example Elgin, Lancaster County, South Carolina and Elgin, Kershaw County, South Carolina).
A United States city's article, however, should never be titled simply "city, country" (e.g "Detroit, United States").
[edit] South America
[edit] Argentina
If disambiguation is required [[City, Province]] is used, except for provincial capitals which use [[City, Argentina]]. See Category:Cities in Argentina and its subcategories.
[edit] Brazil
Brazilian cities go under their disambiguated name when possible. When there's ambiguity, the convention used is [[City, State]]. 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).
[edit] Chile
Give preference to naming articles about settlements as [[City, Chile]] to help telegraph to readers that the article is:
- about a settlement and,
- in the country of Chile.
In the rare case where there is more than one settlement with the same name, that article could be differentiated from the other by adding the name of the Province to the name of the article (ie [[City, Province, Chile]].
Article names should reflect the correct Chilean spelling, however, it may be advisable to include a redirect page using the common English spelling of a name to aid users in searching. For example in writing about the city of Pucón, the article would be named Pucón, Chile and have a redirect page of Pucon, Chile or even just Pucon (without the accents) which are not used in English.
[edit] 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.
