Naming convention
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- For conventions governing Wikipedia article names, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions.
A naming convention is a convention for naming things. The intent is to allow useful information to be deduced from the names based on regularities. For instance, in Manhattan, streets are numbered, with East-West streets being called "Streets" and North-South streets called "Avenues".
Well-chosen naming conventions aid the casual user in navigating larger structures. Several areas where naming conventions are commonly used include:
- In computer programming, identifier naming conventions
- In the sciences, systematic names for a variety of things
- In astronomy, planetary nomenclature
- In classics, Roman naming conventions
- In Industry, Product naming conventions
A naming convention may be followed when:
- Large corporate, university, or government campuses may name rooms within the buildings to help orient tenants and visitors.
- Children's names may be alphabetical by birth order. In some Asian cultures, it is common for the middle name to be common for immediate siblings. In many cultures it is common for the son to be named after the father[1]. In other cultures, the name may include the place of residence[2]. Roman naming convention denotes social rank[3].
- Products. Automobiles typically have a binomial name, a "make" (manufacturer) and a "model", in addition to a model year. Computers often have increasing numbers in their names to signify the successive generations.
- School courses: an abbreviation for the subject area and then a number ordered by increasing level of difficulty.
- Virtually all organizations that assign names or numbers follow some convention in generating these identifiers (e.g. phone numbers, bank accounts, government IDs, credit cards, etc).
[edit] External links
- American Name Society Promote onomastics, the study of names and naming practices, both in the United States and abroad.