Wikipedia:Naming conventions (government departments and ministers)
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This page documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should follow, though it should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
[edit] Convention
1) All Wikipedia articles on public agencies/offices/departments etc. and political officials must effectively communicate the name of the jurisdiction involved within the article title.
2) The standard practice shall be to pre-disambiguate in the format Articlename articlename (Jurisdictionname). (c.f. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japan), Department of Justice (Canada), Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia), Cabinet Office (Japan)). This is, generally speaking, in keeping with the pre-disambiguation principle used for warships and cities in United States. Pre-disambiguation shall be mandatory except in the circumstances discussed below.
3) Pre-disambiguation shall not be carried out:
- in the event of the jurisdiction name being a natural part of the subject's name (c.f. Statistics New Zealand, Canada Border Services Agency, Royal Australian Navy, Minister of Canadian Heritage)
- in the event that the suffix "of Jurisdictionname" is a natural part of the subject's name and/or is the overwhelmingly-utilized means of disambiguating in common speech. (c.f. Cabinet of Germany, Prime Minister of Japan, Treasurer of Australia.) Care shall be taken to avoid Something of Something of Jurisdictionname constructions.
- in the event that a proper noun within the natural name of the subject unmistakably identifies it with a particular jurisdiction (c.f. Mount Fuji Conservation Authority, Ministry for Paris and Lyon Affairs, State Secretary responsible for Hindi standardization; NB: artificial examples)
4) The following article groups are provisionally grandfathered against this policy, on account of existing organizational systems that are neat and tidy.:
- United States government units and officials
- Irish government units and officials
