Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people)
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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. |
General Wikipedia Naming Conventions start from easy principles: the name of an article should be "the most common name of a person or thing that does not conflict with the names of other people or things". This boils down to the two central ideas in Wikipedia article naming:
- the name that is most generally recognisable
- the name that is unambiguous with the name of other articles
Several general and specific guidelines further specify that article names preferably:
- don't add qualifiers (such as "King", "Saint", "Dr.", "(person)", "(ship)"), except when this is the simplest and most NPOV way to deal with disambiguation;
- are in English;
- are not insulting
For people, this quite often leads to an article name in the following format:
<First name> <Last name> (examples: Billy Joel, Margaret Thatcher)
The remainder of this guideline is about what happens in these cases when this format is not obvious, or for one or another reason is not followed.
[edit] Scope of this guideline
In general this guideline deals with the naming of articles where a single article is devoted to a single person, although there's a special cases section below that deals with several persons with the same name on the same page and with multiple pages for a single person.
This guideline does not deal with:
- Groups of people under whatever form: more about naming conventions regarding groups of people can for example be found in Wikipedia:Naming conventions (identity) and in Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Organizations (such as political parties).
- Things named after people, like Saint Denis Basilica and the Queen Elizabeth 2. Naming of such articles is covered by other relevant guidelines, see other Wikipedia naming conventions.
- Fictional characters: whether an article is to be named Dame Edna Everage or Dame Edna or Edna Everage is indifferent to this particular guideline; on the other hand the guideline deals with how the Barry Humphries article is to be named. In those cases where it's not clear whether a character is fictional or not, it is suggested to have either separate articles for the "fictional" and the "non-fictional" character (example: P. D. Q. Bach and Peter Schickele) or use the most commonly used name for a single article (example: Amazons).
- God, gods and deities: if for these the name doesn't follow from culture-specific naming conventions guidelines, the title of the Wikipedia article is decided on a case-by-case basis. Example: Emperor Augustus was deified by the ancient Romans. How this emperor is named follows from the naming conventions guideline specific for "ancient Romans" (see below). Whether it's Hercules or Heracles, or whether both get a separate article, is best decided in the wikiprojects dealing with Antiquity, and not by the present naming policy.
- Page names for Redirect pages (see wikipedia:Redirect) and Disambiguation pages (see wikipedia:Disambiguation).
The present guideline gives the general principles. In some cases more specific guidelines also apply, for example: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (ancient Romans), Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles) (for monarchs and nobles in a Western tradition after antiquity), Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Western clergy), Wikipedia:Naming conventions (government departments and ministers), and several naming conventions of non-Western cultures. (See the list on Wikipedia:Naming conventions)
[edit] When it seems difficult to follow the "<First Name> <Last Name>" format
Very often the "<First Name> <Last Name>" format doesn't apply. First of all, the overwhelming majority of all human beings that live or have lived on Earth don't have a name in that format. Most of these are not problematic, unless from a viewpoint of orthography: these specifics are treated in naming conventions guidelines about these languages, and not further considered in this guideline.
Below, each of the options for choosing something else than the "<First Name> <Last Name>" format are treated in the same way: first some obvious examples are given, followed by tips whether it is advisable to use this alternate type of formatting for disambiguation purposes (that is, in the case this wouldn't be the "most commonly used version" of the name).
[edit] Single name
Sometimes, mostly for names of antiquity, a single word is traditional and sufficient to indicate a person unambiguously.
Examples: Aristotle, Livy, Plutarch, Charlemagne, Fibonacci,...
More recent examples include (Far East, including South East Asia): Sukarno and Suharto (Indonesia); Hirohito (Japan)
Using exclusively a last name, for which the first name is known, as title of a page on a single person is discouraged, even if that name would be unambiguous, and even if that name consists of more than one word. The unambiguous parts of the last name are usually redirects: for example Ludwig van Beethoven is a content page to which Van Beethoven redirects. Beethoven has however ambiguity with Beethoven (film).
Similarly, don't use a separate first name (even if unambiguous) for the page name of a content page, if the last name is known and fairly often used. Example: Oprah Winfrey, to which Oprah redirects. Only if the single name is used as a true artist's name (stage name, pseudonym,...) the recommendations of Nick names, pen names, stage names, cognomens below can be followed.
Exceptionally the use of a single name without any other qualifier as article title helps in disambiguation, for example Tacitus (the author) is seldom confused with the emperor with the same name; more often it doesn't help, for example Homer, Prince,... all mean more than the name of a single person
[edit] Middle names - abbreviations of names
Examples: John F. Kennedy, Thomas John Barnardo, Annie M. G. Schmidt
For abbreviated names (if these are the most used) every abbreviation is followed by a point, and every point is followed by a single space. Punctuation marks are generally discouraged in article names (see below): if the version with the first and middle names written in full is used nearly as often as the version with abbreviated names, prefer the version with these names written in full.
An abbreviation of a first or last name (or omitting punctuation marks and spaces as described above) is only possible if this can be considered as a well established and generally used subject's name or nick name, see section about pen names, nick names and cognomens below. In all these cases use forenames (whether middle name, first name or another given name) as most usual: for some people not the first name, but another forename is usually written in full, for example, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Adding middle names, or their abbreviations, merely for disambiguation purposes (that is: if this format of the name is not the commonly used one to refer to this person): not advised.
[edit] Patronymics - people with two last names - maiden name, patronymic, and/or last name of husband?
Some Western cultures use a "double last name" format, or add patronymics. The added last name can be the last name of the mother, or the name of the spouse. Examples:
- Iberian naming customs: Josep Puig i Cadafalch ("i" means "and", "Cadafalch" is the last name of this architect's mother)
- Russia: Natalia Krandievskaya Tolstaya (Female form of "Tolstoi", the last name of her husband, added to "Krandievskaya", a patronymic)
- Belgium: Justine Henin-Hardenne (born Justine Henin, adding husband's last name: not all women do that where she lived at the time of marriage - keeping the maiden name before that of the husband is a straightout exception in that country, compare to Dominique Monami, who became "Dominique Van Roost-Monami" after marriage)
- United States: Alberta Williams King (Alberta Christine Williams, married Michael King, better known as Martin Luther King, Sr.)
Similarly, depending on time, region and habits or exceptions, women might exchange their last name by birth to that of their husband:
- Virginia Woolf (born: Virginia Stephen, her husband was Leonard Woolf)
In all these cases: Apply the general rule of the form of the name that is most common for referring to the person in question, so (each with an opposite example of the same region and time):
- Josep Puig i Cadafalch, but: Antoni Gaudí (and not: Antoni Gaudí i Cornet, adding his mother's last name: this architect is better known without the second last name)
- Virginia Woolf, but: Vita Sackville-West (and not, after her husband, "Vita Nicolson" - English nobility rules had allowed her to keep her maiden name after marriage, and that's the name that appeared most often on her publications, even after marriage)
Disambiguation aid is rarely to be expected from adding or subtracting a second last name artificially, or swapping the original last name and that of the spouse: Josep Puig i Cadafalch (architect) and Josep Puig i Boix (politician and renewable energy supporter) both have the mother's last name because it is usual, not for helping wikipedia to disambiguate.
[edit] "<First name> of <Location>" format
Occurs most often for monarchs (who often do not have, or do not use, last names). Try to use the most commonly used "Location" for this person's name, and only in the case this format is more often used than the usual "<First name> <Last name>" format.
Example: Jeanne of Flanders and Jeanne of Constantinople both refer to the same person. The first version is slightly more used, so that's the preferred article name.
Note that for conventuals also the format "<First name> of <something else than Location>" exists. If a variant with a <Location> exists, that is the version of the name that is preferred as Wikipedia page name:
- Teresa of Avila, not "Teresa of Jesus" (translation of "Teresa de Jesús", the way she signed her letters and was known in her convent);
- John of the Cross, translation of "Juan de la Cruz", no "of <Location>" available.
Sometimes the "of <Location>" part is differently formatted: "à Kempis" (in: Thomas à Kempis) would by many be perceived as a last name, while in fact it is "of Kempen" differently formatted. Such alternative format is however only used for a Wikipedia article title for a content page, when in English the name is nearly exclusively written in that form (compare: Thomas Becket and not Thomas à Becket).
Disambiguation purposes: for several monarchs and saints this is a great help to disambiguate; in other cases the ambiguity appears to persist, see for example: Elisabeth of Bohemia (disambiguation)
[edit] Ordinals
Examples:
- Henry VIII (for monarchs this is usually combined with the previous, so the page name is actually Henry VIII of England)
- Henry Ford II (Grandson of Henry Ford)
- Martin Luther King III
Disambiguation: only when naming the ordinal explicitly is the commonest way to refer to the person.
[edit] Senior and junior
Senior/junior (or for Latin names: maior/minor; or "the Elder"/"the Younger") is only used when this is the usual way for differentiating a person from another with the same name, for example:
For names of Antiquity "the Elder"/"the Younger" is preferred (with that capitalisation) instead of maior/minor (avoid in any case "major", which is not the English translation of maior).
In the case of senior/junior the most common format, that is, adding ", Sr." or alternatively ", Jr." after the name, is preferred.
Using this as a disambiguation technique is not advised, except for those names where the practice is well established, e.g. Martin Luther King, Sr. disambiguates naturally with Martin Luther King, Jr. (and at the same time with Martin Luther, with Michael King, with Martin Luther King III and with any "King"-monarch)
[edit] Nick names, pen names, stage names, cognomens
The most used name to refer to a person is generally the one that Wikipedia will choose as page name, even if this sounds awkward for those seeing the name the first time: Alfred the Great is the name most used in literature to refer to this person. Changing the name to Alfred-not-so-Great-after-all or whatever would be more POV than using the name that is most commonly used. It is best to remember that Wikipedia does not make reality: Wikipedians note down what is the closest to facts they can find, in this case that the name "Alfred the Great" is most often used to refer to a certain person.
However, King Billy can be a redirect, but not the article name for William III of England: there's no reason to use the short name in this case.
If people published under one or more pen names and/or their own name, the best known of these names is chosen.
Further examples:
- George Eliot - pen name of Mary Ann Evans
- Le Corbusier, not Charles-Édouard Jeanneret
- H. G. Wells - as author Herbert George Wells abbreviated both his first and middle names: the abbreviated "artist's name" is used in wikipedia as page name.
- Anna O., not Bertha Pappenheim (the pseudonym, Anna O., not chosen by the person herself)
- Scotty Bowman, not William Scott Bowman
- Dizzy Gillespie, not John Birks Gillespie
Better not use this for disambiguation, unless it's the name by which this person is known best. For example, B. G. James the politician and B.G. James the wrestler need explicit disambiguation (for example by a top of the page disambiguation notice on both pages): "implicit" disambiguation by using one format of the abbreviation for the one, and another abbreviation format for the "B" and "G" initials for the other is not sufficient.
[edit] Qualifiers not between brackets
Example: Charles, Prince of Wales
However, try to avoid punctuation marks in article names as much as possible. It appears best to see page names as a "navigation utility" exclusively, not as a "tag" with which to pass on subliminal or other messages regarding the person whose name is on top of a page: punctuation marks are usually not of great help in navigation. This kind of qualifiers and descriptions is more suitable in the body of the article where it's easier to treat them in a NPOV way, and can be supported by a host of other techniques, for example Categories, lists, and series boxes. Styles, like for instance "HRH", are not used in page titles of articles on people.
Qualifiers like Saint are only used as the first word for a page name if this epithet in itself is the most effective disambiguator. So there is:
- Saint Peter, to disambiguate from other people with the same name, including an (anti-)pope (see: Peter#Disambiguation).
- Saint Patrick, but Brigid of Ireland (saint, from the same era as the former).
- Saint George is about a particular saint, but there is also Saint George (disambiguation)
- Augustine of Hippo, disambiguates better from Augustine of Canterbury, who is also a canonized saint: Saint Augustine is a disambiguation page.
- The saints Paul of Tarsus, Paul of Thebes and Vincent de Paul are all disambiguated at the Saint Paul disambiguation page. "Vincent de Paul" is in fact one out of several Saint Vincents, so also mentioned on that disambiguation page.
- Louis IX of France: the regnal name disambiguates better than the "Saint" epithet (see Saint Louis disambiguation page).
Similarly, "King", "Queen", "Blessed", "Mother", "Father", "Doctor", "Mister", or any other type of qualifier is generally avoided as first word for a page name of a page on a single person, unless for disambiguation or redirect purposes. For example John Forrest (friar) is preferred as the name of the page where the content is, above Blessed John Forrest, which is a redirect page. This is rather a practical than a principal rule, so the general principle of "the unambiguous name a person is best known by" easily takes precedence:
If a qualifier is used in the title of a page where the content is, it is never abbreviated (apart from Jr./Sr. as described above), so: "Saint", not "St." nor "St". Also here, for redirect pages there is no problem to use an abbreviated form, example: Dr. Livingstone is a viable redirect to the David Livingstone article.
[edit] Qualifier between brackets or parentheses
Examples:
- William Henry (delegate), William Henry (chemist), William Henry (congressman), William Henry (actor),...
- Frank Vandenbroucke (cyclist) - in order to disambiguate from the politician with the same name.
- Prince (artist) - disambiguating from other "Princes" mentioned at Prince (disambiguation)
- Lucius Cornelius Balbus (maior) and Lucius Cornelius Balbus (minor) - see above: for these two Romans the "the Elder"/"the Younger" epithets are not commonly used.
Some standardisation of the bracketed disambiguator is possible, for example "(musician)" and "(politician)" are very recognisable. Try to avoid abbreviations or anything capitalised or containing hyphens, dashes or numbers (apart from where more specific guidelines specify particular exceptions to that), and also try to limit to a single, recognisable and highly applicable word regarding the person at hand.
Sometimes a little extra creativity is needed: for example, "Engelbert Humperdinck (musician)" would still be two persons, so requires a split, like:
- Engelbert Humperdinck for the late 19th/early 20th century composer
- Engelbert Humperdinck (singer) for the pop music artist born in the 20th century
As for all other articles: try to avoid this type of disambiguation where possible (use disambiguation techniques listed above if these apply more "naturally") - but if no other disambiguation technique comes naturally, this type of disambiguation is the most preferred one.
[edit] Special cases
[edit] Articles combining biographies of several people
- For examples of multi-person biography pages: see Category:Multiple people
[edit] "<First name> <Last name>" format
Even if strictly spoken not a "First name" followed by a "Last name", for people that share such name, and are best known by it, it is advised to follow this Rule of thumb: better make it a disambiguation page, and give each of the persons a separate article.
Exceptions:
- Nicci French is the pen name for an author duo — there seems to be no problem in treating both persons on the same page in such case. Similar example: Ellery Queen.
- Ancient Romans with the same name:
- If not a disambiguation page (example: Marcus Livius Drusus), use "Summary style" layout for the page containing short biographical notes on the people having this name (example: Julia Caesaris). Even if there are no subarticles, the same layout can be used, that is: one "==...==" level section per person by this name (example: Lucius Valerius Flaccus). A mixed example (some sections having subarticles, while others haven't) can be found at Lucius Julius Caesar;
- Add Category:Roman multiple people.
[edit] Family name only
Example: Peruzzi, a family as an entity that transcends its individuals (who may have separate entries)
See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (identity) for guidance.
For family names that are used across such identification of a group of related people, do as with articles on separate first names: disambiguation page and/or separate article about the etymology of the name. See for example Katz: although this last name has a Jewish origin, it does not define a particular "subset" of the Jewish community, so the Katz page is rather a disambiguation page than an "identity"-defining page.
[edit] First name only
Example: Peter
Best to make it a disambiguation page. If info is added about the etymology of the name that takes more than a short introductory paragraph, better make separate "description" and "disambiguation" pages, for instance: John (name) and John - in this case John (disambiguation) redirects to the last of these pages. Jean only has a disambiguation page, but the introduction of this page links to John (name) for the etymology.
[edit] "<name> and <name>" format
When a "group" is named in this fashion (e.g. Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)), the individual members would in most cases have a separate biographical article. Exceptionally, the bios of artist duos, best known under their joint name, and of some other duos, are drawn together in a single article.
Examples:
- Artist duos: Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Pierre et Gilles, Gilbert and George, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer;
- Other duos: Sacco and Vanzetti, Theodora and Didymus, Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi
[edit] Other
Rare, but here are some examples:
- Del Rubio triplets
- NatWest Three; Guildford Four (without "the": avoid definite article per Wikipedia:Naming conventions (definite and indefinite articles at beginning of name))
- Wright brothers; de Vriendt brothers (without "the")
Sometimes also for bands, if the members of the group don't have separate biographical articles, some biographical notes regarding the group members are included in the article on the band.
[edit] Several articles treating the same person
The essentials of a person's life and significance can generally be summarized in less than 30/32 kb. If additional encyclopedic content seems justified, the Isaac Newton article structure can be followed: split the article on the person in sections: each section giving a summary of another article detailing a specific part of that person's life stage or significance in history. Best to make a link to such other articles in the {{Main|<sub-article name>}} format, immediately under the title of level "==" sections. A similar style with {{Details|<sub-article name>}} templates can be followed, as explained at Wikipedia:Summary style.
