FamilySearch Wiki:Naming a Page or Article

	This page explains a policy, a widely accepted standard that all contributors should normally follow.
Please visit the talk page to add comments or suggestions for further development of the policy.

This page offers policies and best practices in naming wiki articles.

New Wiki Articles

All new Wiki articles must be cleared with Wiki Administration. The ability of creating a new article will be assigned as needed per projects.

Naming an article

These instructions are for Wiki Administration and for those working on specific Wiki projects.
Specific instructions are available regarding new locality Wiki articles.

Concise Article Titles

Wiki articles are to be concise and accurate to the content on the page. Leave out unnecessary words or punctuation

Capitalization

Capitalize each word in the title of the article except for:
- Articles: a, an, the
- Coordinating Conjunctions: and, but, or, for, nor, etc.
- Prepositions (fewer than five letters): on, at, to, from, by, etc.
Do not use all uppercase letters - use initial caps on each word in a title except when this conflicts with place naming standards or grammar rules.

Correct: Census Records of the United States
Incorrect: CENSUS RECORDS OF THE UNITED STATES

Things to Avoid

Avoid the use of pronouns and descriptive adjectives
Do not start article names with "A," "The," or "An" if possible
Avoid characters such as / + { } [ ] ( )
Avoid abbreviations, acronyms, and postal codes
Replace "&" with "and" unless it is part of a formal name

Gender Neutral

Article names should be gender neutral.

Ambiguous Titles

FamilySearch Wiki is international, so any article with a general title such as "Census" should really cover the entire globe. On occasion, the preferred name for an article, while correct, may be ambiguous. In these cases the practice is to either extend the article title with more specific information or add a term in parenthesis after the article title, so that the article name is unambiguous. If you are writing an article which applies to one locality only, then this should be made clear in the name of the article, such as Censuses in England or Scottish Census.

Naming Geographical Wiki Articles

Adding "Genealogy" to Title

To improve the rankings of wiki articles in Google and other search engines, the word, "Genealogy" is added to the end of all geographical wiki article titles. A geographical topic page, such as Alabama Probate Records, should not have the word, genealogy added to its title.

Examples: Finland Genealogy; Holwell, Bedfordshire Genealogy

No Abbreviations

Do not use abbreviations in naming a place.

Correct: Montgomery County, Maryland Genealogy
Incorrect: Montgomery Co., MD Genealogy

Ascending Order of Jurisdictions

All locality page titles are to be structured from the smallest jurisdiction level up to the country level in order, in ascending order (smallest place to largest).

Correct: Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland Genealogy
Incorrect: Maryland, Montgomery County, Rockville Genealogy
Exceptions: Articles about FamilySearch Historical Record Collections

Country Names in English

Use the form of a current country's name as it appears in the CIA World Factbook.

Locality articles should only contain the English form of the country in the title and should not include diacritics. Redirects can also be made for incorrectly titled locality articles already found in the Wiki.

Native Language Version of Sub-Jurisdictions

If the native language(s) of a country is something other than English, all locality/sub-jurisdiction levels are to be written in the native language of the country in question in the page title. Redirects can be used to make sure users will find the article regardless of which spelling is used. English translations/variations of the names of provinces/parishes/states/departments, etc. are not to be used in page titles, though they may be referred to elsewhere on the page to help readers with context.

Correct: Livorno, Toscana, Italy Genealogy
Incorrect: Livorno, Tuscany, Italy Genealogy
Correct: Bayern, Germany Genealogy
Incorrect: Bavaria, Germany Genealogy

When a widely accepted English name, exists for a former country or empire, we should use it. For example, New Spain rather than Virreinato de Nueva España, Ottoman Empire rather than دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu.

Country Name Included in Locality Page Title

The country should be listed in any locality page to clarify where the locality page is.
Exceptions:

"United States" should not be included in the title of county locality pages, but should be included in the breadcrumb

Correct: Warren County, Ohio Genealogy
Incorrect: Warren County, Ohio, United States Genealogy

Territories and islands belonging to a specific county should not include the country in the title of the locality page, but should be included in the breadcrumb

Correct: Réunion Island Genealogy
Incorrect: Réunion Island, France Genealogy

Diacritics

Diacritics should be used in the title of a locality article for non-English version of locality pages. This does not apply to country names and should remain in the English form. For example, use Mexico, not México. The version of the country name in its native tongue using diacritics when applicable should be included at the top of the article page to allow the Wiki search engine to retrieve the correct page for the user.

Correct: Mexico Genealogy
Incorrect: México Genealogy
Exceptions

Proper use of the diacritics can be found in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog.

Country Name vs. Nationality

Any locality Wiki pages and locality topic pages should only include the country name and not the nationality in the title. For example, it is Mexico Probate Records not Mexican Probate Records. Nationality can be used in other situations such as articles about immigration. For example, Chinese in America.

Disambiguation

It is often the case that the same geographic place-name will apply to more than one place, or to a place and to other things of interest to genealogists such as a tribe or language; in either case a disambiguation page will be necessary and the articles about locations need to be more specific by adding all jurisdictions to the title. See FamilySearch Wiki:Disambiguation.

Special Guidelines by Country

United States

For county and state pages, list two jurisdictions.

Correct: Alabama, United States Genealogy; Warren County, Ohio Genealogy

For towns/cities pages, include the county and the state.

Correct: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois Genealogy; Portland, Cumberland County, Maine Genealogy

Always use “County” when describing a United States county in an article name.

Exceptions: Louisiana uses "Parishes" instead of counties and Alaska uses "Boroughs."

Do not use "United States" in the title of town or county wiki articles.

Correct: Charleston, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi Genealogy; Lincoln County, Montana Genealogy
Incorrect: Charleston, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, United States Genealogy; Lincoln County, Montana, United States Genealogy

England, Scotland, Wales

For county pages, list two jurisdictions.

Correct: Bedfordshire, England Genealogy; Dunbartonshire, Scotland Genealogy

For parishes, list three jurisdictions.

Correct: Aberdour, Fife, Scotland Genealogy; St Mary Woolnoth with St Mary Woolchurch Haw, London, England Genealogy; Englefield, Berkshire, England Genealogy
Incorrect: Aberdour, Fife Genealogy; St Mary Woolnoth with St Mary Woolchurch Haw, London Genealogy; Englefield, Berkshire Genealogy

Do not use the word, County in naming the article

Exceptions: County Durham

Canada

For province pages, list two jurisdictions.

Correct: Alberta, Canada Genealogy

For county pages, list three jurisdictions.

Correct: Essex County, Ontario, Canada Genealogy

Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland

For county pages, list two jurisdictions.

Correct: Jämtland County, Sweden Genealogy; Maribo County, Denmark Genealogy

For parish/city pages, list three jurisdictions

Correct: Hallen, Jämtland County, Sweden Genealogy; Holeby, Maribo County, Denmark Genealogy

Switzerland

For canton pages, list two jurisdictions.

Correct: Genève Canton, Switzerland Genealogy

For parish/city pages, list three jurisdictions

Correct: Bergdietikon, Aargau Canton, Switzerland Genealogy

Always use “Canton” when describing an Switzerland Canton.

Germany

For Kreis/Landkreis, list three jurisdictions.

Correct: Höxter, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Genealogy

For parish/city pages, list four jurisdictions including the Kreis/Landkreis

Correct: Sandebeck, Höxter, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Genealogy

Ireland

For county pages, list two jurisdictions.

Correct: County Kerry, Ireland Genealogy

For parish/city pages, list three jurisdictions including the type of parish.

Correct: Aghadoe Civil Parish, County Kerry, Ireland Genealogy

Always use “County” before the county name when describing an Irish county.

Exceptions: King's County and Queen's County

Mexico

Do not include any jurisdiction names (state) in the title of the articles.

Correct: Baja California, Mexico Genealogy; Calotmul, Noreste, Yucatán, Mexico Genealogy
Incorrect: Baja California State, Mexico Genealogy

Argentina, Spain, Austria, France and Other Countries in the Wiki

Include the country in all locality article titles

Correct: Alagoas, Brazil Genealogy; Penang, Malaysia Genealogy; Chaco, Argentina Genealogy; Bukovina, Austria Genealogy; Nazca, Ica, Peru Genealogy
Incorrect: Alagoas Genealogy; Bukovina Genealogy

Do not list the type of jurisdiction in the name of the article.

Correct: Ain, France Genealogy
Incorrect: Ain Department, France Genealogy

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