Specific conventions and guidelines edit

Several topic-specific naming conventions exist to give guidance on consensus in areas where particular issues exist. A list of current topic-specific conventions is to the right. Other cases cases, where specific pages outlining these conventions do not exist, the conventions are outlined below.

Bands, albums and songs edit

In band names and titles of songs or albums, capitalize words that are not coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), prepositions (in, to, over), articles (an, a, the), or the word to when used to form an infinitive. Note that short verbs (Is, Are, and Do) and pronouns (Me, It, and His) are capitalized. Do not replicate stylized typography in logos and album art, though a redirect may be appropriate (for example, KoЯn redirects to Korn).

When necessary, disambiguation should be done using "(band)", "(album)", or "(song)" (such as Anthrax (band) or Off the Wall (album)). Use further disambiguation only when needed (for example X (U.S. band), X (Australian band)). Unless multiple albums of the same name exist (such as Down to Earth), they do not need to be disambiguated any further. For example, Down to Earth (Ozzy Osbourne album) is fine, but Off the Wall (Michael Jackson album) is unnecessary. Disambiguate albums and songs by artist and not by year unless the artist releases multiple albums with the same name. When a track is not strictly a song (in other words a composition without lyrics, or an instrumental that is not a cover of a song), disambiguation should be done using "(composition)" or "(instrumental)".

Politics, government and legislation edit

For elections, use the format "Demonym type election, date" e.g. Canadian federal election, 1867. For future elections of uncertain date, a format similar to Next Irish general election can be used. For special elections or elections of sub-national parliaments follow the format provided by Scottish Parliament election, 2007 and Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2007.

For UK legislation, acts should be titled with the short name form and then the year, without any comma between them ("Foo Bar Act 1974"). There should be a redirect from "Foo Bar Act" if the act is uniquely named. If several acts have the same short name, then "Foo Bar Act" should redirect to the primary topic if one exists; otherwise it should either serve as a disambiguation page (as at Representation of the People Act) or redirect to "Foo Bar Acts" (plural), which should be an article about the series of acts.

If two acts are passed with the same name and year in two parliaments as different enactments of the same piece of legislation then have just one article (as with Act of Union 1707). However if the two acts are different pieces of legislation, use parenthetical disambiguation based on jurisdiction or entity, as in European Communities Act 1972 (UK) and European Communities Act 1972 (Ireland).

Sports teams edit

In cases where there is no ambiguity as to the official spelling of a club's name in English, the official name should be used. No ambiguity means that:

  • The name is used on the English-language section of the club's official website
  • The name has been adopted at least by a significant section of the English-language media and it is recognizable
  • The name is not easily confused with other clubs' names.

In cases where there is some ambiguity as to the official spelling of a club's name in English, the name most commonly used by the English-language media should be used.

Where an article is clearly about a particular sport you do not need to put a prefix or suffix (like RLFC, CCC or FK) throughout the article text but merely in the title. For example, FC Barcelona is the article name but throughout the body Barcelona is sufficient. However, for cross-sport references it may be appropriate e.g. "St Helen's share Knowsley Road stadium with St Helen's FC". Do not extend this to nicknames as they may confuse unfamiliar users.

For North American teams, use both place and nicknames (e.g. Detroit Red Wings rather than Detroit or Red Wings) as non-Americans may not know who the Bears or the Falcons are and it aids cross-referencing. Furthermore, where there is more than one team from a city – New York Giants and New York Jets, for example, this specificity is essential.