Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.
This page contains a list of guidelines concerning naming conventions for categories. If you wish to propose a new naming convention for categories or modify an existing convention, please do so on the talk page.
When naming a category, one should be particularly careful and choose its name accurately. Moving non-conventionally categorized pages to another category name (see {{Category redirect}}) imposes an additional overhead – an edit for each article and subcategory. Also, try to avoid names that are too long or too short. Short, straight-forward names, are preferred for categories, though it may be necessary at times to deviate from this principle for clarityordisambiguation.
Note that in many instances a topic category and a set category have similar names, the topic category being singular and the set category plural. For example, Opera is a topic category (containing all articles relating to the topic), while Operas is a set category (containing articles about specific operas). Be careful to choose the right one when categorizing articles.
Do not write the category structure in names. Example: "Monarchs", not "People – Monarchs". This includes creating categories that are subpages of other categories.
Choose category names that can stand alone, independent of the way a category is connected to other categories. Example: "Geography terminology stubs", not "Terminology" (a subcategory of "Geography stubs").
Categories for articles
Standard article naming conventions apply; in particular, use sentence case, do not use title case. Specifically, do not capitalize regular nouns except when they come at the beginning of the category name.
When naming, use words and phrases which exist in verifiablereliable sources (particularly for technical subjects), so that those sources may be used to support inclusion of information.
When a topic requires disambiguation, any category eponymously named for that topic should include the same form of disambiguation, even if no other articles are likely to have an eponymous category.
If there are more than a few lists in a particular subject area, it may be appropriate to create a specific subcategory that contains only the list pages and no other types.
When placing list pages in such a category, use a sort key to adjust the page title to exclude the starting words "List of", or all lists would appear under "L". For example, when adding List of Soviet Republics to the category, using [[Category:Lists of countries|Soviet Republics]] and will make it be sorted in the S section. See also Category:Lists.
All WikiProject categories should have "WikiProject" (or "WikiProjects") as part of the name. Note that this does not apply to the names of categories that projects might create for the use of assessments. In these cases, the advice given in Project Categories, which conforms to Category:Wikipedia 1.0 assessments is advised, though not mandatory.
For categorizing people by place of residence, the format is: People from Foo (not "Natives of Foo"). Where the commonly used English name for residents of a place is well-known globally (usually the original place of that name), Fooitedemonym categories should be {{category redirect}}ed to People from Foo, in order to assist with automated categorization (for example, Category:New Yorkers).
By convention, a category name designating a time period with a number (inArabic numerals) represents a calendar year in the Common Era. For categorizing people by years BCE, the format is: "<year number> BC", for example Category:220 BC deaths.
All categories whose subcategories are categories by country (roughly all categories that are members of Category:Categories by country) shall have a per-category naming convention which will apply to all of their subcategories. These naming conventions, their guidelines and their exceptions are listed here. Non-conformance to these naming conventions shall be treated as a criterion for "speedy category renaming" as defined on WP:CFD.
Events
Categories regarding events in countries (along with years and time) are named "... in country." This guideline applies to:
Administrative divisions use the "of" format and settlements use the "in" format. Municipalities are usually found in non-English speaking countries as third tier administrative divisions covering the whole country including rural areas. In most cases, there are separate designations for settlements such as cities and towns. However where the designation "municipality" is used solely for urban settlements (example, Romania) or where it is the only official designation for cities and towns (example, Spain), the category takes the "in" form.
Political office-holders
For categorizing subcategories of <political office> by country, the format is:
... of country for those concerning holders of a specific office with jurisdiction over a country
... in country for those that group offices of a certain type, operating within a country
For categorizing Images by country, the format is: "Images of country".
For categorizing Lists by country, the format is: "Country-related lists"
For categorizing Stubs by region, the format is: "Country stubs".
How to name the country
For "of country" and "in country" categories, the name of the country should appear as it does in the name of the article about that country, with a lowercase "the" if needed for grammatical purposes. Non-sovereign, disputed, supranational, and historical countries and geographic equivalents may be included if the articles to be categorized require it. For reference, see List of sovereign states, List of dependent territories, and the following list.
In category naming, country names should not be abbreviated (except to the extent that they are already in their respective article titles - for example, "United Kingdom", but not "UK" or "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland").
(Note: Links to articles are shown only for reference; links obviously cannot appear in the actual title of a category.)
When historical and political complexities (such as mergers and splits) create articles that belong to two countries, do not create a "Foo of X and Y". Instead, list articles in both "Foo of X" and "Foo of Y"; for example, "Foo of Russia" and "Foo of the Soviet Union", not "Foo of Russia and the Soviet Union". The same applies for geographic features that cross national borders, for example "Foo of the United States" and "Foo of Canada", not "Foo of the United States and Canada".
Categories by nationality
All categories whose subcategories are categories by nationality (roughly all categories that are members of Category:People by nationalityorCategory:Works by nationality) shall have a per-category naming convention which will apply to all of their subcategories. These naming conventions, their guidelines and their exceptions are listed here. Non-conformance to these naming conventions shall be treated as a criterion for "speedy category renaming" as defined on WP:CFD. Changing these conventions shall require a consensual discussion either directly at WP:CFD or publicized there.
Cultural topics
National subcategories of these categories are named using the nationality rather than the country name, as they follow the national diasporas. However, the container categories are named "by country", e.g. Category:Art by country and Category:Culture by country.[1]
Concurrent citizenship may be reflected by categorizing the article by each nationality. For example, Category:Canadian actors and Category:American actors for a dual American–Canadian citizen. Categories that combine two nationalities with an occupation, generally should not be created.
Alist of adjectival forms of place names is available on Wikipedia. In situations where multiple adjectives are possible for a particular nationality (e.g., Argentine vs. Argentinean), discussions at categories for discussion have frequently opted for one alternative over another to ensure consistency in category naming. Note that the singular-form demonym and adjective for many nationalities are not interchangeable. (i.e., Icelander vs. Icelandic; New Zealander vs. New Zealand). Most category names use the adjectival form, not the noun-form demonym.
Some states do not possess unambiguous (i.e., "Congolese" for Democratic Republic of the Congo) or universally-applicable (i.e., "Bosnian" for Bosnia and Herzegovina) adjectives. In these circumstances, the format is: "Country FOO", where Country is the unamended name of the country.
The list below reflects the most recent consensuses on what form to use for particular nationalities. These adopted forms may be subject to change by consensus and proposals to do so can be made by nominating the affected categories at categories for discussion. References are included to discussions that have discussed particular name formats.
All categories whose subcategories are categories by creative artist (roughly all categories that are members of Category:Works by artist) shall have a per-category naming convention which will apply to all of their subcategories. These naming conventions, their guidelines and their exceptions are listed here. Non-conformance to these naming conventions shall be treated as a criterion for "speedy category renaming" as defined at WP:CFD. Changing these conventions shall require a consensual discussion either directly at WP:CFD or publicized there.
Music by composer
For categorizing music by composer, the format is: "Compositions by [composer]".
For categorizing articles of each type of work of an artist, the format is: "[type of work]s by [artist]" (for example, Category:Paintings by Salvador Dalí). For categorizing subcategories of different types of work of an artist (for example, for paintings and sculpture), the format for the parent category is: "Works by Foo".
For categorizing architecture by architect, the format is: "[Architect] buildings", with exceptions for architects involved in more than one type of work.
Category names of a subject should match the name for that subject within articles and citations (including spelling and capitalisation), rather than the name of the Wikipedia article on the topic. For example:
^Use for the state that existed from 1992 to 2006. From 1992 to 2003, this state was officially known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FR Yugoslavia), but in categories "Yugoslav" is used only for the larger state that existed from 1918 to 1992.
^Use for the state that existed from 1918 to 1992. For the state that existed from 1992 to 2006 and was known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FR Yugoslavia) from 1992 to 2003, use "Serbia and Montenegro FOOs".
