Wikipedia:Category names

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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.

Naming conventions

When naming a category, be particularly careful to choose an accurate and

disambiguation
.

General conventions

Categories for articles

Project categories

Categorizing articles about people

Descent

For categorizing people by

FOOian people of BARian descent", where "FOOian" is the person's nationality (country of citizenship) and "BARian" is the person's ethnic ancestry (such as Category:Irish people of Ghanaian descent and Category:American people of German descent
).

Occupation

Currently, Wikipedia supports categorizing people by occupation, such as: People by educational institution and People by company, as well as other more specific categories.

For categorizing people by occupation, the format is: FOOs, where FOO is the occupation name (such as Category:Editors); or People in FOO or FOO people, where FOO is the topic of the occupation (such as Category:People in agriculture‎ or Category:Music people).

Occupation categories should not be divided into "current" or "former" categories. For example, Category:Former child actors and Category:Current Minnesota Twins players should not exist.

Residence

For categorizing people by place of

commonly used English name for residents of a place is well-known globally (usually the original place of that name), Fooite demonym categories should be {{category redirect}}ed to People from Foo, in order to assist with automated categorization (for example, Category:New Yorkers
).

Place of burial

For categorizing people by place of burial, the format is: Burials at Foo Cemetery.

Time periods

By convention, a category name designating a

time period with a number (in Arabic 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
.

For categorizing people by century, the format is: Category:xx-century foos or Category:xx-century BC foos.

Categories by country

All categories whose subcategories are categories by

WP:CFD
.

Events

Categories regarding events in countries (along with years and time) are named "... in country." This guideline applies to:

Millennia - Centuries - Decades - Years - Establishments - Disestablishments

Manufactured objects

For categorizing permanently located manufactured objects by country, the format is: "... in country". This guideline applies to:

Airports - American football venues - Amusement parks - Archaeological sites - Art museums - Association football venues - Athletics (track and field) venues (mostly named "athletics" as per non-U.S. usage) - Baseball venues - Basketball venues - Bridges - Buildings and structures - Casinos - Castles - Cathedrals - Cemeteries - Churches - Cities - Cricket grounds - Forts - Gardens - Ghost towns - Golf clubs and courses - Horse racing venues - Hospitals - Hotels - Indoor arenas - Libraries - Monasteries - Motorsport venues - Mosques - Museums - Palaces - Parks - Prisons - Railway stations - Reservoirs - Roads - Rugby union stadiums - Schools - Shopping malls (or shopping centres, based on local usage) - Skyscrapers - Sports venues - Theatres - Towns - Universities and colleges ("Universities" categories are also legitimate in countries where universities and colleges are distinct, i.e. most countries, and are often a subcategory) - Villages - World Heritage Sites - Zoos

Landforms

For categorizing

landforms
by country, the format is: "... of country". This guideline applies to:

Landforms (top category) - Beaches - Hills - Islands - Lakes - Mountains - Mountain passes - Mountain ranges - Peninsulas - Rivers - Volcanoes

Companies

For categorizing "by country" subcategories of all <company type> by country categories, the format is: ... of country. This guideline applies to:

Airlines - Banks - Book publishing companies - Companies - Defunct companies - Engineering companies - Financial services companies - Insurance companies - Manufacturing companies - Retail companies

State-based topics

For categorizing topics usually in the domain of the state, the format is: "... of country".

Administrative divisions - Foreign relations - Government - Military - Military equipment - Military units and formations - Municipalities * - National parks - Postal systems - Protected areas

  • 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

This guideline applies to:

Political office-holders - Heads of government - Heads of state - Legislators - Government ministers (or "cabinet secretaries" if that is local usage) - minister lists - Presidents - Prime ministers

  • For categorizing specific jurisdictions within a country, province, state, or equivalent, the format is: ... of places in ...
  • For categorizing the specific jurisdiction, the format is: ... of place

This guideline applies to:

Mayors

Sport

For categorizing "by-country" subcategories of all <sport name> by country, the format is: ... in country. This guideline applies to:

Athletics - Association football (Australia, Canada and USA: "soccer") - Baseball - Basketball - Clubs and teams - Cricket - Cycle racing - Golf - Horse racing - Ice hockey - Motorsport - Rugby league - Rugby union - Sport (or sports if that is local usage) - Tennis

Miscellaneous "of country"

For categorizing subcategories of these categories, the format is: "... of country".

Cinema - Coins - Demographics - Economies - Environment - Fauna - Geography - History - Languages - Natural history - Politics - Ships - Trade unions - Weapons

Miscellaneous "in country"

For categorizing subcategories of these categories, the format is: "... in country".

Aviation - Business - Capital punishment - Communications - Crime - Disasters - Education - Ethnic groups - Health - Human rights - Landmarks - Law enforcement - Mass media - Nature conservation - Political parties - Populated places - Public holidays - Rail transport - Religion - Science and technology - Television - Tourism - Transportation (or transport if that is local usage)

Miscellaneous "involving country"

For categorizing subcategories of these categories, the format is: "... involving country".

Battles - Military operations - Naval battles - Sieges - Wars

Miscellaneous

Foo") - Charities ("based in Foo") - Environmental organizations ("based in Foo") - Newspapers ("published in Foo") - Organizations
("based in Foo")

Undecided by country

The convention for these categories is yet to be decided. See the talk page for details. These will be moved up as consensus develops.

Technical categories

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 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.)

Dealing with overlaps

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

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]

Art - Cuisine - Culture - Literature - Music - Plays

Note that many other sub-topics of "Society" are named using the country name, and so are some cultural topics e.g. Architecture and Classical music.

People by nationality

For categorizing subcategories of People by nationality, the format is: "nationality ...".

Murderers - Musical groups - People by nationality and occupation - People by occupation and nationality - People

Nationality and occupation

For categorizing people by their nationality and occupation, the format is: "

fooian fooers", such as Category:Ethiopian musicians
.

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.

The

reliable sources
.

The template {{Fooian fooers}} can be used to provide navigation on each category page. For example:

How to name a nationality

A

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.

Current nationalities

Former nationalities

In general, the formats for people of former nationalities is less settled. The list below represents examples which are reasonably well settled.

After September 2022, "of" is now deprecated and "from" will become the standard for former countries that have compound names.[103]

Therefore, for categorizing people of former nationalities with a compound name, the format is: "FOOs from Country".

Works of art categories by artist

All categories whose subcategories are categories by creative artist (roughly all categories that are members of

WP:CFD
or publicized there.

Music by composer

For categorizing music by composer, the format is: "Compositions by [composer]".

Compositions by composerOperas by composerSymphonies by composerSongs by composer

Music by performer

For categorizing music by performer, the format is: "[Performer] works".

Albums by artistSongs by artist

Visual arts

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".

Paintings by artistSculptures by artist

Architecture

For categorizing architecture by architect, the format is: "[Architect] buildings", with exceptions for architects involved in more than one type of work.

Buildings and structures by architect

Literature

For categorizing literature by writer, the format is: "[Work]s by [writer]".

Works by writerNovels by writerBooks by writerEssay collections by writerEssays by writerPicture books by writerPlays by writerPoetry by writerShort stories by writerShort story collections by writer

Stage and screen

For categorizing stage and screen works by contributor, the format is: "[Works] by [person]".

Films by directorFilms by screenwriterPlays by writerTelevision shows by writer

Name of the artist

The name used should match the name of the biography article about the person, including any disambiguator, e.g. Category:Books by Peter Carey (novelist). The only exceptions are categories for visual arts, where the name used for the artist may instead match usage within the articles on the works; e.g. Category:Paintings by Sergei Ivanovich Osipov does not have to follow the article name Sergei Osipov (artist).[115]

Works of art categories by subject

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:

Additionally, disambiguation is not always necessary if the subject is unambiguous. For example:

Notes

  1. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2016 October 18#Category:Culture by nationality
  2. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Afghan
  3. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#American
  4. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 May 15#People by nationality sub-category pages
  5. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Antigua and Barbuda
  6. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Argentine
  7. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 April 13#Armenian emigrants
  8. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Aruban
  9. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 May 27#Category:Azerbaijan surnames
  10. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 August 23#Category:Music of Belize
  11. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Bissau-Guinean
  12. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Bosnia and Herzegovina
  13. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Botswana
  14. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#British
  15. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 September 15#Brunei
  16. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 June 17#Category:Burma football clubs
  17. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Canadian
  18. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2007 April 5#Category:Cayman Islands footballers
  19. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2014 July 26#Category:Central African people
  20. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Comorian
  21. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Democratic Republic of the Congo
  22. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Republic of the Congo
  23. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Cook Island
  24. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 January 15#Category:Croatian people
  25. ^ a b Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2013 March 26#Category:Aruban people
  26. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2011 August 7#Category:Czech writers
  27. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Danish
  28. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Dominica
  29. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Dominican Republic
  30. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#East Timorese
  31. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 March 21#Category:United Arab Emirati people
  32. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 January 15#Category:English people
  33. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Equatoguinean
  34. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 June 10#Category:Falkland Islander people
  35. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Equatoguinean
  36. ^ a b User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Filipino / Philippine
  37. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Finnish
  38. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2014 September 21#Category:People from French Guiana
  39. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 November 15#Category:French Polynesian people
  40. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 July 11#Category:Law of Gabon to Category:Gabonese law
  41. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#from/of Georgia (country)
  42. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 January 21#Category:People from Ghana
  43. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 December 7#Category:Gibraltarian people
  44. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 May 6#Category:People of Greenland to Category:Greenlandic people
  45. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Guadeloupe
  46. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2010 October 24#Category:Guamanian musical instruments
  47. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 May 7#Haitian people
  48. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Indian
  49. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Ivorian
  50. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Kazakhstani
  51. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 October 31#Kiribati
  52. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2016 February 12#Kosovar or Kosovan people
  53. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Kyrgyzstani
  54. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Laotian
  55. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Lesotho
  56. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Liechtenstein
  57. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Luxembourgian
  58. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Macau
  59. ^ Per Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Macedonia) § Adjectival form of North Macedonia: "Article names, categories, and templates should avoid adjectival use altogether. The use of neutral formulations such as "of North Macedonia", "in North Macedonia," etc. is preferred."
  60. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 April 16#Category:Madagascan archaeologists
  61. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 January 29#Category:People of the Marshall Islands
  62. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 January 21#Category:People of the Federated States of Micronesia
  63. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Monegasque
  64. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 July 2#Category:Montenegro chess players
  65. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 January 29#Category:Montserrat people
  66. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Luxembourgian
  67. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#New Zealand
  68. ^ a b c Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 January 15#Category:South African people
  69. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Northern Ireland
  70. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 June 3#Category:Women of Pakistan to Category:Pakistani women
  71. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Papua New Guinean
  72. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 September 24#Booian Peruvians to Peruvian people of Booian descent
  73. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Polish
  74. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2016 June 23#Category:People from Puerto Rico
  75. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2014 September 6#Category:People from Réunion and Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2017 January 27#Réunionnais people
  76. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Saint Kitts and Nevis
  77. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 January 13#Category:Vincentian people
  78. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Salvadoran
  79. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 December 16#Category:San Marinese Wikipedians
  80. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 January 14#Category:People from São Tomé and Príncipe
  81. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Saudi Arabian
  82. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Scottish
  83. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Singaporean
  84. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Slovak
  85. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Slovenian
  86. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Solomon Islands
  87. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2010 October 12#Category:Somali people
  88. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2011 July 24#Category:Southern Sudan politicians
  89. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Spanish
  90. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2007 August 14#Category:People from Suriname
  91. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Swedish
  92. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 September 7#Swiss people
  93. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Tajikistani
  94. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Trinidad and Tobago
  95. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 February 19#Category:People from Tunisia
  96. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 October 14#Turks to Turkish people
  97. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2010 April 17#Category:Turkmen people
  98. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 June 10#Category:Turks and Caicos Islander people
  99. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2011 May 19#Category:People from Tuvalu
  100. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#United States Virgin Islands
  101. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Uzbekistani
  102. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2009 January 20#Ni-Vanuatu
  103. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2022 September 4#Category:People of the Russian Empire
  104. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Czechoslovak
  105. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 July 23#Category:Antillean baseball players
  106. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#West German
  107. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2017 September 13#Ottoman people
  108. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2020 December 3#Russian Empire people
  109. ^ 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.
  110. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Serbia and Montenegro
  111. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Soviet
  112. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Republic of Venice
  113. ^ 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".
  114. ^ User:Good Olfactory/CFR#Yugoslav
  115. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2020 September 28#Various author and painter categories
  116. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2020 September 28#Entombment of Christ
  117. ^ Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2020 September 28#Art of mythology