Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization)
This consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
This page in a nutshell: Article titles should be in proper names . |
Do not capitalize the second or subsequent words in an article title, unless the title is a proper name. For multiword page titles, one should leave the second and subsequent words in lowercase unless the title phrase is a
This convention often also applies within the article body, as there is usually no good reason to use capitals. Outside Wikipedia, and within certain specific fields (such as medicine), the usage of all-capital terms may be a common way to feature new or important items. However, these cases are typically examples of buzzwords, which by capitalization are (improperly) given special emphasis.
For details on when to capitalize on Wikipedia, see the Wikipedia Manual of Style sections on capital letters and, when relevant, on trademarks. When in doubt, reliable reference works for capitalization conventions and other style matters may be useful.[1] Note that all style guides conflict on some points; the Wikipedia MoS and naming conventions are a consensus-based balance between them, drawing primarily upon academic style, not journalistic or marketing/business styles, and taking into account Wikipedia-specific concerns.
Software characteristics
The software treats all page titles as beginning with a capital letter (unless the first character is not a letter). For information on how to display article titles beginning with lower-case letters (as in eBay), or category titles (as in Category:macOS) see WP:Naming conventions (technical restrictions) § Lowercase first letter.
However, when you create a link with the first letter of the link uncapitalized, as in swimming pool, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized in the URL by the software, thus going to the article Swimming pool in this example. However, the remainder of the link (after the initial character) is case-sensitive.
Searching using the Go or Search button is, generally speaking, case-insensitive. It is not necessary to create redirects from alternative capitalizations, unless editors are likely to link from the differently capitalized form. For example,
Specific topics and examples
Page names that differ only by capitalization
It is occasionally acceptable to create two articles (on different topics) with titles that differ only in capitalization, such as Duck sauce and Duck Sauce. If this arises, place a hatnote at the top of each page, linking each to a dedicated disambiguation page or to the other article. It is also acceptable to use names that are differentiated in other ways; which approach should be taken may vary from case to case, balancing such considerations as the risk of confusion in using one set of names against the departure from brevity and common usage in using the other.
Titles of works
In general, each word in English titles of
Organisms
English common names of species and of general types of organisms are not capitalized, and article titles about them are sentence-cased, except where
Capitalization of expressions borrowed from other languages
For French, see for instance
- Art Nouveau is how the name of a certain art movement is most often written in English; but art nouveau is how it is written in French.
Expressions
For expressions borrowed from other languages a two-step approach is advised (example explained for expressions borrowed from French):
- Check whether or not a French expression has been adopted in English as a loan word: if it is, follow the usual English capitalization rules, as explained in other parts of this page.
- If the French expression is untranslated (not a loanword), follow French capitalization practice. For French: some expressions are not capitalized at all (e.g., fin de siècle), others have a capitalization of the first word.
For Spanish, German, and any language usually written in the Latin alphabet the same (or something similar) would apply.
Works and compositions
If the article is about a creative or academic work (such as a book or other written work, movie, album, song, or composition) with a title in a foreign language, or by a non-English-speaking creator, retain the style of the original for modern works. For historical works, follow the dominant usage in modern, English-language,
Place names
Examples
- Multiword articles: Practical joke, Particle physics, 1993 Russian constitutional crisis
- Proper names: North America, William Shakespeare, International Phonetic Association
- Proper names within article titles: History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991), Politics of the United States
- Titles of books and other works: A New Kind of Science, Ghost in the Shell, Oliver Twist. Such titles often need to be italicized; .
See also
- Wikipedia:Article titles § Article title format – relevant policy
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters – guideline
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Trademarks – guideline
- Wikipedia:Moving a page – how-to
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Albums (capital letters)– essay
Notes
- ^ Current editions of some mainstream, general style references frequently used by MoS editors (current editions as of 2017):[update]
- The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed., Chicago University Press, 2017)
- The Elements of Style (Strunk & White, 4th ed., Longman, 1999)
- Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage(Butterfield, 4th ed., Oxford U. Press, 2015)
- Garner's Modern English Usage (4th ed., Oxford University Press, 2016)
- New Hart's Rules(Waddingham, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2015)
- ^ "Pageviews Analysis". tools.wmflabs.org.
- ^ "Pageviews Analysis". tools.wmflabs.org.