Wikipedia : Naming conventions (geographic names)

, which is also the BGN conventional name. Where it acknowledges a conventional name, it is evidence of widespread English usage; where it does not, it is not addressing our primary question.

WP:WIAN

A name can be considered as widely accepted if a neutral and reliable source states: "X is the name most often used for this entity". Without such an assertion, the following sources may be helpful in establishing a widely accepted name. It is important that the sources be from the appropriate period, namely, the modern era for current names, or the relevant historical period for historical names. For modern sources, it is important to identify any recent watershed moments in the location's history (such as the fall of the Soviet Union for Eastern Europe, or other revolutions, invasions and nationality changes), and limit sources to those published after that watershed.

Disinterested, authoritative reference works are almost always reliable (assuming they are current). Examples include:
- major English-language encyclopedias (examples: Encyclopædia Britannica, Columbia Encyclopedia);
- widely used atlases (examples: The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, the Oxford Atlas of the World);
- gazetteers (examples: Cambridge World Gazetteer, Columbia Gazetteer of North America, Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America);
- databases such as the Geographic Names Information System;
- maps (such as those from the National Geographic Society), whether printed or electronic.
- Many governments have an agency to standardize the use of place names, such as the United States Board on Geographic Names (see BGN below), the Geographical Names Board of Canada, etc.
- For modern country names, The World Factbook [1] maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency is current and continuously updated.
- For spelling of place names, a good reference is Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary.
English-language news media can also be very reliable sources. Due caution must be given to the possibility of bias in some, such as for nationalistic, religious or political reasons. However, major global sources are generally reliable, such as major authoritative English-language newspapers (examples: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times of London) or wire services (examples: Reuters, Associated Press). Google News and LexisNexis search results can provide a quick guide to the relative predominance of alternative names across the media as a whole, provided the search parameters are properly set, but as with all raw search numbers, they should be used with caution.
Also generally reliable are standard histories and scientific studies of the area in question (examples: Cambridge Histories; the Library of Congress country studies; Library of Congress Subject Headings; and Oxford dictionaries). However, due caution is needed in case they are dated, not relevant to the period in question, or written by a non-native speaker of English.
Some sources require individual analysis to be useful; these include books and articles, such as those found at Google Scholar or Google Books. They must be looked at individually for accuracy, possible bias, and appropriateness of period. Even if a book or scholarly article was written after watershed events that resulted in a name change, it may use historical place names in the context of the work.
The Google Scholar and Google Books search engines can provide helpful results, if parameters are properly set. In particular, a Google Ngram Viewer search of Google Books can provide valuable insights. But even a widely recognized name change will take time to be reflected in such searches, as they may still include references to the place name before the change. Also, relatively obscure places that have a major impact on history during a particular time period will continue to show disproportionately large search returns for the location's name during that period.
Raw counts from Google must be considered with extreme caution, if at all.
See also Search engine issues below.

BGN

The

Moskva – Wikipedia prefers Moscow

Be aware of the conflict between what is widely accepted and what is official in several contexts.

There have been widespread efforts since the 1980s at the USBGN level and at state government level to remove racial slurs ("Jap", "Chink", "Squaw", and others) from official names, which may conflict with the widespread usage in historic documents. The most commonly-used name might not necessarily be the most up-to-date and accurate name. Or, vice versa, the official USBGN name might not yet have caught up with official state-level changes.

For technical reasons relating to EBCDIC, which used to be the default encoding format for computer-readable versions of the data, GNIS records for a long time were unable to include diacritic characters. The use of the tilde in Spanish names took some years to be reflected, for example.
Phase 2 of the GNIS data compilation set out to add names from state and local sources; and phase 3 set out to correct for differences between actual names in use and what USGS topographic maps had said prior to 1981 (the cutoff point for phase 1). Phase 3 never happened, however, and the currency of phase 2 varies as different states completed phase 2 at different points over a span of more than a decade.

Search engine issues

Search engine tests should be used with care: in testing whether a name is widely accepted English usage, we are interested in hits which are in English, represent English usage, mean the place in question, and are not duplicates of each other or of Wikipedia. Search engine results can fail on all of these.

Google may give unreliable estimates at the onset of a search; it is often preferable to restrict the competing searches to less than 1000 hits, and examine the number of hits on the final page. Google does not return more than 1,000 actual results;^[1] hit counts above this are estimates which cannot readily be examined, and are imperfect evidence of actual usage. Adding additional search terms may reduce the number of hits to this range, but adds additional random variance.

Failure to use only English sources:
- Language-filtered searches include works that contain only brief English sections. These sections may not discuss the place name in question.
- Search engines will find hits when a paper in English is quoting foreign text, which may well include foreign placenames. This often occurs when citing a paper by title. For example, hits which are in fact citations of German papers which use Riesengebirge
  are not evidence of English usage, either way.
Failure to reflect only English usage:
- Google Scholar will frequently return post office addresses, especially for modern university towns. This attests to local usage, not to English usage (except of course for settlements in the English-speaking world, for which local usage should prevail).
- Search engines do not normally distinguish consistent use of a name from a single mention. Any good history of Venice will mention Venezia at least once; any good history of Bratislava will mention Pressburg. But what we want is the word they consistently use to refer to the city; it is very difficult to find that with a search engine, especially when the question is: does the source call nineteenth- or eighteenth-century Bratislava something different?
  - For example, hits which are of the form "X (Foolanguage Y)" attest to English usage of X, and Foolanguage usage of Y. The latter matters to the Foolanguage Wikipedia, not to us.
- Please remember that Google Scholar and Google Books are imperfectly random selections out of the whole corpus of English writing. If the results could easily have arisen by chance (for example, if there are only half-a-dozen or so valid hits on all the alternatives combined), this is not a good indicator of widespread English usage.
Failure to be about the place under discussion:
- Many names are used for several places, often several places of the same type. In addition, many placenames have become surnames, and papers which are by authors with those surnames do not establish English usage for the placename.
Failure to represent independent usage of the name:
- Some websites mechanically copy and compile other websites, including Wikipedia itself. These should not be counted as separate instances of English usage, but as the same instance duplicated. Wikipedia mirrors and forks, which may also appear in Google Book or Google Scholar searches, are unacceptable sources. When using Google search results as a usage metric, always include "-wikipedia" in the search conditions. This will exclude some, although not all, Wikipedia mirrors.

Some of these problems will be lessened if the search includes an English word, like "city" or "river", as well as the placename. (If this is done with one proposed placename, it must of course be done for all competing proposals.) Another approach is to examine the first few pages of hits, and see what proportion of them are false hits. But the only certain control is to count how many hits are genuinely in English, assert English usage, and deal with the place discussed.

Another useful idea, especially when one name seems to be used often in the construct "X (also called Y)" in sources that consistently use X thereafter, is to search for "and X" against "and Y" (or "in X" versus "in Y") to see which is common in running prose.

Multiple local names

, which in various contexts is referred to as Vilnius, Wilno or Vilna.

WP:MLN

There are cases in which the local authority recognizes equally two or more names from different languages, but English discussion of the place is so limited that none of the above tests indicate which of them is widely used in English; so there is no single local name, and English usage is hard to determine.

Experience shows that the straightforward solution of a double or triple name is often unsatisfactory; there are all too many complaints that one or the other name should be first. We also deprecate any discussion of which name the place ought to have.

We recommend choosing a single name, by some objective criterion, even a somewhat arbitrary one. Simple

Google tests are acceptable to settle the matter, despite their problems; one solution is to follow English usage where it can be determined, and to adopt the name used by the linguistic majority where English usage is indecisive. This has been done, for example, with the municipalities of South Tyrol, based on an officially published linguistic survey of the area (see Italy

below).

In some cases, a compromise is reached between editors to avoid giving the impression of support for a particular national point of view. For example, the reasonably common name Liancourt Rocks has been adopted, mainly because it is neither Korean nor Japanese. Similarly, Wikipedia's version of the Derry/Londonderry name dispute has been resolved by naming the city page Derry and the county page County Londonderry.

There are occasional exceptions, such as Biel/Bienne, when the double name is the overwhelmingly most common name in English (in this case, it has become most common because it is official and customary in Switzerland; the usage does not appear to be controversial). This should not be done to settle a dispute between national or linguistic points of view; it should only be done when the double name is actually what English-speakers call the place.

Use modern names

Shortcuts

For an article about a place whose name has changed over time, context is important. For articles discussing the present, use the modern English name (or local name, if there is no established English name), rather than an older one. Older names should be used in appropriate historical contexts when a substantial majority of reliable modern sources do the same; this includes the names of articles relating to particular historical periods. Names have changed both because cities have been formally renamed and because cities have been taken from one state by another; in both cases, however, we are interested in what reliable English-language sources now use.

For example, we have articles called

Talk:Gdansk/Vote apply to that dispute; they are older than this page). There are other cities for which policy is still debated, such as Vilnius

In some cases it is not the local name but the spelling of the name in English that has changed over time. For example,

Nanking. However, the article on the Treaty of Nanking

spells the city as was customary in 1842, because modern English scholarship still does.

Another example is Mumbai, which officially changed its name from Bombay in 1995. Per Wikipedia's naming policy, our choice of name does not automatically follow the official or local form, but depends on that change having become predominant in common global usage. That can be assessed by reviewing up-to-date references to the place in a modern context in reliable, authoritative sources such as news media, other encyclopedias, atlases and academic publications as well as the official publications of major English-speaking countries, for example the CIA World Factbook.

Alternative names

In some places, place names may be controversial

Wikipedia articles must have a single title, by the design of the system; this page is intended to help editors agree on which name of a place is to appear as the title.

Nevertheless, other names, especially those used significantly often (say, 10% of the time or more) in the available English literature on a place, past or present, should be mentioned in the article, as encyclopedic information. Two or three alternative names can be mentioned in the first line of the article; it is general Wikipedia practice to

bold them

so they stand out. If there are more names than this, or the lead section is cluttered, a separate paragraph on the names of the place is often a good idea.

Disambiguation

Shortcuts

It is often the case that the same widely accepted English name will apply to more than one place, or to a place and to other things; in either case disambiguation will be necessary. For general rules about this topic, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation.

The following should be considered in disambiguating the names of places.

If a place is the
Danzig redirects to Gdańsk
.

When there are conventional means of disambiguation in standard English, use them, as in

state of New York

Rivers, lakes and mountains often include the word River, Lake or Mount in the name; national conventions and idiom should be followed in this matter. For example, rivers in the UK and Ireland follow the pattern River Thames, while those in the United States follow Mississippi River. For many countries the additional word is used when needed for disambiguation purposes, but is otherwise omitted: compare Jade (river) or Achelous River (which require disambiguation) with Rhine (which does not). See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Rivers § Naming.

In some cases, the article title should include additional text, such as a country name or province name, for example,

disambiguation tag

. The disambiguation tag provides context to the reader, and helps uniquely identify places when multiple places share the same name. The following general principles apply to such tags:

Places are often disambiguated by the country in which they lie. If using the country name would still lead to ambiguity, use the name of a smaller administrative division (such as a state or province) instead.
However, for some countries specific naming conventions recommend using a sub-national entity (state, province, county, prefecture or similar) as the disambiguation tag. See § Region-specific guidance below.
In some cases, including most settlements in the United States, the title should include state name as a comma-separated tag, even when it is not needed for disambiguation.
With the names of cities, towns, villages and other settlements, the tag is normally preceded by a comma, as in Hel, Poland. This is often applied to low-level administrative units as well (Polk County, Tennessee), but less so for larger subdivisions or historical regions (Galicia (Spain); Nord (French department)). Any specific national convention takes precedence though.
With natural features, the tag normally appears in parentheses, as in Eagle River (Colorado). Specific national conventions may take precedence though.
Rivers can also be disambiguated by the body of water into which they flow.
Generic parenthetical disambiguating tags as used for most Wikipedia articles are used only occasionally for geographic names (as in Wolin (town), where no regional tag would be sufficient to distinguish the town from the island of Wolin).

If specific disambiguation conventions apply to places of a particular type or in a particular country, then it is important to follow these. Such conventions (or links to them) can be found in the section below titled Specific topics. If a country has no convention listed, and there is a clear pattern among the articles on places in that country, follow it. Please note any such pattern here, as a proposed national convention.

Order of names in title

Where multiple geographic names occur in a title, the names should be placed in alphabetical order unless there is a clear reason for another order. Examples: France–United States relations, but Turks and Caicos Islands or Kura–Araxes culture (both established names).

Names of classes

If a place belongs to a class, and the class is conventionally capitalized as part of the proper name of the place, then Wikipedia capitalizes that class name (conversely, lowercase otherwise) whether the name appears in a sentence or a heading or a title; e.g. Buenos Aires Province and not "Buenos Aires province", Mississippi River not "Mississippi river".

Some class names are not considered parts of proper names, but rather descriptors, as in

Bongaigaon District

. As usual, we look to sources to determine what is conventionally capitalized.

When the class name appears in a disambiguator, it is generally lowercase; e.g. Rio de Janeiro (state) not "Rio de Janeiro (State)", Pegnitz (river) not "Pegnitz (River)".

Specific topics

Administrative subdivisions

WP:NCCS

Names of classes of places follow the same guidance: do what English does. For example, we write of Russian oblasts (e.g. Moscow Oblast), but of Chinese and Roman provinces, not sheng or provinciae, since that is the prevalent usage in English. However, English usage is sometimes inconsistent or too small, in which case the naming is a matter of editorial decision; for example, we have gminas (rather than municipalities) of Poland but municipalities (rather than comuni) of Italy.

It is useful for all divisions of the same type in a country to share the same article title format (for example, nearly all provinces of Italy have the format "Province of X"), so if one district has its article renamed from X to X District, it is worth discussing whether the same should be done with all districts in the country. But titles should not be forced into uniformity when this would be a violation of idiom or otherwise inappropriate (for example, when the administrative unit is coterminous with an island and covered in the same article); it should be decided in each case on its merits.

Natural features

For further guidance on the naming of articles about lakes, mountains and rivers, see:

Region-specific guidance

Where there is no Wikipedia convention on a specific country and disambiguation is necessary, it is generally reasonable to use [[placename, nation]], as in

Shire, Ethiopia

.

When naming topics related to some specific country, prefer the form "(Item) of (Country)" over forms with adjectives (for example,

Japanese history). See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (country-specific topics)

, they are often used in village name disambiguation, instead of higher-level administrative units.

The pages and categories below represent what discussion and opinions have actually taken place in Wikipedia. Their force consists of the force of their arguments and the extent of the consensus that backs them; listing here does not warrant either virtue.

East Asia

China

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese) § Place names. Use provinces or similar units for disambiguation.

See also Hong Kong conventions, below; and

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/China-related articles

.

Hong Kong

Where possible, articles on places in Hong Kong use [[Placename]]. Where disambiguation is required, [[Placename, Hong Kong]] is used. Thus Quarry Bay but Stanley, Hong Kong. In some cases, nevertheless, [[Placename, Kowloon]], [[Placename, New Kowloon]], etc., may be necessary for several locations within Hong Kong bearing the same name.

Macau/Macao

Macau is spelled idiomatically either with a "u" or an "o" as last letter. For consistency on Wikipedia, title articles using the "u" spelling unless a proper name in English uses the "o" spelling.

Japan

See

Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles)

.

Korea

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Korean) and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Korea-related articles.

Mongolia

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Mongolian).

Europe and North Asia

Albania

For places in Albania, use the indefinite Albanian name (e.g. "Vlorë", "Durrës").

Belarus

Major cities (

national rules

(exceptions may be discussed case by case).

Belgium

Native English names for places should be used, but the local language's name if there isn't one. The Brussels naming conventions should be used for articles related to Brussels. For castles or stately homes, these naming conventions should be used.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Populated places use undisambiguated title, where applicable.

Geographic names are generally subject to standard rules from

entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina or cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Finland

See Toponyms of Finland.

Article titles should be in the majority language (Finnish or Swedish) of the province, municipality, region or sub-region, unless there is a well-established name in English. The minority language of the area should be mentioned in the lead in italics. Any second name needs to be referenced by a reliable secondary source; often the best will be recognition by the Institute for the Languages of Finland (see a list of Swedish-language placenames).

The secondary names of municipalities should not be mentioned in other articles than the article about the municipality itself. For instance, "Helsinki (Swedish: Helsingfors)" should not be used anywhere else than in the lead section of Helsinki, unless it is of a special interest in some context.

For places in the

Sami languages

should be mentioned in the article's lead in italics.

France

See

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/France and French-related

Germany

Where possible, articles on places in Germany use [[placename]] unless there is a common English name (e.g. Munich or Nuremberg). Where disambiguation is required, follow the official disambiguation system which may take 3 forms:

Part of the official name itself often using a river, nearby settlement, region or state. Examples: Offenbach am Main, Rothenburg ob der Tauber; Neustadt bei Coburg, Bernau bei Berlin; Zell im Fichtelgebirge, Eschenbach in der Oberpfalz; Neustadt in Sachsen.
In brackets after the name, based on the local district, river, settlement, region or state. The brackets are often an official part of the name and appear on road signs. Examples:
Kempten (Allgäu) (after the Allgäu
region).

After a forward slash (noting that this is currently deprecated. Brackets may be used instead). Example:

Harz mountains

Wikipedia:WikiProject Germany/Conventions

For further guidance on German placenames, including geographical and man-made features, see

Ireland

Where possible, articles on places in Ireland use [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is required, [[placename, County x]] is used. Thus Castlebar but Westport, County Mayo. This same convention applies to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. For further guidance see

Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Ireland-related articles)

.

Isle of Man

Where possible, articles on places on the Isle of Man use [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is required, [[placename, Isle of Man]] is used. Thus Onchan but Peel, Isle of Man.

Italy

Where possible, articles on places in Italy use [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is required, places in Italy are disambiguated using the "comma convention" by the larger of the region, province or municipality needed to identify it uniquely, as appropriate, not as Placename, Italy. The autonomous provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino are treated like de facto regions. Places in those provinces that require disambiguation take the form Placename, South Tyrol or Placename, Trentino respectively.

Articles previously used the two-letter abbreviations for the provinces: these should no longer be used.

Examples:

Two locations in different regions: Castro, Apulia, and Castro, Lombardy;
Two locations in the same province: Ronchi, Bra, and Ronchi, Cuneo (both in the Province of Cuneo);
Two locations in the same region, and a third in a different region:
Manciano, Umbria
.

The region containing the autonomous provinces of Trentino and South Tyrol is referred to as Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.

South Tyrol

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Poland-related articles.

WP:NBZ

In South Tyrol, the local authority recognizes equally two or more names from different languages, and English discussion is often so limited that none of the above tests indicate which of them is widely used in English. However, there is an official linguistic survey of the area, by municipality, which has the following advantages:

It is available on-line, and officially published.
The proportions of the various language groups are fairly stable.
Most municipalities have a large majority, often a 90% majority, of one language group.
In the few cases where there is a widely used English name, it is usually that of the majority language group.

Therefore, articles about locations in South Tyrol are placed according to the language of the linguistic majority.

Macedonia

For the name of the country and the homonymous region, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Macedonia)

Poland

Russia

WP:RUSPLACE

This naming convention covers all

types of inhabited localities in Russia

: cities/towns, urban-type settlements, and all kinds of rural localities.

When a place does not have a

WP:RUS default romanization guidelines

.

When the name of the locality is not unique within Russia, use the comma-separated name of the federal subject on the territory of which the locality is situated (e.g., Oktyabrsky, Republic of Bashkortostan). If the name of the locality is not unique within a federal subject, precede the federal subject disambiguator with the name of the district on the territory of which the locality is situated (e.g., Mrakovo, Kugarchinsky District, Republic of Bashkortostan). If the title is still ambiguous, lower levels of administrative divisions and/or parenthesized locality type can be used for further disambiguation.
When the name of the locality is unique within Russia, but conflicts with the name of another locality in a different country, disambiguate the name with "Russia" (e.g., Dimitrovgrad, Russia).
When the name of the locality is unique, but conflicts with the name of a different concept, use the parenthesized locality type as disambiguator (e.g., Dikson (urban-type settlement)).

Titles of articles about the administrative divisions follow the same principles.

Serbia

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Swiss municipalities/Article title conventions.

WP:SRBPLACE

Populated places use undisambiguated title, where applicable. When disambiguation is needed, follow the convention:

Raška (town) is distinct from Raška (river) or Raška (region)
.

Villages are always (regardless of reason) disambiguated using municipality name, for consistency: Crna Bara (Aleksinac), Jaša Tomić, Sečanj etc.

Other geographic names are subject to standard rules from § Disambiguation.

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom

WP:UKPLACE

Where possible, articles on places in the United Kingdom use [[placename]]. Where disambiguation is required, a different system is used in each of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

If disambiguation is required, and the place is in the same local government district as a larger settlement and it is unambiguously within that larger settlement itself, [[placename, town/city]] should be used. For example,

Sailortown, Belfast

.

Disambiguation should not normally be to England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and never to

former postal county

or postcode district.

England

Shortcuts

Where disambiguation is required, [[placename, ceremonial county]] is normally used. For example, Halling, Kent.

When the city and county use variants of the same name, disambiguate with England for clarity throughout the English-speaking world; thus

Lincoln, Lincolnshire

.

For locations within Greater London, [[placename, London]] should be used.

When further disambiguation is required, districts should be used. For example, Belmont, Sutton, and Belmont, Harrow; both in London.

If there are multiple places of the same name within the same district, then

wards, or lowercase compass directions should be used as appropriate to identify the relative locations. For example, Woolston, north Shropshire, and Woolston, south Shropshire

; both in Shropshire.

Wales

Where disambiguation is required [[placename,

principal area]] is normally used. For example, Queensferry, Flintshire

Following discussion at Wikipedia talk:Welsh Wikipedians' notice board it was agreed that where a county borough is to be disambiguated, it should go under [[Placename County Borough]]. Thus Conwy County Borough, not County Borough of Conwy, Conwy (county borough) or Conwy county borough.

Scotland

WP:SCOTLANDPLACE

Where disambiguation is required [[placename,

council area]] is normally used. For example, Cullen, Moray

When disambiguation is required for a settlement on a Scottish Island, [[placename, island/island chain]] is used. For example, Tarbert, Harris and Balfour, Orkney. Lewis and Harris are treated as separate islands for this purpose.

If further disambiguation is required, then another form of natural and recognisable disambiguation should be used, such as traditional regions, committee areas etc. For example, Kinnaird, Gowrie; and Kinnaird, Atholl; both in Scotland and in Perth and Kinross.

Exceptions include:

The number of larger settlements or islands that are likely to be well known outside of the region, that also require disambiguation such as Perth, Scotland, and Jura, Scotland.
Settlements in Argyll and Bute. Mainland Argyll settlements should be styled [[placename, Argyll]]. For example, Tarbet, Argyll.
Settlements in the Highland council area. Where disambiguation is required, [[placename, District]] should be used. For example, Wick, Caithness. However, mainland Skye and Lochalsh settlements should be styled [[placename, Lochalsh]].

Northern Ireland

Where disambiguation is required, [[placename,

Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Ireland-related articles)

.

Latin America

In Latin America a lot of entities have the same names, therefore some coordination is done for toponyms from this region.

Argentina

Where possible, articles on places in Argentina use [[Placename]]. Where disambiguation is required, [[Placename, Argentina]] is used. See Category:Populated places in Argentina and its subcategories. For the South Atlantic islands, see the § Falkland Islands section.

Brazil

Where possible, articles on cities in Brazil use [[Cityname]]. Where disambiguation is required, [[Cityname, Brazil]] is used. An exception applies when the city name and the state name are the same: Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (state); São Paulo, São Paulo (state).

Mexico

Where possible, articles on places in

Nogales, Sonora, or Córdoba, Veracruz). The cities that share names with states have been placed at [[Placename City]]], with the state taking the [[Placename]] location: for example, Oaxaca City, (city) and Oaxaca

(state).

Northern America and the Caribbean

Bermuda

All geographic articles relating to places in Bermuda have titles in the form XXX, Bermuda, irrespective of the type of landform the article's subject is, and irrespective of whether disambiguation is necessary. Thus, for example, the article on Perot Island is at

Perot Island

Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Canada-related articles) § Article names

Canada

See

Wikipedia:Trinidad and Tobago Wikipedians' notice board/Style guide

Trinidad and Tobago

See

United States

WP:USPLACE

According to the comma convention, articles about populated places of the

Callicoon (town), New York, but not "Callicoon, New York (CDP)"). A small number of unincorporated communities bear two states' names due to their peculiar locations across state lines (e.g., Glenrio, New Mexico and Texas

Articles on US cities should never be titled "City, Country" (e.g., "Detroit, United States") or "City, State, Country" (e.g., "Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.") because that is contrary to general American usage. Postal abbreviations (such as CA or Calif. for California) are never used in article titles. (For postal abbreviations in articles, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Abbreviations § Special considerations.)

Articles titled in the "City, State" format should also have a stand-alone

Nashville

" alone, which redirects to the city's page.

When a place-name title continues past the state name (other than with a parenthetical), for example

MOS:COMMA

).

Counties and parishes

Articles on counties and parishes themselves are typically titled "X County, State" or "X Parish, State".

Metropolitan areas

Articles on metropolitan areas may take one of the following titles:

A commonly used name; for example, Central Arkansas is the metropolitan area centered on Little Rock, Arkansas.
"[city name] metropolitan area" (omitting the state name), if there is no other metropolitan area with this name; this applies even if the city's own article has a state name; for example, Sacramento metropolitan area is the metropolitan area centered on Sacramento, California.
"[city name] metropolitan area, [state name]" if disambiguation is needed; for example, Rochester metropolitan area, Minnesota and Rochester metropolitan area, New York

Major cities

Cities listed in the AP Stylebook^[2] as not requiring the state modifier in newspaper articles have their articles named "City" unless they are not the primary topic for that name.^[3] In other cases, this guideline recommends following the "comma convention" as described above.^[4]

New York City neighborhoods

WP:NYCPLACE

Neighborhoods within

five boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens or Staten Island

vary from state to state. For example, articles on townships in Indiana are all entitled X Township, Y County, Indiana regardless of the need for the county name to disambiguate; articles on townships in New Jersey are generally titled X, New Jersey or X Township, New Jersey according to common usage. Any change in convention should be determined on a statewide basis.

Minor civil divisions

Conventions for titles of articles about

minor civil divisions

Highways

U.S. highways should be listed as is found in WP:Naming conventions (U.S. state and territory highways).

Hawaii has different conventions per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Hawaii-related articles.

Oceania

Australia

, which needs to be disambiguated from its namesake in the UK. State/territory names should not be abbreviated in article titles.

WP:NCAUST

Most Australian settlement articles are at Town, State/Territory; however, the name of a city or town may be used alone if the place is the

primary or only topic for that name (e.g., Sydney rather than [[Sydney, New South Wales]]). Note cases such as Newcastle, New South Wales

Localities (other than suburbs) and places such as train stations, parks, etc., may be disambiguated, where necessary, by reference to city rather than state (e.g.,

The Rocks, Sydney

, rather than [[The Rocks, New South Wales]]).

Local government areas are at their official name. Where further disambiguation is required, the local government area name is used in parentheses following the state name: [[Town, State (Local Government Area)]] (such as Springfield, Victoria (Macedon Ranges)).

For Australian roads, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Australian roads).

Hawaii

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Hawaii-related articles.

Micronesia, Federated States of

When referring to the Federated States of Micronesia, the long-form is preferred. There is no official short-form name for the country. The use of simply "Micronesia" can be seen as inaccurate and ambiguous, since this name primarily refers to a geographic region.

New Zealand

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (New Zealand).

South and Southeast Asia

Bangladesh

A guideline in conjunction with this convention is adopted and described at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (places in Bangladesh).

India

WP:NCIND

Levels below the country level are used in cases where disambiguation is needed. This means one would start with either the state/territory or the district. Most Indian place names have serious spelling issues because of their local language origin. But district names have more uniformly accepted names and they can be checked at

Tanur, India

as Tanur can appear in different parts of India.

Indonesia

Where possible, articles on places in Indonesia use [[Placename]]. Where disambiguation with a place outside of Indonesia is required, [[Placename, Indonesia]] is used, if disambiguation between two places in Indonesia is required, [[Placename, Province]] is used.

Names of places should generally use the English name, unless it is more commonly known in English sources by the local name. For example, mountains should be titled [[Name Mountain]] rather than [[Gunung Name]], rivers should be titled [[Name River]] rather than [[Sungai Name]], and islands should be titled [[Name Island]] rather than [[Pulau Name]].

Malaysia

Where possible, articles on places in Malaysia use [[Placename]]. Where disambiguation with a place outside of Malaysia is required, [[Placename, Malaysia]] is used, if disambiguation between two places in Malaysia is required, [[Placename, Statename]] is used.

Districts are given in the form [[Placename District]].

Names of places should generally use the English name, unless it is more commonly known in English sources by the local name. For example, mountains should be titled [[Name Mountain]] rather than [[Gunung Name]], rivers should be titled [[Name River]] rather than [[Sungai Name]], and islands should be titled [[Name Island]] rather than [[Pulau Name]].

Philippines

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Philippine-related articles

Where possible, articles on cities use [[Cityname]] (e.g.,

Angeles, Philippines). Municipality articles follow the format [[Municipalityname]], and if disambiguation is needed or is necessary, [[Municipalityname, Provincename]] (e.g., Baganga and San Pascual, Masbate

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Singapore-related articles.

Singapore

Vietnam

WP:VIETPLACE

Where possible, articles on cities (thành phố) and towns (thị xã) use [[Placename]]. Urban districts (quận) and rural districts (huyện) are given in the form [[Placename District]]. Provinces (tỉnh) are given in the form [[Placename Province]].

Where disambiguation is required, the "Provincename" and the comma convention is used, thus [[Cityname, Provincename]] or for districts [[Placename District, Provincename]].

West Asia

Iran

Where possible, articles on places in Iran use [[Placename]]. Where disambiguation is required, name of the highest available administrative subdivision is used (but its level is not included in the title): thus Tidar, Lorestan and not Tidar, Lorestan Province. The two places called Tidar in Hormozgan Province can be found at Tidar, Bashagard, and Tidar, Hajjiabad (not at Tidar, Bashagard, Hormozgan, or some such, unless disambiguation of Tidar in Bashagard is needed - which should be quite uncommon).

Ostan is translated as "Province"; Shahrestan is translated as "County"; Bakhsh is translated as "District"; and Dehestan is translated as "Rural District"; and these translations are used throughout. Generic geographic terms such as "river", "mountain", "island", "castle", and modifiers such as "north", "old", "new", "red", should be translated except when in names of populated places: thus Qaleh Sorkh, not "Sorkh Castle" or "Red Castle". If no common English usage is found, use the official name, including Shahrak ("town") and Deh ("village") – as these terms often distinguish the place from another place of similar or identical name. Inclusion of spaces in place names should follow English sources, if available, or official usage.

Places with the same Persian name should generally be spelled the same in English, e.g. Hajjiabad, Hajiabad, Haji Abad, Hajji Abad, and various should all be "Hajjiabad" as that is the dominant transliteration, unless another form for a particular Hajjiabad is used in a majority of sources. Linking from a disambiguation page is required for all deviant spellings to enable a user to find the Hajjiabad in question.

Israel–Palestine

See Naming conventions (West Bank)

A convention was under discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Israel/Archive 2 § Wikipedia:Naming conventions (settlements).

Other

Falkland Islands