Memory Alpha:Naming conventions

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This page describes one of Memory Alpha's policies and guidelines.
Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

This page is a list of guidelines on how to name pages.

An article's name should be as precise and simple as possible. In general, the name should be the most complete, commonly used name for the subject. In the case of multiple names, it is expected that redirect pages be created for the alternate names.

The primary purpose of these policies is to simplify the process of choosing a name for a new article. When writing an article on any subject, the names, words, and phrases that you think should be linked to further information should be [[bracketed]], so that they form links to new articles.

Remember that like most of our rules, these conventions are not absolute. However, if there is a doubt about how a page should be named, it's best to follow the convention first.

General conventions

• Links are case-sensitive. [[Akira class]] and [[Akira Class]] link to different pages, an additional reason to make sure you are using the preferred capitalization.
  • Exception: The first letter of a link may be lowercase – [[Warp drive]] and [[warp drive]] link to the same page. Complicated constructs using pipe links are unnecessary in this case.
• Lowercase second and subsequent words. Unless the title of the article is a proper noun, all words except the first should be lowercase, not capitalized (i.e. sentence case). For example, use [[Photon torpedo]], not [[Photon Torpedo]].
• Use singular nouns. Because the wiki engine will allow you to append suffixes after a link, it's best to use the singular form of all words, unless the subject is generally always in the plural form. For example, use [[economics]] and [[photon torpedo]], but not [[photon torpedoes]].
• Use the most encyclopedic name. Generally, the most encyclopedic name for an article is the most complete and commonly used name.
  • Use redirects. Use redirects for any other names or commonly used shorter names for the subject, preferably linking alternate name(s) to their source(s) of origin for validation. For example, Quark's redirects to Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House and Holosuite Arcade.
• Be precise. Ambiguously-named articles will likely create confusion for readers. See also: Disambiguation.
• Use spelled-out phrases, not acronyms. Well-known acronyms can be used as redirects for easy linking, like NASA or LCARS.
• Don't create subpages. Although the wiki engine accepts the slash ("/") character in article titles, refrain from using it to suggest a hierarchy of articles. A name like [[Federation/Starships]] would be an example to avoid.
• Avoid special characters. There are a number of characters that are not accepted by the MediaWiki engine in article titles. The following characters should not be used:

" # $ * + < > = @ [ ] \ ^ ` { } | ~

Specific conventions

• Episode, film, aftershow, podcast, and book titles. Most Star Trek productions are disambiguated with what they are; all episodes will have "(episode)" at the end of their title while aftershows have "(aftershow)" and podcasts have "(podcast)". Films and novels are only disambiguated if required (Example: the eleventh film Star Trek is titled "Star Trek (film)"). If a novel has the same title as the subject it is about, you should disambiguate by adding "(novel)" to its title. (Example: "Day of Honor (novel)") Titles for these should match capitalization in title cards, front covers, or other production sources when available. These sources may contradict one another: consult the talk page for consensus.
• Languages. Languages often share their names with the culture or species that it is native to. In these cases, suffix the language name with the word "language" – but only when necessary. (Examples: Romulan language, but Klingonese)
• Species names. Always use the name of an alien species in singular form (e.g. Andorian, not Andorians). For examples like Vulcan for which there are several definitions, use a disambiguation page.
• Planet names. In all cases, use the most common version of a planet's proper name, (e.g. Earth instead of Terra or Sol III, and Qo'noS instead of Klingon homeworld). In cases where no other name is known, use the standard "name, Roman numeral" convention (e.g. Malcor III).
• Ship names. Articles about ships that have standard prefixes should include them in the article title. (Examples: USS Voyager and IKS Bortas) Note that although in text the name but not the prefix is italicized, this is not indicated in the article name, so an inline template is used. The inline templates also take care of the rare cases where separate articles are needed for different ships, for example: USS Enterprise-D goes to the article about the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D).
• Names for people. A character's name should preferably be placed as the name they are credited as, as that will be the most commonly used form in play. Alternately, if not specifically credited by a certain name, the same still applies to using the most commonly recognized/addressed names for people as the primary namespace. In this case, simple is better; nicknames, middle names, or seldom recognized full given names need not be spelled out, as it tends to become bulky and unruly to write and retain.
  • Klingon names. In most circumstances, it is not necessary to specify a Klingon by their full family title. (Example: Worf, not Worf, son of Mogh) This applies to other alien cultures with similar practices.
  • Bajoran names. As in accordance with Bajoran tradition, the precedence should go first to the family name, and then the given name (e.g. Kira Nerys).
• System names. Generally, use "XXX system" as the name of an article about a star system. Do not capitalize "system". (Example: Sol system, not Sol System)
• Lists. Use the plural form of the subject. (Example: [[Federation starships]])
• Universe disambiguations. Items, people, etc. from other universes and realities should only be disambiguated if required, with "(mirror)" and "(alternate reality)" used exclusively for articles about subjects from the mirror universe and alternate reality, respectively
• Generally, only one set of disambiguation brackets should be in a title (Example: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701 alternate reality)), unless other specific conventions are also required (Example: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel (alternate reality).
• The {{DISPLAYTITLE}} template. This can be used to format a page title, but should never be used to display the title as something different than the actual title of the article. For example, the article Constitution class should never be displayed as "Constitution-class" (with hyphen) because Constitution-class is not the actual title of the article.

See the Resource policy‎‎ for more information.

Unnamed naming conventions

The difficult part about cataloguing episodic television and related films is that it is not always necessary for the writers to always identify every element of their creation when it doesn't directly impact the outcome of the story. This practice has resulted in a long list of unnamed elements in the Star Trek Universe. Therefore, long ago, MA began adopting means of naming consistently naming these identifiable, but not identified subjects for key "unnamed" topics, primarily: unnamed planets, unnamed species, and unnamed starships is to name the unnamed it after the first subject of the topic shown on screen. While the following list of examples is not comprehensive, it outlines the most common instances of these conventions, and are as follows:

• Species. There are two primary ways used to name an unnamed species:
  1. A species is identified as native to a known home planet, for example Angel I native.
  2. A species is identified by the first identified member of said species, with the only supersedence to this being if the leader, or otherwise more prominent member of the species, is later introduced, for example Volis' species.
• Planets: This convention, which typically pertains to homeworlds, is essentially the reverse practice of naming species after their homeworld, where it is identified as the home planet of a species, for example Tak Tak homeworld. It can also be applied to stars, such as the formerly unnamed Bajoran sun.
• Starships: As above, unnamed starships can be named after their commanding officer, such as Hanson's starship. If not known, then can it alternately be named as the ship's registry, such as the NCC-1700.
• Starship classes. Best defined here as "types" rather than "classes," this naming format will generally supercede generic or especially ambiguous class names. Here, "X type" would be the class for the vessel named "X", establishing, for example, the Centaur-type starship, after the USS Centaur. In the case that a name is not present, a ship's registry number can be used as an acceptable substitute, such as NCC-1279-type. In either case, the names chosen are determined by the first named vessel of that class to appear on screen. This also applies to space stations shuttles, and the like.