FamilySearch Wiki:Naming Conventions

This page offers best practices in naming articles, categories, images, files, and templates on FamilySearch Wiki.

Use ascending order of jurisdictions in naming a place
When adding place names to article titles, add jurisdictions in ascending order (smallest to largest).
 * Correct: Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland
 * Incorrect: Maryland, Montgomery County, Rockville
 * Example: Cemetery Records of Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland
 * Exceptions: Articles about FamilySearch Historical Record Collections

Avoid abbreviations, acronyms, and postal codes
Do not use abbreviations in naming a place.
 * Correct: Montgomery County, Maryland
 * Incorrect: Montgomery Co., MD
 * Example: Cemetery Records of Montgomery County, Maryland

Use the word "County" in identifying counties
Use the word "County" in identifying a county in an article title.
 * Correct:Montgomery County, Maryland
 * Incorrect: Montgomery, Maryland
 * Example: Cemetery Records of Montgomery County, Maryland

County names in Ireland
In Ireland the word "County" nearly always comes before rather than after the county name
 * Correct: County Clare
 * Incorrect: Clare County
 * Exceptions: King's County and Queen's County

County names in England, Scotland and Wales
For counties in England, Scotland and Wales do not add the word "County" when naming articles. There is one exception County Durham.

Do not use all uppercase letters
Use initial caps on each word in a title except when this conflicts with place naming standards or grammar rules.
 * Correct: Census Records of the United States
 * Incorrect: CENSUS RECORDS OF THE UNITED STATES

Omit name of the article author from titles (or articles, for that matter)
This is a wiki. Content becomes stronger as the community adds to it. The name of an author in a title does two bad things:


 * 1) It tells other authors "This is my turf. Don't edit this because it's mine."
 * 2) It credits the original author with all changes made by other users. Since many users will tend to improve an article far outside its original scope, the crediting of the original author with all revisions doesn't make sense.

Special rules for templates
Spaces in the name are allowed, e.g.  . The first character (only) is not case-sensitive, so   and   are the same template, but   and   are not. The template name in general should be short. Many on Wikipedia are abbreviations.

Special rules for namespaces
Only a system admin can create a namespace. Namespaces should be created only after much discussion. The name should be a single word.

Related content

 * Help:Name a new article
 * FamilySearch Wiki:Page or article naming