User:Kraftlos/naming

This page is archived for now, I would prefer that we focus our energy on the guideline and that this page remain static as we use it as a discussion piece. --Kraftlos (Talk | Contrib) 12:04, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Titles which use a self-identifying name over a common name

• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints vs Mormon Church
• Religious Society of Friends vs Quaker
• Orthodox Church vs Orthodox Catholic Church ... (these don't quite fit)
• Catholic Church vs Roman Catholic Church ... (ditto - both names currently used in WP are common names and self-identifiers)
• Unification Church vs Moonies
• Guangzhou vs Canton
• Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria vs Coptic Church
• Côte d'Ivoire vs Ivory Coast
• Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church vs Ethiopian Coptic Church or Ethiopian Orthodox Church
• Mumbai vs Bombay
• Kolkata vs Calcutta
• Royal Navy vs British Navy
• Royal Australian Navy vs Australian Navy
• Royal Malaysian Navy vs Malaysian Navy (..several other examples of this sort)
• Inuit vs Eskimo
• Romany vs Gypsy
• Indigenous Australians vs Aborigines (Main article is at Indigenous Australians, minor redirect articles at Aborigines and Australian Aborigines.)
• Dalits vs Untouchables
• Indigenous peoples of the Americas vs Red Indians or American Indians
• Native Americans in the United States vs American Indians
• First Nations vs Canadian Indians
• Uluru vs Ayers Rock (not strictly a self-identifier, but used in honour of wishes of locals.)

This is a post from a naming-dispute that lists some other entities: Xandar 11:13, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Here are just some examples of bilingual communities in many other European countries, in each case the language of the majority is used for Wikipedia. I give four examples from each country. In many of these cases, the margin is very small, failing Septentrionalis' claim that we only go by majority languages with large majorities.

Belgium: Büllingen, Bütgenbach, Kelmis, Amel. We use the German name for each, even though they are situated in a province where French is the official language and in a country where Dutch is the largest language

Finland: Jakobstad, Kristinestad, Mariehamn, Nykarleby. The Swedish name is used in each case even though Finnish is by far the largest language

Switzerland: Düdingen, Fribourg, Murten, Tafers. In the Swiss cases, the majority language of the municipality is always used.

Italy: Bolzano, Brixen, Urtijëi. In the Italian case, in Alto Adige, we use the main language of the municipality whether its Italian Bolzano, German Brixen or Ladin Urtijëi. The only exception is Meran, and nobody has still managed to explain why Meran in particular should be such an exception.JdeJ

Self-identifying titles used on Wikipedia where others might challenge those names

• Republic of the Congo could be challenged by the larger Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Republic of Macedonia challenged by Greece, the UN etc. uses Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
• Orthodox Church could be challenged by Eastern and Coptic Orthodox Churches
• Church of Greece is not the only Church in Greece
• Church of England ditto
• Church of Ireland ditto
• Church of Sweden ditto (..many other examples of this sort)
• Apostolic Church is not the only Church that considers itself Apostolic.
• Bank of America is not the only Bank in America.
• University of London is not the only university in London
• University of Nigeria is not the only university in Nigeria
• Muhammad Ali used of the boxer, also applies to several Middle Eastern rulers and celebrities

Self-identifying titles used on Wikipedia where usage is ambiguous

• Benin goes to the modern republic, not ancient Kingdom or Nigerian city
• Cameroon goes to republic, not mountain
• Ghana goes to republic not ancient kingdom
• Guinea goes to modern republic not Equatorial Guinea, or Gulf of Guinea or UK coin or region of Africa.
• Mali goes to republic not ancient kingdom
• Niger goes to republic, not major River
• Zimbabwe goes to republic, not ancient ruins.
• London goes to leading city of that name not others
• Paris goes to leading city of that name not others
• Rome goes to leading city of that name not others (..many other examples of this sort)
• United States goes to United States of America, not, say, United States of Mexico.

Article titles where common name is used instead of a less-common official name

is there any? I think thus far most editors understand this policy to prefer a self-selected name over a common name (note:only relevant if there is a conflict).--Kraftlos (Talk | Contrib) 02:26, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Current Wikipedia policy for self-identifying entities seems to be to use the common English language form of the self-identifying name. Thus United States, for United States of America, France, for Republic of France etc. But that seems to be optional. If what you're asking is for cases where the Common name is used instead of the self-identifying name, I can't think of many off-hand. Burma is the big bugbear, but that is a special case. "Gypsy" and "Australian Aborigine" are minor articles that direct to fuller articles under the self-identifying names Xandar 01:54, 26 August 2009 (UTC)