Wikipedia:Naming conventions (royalty and nobility)/Poll

This is a poll under construction, see the talk page; DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VOTE YET.

What this is about. This is a poll to decide whether and how to modify the convention on selecting titles for articles on monarchs, which is documented at WP:NCROY#Sovereigns.

The current position. Almost all European monarchs have their articles titled in the form "Name of Realm" (like Anne of Great Britain) or "Name Numeral of Realm" (like Charles X of France). This provides consistency within this group of article titles, and automatic disambiguation in an area where short titles (name + numeral) are very often ambiguous.

Problems. The following may be perceived as problems arising from consistent application of the above convention:

• Some of the resulting names have little real-world usage, making them appear artificial and hard for readers to recognize (Anne of Great Britain, Victoria of the United Kingdom).
• Where the same person is a monarch of more than one realm, only one realm (the one considered to be the "primary realm") is selected, leading to perceived loss of neutrality (Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is equally queen of many other Commonwealth countries).

It is therefore being considered whether it would be beneficial to amend the convention, and views are being sought through this poll. Please give your views (NOT YET) by answering the three questions below. Remember that this concerns exclusively those monarchs whose articles currently have titles in the form "Name (Numeral) of Realm".

• 1) When should the word "King" or "Queen" be included in the title? (Note that if the answer to 2) is b), then it is understood that "King" or "Queen" will be omitted anyway in any case where the realm is omitted per the answer to 3).)
  • a) never
  • b) only when there is no numeral
  • c) always

• 2) If the word "King" or "Queen" is to be included in the title, where should it go? (This question may be skipped if you voted 1a)
  • a) before the name (as in "King Henry I of England")
  • b) before the realm (as in "Henry I, King of England")

• 3) When should the realm be omitted? (Answers b)–d) may be combined, e.g. "b) OR c)", "b) AND d)".)
  • a) never
  • b) when the resulting term primarily identifies only one monarch (e.g. "Elizabeth II", "Louis XVI")
  • c) when the realm is "Great Britain" or "the United Kingdom"
  • d) when determination of the "primary" realm is problematic

On the talk page is a summary list of identified advantages and disadvantages of the various proposals ("Considerations"). Please give your preferred answers on the talk page, with brief comments if desired. NOT YET