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Revision as of 16:08, 6 February 2009 editJasy jatere (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users2,720 edits mv australia and nz to link list. Content should be maintained at a central place, from this page here, there should only be links← Previous edit Revision as of 21:05, 6 February 2009 edit undoPmanderson (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers62,752 edits →Counties of Britain: cutNext edit →
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==Specific issues== ==Specific issues==
===Counties of Britain===<!-- This section is linked from ] --> ===Counties of Britain===<!-- This section is linked from ] -->
''We should use the current, administrative, county. E.g. Eton is in Berkshire, not Buckinghamshire.''

This approach is consistent with most local and national government literature, some private sector literature, will be familiar to most readers and writers, and indeed the approach will apply even if boundaries change again. It is also easy for people to find out where a particular village is, as maps with administrative boundaries are freely available online. While historic county maps do exist, it is hard to find one with maps of modern urban areas and city and borough boundaries transposed against historic counties. It is also consistent with other encyclopedias such as the ], which specifically calls ] a 'former county'.

We should mention historic (or ancient) counties in articles about places and in references to places in a historic context, but only as an afternote. If a place is a ] and not administered by a county council, it is acceptable to use ] as geographic references, as this is often more in line with common usage. As has been pointed out, it is not useful to state that "Luton is a town in the county of Luton".

In historic references we should make sure to note that the county at the time was not the same as the county now, if relevant.

Articles about counties should not be split up and should not be
disambiguation pages. They should treat the counties as one entity
which has changed its boundaries with time. We should not take
the minority position that they still exist with the former boundaries.
We should mention that this position exists, especially on pages like ] and ].

With respect to the areas covered by unitary authorities, we should only call them counties if they (a) are legislatively defined as such, and (b) are significantly larger than the town they are centred upon, or have no such centring. If the formal title is '''Borough''' (formerly "County Borough") then that is the form to be used. So we would refer to the ], the ], and the ], but we would say just ], ], ].

Metropolitan counties should be treated as counties - the fact that they no longer have councils has no relevance on their legal status.

With respect to which version of the historic boundaries we should acknowledge as having historic importance - the versions before the 1847 revisions would probably be best - they include many more anomalies, like ] and other exclaves.

Examples of acceptable things:
*''Coventry is in the West Midlands, and within the historic borders of Warwickshire''
*''Most of the pigeons were found at ], then part of ]''
*''Middlesex is a historic county of England, now mostly covered by ]''*
*''Southwark is a village in the ] in ]. It is in the ancient borders of ]''
*''Stoke-on-Trent is a city in the English Midlands, it is a part of ] for ], although it is administered as a ]''
Examples of unacceptable things:
*''Coventry is a town in Warwickshire, and administered by the metropolititan administrative "county" of ]''
*''Brixton is a place in Surrey, England within the former metropolitan "county" of Greater London and in the London Borough of Lambeth.''
*''Middlesex was a county of England. It was abolished in ] after being gutted in ] to form the ]. The end.''

====Addendum====

&nbsp;* ''Some people have claimed that this contradicts the rest of the above policy, so an explanation is in order. No administrative or ceremonial county of Middlesex exists, it therefore exists purely as an area name and is in fairly common usage, the same applies to ]. In all other cases where an administrative county or ceremonial county exists, for the purposes of Misplaced Pages, these are treated as single entities which have changed their borders over time, so referring to the historic county area as a still existing entity is not acceptable, as is stated clearly above. If a county is still commonly used as an area name in its historic area, and is relevant, than that should be noted''
:: ''N.b. it should be noted that the above 'interpretation' was added after the policy was passed and ''was not voted on''. Editors might therefore not consider it to be ] in comparison with the ''policy'' proper.''
:: ''It should also be pointed out that six users have privately told ] that they support this addendum, although of course it is unknown how many other users support or oppose this addendum but have remained silent.''

This does not form part of the policy, but attempts to reason that it is not self-contradictory, as has been alleged. If you have comments they go on the talkpage.

These examples were intended to demonstrate that (a) it is totally acceptable to refer to counties as 99% of people do, and regard the 1844, 1889, 1965 and 1974 changes as changes. (b) as a concession it is important to mention continued use of the placename. Thus we should mention Middlesex Crown Courts, Middlesex bank of the Thames, Middlesex as a formal postal address location, etc.)


===States in the U.S. and provinces of Canada=== ===States in the U.S. and provinces of Canada===

Revision as of 21:05, 6 February 2009

Blue tickThis guideline documents an English Misplaced Pages naming convention.
Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.		Shortcut
Main page: Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions See also: Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (settlements), Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (landforms), and Misplaced Pages:Resolving placename conflicts
Red question markThis page's designation as a policy or guideline is disputed or under discussion. Please see the relevant talk page discussion for further information.
It has been suggested that this page be merged with Naming_conventions_(geographic_names). (Discuss)

Naming conventions (places) are guidelines on how to appropriately name articles about countries and regions, and places within each country or region. This style guideline is intended to make this process more efficient by giving article titles a consistent look, and avoiding distracting information.

It is important to note that these are conventions, not rules written in stone. As Misplaced Pages grows and changes, some conventions that once made sense may become outdated, and there may be cases where a particular convention is "obviously" inappropriate. But when in doubt, follow convention.

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Generally, article naming should give priority to what the majority of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making linking to those articles easy and second nature.

In addition to following the naming conventions it is also important to follow the linking conventions. Following consistent conventions in both naming and linking makes it more likely that links will lead to the right place.

Administrative divisions of a country

See Misplaced Pages:NCGN#Administrative_subdivisions

Maintain consistency within each country

Where a place name article is found to be ambiguous, choose a fully disambiguated name, move the article, and change the old page (now a redirect page) to a disambiguation page, or a redirect to a "(disambiguation)" page. Don't forget to check the What links here for double redirects, and update any articles that reference the old page.

A notice should be posted on the appropriate talk page (such as: "Administrative divisions of France", "Provinces of Pakistan", "States and territories of India") that asks for discussion about the move.

All place names in an administrative division should share the same form. For example, when one article has been moved from "ShortName" to "ShortName district", then all the districts within a country should be moved to that form.

There is no expectation of consistency between countries.

Streets and highways

U.S. Highways should be listed as is found in Category:U.S. Highway System. See also: Wikitravel

Countries

In general, country-specific articles and categories should be named using the form: "(item) of (country)". For more information, see: Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (country-specific topics).

Specific issues

Counties of Britain

States in the U.S. and provinces of Canada

Always write these out in full: not everybody understands the two-letter abbreviations that are often used in North America.

Note also that Newfoundland is not a Canadian province; it is an island that comprises part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Countries of Europe

The list of European regions with alternative names and the list of country names in various languages should be consulted when preparing articles.


Romanization of Cyrillic-alphabet place names

Main page: Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (Cyrillic) See also: Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (Mongolian), Misplaced Pages:Romanization of Russian, and Misplaced Pages:Romanization of Ukrainian

Country-specific guidance

Further guidance relating to some specific countries can be found at the following pages:

See also

Category: