Talk:New York (state)

"Official Name"
The article currently makes the unsourced claim


 * New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States.

But the state's official website uses "New York", "State of New York", and "New York State" almost interchangeably. If anything, "New York State" is the most common usage, even in the official state logo itself. I'm editing the article to reflect this. 23:34, 3 March 2023 (UTC) By the Beard of Worf! (talk) 23:34, 3 March 2023 (UTC)
 * "[Preamble] WE THE PEOPLE of the State of New York...", from the NYS Constitution..-- ☾Loriendrew☽  ☏(ring-ring)  23:48, 3 March 2023 (UTC)
 * First, that's pure WP:OR based on a primary source that doesn't explicitly support the claim. Second, later that same sentence capitalizes "Freedom", so capitalizing "State" there doesn't mean much; everywhere else the constitution uses "state of New York", "New York state" or just plain "New York", so those three would be at least as "official" by that measure. Taking out the claim of one "official" name was a good edit. Station1 (talk) 08:30, 4 March 2023 (UTC)
 * It sounds like you haven't read enough legal instruments -- articles of incorporation, LLC operating agreements, partnership agreements, constitutions, etc. Actually, as most attorneys are aware, it is quite rare for an instrument used to constitute a legal entity to repeat the full official name of the entity every time the entity needs to be referred to within the document.  The most important thing is what the document calls the entity at the beginning of the document, which is "the State of New York".  --Coolcaesar (talk) 16:00, 4 March 2023 (UTC)
 * It's quite true that first use in text is most important. That generally holds for non-legal documents as well. That doesn't change the fact that the constitution is a primary source; that it does not explicitly say that New York has an official name (unlike, say, the 1898 NYC charter); that throughout the constitution, as well as most state laws, when it uses the term "state of New York", which is not a shortened form, it does not capitalize the "s", unlike the non-standard capitalization used throughout that first sentence. In short, it's an insufficient source for WP to say "State of New York" is the one and only official name. Station1 (talk) 17:31, 4 March 2023 (UTC)
 * The Constitution uses a lot of initial caps in that preamble. It actually reads "We The People of the State of New York".  It's hard to infer from that line that "State of" is the true and official name.  By the Beard of Worf! (talk) 18:40, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

"New York (U.S. state" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_(U.S._state&redirect=no New York (U.S. state] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Utopes (talk / cont) 21:05, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Shall this title be moved back to New York
I am motivated to see the FAQ, but I really wanted to start a requested move, but this discourages me to do so, thinking that it may lead to significant opposition. Is there any reason behind the "ambiguous" title and the confusion with New York City? Toadette ( Let's discuss together! ) 21:52, 25 February 2024 (UTC)


 * I'm sure if you read the previous discussions, participants will have voiced a lot of reasons. A big one if that if someone just links to New York, it's unclear whether they meant to link to the state or the city, since they are both commonly called that. So having a disambiguation page there lets that get sorted out. -- Beland (talk) 01:09, 6 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I will soon start a new discussion. Toadette  ( Let's discuss together! ) 20:03, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 24 March 2024

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. WP:SNOW closing. There is overwhelming opposition to the proposed move. BD2412 T 02:08, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

New York (state) → New York – Failed RM weeks ago at Talk:New York. I am reinitiating the discussion again as it is not an ambiguous term. Ok with Georgia (state) as there is a country with the same name, but except Washington (state), all U.S. states are just referred to as just with no disambiguators. If opposing, links to verify the ambiguity with New York City can be provided. Just initiating the discussion which was previously withdrawn. It is also to note that typing "New York" ings the city as the top results so what is the point then. Toadette ( Let's discuss together! ) 20:12, 24 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Also noting in the FAQ box how is the matter "now fully resolved" after a decade and half? Toadette  ( Let's discuss together! ) 20:15, 24 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Oppose, ambiguous, and ambiguous titling helps no reader. There is merit to the idea of changing Name (state) to State of Name. New York, Washington, Georgia, it works for them all. SmokeyJoe (talk) 06:35, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * A little bit off-topic, but if Georgia (U.S. state) is moved to State of Georgia, then Georgia (country) should be moved to Republic of Georgia. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 15:29, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Georgia (country): “the country was commonly called the "Republic of Georgia" to distinguish it from the State of Georgia in the United States, although that name did not carry legal recognition”. SmokeyJoe (talk) 00:20, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose per my reasoning a few weeks ago, the city is called just "New York" per the AP Stylebook, Google Maps and Pandemic (board game) which are all American.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 20:27, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. The assertion that New York is "not an ambiguous term" is quite ridiculous.  162 etc. (talk) 20:56, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. For the reasons stated above.  --Coolcaesar (talk) 22:33, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose do we really need to do this again? "New York" is a common name just for the city. Elli (talk &#124; contribs) 22:46, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose a move to New York per above. I would rather support a move to State of New York (not unofficial terms like "New York State") per WP:NATDIS. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 00:33, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I much agree with this idea. 'New York (state)' clarifies that it is the state, but the parenthesis make it look awkward to some people (including me). 'State of New York', or 'The State of New York' clarifies that it is the state, and looks smooth. I hope this idea is taken into consideration!
 * -Georg Z. Mehling Georg Georgxzl 03:24, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Not unless all other states are moved to their own unwieldy and uncommonly-used official names, like Commonwealth of Virginia --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 19:34, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * From WP:CONSISTENT: Wikipedians have consistently shown that consistency does not control ... disambiguation. For instance, just because Georgia (country) exists, there is no reason to have articles titled, for instance, Azerbaijan (country), Armenia (country), etc. This applies to natural disambiguation, as well; the existence of Querétaro City and Chihuahua City does not mean we have to retitle Guadalajara to Guadalajara City. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 19:43, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * What you are suggesting is not a disambiguation, though, you are suggesting using the official name instead of WP:COMMONNAME when every other state uses the common name, including Georgia and Washington, two others that are ambiguous --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 22:19, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Well then, we might as well move those two to State of Georgia and State of Washington if this article were to be moved to State of New York. It's not like the use of the "State of..." prefix is unprecedented (see State of Mexico, State of Palestine, State of Vietnam, etc.). JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 22:42, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * According to the State of Mexico page, that isn't its official name in the first place, it's officially just Mexico. Its common name Edomex is a portmanteau of Estado de México, which literally translates to State of Mexico, which means that it's appropriate to call it that according to WP:NATDIS. So it has no precedential value here. As for the other two, the articles don't seem to say anything about the common name so I can't come to a conclusion on that, though I would note that the State of Vietnam that the article refers to no longer exists, which likely means that that's the current common name for it by both historians and laypeople to refer to that specific political entity or period of time --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 23:41, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * To be fair, there's also a region called Azerbaijan (Iran) (whose name actually predates that of the country), so the example of disambiguation in the policy isn't even as far-fetched. Chaotıċ Enby   (talk · contribs) 18:27, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Why would you think State of New York is preferable to New York State, in light of WP:COMMONNAME? --R'n'B (call me Russ) 00:17, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I would say New York State is preferable to State of New York, however I presumed that New York State was an unofficial name for New York, according to JohnCWiesenthal. I did some research afterwards and realized that it actually is one of the official names for New York. Georg Georgxzl 15:19, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * New York State will be misrecognised for State University of New York. SmokeyJoe (talk) 00:23, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * No it won't, everyone calls that SUNY --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 01:30, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose, as New York is very commonly used to refer to NYC, not necessarily the state. ɴᴋᴏɴ21  ❯❯❯  talk  00:45, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. This entire nomination, and the one from just a few weeks ago, completely fails to account for the extensive reasoning behind the current titles of all the article, and frankly is a waste of everyone's time. This should be closed immediately. The reasoning is simple: "New York" is incredibly ambiguous. And the state is not a clear primary meaning of the term. No moves should be made, and I'd advise the RM poster to actually read the prior discussions and not just make reactive assumptions based on a glance. oknazevad (talk) 00:52, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose just to pile on per WP:PTOPIC (there isn't one). —  AjaxSmack  16:52, 25 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Oppose per WP:NOPRIMARY. I would support a WP:NATDIS move to New York State as the official branding and WP:COMMONNAME . estar8806 (talk) ★ 17:08, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I thought the official branding was State of New York (which I suggested). Why not use that alternative title? JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 17:59, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Branding is different from legal naming. Legal documents will refer to the "State of New York", while logos, websites, etc. usually use "New York State" or just "New York" (see the source I provided". "New York State" is just more common and concise, and thus makes a better article title. estar8806 (talk) ★ 19:51, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * While not the worst choice of title, the parenthetical is used in part for consistency with other ambiguous state names (like Washington (state) and to ease the use of the pipe trick in city, state, constructions. oknazevad (talk) 23:56, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Fair point. But I would also argue that "Georgia State" more commonly refers to the university than the state, and Washington State is ambiguous. I'm also not sure how many people use "Washington State" or "Georgia State", rather than just using the name of the state. As Washington is the only other state that has "(state)" for disambiguation (Georgia has "(U.S. state)"), preserving consistency with one other article just doesn't feel as important when we bring COMMONNAME into the equation. estar8806 (talk) ★ 18:51, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
 * A great reason to use State of New York instead. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 19:15, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Oppose. It's very, very obvious that New York City is commonly referred to simply as New York. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:46, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose "New York" is highly ambiguous and depends upon context. Since there was opposition to moving it to New York State, this article must remain permanently disambiguated. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 03:35, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * What about an alternative title like State of New York? JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 03:44, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Because it's not the common name. See WP:COMMONNAME. No one uses that except for lawyers, and only in the most formal writings like contracts (in which choice-of-law clauses frequently reference "the law of the state of New York", leaving "state" uncapitalized).  That phrase is not used in less formal contexts like lawyer magazines, newspapers, or law reviews. --Coolcaesar (talk) 14:41, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose since the title obviously is ambiguous, and readers from all but one country in the world are far more likely to be familiar with the city than with the state. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 00:16, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Strong oppose. “New York” is absolutely an ambiguous term, and outwith the US the term refers more to the city than the state. Velociraptor888 (talk) 17:05, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 29 March 2024

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Looks like it is snowing again. Closing this for almost the same reason as before. (non-admin closure) JuniperChill (talk) 12:19, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

New York (state) → State of New York – Tons of people were in favor of moving the title to such in the two previous RM’s. I don’t see any reason to NOT move the title to such. Who’s in? DirtySocks357(WreckItRalph) (talk) 15:40, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose Not at all the WP:COMMONNAME, more cumbersome than the status quo. – Muboshgu (talk) 15:51, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Too colloquial. And besides, New York state is surely more common than the proposal. Nohomersryan (talk) 16:01, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. "State of New York" is not remotely the common name. &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 16:07, 29 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Support per WP:NATDIS. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 17:55, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Since nobody refers to it as the "State of New York" in conversation or print, I don't see how you think that policy supports this RM. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:10, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * To restate one of my points in the previous discussion, it's not like the use of the "State of..." prefix is unprecedented (see State of Mexico, State of Palestine, State of Vietnam, etc.). JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 18:14, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Not "unprecedented", but not common either. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:19, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * And to restate my rebuttal in the previous discussion, State of Mexico isn't the official name of the state, but the common name for it is a portmanteau of what is literally translated to State of Mexico, so it meets NATDIS, and the State of Vietnam that article refers to no longer exists and so is likely commonly referred to as such to distinguish it from other points in the regions' history --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 10:40, 30 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Oppose yes unlike Georgia and Washington there isn't a university but it seems like the consensus is that this fails NATURAL.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 18:44, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose WP:CONSISTENT with Washington and Georgia. Alanscottwalker (talk) 20:39, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * We could move those two as well to State of Washington and State of Georgia, respectively. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 21:16, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * State of Georgia would be ambiguous with Georgia (country). It would have to be U.S. State of Georgia. — SmokeyJoe (talk) 11:09, 30 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose not common. And there wasn't a "ton" of support in previous RMs. Otherwise it would already be the title. Can we stop with these useless rehashes of crap that was very throughly vetted years ago amidst an extensive discussion. They bring absolutely nothing new to the table and we're already addressed. Just because people can't be bothered to read the archives doesn't mean they had an original idea. oknazevad (talk) 22:54, 29 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Oppose ‘Tons of people’ supported this? If there really was tons of support, it’s clearly heavily outweighed by opposition. P sure consensus is set and stone here. It’s okay to be like Juror 8 from Twelve Angry Men and stick out from consensus, but there is no beating consensus. Jason Ingtonn (talk) 03:04, 30 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose - Not remotely the WP:COMMONNAME. Fails WP:NATURAL. Also breaks WP:CONSISTENT with Washington and Georgia. So alas, there are several reasons NOT to move. (It should be mentioned I am still in favor of "New York State"). estar8806 (talk) ★ 04:54, 30 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose per WP:NATURAL and WP:CONSISTENT (see Georgia (U.S. state) and Washington (state)). Keivan.f  Talk 06:49, 30 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose as per estar8806 (though I am not in favor of New York State) --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 10:43, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Oppose. While I think the idea has merit, it hasn’t been sufficiently thought through.  The status quo is the result of years of discussion and is ok, and should not be hastily fiddle with. —SmokeyJoe (talk) 11:12, 30 March 2024 (UTC)