User:Cullen328/sandbox/Denali name

Argument for "Denali" based on Wikipedia's geographic naming convention
We have a specific guideline regarding geographic names which is located at WP:Naming conventions (geographic names). The subsection most applicable to this situation can be found at WP:WIAN. That says: "For modern sources, it is important to identify any recent watershed moments in the location's history (such as the fall of the Soviet Union for Eastern Europe, or other revolutions, invasions and nationality changes), and limit sources to those published after that watershed." I submit that the US government official renaming is a "watershed moment" in the history of the 40 year naming dispute about this mountain.

Following that, the guideline lists a variety of high quality sources that "may be helpful in establishing a widely accepted name." Of these, the following sources have been updated since the name change:


 * Encyclopaedia Britannica has been updated in recent days, changing their article title to Denali.
 * The Geographic Names Information System has been updated in recent days, listing Denali as the primary name, along with many variants, not just McKinley.
 * The National Geographic Society has published an article in recent days called McKinley vs. Denali: Who Decides Names on a Map? That article includes a new map showing the name as Denali (Mt. McKinley). Variant names are shown in parentheses. Their chief geographer is quoted as saying "Cartographic houses, including National Geographic, will update all maps that carry that name. We are updating our cartographic database, so the change will get reflected right away in any future cartographic products."
 * The CIA World Factbook - Elevation extremes has been updated in recent days and shows Denali (Mount McKinley) as the highest point in the United States.

The guideline also says that recent coverage in high quality newspapers can help in the process of determining the proper name. That guideline mentions the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Times of London as three specific examples of such newspapers.

The New York Times ran an Associated Press report a couple of days ago about recalculation of the mountain's height, North America's Tallest Mountain Gets New Name _ and Height. That article uses Denali five times as the name of the mountain, mentioning Mount McKinley only once as the former name, plus mentioning that the article had previously been named after William.McKinley. The Washington Post ran same story, throwing in a couple additional usages of Denali in a photo caption. The Times of London ran a story called America’s highest peak gets its old name back, saying that Mount McKinley was "a name that had been mocked for more than a century as the product of a shameless political stunt."

Accordingly, I conclude that the current article name Denali is in compliance with our guideline Naming conventions (geographic names).