Wikipedia:Naming conventions (schools)/Archive 6

This guideline is an attempt to clarify the naming conventions for school articles. However, it is not set in stone and should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception, taking account of local conventions and community consensus, to decide upon a title that fully disambiguates, without becoming overlong. Please feel free to amend the guideline if appropriate, but it is wise to discuss any major amendment on the talk page first. As Wikipedia grows and changes, some conventions that once made sense may become outdated.

Generally, school article titles should reflect 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. A redirect page should be created for articles that may reasonably be found under two or more names (such as different spellings or former names).

If an article has been named inappropriately, it can be renamed by moving the article to a more appropriate title. See Help:Moving a page and Requested moves for more on renaming pages. Editors are often passionate about the naming of their particular schools and it is generally wise to discuss a proposed name change on the talk page first. This can be done with the WPSchools "move" parameter or by simple comment.

Choosing a name
School article titles should use the full official name of the school as provided by the school itself, unless the most common name for the school is significantly more well known than the official name.

Articles on schools preferably don't start with a definite article (a similar convention applies to universities). See When definite and indefinite articles should be avoided. Should it be necessary to start the name of a school article with a definite article, the definite article should be removed when placing the article in a category. This can be accomplished with DEFAULTSORT so for "The School (location)" article, one should add " " above the category list at the bottom of the page.

Determining that the name is unique
Unique school names do not require disambiguation. However, before naming the page checks should be made to establish that the proposed name is unique. Even if a school of the same name does not currently have a Wikipedia article at present, it is highly likely that an article will be created in the future. First, verify that there are no other articles on Wikipedia about schools with the exact name of the school. If there is no such school, try removing any qualifiers from the name and repeat the search using the shortest feasible form of the name. (For example, for an article on De La Salle High School one should run a search for "De La Salle" and verify that none of the results are schools, regardless of level, location, or qualifier). Finally, if no other article exists, run the same searches on a search engine such as Google and verify that no other school is substantially represented in the results. When searching on Google, place the search terms in quote marks to narrow down the results. A search for "De La Salle" will yield results from pages containing only this precise sequence of words. If none of these methods produces a result, the school should be considered "unique".

Disambiguation
If the school name is not unique, the location of each school should be added as a qualifier in parentheses, and a disambiguation page should be created at  School Name . If the  School Name  title is already taken (if for example a well known school with lots of linking alumni has an overwhelming case for not having a disambiguated title) then the disambiguation page should be created at  School Name (disambiguation)  (local style guidelines permitting). All the articles should have a hatnote to link to the disambiguation page. The disambiguation page should always include full location details including the country in which the school is situated to avoid any confusion.

In exceptional cases schools which are particularly well known with potentially long lists of notable alumni and many interlinking articles will not require the additional location parameter(s). The other lesser known school or schools of the same name should however all have the appropriate location parameter(s).

Consider that some names of schools are so obviously generic (example: "Alternative High School" or "National Sport School"), that even if one cannot yet find a school with the exact same name (using Google or other means), it often makes sense to qualify the name appropriately to avoid renaming later on. Similarly, multiple schools are named after kings, queens, saints and US presidents, and it will often be necessary for such schools to be pre-emptively disambiguated.

Redirects
Having created a new school article you should also create redirect pages for all possible alternative spellings and names. For example, Pate's Grammar School has a redirect from Pates Grammar School

If there are two articles with similar but unique names they should be linked together by means of Hatnotes, which are short notes placed at the top of the page before the start of the primary topic. For example, Dartford Grammar School and Dartford Grammar School for Girls both have very similar names, and hatnotes have been used to aid navigation. In this instance a redirect page is not required.

If two or more school articles have the same name, a disambiguation page should be created. Redirect pages should be created for all possible spellings of the name, all of which should point to the disambiguation page. For example the St Paul's School disambiguation page has redirects from Saint Paul's School, Saint Pauls School, St. Paul's School, St Paul's School, St. Pauls School and St Pauls School. None of the redirect pages should point directly to an individual school.

If location parameters have been used for disambiguation purposes the appropriate redirect pages should be created without the added location parameters.

If a school article has been moved from another title that included some sort of location parameter to  School Name (new parameter)  to fit these guidelines, there is no need to delete the redirects, unless there is a risk of confusion.

Country by country examples
This guideline is intended to ensure that naming conventions for schools are consistent within each country. Consensus has been reached on the disambiguation styles for the following countries:

Australia
School (Municipality, State)
 * Municipality is the name of the town or city the school is nearest to.
 * For example, Richmond High School (Richmond, New South Wales).

Canada
School (Municipality, Province)
 * For Canadian territories, the name of the territory replaces 'province' and the word 'territory' should be omitted
 * For example, Queen Elizabeth High School (Halifax, Nova Scotia) or South Park Elementary School (Victoria, British Columbia)

United Kingdom and Ireland
School (Municipality, County).
 * Municipality is the name of the nearest village, town, city or London Borough. If the name of the location is not unique, the county should also be used.
 * For example, Forest School (Winnersh), Forest School (Horsham), and Forest School (Walthamstow).

United States
School (Municipality, State)
 * For example, Austin Middle School (Irving, Texas) or West Valley High School (Cottonwood, California)

History and scope
This guideline stems from discussion at Wikipedia talk:Notability (schools)/Archive 3#Sidetrack: School article names in November 2005; a straw poll advertised on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions and Requests for comment/Style issues determined that parentheses are appropriate to disambiguate schools with the same name. The content was split into the current page from Schools in February 2006. In April 2006 the latter page was marked as obsolete.

In July of 2006, this proposal was marked as historical. Since that time, new discussions have worked out some of the finer points of the issues with naming schools. See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools/Archive 3#School disambiguation subproject desperately needed and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools#naming conventions for schools for examples.

The prior version of this proposal has been archived. Its corresponding talk page has been archived as well.

The guideline was historically intended to address naming issues in primary and secondary schools, many of which have identical names and were accepted into Wikipedia only recently. It is disputed whether such a guideline should apply to colleges and universities as well. For more information, see the talk page archives and the current talk page.