Wikipedia:Naming conventions (schools)

This is a draft working towards a proposal for adoption as a Wikipedia naming convention.
The proposal must not be taken to represent consensus, as it is still in development and under discussion, having not yet reached the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus, references or links to this page should not describe it as policy, guideline, or even a proposal.

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School article titles should use the name by which the school is normally known, subject to the general principles of WP:TITLE and WP:COMMONNAME. Similar institutions and buildings are more naturally localized to a city rather than a much larger jurisdiction like a state.

Where geographic disambiguation is necessary, the qualifier should provide enough information to distinguish the school from schools of the same name, but should not contain unnecessary geographic information.

Thus should follow a principle of progressive disambiguation: begin with the simplest reasonable geographic identifier and add further information only when it is needed to distinguish said article.

Choosing a name

Articles on schools preferably don't start with a definite article. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (definite and indefinite articles at beginning of name) § 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 the magic word {{DEFAULTSORT}} so for "The School (location)" article, one should add "<nowiki>{{DEFAULTSORT:School (location) The}}" above the category list at the bottom of the page.

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 Wikipedia: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. Also be sure to use Template talk:RM notice at WP:WPSCH.

Country by country examples

Australia

School (Town or City)

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

Canada

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WP:NC(CANS)WP:NC(CANS)

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).
Below is copied from Wikipedia:WikiProject Education in Canada#Naming conventions, it needs to be edited

Names of school boards or school districts

School boards typically have a single official name, and the articles are typically named as the school board. One province -- British Columbia -- has a uniform naming convention, which is discussed on the list of school districts in British Columbia. For other provinces, look through the lists, look through the list of categories, or directly into Category:School districts in Canada.

Names of schools

The school naming conventions guideline was rejected by the community, but still contains some ideas that may help. Also note the new proposal for US schools at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (U.S. schools). Once that proposal is accepted, we'll submit a similar proposal to cover Canadian schools. Below are the guidelines we've used so far when naming schools articles:

Abbreviation	Expanded
BTI	Business And Technical Institute
CI	Collegiate Institute
ES	Elementary School
HS	High School
Jr	Junior
MS	Middle School
Mt	Mount
PS	Public School
Sr	Senior
SS	Secondary School
St	Saint

If the school board's web site and the school's web site differ in the name of a school, prefer the one that people commonly use. Schools at times will be known under a slightly different name than the official or legal school name. Consider whether or not a redirection page is necessary.
Expand all common abbreviations in the school's name. For example, a school known as Main Street HS would be turned into an article called Main Street High School. See the table on the right for examples of common abbreviations often found in school names.
Proper names may or may not be abbreviated depending on how the name is commonly used. Two opposite examples:
- Use A. Y. Jackson Secondary School instead of Alexander Young Jackson Secondary School.
- Use Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School instead of P. E. Trudeau High School.
Abbreviations in the school name -- such as A. Y. Jackson -- contain periods after the letter and a blank space after each period. For example:
- Use A. Y. Jackson Secondary School instead of A Y Jackson Secondary School.
- Use A. Y. Jackson Secondary School instead of A.Y. Jackson Secondary School.

French names

Institutions shouldn't be renamed. Use the name of the school or school board, as it is commonly known. Note that this also affects capitalization in the article title, since French dictates that articles and adjectives in a name are not capitalized. For example:

United Kingdom and Ireland

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WP:NC(UKS)WP:NC(UKS)

For example, for UK schools tend to use comma-separated disambiguation - e.g. Kingsmead School, Enfield, not Kingsmead School (Enfield). American schools use parentheses. Comma-separated disambiguation is preferable because:

(a) it is more natural,
(b) the disambiguation is almost always done by geography and WP:NCDAB states "Ambiguous geographic names are often disambiguated by adding the name of a higher-level administrative division"

If a school was to call themselves "The MOST amaze-ing (Skool in Engaland)" - it's a registered company with an agreed website name, and the misspelling of Engalund was agreed by the school - to use a specific hyphen. Use what is best under WP:COMMONNAME and WP:OFFICIALNAME applies. Such as Southwest High School (San Diego, California) was moved from "Southwest Senior High School" to "Southwest High School" because Southwest High School already existed as a disambiguation page, while "Senior" was no longer used in the school's name. See Old revision of Southwest High School (San Diego, California) or Durham High School for Girls closed as no consensus. Participants were unconvinced that Durham High School is the WP:COMMONNAME.

United States

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United States 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. For schools in the United States, the following hierarchy is proposed:

If the school name is sufficiently unique, no geographic qualifier should be used.
If two or more schools with the same name exist in different states, state should normally be used as the geographic qualifier. - MOS:US
If two or more schools with the same name exist within the same state, city or municipality should normally be added to distinguish them.

If there are two Example High Schools in the given state, use the city:

Example High School (city1, Delaware)
Example High School (city2, Delaware)

Where the state is already unambiguous from the context, use a shorter city-based title: See WP:CONCISE

Example High School (Delaware)
Example High School (Pennsylvania)

Examples of WP:CONCISE and WP:NCDAB: Eastlake High School (California), Pine View School add more:

State versus city

Use state as the initial U.S. disambiguator because states provide a consistent national framework and generally distinguish schools located in different states.

However, city-based disambiguation should remain acceptable where the city itself provides sufficient and useful identification. For example, John Frank Smith High School (Rhode Island) and John Frank Smith High School (Alabama) would be used where there is one school of that name in each state. If there were two schools with that name in Alabama, they would be distinguished as John Frank Smith High School (Huntsville, Alabama) and John Frank Smith High School (Montgomery, Alabama).

The disambiguation aspect should be as brief and simple as possible, and the first way to separate them is by the state. The only time "(city, state)" would be used is when there is more than one school with the same name in a specific state. City-only disambiguation can be used for schools in cities that don't require a state in their title, like Cleveland. Georgia. Though, it "Georgia" doesn't automatically mean the U.S. state; see above for United Kingdom and Ireland.

City-only titles

A city-only qualifier may be used when the city is sufficiently distinctive and provides a clear means of identifying the school.

For example:

Example High School (Cleveland)
Example High School (Detroit)
Example High School (Chicago)

This is particularly reasonable where the city is itself the established and recognizable geographic identifier for the subject.

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 Wikipedia: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.