Harry Potter Fanon Wiki's Naming policy defines how to correctly title mainspace articles.
General rules
Be precise when possible
When naming an article, abide by the following:
- Use the full first and last names whenever possible.
- Exceptions to this are characters who are known by two given names.
- In lacking a proper name, a character article should be identified by ‘’proximity” (or their relation) to another character (e.g. an article about the nameless father of Hermione Granger would be titled as "Hermione Granger’s father").
- An article's title should contain the last name used throughout the work they’re featured in, regardless of marriage.
- Character articles should use Western name order, which places the given name(s) before the surname(s), even if the subject is from a culture which traditionally places the surname(s) before the given name.
- If no proper name exists, use the in-universe nickname.
- Whenever the character's formal name is known, do not add the nickname to the article title.
- If no in-universe designation exists, use a conjectural name with {{Conjecture}} at the top of the article.
- When using a conjectural name, use "Unidentified" instead of "Unknown" or "Unnamed".
Lowercase second and subsequent words
Do not capitalize second and subsequent words unless the title is a proper noun (such as a name) or is otherwise always capitalized (example: Harry Potter, but Potter family).
Due to the technical limitations inherent to the MediaWiki software, the first letter in an article title must always be a capital letter. Ordinarily, this isn't a problem, but it poses an issue when a proper noun's first letter is lowercase. The first letter of an internal wikilink need not be capitalized and will direct the reader to the same page. Also, the magic word {{DISPLAYTITLE:name}} can be used to display the article's name with the first letter in lowercase.
Singular nouns
Create in-universe article titles using singular nouns unless a subject is always presented in a plural form (example: Death Eaters). Note that category names follow different pluralization conventions (example: Category:Death Eaters enemies).
Avoid the definite and the indefinite article at the start of the page name
Except in titles of works, or in "official" names, avoid the definite ("the") and indefinite ("a"/"an") articles at the beginning of an article title. This applies even if the article subject is usually preceded by the definite article "the" in speech or writing. However, the following exception may apply:
- If two article subjects, one of which covers a general term and another a specific instance, are competing for the same article title and are usually preceded by the definite article, then "the" is to be used at the beginning of the specific instance's article title in order to avoid a parenthetical descriptor.
Prefer spelled-out phrases to abbreviations
Use the full name of the subject instead of its abbreviation (example: Magical Congress of the United States of America instead of MACUSA).
Redirect adjectives to nouns
Adjectives should redirect to nouns.
Use English words
Name articles in English, and place the native in-universe transliteration at the beginning of the article unless the native form is more commonly used in the source than the English form (example: Al-Antidia instead of Great Land of the Ancients).
Be careful with special characters
Some special characters either cannot be used or can but cause problems. For example, you should not use a piping character (|), an asterisk (*), an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), a number sign (#), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]) in a name.
Disambiguation
All articles must be disambiguated via a parenthetical descriptor, and in the event of several articles sharing the article's name, the central title should then become a disambiguation page. The descriptor should be an acronym of the work (or fictional verse) where they derivate from, the full name of the work, or the name of their creator (this one can also be made into an acronym).
- Example with acronym of the work/verse: Theodore Nott (GATS)
- Example with full name of work/verse: Harry Potter (Prince's World)
- Example with name of author: James Potter (Scopatore)
- Example with name of author as an acronym: Armand Royce (SB)
When articles need to be further identified in their title, another parenthetical descriptor should be added between the article's main name and the universe identifier, citing what the article is (an individual, a location, and object, etc.).
In order to prevent editors accidentally using descriptors in use by other editors, editors must add their currently in-use descriptors to the list of disambiguators. In the event that the user decides to change the descriptor or remove all articles using said descriptor, then the list must be updated to reflect this change by either altering or removing the descriptor.
In addition, it is forbidden to use the magic word {{DISPLAYTITLE:name}} in order to either hide the parenthetical descriptor, or to pretend that the article has one. It must always be shown in the article's main title. This does not mean one can use the magic word in order to bypass the URL change. Any article without the parenthetical descriptor must be properly renamed so that it follows the rules.
Specific rules
Languages
If a language has been given an official name, then that name should be used as the article's title, with the parenthetical "(language)" if there is a naming conflict. If a language has not been given an official name, "[Insert Name Here] language" should be used as a conjectural title for the article.
Real-world people
Always list main author articles under the chosen, publishing name of the author, be it their real name or a pseudonym.
Initials in people's names should be written with full stops (periods) after them, with a space between the initials and the name, and between initials (example:J. K. Rowling). Whenever possible, use people's credited names instead of initials.
Titles
Titles are generally not considered to be part of a character's name.
Years and plain numbers
Plain numbers can be used for any purpose. However, when wanting to use a number as an article's title to refer to a certain date or as an actual name, the usage of the Disambiguation clause above is still to be enforced.
Commas as to be committed from years (example: 2000, and not 2,000).