Nintendo Wiki:Naming

With the multitude of subjects and popularity of Nintendo's products and franchises, it can sometimes be difficult to find the right way to name an article. Generally, the best source for naming will come from the game itself, but when subjects are not named within the actual game or the subject doesn't appear in video games at all, you may need to turn to secondary sources for an official name.

Naming an article
There are several steps to follow when naming an article:


 * the Nintendo Wiki is an English language wiki, so the name of an article should correspond to the most commonly used English name of the subject, which, given our user and visitor demographics, means the North American name. For example, the North American title of "Mario Strikers Charged" takes precedence over the PAL region's "Mario Strikers Charged Football" title.
 * If a subject isn't released in North America, but is released in another English-speaking region (i.e. Europe or Australia), the name they provide should be used for the article. If there is a conflict of which source to use, the region where the game was released first will have priority (i.e. the first international English name will be used).
 * If there is no official English name, then the first international name from a non-English region is used. In most cases this would be Japanese because Nintendo is from Japan.
 * If a subject's name has changed over time, the more commonly used modern name should be used as the title, rather than the historic name. For example, Princess Peach's original English name was "Princess Toadstool", however, she is usually called "Princess Peach" in recent games, so the article's title is "Princess Peach".
 * If there is no official name in any language, then a conjectural title is developed if the subject is notable enough for an article. The subject needs to be given a straightforward name that accurately describes it. Any subject with a conjectural title must be marked with the conjectural template.
 * When naming an article, do not use game abbreviations in the identifier.

Acceptable sources for naming
This is a list of acceptable sources when it comes to naming an article. If a source is not present, keep moving down the list until you have found the right way to name the article, and only create a conjectural title as a last resort.


 * 1) Name provided in-game or in the enclosed instruction manual – Ideally, the subject is named in the game itself, but whatever instruction material is enclosed with the game is also considered a primary naming source. If there is inconsistency between the manual and the game itself regarding a name, the game's version takes precedence.
 * 2) Name from a Nintendo Player's Guide or a Prima Games guide from Super Mario Galaxy-onward – A name from a Nintendo Player's Guide (also commonly known as a Nintendo Power guidebook) is an acceptable alternative. For games released after 2007, this source can no longer be used since this source is currently discontinued. Super Paper Mario is the last game in the Mario series to be covered by Nintendo Power. After Nintendo Power's sales to Future Publishing in 2007, Nintendo of America signed an exclusive agreement with publisher Prima Games for the rights to official English Nintendo strategy guides. As such, Prima guides released starting with Super Mario Galaxy are considered to occupy the same tier of officiality as Nintendo Power.
 * 3) Name from a pre-Super Mario Galaxy Prima Games Strategy Guide or any other third-party guide – A name from an officially-licensed Prima Games Strategy Guide (when they were published concurrently with Nintendo Power) is also an acceptable alternative, though in case of contradictions, the Nintendo Power name takes priority. This also applies to other official third-party guides by companies such as Bradygames. For Japanese names, guides published by Shogakukan (Nintendo's official guidebook licensee) take priority over other publications.
 * 4) Name used in officially licensed media – A name from any officially Nintendo-licensed non-video game media source. This includes cartoons, movies, magazines, comics and web content. Like games, North American media names get priority, followed by the first international English name and finally, the first non-English source.
 * 5) Development name – Any name used during the development of a video game or other Nintendo-licensed media source. This type of name usually comes from unused data, developer interviews or development documents.

Please note that regardless of the source, the official North American name takes priority, followed by the first international English name if no North American name is available, and finally the first international non-English name if no English name is known. For example, if a subject is given a name in-game in the Japanese version only, and not in the English localization of the game, but an English strategy guide names it, that English name is used, rather than the Japanese.

Please also note that general and lengthy descriptions of a subject that are clearly not intended as the subject's name are not suitable sources for the article's title. For example, while straightforward titles like "giant spike block" are fine, if the object is described as a "large block with spikes" or "the block with spikes on them", that should not be the name of the article.

English and non-English sources
English regions on the Nintendo Wiki are defined as regions where the games are officially released in the English language, and commonly includes the American, European, and Australian regions. Non-English sources on the Nintendo Wiki are defined as regions where games are not officially released in the English language (but which are released in one or more other languages). English sources generally have priority over non-English sources, with non-English titles only being used when no official English name is available. The region where the game was released first provides the name, meaning Japanese is often used for the title.

Japanese
Rather than using the actual Japanese characters, we use, such as Itsunomanika Heihō (for 「いつのまにかヘイホー」) or Unibō (for 「ウニボー」). However, if a Japanese word is itself a transliteration of an English word, simply use the original English word. Similarly, names that were transcribed slightly differently from the proper romanization when the games were translated from Japanese to English should use those official transcriptions (i.e. "Yosshī"/"Yossy" and "Kuppa" should be written as "Yoshi" and "Koopa", respectively). Therefore, 「ヨッシーのクッキー クルッポンオーブンでクッキー」 is given the title Yoshi no Cookie: Kuruppon Oven de Cookie, even though the direct romanization is "Yosshī no Kukkī: Kuruppon Ōbun de Kukkī"; another example is 「スーパーマリオ　不思議のころころパーティ」, which is romanized as "Sūpā Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Pāti", but given the article name Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party to reflect how users instinctively want to refer to the familiar words in the title. However, if the word is part of a compound, leave it as the original Japanese, as a partial translation would just look awkward, rather than instinctual; for example, there is an article on the Super Mario Wiki that uses the title Kaibādo (「カイバード」) instead of "Kaibird".

Dark Horse books
While citing the Japanese equivalent of Dark Horse publications, such as Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia and The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, is acceptable, citing the English version is not. The English version of the book uses old, likely outdated, and created names directly pulled from fansites. In most cases, we already have a different name sourced, so using the old name while referencing the book would just lead to us referencing ourselves.

Conjectural names
Any name from a source not covered above is considered unofficial and conjectural. Generally, conjecturally named subjects don't have articles because they are either not noteworthy enough to have an article or don't have much information to cover. However, subjects that are detailed and noteworthy enough to have articles still have to adhere to certain guidelines.

Conjectural names are usually decided upon by the users of the Nintendo Wiki or commonly used names by Nintendo communities. When deciding on a name, the name must be simple yet accurate. For example, if an article is named Zombie, it has a simple yet accurate title. A name like is not acceptable because it is not simple and is unprofessional. Words that are not proper nouns in conjectural titles should not be capitalized.

Name changes
In certain cases, names may be changed because the old name is replaced with a newer name. A popular example of this is how was changed to Blooper. In these cases, the newer name will replace the older one with certain exceptions. Exceptions include naming errors, translation errors, and use of aliases/nicknames. It is up to the users to find and determine what the naming errors, translation errors, and use of aliases/nicknames are. When mentioning subjects whose names have changed overtime, the newest name generally takes greater priority, except in the context of older media where they went by previous names, in which case those are used instead.

Capitalization
The words in the title must be capitalized the same way they are from the source, unless it is a proper noun. Proper nouns are capitalized no matter how it is in the source. The wiki software makes it so that the first letter of the title is capitalized regardless. Exceptions to the proper noun rule can be made if there is some special reason why the proper noun is uncapitalized.

Italics
Italics are used in main and gallery namespace page titles in the same way that they are used in text. This includes cases where parentheses are used in the article title, such as Tennis (Wii Sports). Adding italics can be accomplished using the italic title template. To italicize the full title (such as for games), use:

For partial italics, use the desired title as a parameter:

Either line of code should be placed at the very top of the page without any blank or empty lines following it. It's not necessary to make this change to talk pages.

Shared titles
It is possible to come across a subject which shares the same title as another subject, in which case identifiers must be used to show which one of the same-named subjects is covered in each page. If there is one subject that is clearly more popular than the others, the popular subject will keep the original title while the others use identifiers. If the subjects are equally likely to be linked to or searched for, both articles are given identifiers while the plain subject title is made into a disambiguation page, which must be marked with disambig (e.g. Donkey Kong (disambiguation)). If a video game has been released for more than one console and has a significant difference in gameplay, it should have the identifier of the console (e.g. Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Advance)).

Unlike wikis dedicated to a specific franchise (such as Pokémon Wiki), articles on franchises and series should always have the highest priority over other identically named subjects; in other words, they should not be given an identifier. An exception to this rule is if a series shares a name with a franchise (e.g. Donkey Kong (series)).

If there are five or more pages sharing the same name, a disambiguation page must be used, although it may be given a "(disambiguation)" qualifier if one of the articles has the plain title. When disambiguation pages are used, the articles should only link to them in about when necessary, but if a disambiguation page is not used, the articles can merely link to the other same-named page.

Determining the identifier
If an identifier is needed, the text in parentheses is determined by:
 * 1) What type of thing it is (e.g. level, game, character).
 * 2) *The identifier "character" is used when differentiating a character from non-character(s) which share the same name (e.g. Donkey Kong). If a character shares the same name as another character, the title of the game or series they appear in is used (e.g. Ghost (Find Mii)). If a character name is used more than once within the same game, a species or custom identifier is used. This also applies to articles with the same title that are part of a group (e.g. Virtual Console (Wii) for the Virtual Console).
 * 3) If different yet identically-named subjects are the same type of thing (e.g. character, item, location, etc.) and have each made either only major appearance or altogether, the game title should be used as the identifier for the respective articles.
 * 4) *If the subject of the article is identical to one from another franchise or series, use the series/franchise name plus the word "series"/"franchise" instead of a game name as the identifier if the topic(s) of the other article(s) are from different series (e.g. Dragon (Metroid franchise)).
 * 5) *If two different games share the same title but appear on different consoles and the identifier needs to distinguish between them, the game name and abbreviation for the console are used in this format: ({game name} for {console abbreviation}). For example, Beach Volleyball (Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games for 3DS).
 * 6) If the same type of thing shares the same name across multiple games and that name is also used for multiple things within one game, use the game title followed by the type of thing as the identifier. For example, on the Super Mario Wiki, Ghost (Wario Land II enemy). If this scenario occurs, then the other thing which shares the name in the same game should also include the game title (e.g. Ghost (Wario Land II boss)).
 * 7) If multiple subjects in a shared appearance are the same type of thing, a distinguishing feature that differs between them may be used instead. For example, Chap (green) and Chap (blue) are both characters in Super Paper Mario.

Technical restrictions
It is entirely possible for subjects to have titles that are restricted due to MediaWiki software limitations. For this reason, if an article has a title which is technically restricted, then the article should be located at another title that closely matches the correct title as much as possible, and  be used to correct title headers. This usually applies to the " " symbol, which redirects readers back to the Main Page.