Commons:Category names (essay)
 | While this essay is not a policy or guideline itself, it is intended to supplement other Wikimedia Commons practices and policies. Please defer to the relevant policy or guideline in case of inconsistency between that page and this one. |
The policy for category names suggests to use English except in proper names, biological taxa and and terms which don't have an exact English equivalent. This essay lays out how that policy is implemented in practice.
Policy
[edit]As per Commons:Categories#Category names:
Category names should generally be in English (see Commons:Language policy). However, there are exceptions such as:
- some proper names
- biological taxa
- names for which the non-English name is most commonly used in the English language (or there is no evidence of usage of an English-language version)
Latin alphabets are used in original form including diacritics and derived letters, non-Latin alphabets are transcribed to the English Latin script. Basic English characters (ISO/IEC 646) are preferred over national variants or extension character sets (for instance, 'straight' apostrophes over 'curly'), where reasonable.
- Types or groups of objects or people should generally have names in plural form: Category:Tools, Category:Artists, Category:Lakes, Category:Paintings, Category:Sculptures, Category:Popes etc. and in English if possible.
- General themes or activities require a name in singular form usually: Category:History, Category:Weather, Category:Music, Category:Painting, Category:Nature, Category:Papacy etc. and in English if possible.
- A particular individual object (a specific person, building, monument, artwork, organization, event, etc.) generally uses a singular form (but not always). Proper nouns which do not have an established English variant are not translated ad hoc but use the original form.
Categories grouping subcategories by name should generally be named "by name" rather than "by alphabet" (e.g. Category:Ships by name).
We still lack internationalization for category names, but this issue should be resolved with appropriate changes to the MediaWiki software (see T31928: Show translated titles per user language in categories too). Creating intermingled category structures in different languages would only make things worse.
Concerns
[edit]Biological taxa
[edit]There are several biological taxa with very common but different English names, like Category:Cats (Felis catus), Category:Dogs (Canis familiaris), and Category:Birds (Aves). It is solved by categorizing the trivial names under the scientific ones. In this case, the trivial name is used to categorize the relevant taxon, leaving the scientific one for biology topics. For example, Category:Birds is categorized under Category:Aves, and the category Category:Aves is reserved for the biology topics pertaining to birds.
National varieties of English
[edit]National varieties of English (like American or British English) differ in vocabulary (elevators vs. lifts) and spelling (organizations vs. organisations). Refer to the English Wikipedia article on Comparison of American and British English for more about such differences.
- In general, identical topics should have identical names for all countries and at all levels of categorization, following the Universality Principle.
- However, country subdivisions may follow the name consistent with the relevant national variety. For example, the category Category:Train stations in India may have a subcategory Category:Railway stations in West Bengal, following Indian English.
- Proper names retain the subject's own spelling. For example, the Category:International Labour Organization.
- For certain topics where it is standardized, the internationally-accepted spellings (like Category:Aluminium, Category:Sulfur, and Category:Caesium) should be used.