Wikipedia:Naming conventions (families)

Families are typically referred to by their unchanged full, unabbreviated surname in accordance with other Wikipedia:Article titles policies. However, there are recurrent cases when a family name is shared with that of subjects of other articles. When this happens, using a clear and consistent nomenclature can sometimes be difficult.

This page aims to settle conventions for article titles that have been adopted through discussions between Wikipedia editors (see the talk page and its archives, and earlier, Wikipedia talk:History standards). Please note that this is still a work in progress, as of 15 September 2017. Feel free to discuss on talk page.

Background: Wikipedia article titles

General policy on the naming of Wikipedia articles can be found at Wikipedia:Article titles. It is generally advisable to use the most common form of the name used in reliable sources in English, but there are other things which should be considered: ease of use, precision, concision, and consistency among article titles; and a system constraint: we cannot use the same name for two different articles, and therefore tend to avoid ambiguous titles. For general guidance on finding titles for articles about people, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people).

Families: assessment

Some disambiguation is often required for families. The principles advised are - if needed for disambiguation - to add "family" to the family article name, for example Jackson family. Where necessary, regional designations may be necessary, such as "Jackson family of West Virginia". This is also invited to be reflected in consistent use in category naming, see for instance Category:Jackson family, and Category:Jackson family of West Virginia, respectively.

Other

• Please note that for royal families, houses and dynasties, other conventions may apply - sometimes in accordance with Wikipedia:Naming conventions (royalty and nobility) - see for instance Category:Carolingian dynasty.
• For guidance on how to use names within articles, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies).