MarioWiki:Naming

With the multitude of subjects and popularity of the Mario series, 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 Super Mario 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. Similarly, 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 English name, then the first released official name of the subject in another language is used. For example, the giant bird boss from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins does not have an official English name. However, the official German and Japanese names are known as "Radonkel" and "Kurosu" respectively. As the Japanese release came before the German release, the Japanese name "Kurosu" gets the article title. However, if an official English name is found, then it becomes the article's title.
 * If there is no official name in any language, then a conjectural title is developed if the subject is notable enough for an article. For example, the unnamed mayor of Fahr Outpost in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has been given the conjectural yet straightforward name "Fahr Outpost Mayor", as he plays a role in the game's story, unlike most NPCs, which are not granted conjecturally named articles.
 * When naming an article, do not use game abbreviations. (e.g. use Yoshi (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) as opposed to ).

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. The first five priorities only deal with video games and the instruction booklets that accompany them. This list is in order by priority:


 * 1) Official North American name – The majority of users and visitors to the Super Mario Wiki are North American, so these names should be used for all articles pertaining to subject matter that was released in North America.
 * 2) First international English name – 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.
 * 3) Name from a Nintendo Player's Guide – 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.
 * 4) Name from a Prima Games Strategy Guide – A name from a Prima Games Strategy Guide is also an acceptable alternative assuming the guide is official, though in case of contradictions, the Nintendo Power name takes priority.
 * 5) First international name from a non-English region – This includes the first use of the name in a non-English language game. If there is a conflict of which source to use, the region where the game was released first will have priority. In almost all cases, this means the Japanese region.
 * 6) 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.
 * 7) 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 beta elements or debugging.

English and non-English sources
English regions on the Super Mario 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 Super Mario 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.

Rather than using the actual Japanese characters, we use romanizations, such as Toride o Kakenukero!! (for とりでをかけぬけろ！！) 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, Kokuppa ni Damasareru na! (コクッパにだまされるな！) is not changed to "Kokoopa ni Damasareru na!" and Honebōn (ホネボーン) is not changed to "Honebone".

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 MarioWiki or commonly used names by the Mario community. When deciding on a name, the name must be simple yet accurate. For example, the article Bat has a simple yet accurate title. A name like is not acceptable because it is not simple and has an inaccurate description.

A specific rule applies to the planets in Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. The planets don't have official names, but conjectural names are given to them by our users to help identify each planet. However, there are some rules to name them: The name must be clear and straightforward, explaining in one word or two which planet is it talking about. Names must be professional. The first planet must always be named "Starting Planet". must be used to denote the names are not official. Official planet names, like Starshroom or Mushroom World don't abide by these rules.

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. For example, if the Prima strategy guide incorrectly names Swoopers as Bats, Swooper will still be the article name. It is up to the users to find and determine what the naming errors, translation errors, and use of aliases/nicknames are. The newest name will have priority over older names when mentioned in articles.

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. Also, words that aren't proper nouns in conjectural titles should not be capitalized (like Pauline's items).

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 World 1-1 (New Super Mario Bros. 2). Adding italics can be accomplished using the 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. For example, the game gets the Luigi's Mansion name, whereas the building's article is Luigi's Mansion (place). 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 (marked with ). For example, Dr. Mario is a disambiguation page linking to all the other uses of the title, such as Dr. Mario (game) and Dr. Mario (character). If there are more than two 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. For example, the article Spiny is about the classic Mario enemy, whereas Spiny (disambiguation) also links to Spiny (Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest), an enemy from a different series, Spiny (Mario Kart 64), a different Mario enemy, and Spiny (microgame). When disambiguation pages are used, the articles should link to them in, 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 parenthesis is determined by:
 * 1) What type of thing it is (e.g. level, course, game, character). For example, Dribble & Spitz (souvenir) is correct.
 * 2) * The identifier may get more specific before moving to scenario two. For example, most race courses use "course" as the identifier. Tick Tock Clock (race course) uses "race course" because the article it's being distinguished from (Tick Tock Clock) is a type of course.
 * 3) If the same type of thing shares the same name across multiple games, use each game title as the identifiers. For example, World 1-1 (New Super Mario Bros. 2) and World 1-1 (New Super Mario Bros. Wii) are both levels from different games. We cannot use World 1-1 (level) because we need to differentiate between games.
 * 4) * If just the game identifier is misleading as to what the article is about, use the game title followed by what the thing is. For example, imagine there is a "Dribble & Spitz" souvenir in two WarioWare games. We would use Dribble & Spitz (WarioWare: Twisted! souvenir) and Dribble & Spitz (WarioWare: Smooth Moves souvenir) because without the added "souvenir" text, no one would guess the article was about a souvenir and not the characters.
 * 5) * For Mario Kart courses, the console abbreviation is used as the identifier instead of the game name to be consistent with the retro course naming convention.
 * 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 that game. For example, Ghost (Wario Land II enemy).