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 official name of the subject in any language is used. For example, the giant bird boss from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is named "Radonkel" on the wiki. The boss is unnamed in English, but has an official name in German, and since that is the only official name currently known, the title "Radonkel" is used for the article.
 * 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 mole people from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars have been given the conjectural name "Mole folk", as they are a notable species that appear throughout the game.
 * When naming an article, do not use game abbreviations. (e.g. use Yoshi (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) as opposed to ).

English and Non-English Sources
English regions on MarioWiki are defined as regions where the games are officially released in the English language. This commonly includes the American, European, and Australian regions. English sources generally have priority over non-English sources. Non-English sources on MarioWiki are defined as regions where games are not officially released in the English language. This can include any region where Nintendo officially releases their products.

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. This list is in order by priority:


 * 1) Most commonly used English 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. This includes both in-game and instruction booklet sources.
 * 2) 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.
 * 3) Name from a Prima Games Strategy Guide – A name from a Prima Games Strategy Guide is also an acceptable alternative assuming that it is a guide from 2007 or later. This is because Nintendo Power has officially partnered with Prima Games in that year after their discontinuation.
 * 4) 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. This includes both in-game and instruction booklet sources.
 * 5) Name used in officially licensed media – A name from any officially Nintendo licensed media source. This most likely includes non-video game sources like cartoons, movies, and comics.
 * 6) 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.

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).

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), an enemy from a different series, Spiny (hedgehog) 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.