Wikipedia:Naming conventions (government and legislation)

This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

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This page contains naming conventions for articles related to government offices, elections and legislation.

• Use official names in article titles (United States Department of the Treasury instead of Treasury Department), unless an agency is almost always known by an acronym or different title (DARPA).
• When creating an article with a common title, be sure to disambiguate it properly: For example, Department of Justice (Canada), Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia), Cabinet Office (Japan). Disambiguation is unnecessary if the country or other jurisdiction is a natural part of the subject's name (Statistics New Zealand, Royal Australian Navy), a common method of disambiguating in common speech exists (Cabinet of Germany, Prime Minister of Japan, Treasurer of Australia), or if the agency or office name is unique or is by far the most common meaning, the primary topic (Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Foreign and Commonwealth Office). Care should be taken to avoid convoluted or artificial constructions: Something of Something of Jurisdictionname.
• When writing articles on government bodies or offices with native titles not in English, an English translation should be favored, except when reliable sources in the English language commonly use the native title. For example, National Assembly of Bulgaria (not Narodno sabranie) but 2003 loya jirga (not 2003 Grand Assembly) and Bundestag (not Parliament of Germany).

• For individual elections and referendums, use the format "[date] [country name or adjectival form] [type] election/referendum". For example:
  • 2000 United States presidential election (country name)
  • 1867 Canadian federal election (adjectival form)
  • 1946 Faroese independence referendum (adjectival form, referendum)
• For an article covering multiple elections to bodies or positions of the same type, use the format "[date] [country name or adjectival form] [type] elections". For example:
  • 2021 United Kingdom local elections
  • 1987 Spanish regional elections
  • 2010 Brazilian gubernatorial elections
• For elections to particular bodies or offices, default to the form "[date] [country name or adjectival form] [body/office] election". For example:
  • 2007 Scottish Parliament election
  • 2008 Nepalese Constituent Assembly election
  • 2011 Kentucky Attorney General election
• For articles relating to the part of an election held in a specific region or country, use the format "[date] [country name or adjectival form] [type] election in subdivision". For example:
  • 1945 French legislative election in Algeria
  • 2019 European Parliament election in France
• For future elections of uncertain date, use the format "Next [country name or adjectival form] [type] election(s)", such as Next Irish general election. When the year of the election is known, titles like this should redirect to an article title with a year (such as 2016 Irish general election), because "next" is a moving target.
• Choose the terms "by-election" or "special election" according on which term is appropriate to the relevant country:
  • 2007 Massachusetts's 5th congressional district special election (American usage)
  • 2008 Glasgow East by-election (British usage)
• For US initiatives and similar ballot measures, use the format "[year] [jurisdiction] [measure identifier]". For example:
  • 1978 California Proposition 13
  • 2009 Washington Referendum 71
  • 2009 Maine Question 1
  • August 2023 Ohio Issue 1 (two ballot measures with the same identifier in the same year are disambiguated by month)

Guidance on naming conventions for legislation:

• Prefer titles that reflect the name commonly used in reliable sources.
• Generally, use the short title instead of the long title (for example, European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 instead of An Act to amend the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1978 so as to alter the method used in Great Britain for electing Members of the European Parliament to make other amendments of enactments relating to the election of Members of the European Parliament and for connected purposes), unless the long title is much better known. However, a redirect from long to short titles should be created, and the long title should be included in the article.
• Observe official titles and common use: In the United States, the form typically includes "of" with the year (Judiciary Act of 1789), while legislation in Britain tends to be referred to by the short name form and then the year without any comma or "of" between them (Judiciary Act 1903). In Canada, short titles that include a year will have a comma before the year (eg Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2017).^[1] If the official name of the bill includes a year, it should not be omitted in the article title, as it is part of the actual name of the bill and not a disambiguation.
• If several acts have the same common name, the title should:
  • Redirect to the primary topic, if one exists (the page Clean Water Act is about the U.S. federal law, with a link to non-primary topic Clean Water Act (Ontario) at the top of the page), or
  • Be a disambiguation page (for example, Official Secrets Act or Representation of the People Act), if multiple acts of substantially equal importance exist, or
  • Redirect to an article about the series of acts, if a set of acts are related (for example, Townshend Act redirects to Townshend Acts). This also applies to when two acts are passed with the same name and year in two separate parliaments, as in different enactments of the same piece of legislation; a single article should be created, with the singular redirecting to the plural: Act of Union 1707 redirects to Acts of Union 1707
• If the two different acts are passed in the same year with the same title, parenthetically disambiguate based on country: European Communities Act 1972 (UK) and European Communities Act 1972 (Ireland).