Talk:Isle of Wight

What's the justification for including 'IOW' in the lead? I'm not opposed to mentioning it in the body, but the trend in the county articles been against mentioning abbreviations in the lead. @MapReader@Shlumble A.D.Hope (talk) 10:49, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

I reverted the edit - and will do so again, under BRD, as it's a long-standing within the article - because the reason for deleting it was given as it not being the notable abbreviation, when it quite clearly is. When counties were part of the official addressing system of the UK, prior to their becoming superflous with mechanised sorting, "IOW" was how letters to the island were addressed. Five minutes on Google will confirm it's commonplace. Moving it to the body, on the grounds that it's not significant enough to be featured in the lead, is a different point entirely - but that wasn't the edit that was made. MapReader (talk) 11:03, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

While I agree with your basic premise, the article on Hampshire has the abbreviation Hants in the lede for example, It is not necessary to indulge in bullying and edit-warring because someone disagrees with you. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 11:23, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

'IOW' is not a long-standing feature of the article lead, so far as I can tell by checking random edits in the edit history back to the start of 2022. That means that the 'bold' element of BRD in this case is inserting the abbreviation, not removing it. A.D.Hope (talk) 11:28, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

On a random selection of half a dozen county articles: Hampshire, Berkshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire; all have abbreviations in the lede though generally not bolded. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 11:56, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

But not Cheshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Greater London, City of London, Somerset, Northumberland and others, though the source provided in the edit that started this includes abbreviations for most (but Lnd for London): Chs, Nfk, Sfk, Som, Nbl. (For those you mention it provides Ham, Brk, Ntt, Nth, Bkm and Bdf.) NebY (talk) 12:10, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

By my count, of the the 48 ceremonial county articles, sixteen give an abbreviation in the lead. They appear to be derived from the postal county abbreviations, which are obsolete and different to the abbreviations given in the source you link to. A.D.Hope (talk) 14:18, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

You’re right, and I apologise for not checking the page history. In which case it should be discussed before being included - probably it’s a matter for the body rather than the lead. My problem with the original revert was the suggestion that IOW isn’t a widely used abbreviation used for the island - which, as someone who lives there, I know that it is. MapReader (talk) 13:28, 11 January 2026 (UTC)