Wikipedia:Article title dos and don'ts

This is an information page.

It is neither an encyclopedia article nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia:Article titles. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Titles tell readers what an article is about.

More information DO:, DON'T: ...

Article titles should be precise, recognizable, and neutral. Generally:

DO:
Use the most common name in English for the subject
Follow the pattern of similar articles
Use sentence case, and prefer singular nouns
Check for special naming conventions
Create redirects from other plausible titles
If necessary, disambiguate as naturally as possible
If the topic is ambiguously named, use a hatnote or dab page

DON'T:
Don't make titles longer than necessary
Don't use judgmental words in descriptive titles
Don't start with "A", "An", or "The" except in proper names
Don't put titles in quotes; use formatting templates instead
Don't use special characters if avoidable
Don't disambiguate more than necessary
Don't create subsidiary titles that look like subpages

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See also