Naming convention

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For conventions governing Wikipedia article names, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions.

A naming convention is a convention for naming things. Conventions differ in their intents, which may include to:

  • Allow useful information to be deduced from the names based on regularities. For instance, in Manhattan, streets are consecutively numbered; with East-West streets called "Streets" and North-South streets called "Avenues".
  • Show relationships, and in most personal naming conventions
  • Ensure that each name is unique for some scope

Use cases[edit]

Well-chosen naming conventions aid the casual user in navigating larger structures. Several areas where naming conventions are commonly used include:


A naming convention may be followed when:

  • Large corporate, university, or government campuses may name rooms within the buildings to help orient tenants and visitors.
  • Shipping lines often use a distinct naming convention to make their ships more recognisable and their names easier to remember.
  • Children's names may be alphabetical by birth order. In some Asian cultures, siblings commonly share a middle name. In many cultures the son is usually named after the father or grandfather.[1] In other cultures, the name may include the place of residence.[2] Roman naming convention denotes social rank.
  • Products. Automobiles typically have a binomial name, a "make" (manufacturer) and a "model", in addition to a model year. Computers, and computer programs, often have increasing numbers in their names to signify the successive generations.
  • School courses: an abbreviation for the subject area and then a number ordered by increasing level of difficulty.
  • Virtually all organizations that assign names or numbers follow some convention in generating these identifiers (e.g. phone numbers, bank accounts, government IDs, credit cards, etc.).
  • Database schema, Terminology and ontology creators apply a common set of labeling conventions for naming representational entities in their representational artefacts, i.e. conventions outlined or endorsed by a terminology regulatory bodies or policy providers such as ISO or the OBO Foundry.


External links[edit]