Help:Page Naming

Introduction
Choosing a good page title is important for multiple reasons:


 * It makes the page easier to search for.
 * The title gives a first impression of what the page is about. A good title adds to the understanding.
 * The title is what is used in links. It's always nice to know what a page is about before clicking the link.
 * A descriptive title avoids name conflicts

Some pages are subject to specific naming conventions. See the corresponding help pages for instructions:


 * Definition Equivalences
 * Disambiguation Pages
 * Categories

Things to avoid
It is generally better not to start a page name with articles such as "A" or "The", as this makes it significantly harder to find pages alphabetically in their categories. For example: Pythagorean Theorem, not The Pythagorean Theorem.

Similarly, is not necessary to begin the name with "Proof of ...", and this should be avoided. Since is a collection of proofs, it is assumed that each page is going to be a proof of something. This also makes searching for articles much easier.

In order to avoid future name conflicts, be sure to choose a sufficiently specific name.

In particular, it is a good practice to always include a noun in your definitions. That is, Definition:Differentiable Mapping instead of Definition:Differentiable (note how the latter is a disambiguation page). Pages breaking this rule should be flagged using the rename template.

Capitalizing
Page titles are case-sensitive. For all types of pages, major words in the title of the page should be capitalized. For example: Subring Generated by Unity of Ring with Unity. So as to promote consistency, be informed that in particular, the following words are not considered to be "major" and ought to be used in their lowercase form when naming a page:


 * Prepositions, pronouns and conjunctions:
 * and, around, as, between, by, for, from, if, iff, in, its, minus, no, not, of, on, or, over, plus, such that, that, the, then, to, under, with, with respect to, which, whose
 * Short verbs, such as:
 * are, can, cannot, does, equals, form, has, have, implies, is

These lists are not exhaustive.

Variables in formulas are not capitalized. See.

Names with Formulas
If the name of a page contains mathematical statements, the following formatting practices should be adhered to:


 * Put no spaces between numbers/elements that are added, subtracted, divided, or multiplied together.
 * Example:
 * Do, however, put spaces between elements that are put into equality or inequality with one another. Use  to signify inequality.
 * Example:
 * Variables appearing in the formulas need not be capitalized.
 * Example:
 * A page name is no place for $\LaTeX$ commands.

Things named after a mathematician
A theorem that is named after a Mathematician gets a call of the Namedfor template. When done properly, the page is then automatically placed in a corresponding category in Named Theorems, which itself has to be created manually.

Similarly, for named definitions there is the NamedforDef template.

Disambiguation pages are treated in the same way. Note that theorem disambiguations do not otherwise get categories. See Help:Disambiguation.

A page whose name contains a word named after a Mathematician does not fall under this category. For example, not every theorem about Krull dimension needs a call of Namedfor.

Namespaces
When you would like to create a page for a definition, all you have to do different from naming a proof is to add  in front of the name. So for example if you wanted to create a page for the definition of calculus you would name the page: Definition:Calculus

Also, after you create the page, be sure to add the definition to the appropriate "Definitions" categories (see Category:Definitions).

The same method that is used for Definitions is also used to name and categorize axiom and symbols pages. Simply substitute  or   for   in the page name and, mutatis mutandis, in the category name. See Help:Categories.

Multiple Names
Some mathematical concepts have several names, according to the sources you consult. Which of these names is used in is largely a matter of happenstance.

However, if one of the names of a concept is for a particular mathematician, that name is to be used in preference.

An example of this is Definition:Chebyshev Distance, which is otherwise known as the Definition:Maximum Metric or the Definition:Chessboard Metric.

See also Help:Also known as.

Disallowed Characters
The following characters should not be used in page names:
 * 1) < > [ ] | { } * & $ @

Accented Characters
A theorem named after someone gets this exact name, including accented characters.

For search convenience, a redirect can be set up. See Help:Redirects

Also see

 * Help:Name Conflict
 * Help:Renaming Pages