This is aninformation page. It is not anencyclopedic article, nor one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels ofconsensus andvetting.

Shortcut WP:PNAMEWP:PNAME

Page name is a term that is used to refer to any page that is sent from a Wikipediadatabase. It does not usually refer tovirtual namespaces, like Special or Media pages. The page name is normally the same as thedisplayed title, shown on the title line, near the top of the page, in a large font size. The displayed title can, however, be altered slightly from the page name without affecting things much; seeChanging the displayed title below.

Page names are used to title pages, to navigate to pages, to search for pages, and for things liketransclusion andsubstitution. Page names also conveniently serves as link names inwikitext, if enclosed in double square brackets, like[[Page name]]. If a page is moved, the page name will also move.

Page names are also the same as the last part of theURL of Wikipedia pages, that is, after the last slash (/); except that some translation occurs, such as spaces being replaced with underscores. For example, theMain page of Wikipedia has no title, but a link can be formed from the last part of the URL, such as[[Main_Page]] or[[Main Page]]. TheMediaWiki software, which drives Wikipedia, will interpret all the possible URL characters correctly; seeSpaces, underscores, and character encoding, below. But with pages in the revision-history database, URLs are different, and only the full URL can be linked; the URL includes the page name, but also anoldid value, in the permanent and unique formPage_name&oldid=value. SeeHelp:Page history for more details.

The MediaWiki software set in motion the terminology of page names when they stored aspects of the page name in three "magic words":{{NAMESPACE}},{{PAGENAME}}, and{{FULLPAGENAME}}. We now write that afullpagename is "namespace:pagename" to refer to those aspects of a page name. Their content management uses namespaces, and it embeds the namespace name in the title for each page except for the main content, for which the namespace aspect is hidden. Wikipediaarticles have no namespace because they arethe main purpose.^[1] In Wikipedia, then an article's page name has afullpagename ofpagename, but outside the main namespace, the MediaWiki titles don't hide the namespace name, so there thepage name (orfullpagename) show asnamespace:pagename with a colon between. This makes a few restrictions on pagenames, which we fully cover.

The terminology for referencing pages is set by the MediaWiki software, where threevariables name every page:pagename,namespace, andfullpagename.^[2]Note that "pagename" (without a space in the middle), has a different meaning than "page name"

A title is a "page name" and, always as well, a "fullpagename". Both terms are equally synonymous withtitle. Because a namespace is just a way of categorizing the functional purpose (or type) of a set of pages, it could be argued that the pagename is the titleproper, and in the most important case it is: for articles, a "page name" is a "pagename". This is made true by having the default namespace (when nonamespace is given) be article space (or mainspace), so that for an articlefullpagename is justpagename.

The analogy to common, everyday computing is the following. 1) the search box is the command line interface of a terminal. 2) Article namespace is always the current working directory. 3) Each namespace is one directory below. This way an article title is always a simple basename, and anamespace:pagename is adirname/basename. The two exceptions are that 1) Special pages are not in the database (or "on the disk"), so their title does not follow the scheme:special pages show no namespace like all other titles do, and 2) wrapping a pagename in double curly braces switches to the Template namespace (or directory) as the default.

Navigating from the search box requires a fullpagename, for example the Potato article ispotato, and the Potato template isTemplate:Potato.

The article namespaces needs no namenormally, but, for advancing users, the name of article space is: (a colon), found in these common uses:

• Inthe search box (for users who reset their default search domain):
  • :query indicates a query in article space only, just as Template:query  indicates the Template namespace.
  • as the first character in the argument to theprefix: parameter:prefix:: (compareprefix:Template:)
• On a page in the wikitext:
  • {{:pagename}} to transclude a page from article space
  • {{subst::pagename}} to substitute a page from article space

A given namespace is required to name (or reference) a page on Wikipedia that is not in article space, because the wiki can have the same pagename in many different namespaces, for exampleHelp:Category andWikipedia:Category. The Wikipedia termnamespace derives from the computer science concept ofnamespace. It can be thought as specifying a collection of pages serving a functional purpose, such as templates, orMediaWiki software messages, with each individual page specified by a pagename that is uniquefor that collection.

Afullpagename is anamespace:pagename: a namespace name followed by a colon, then a pagename.

• In article space a fullpagename is a pagename. (The namespace part defaults to article space.)
• In all other namespaces a fullpagename is a namespace:pagename.
• Fullpagename, page name, and the page's displayed title are always the same letters (keys on the keyboard). (Except see DISPLAYTITLE below)
• In a URLs it is the fullpagename that is encoded.
• In the revision history database the same fullpagename is commensurate with all theoldid number.

For more helpful examples:

• Wikipedia:Disambiguation andHelp:Disambiguation:
  • The page name and fullpagenameWikipedia:Disambiguation, hasWikipedia as namespace, andDisambiguation as pagename.
  • The page name and fullpagenameHelp:Disambiguation, hasHelp as namespace, andDisambiguation as pagename.
• Copyright andHelp:Copyright
  • The pageHelp:Copyright hasHelp:Copyright as page name and fullpagename;Help as namespace; andCopyright as pagename.

Terminology is an organization's way to communicate quickly. The terms "fullpagename" and "pagename" in italics specify the variable type, for example:

• The statements: "Writing{{Template:pagename}} is redundant. Why use{{fullpagename}}, when{{pagename}} will suffice?"

• The instructions: "Add a level 3 header (i.e.===[[Example title]]===) with the namespace if not an article."^[3]

could be written more succinctly

"Add===[[fullpagename]]==="

• Documenting template parameters that take a namespaces and a series of different pagenames:

namespace |pagename |pagename ... |pagename

• Or if it cannot be made clear, then resort to numbering:

fullpagename1 |fullpagename2 ... |fullpagenameN.

For more examples of these lowercased terms in template documentation see the searchestemplate: fullpagename andtemplate: pagename.

The terminology for referencing asubpage (and its parent page) is suggested by theMediaWiki software's {{SUBPAGENAME}} (and {{BASEPAGENAME}}).These can be a clear and concise way to talk aboutsubpages.See wheresubpagename orbasepagename are used on pages.

Subpagenames and subpage links are used to abbreviate linking and transclusion among closely interworking subpages,where they are seen near the top of every subpage in thenav list,and in[[wikilinks]], and in{{templates}}.

Navigating or linking to any page requires[[fullpagename]] except when to and from subpages.For example, atManual of Style (subpages)or atHelp:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual (subpages).The construct../ isan abbreviation borrowed from computing, and using it in a wikilink renders the fullpagename.

The table below shows a live demo of subpage naming relations, and subpage linking.
See this table on subpages/one/two/three/four and/sub/page/name1/sub/page/name2/subpage level 3.

It shows that

• A subpagename is just a label inside its pagename, with a software-added / slash delimiter.
• The basepagename is just the pagename of the parent, so it absorbs child subpagenames.
• A fullpagename is a namespace:basepagename/subpagename, or a ../subpagename.
• The pagename includes the subpagename. There really is a sub-pagename, (although there is no full-pagename or full pagename).
• The pagename of a subpage is basename/subpagename.
• Basepagename only lacks the namespace needed for linking or navigating.
• When not on a subpage:
  • the terms are synonymous: pagename, subpagename, basepagename.
  • [[../]] renders [[../]], [[../../]], etc.
• When the subpagename has a/ slash character in it, a subpage link to it[[../]] renders ared-linked fullpagename.

Other facts concerning subpages are that

• A wikilink[[/subpagename]] can create a subpage.
• While editing a subpage you don't see subpagenames to know for sure how to reference parent pages in subpage links. You only a have view of the title.
• The subpage navigation list only shows subpages above. You can list subpages below
  • indirectly from the "Page information" item on every page.
  • directly froma "Subpages" item on every page, by adding a bit of JavaScript to yourPreferences.
  • indirectly usingSearch with theprefix parameter.

You can find standardized subpagenames by using theintitle parameter. See common subpagenames from these searches:

Each pagename in a namespaces is unique,but those searches show how subpagenames are standardized, and repeated many times.

In the twovirtual namespaces —Special andMedia —the title line of the page isnot the fullpagename.

Even with irregular titles, virtual pages are readily navigated, linked, and transcluded usingnamespace:pagename.

• The title line of a Media page is File:pagename. (This title is only helpfulin some cases.)
• A Special page follows no such rules. Its title displays no namespace, and can change its pagename. See for example the title of any page listed atSpecial:SpecialPages.

A virtual page is not a page name stored in the database as wikitext.

• Special pages are automatically generated inHTML.
• Media pages are stored as binary data at theWikimedia Commons wiki.

Additionally, for page naming Special pages:

• The URL of a Special page can differ from normalWikipedia:URLs, especially when it involves several operating parameters.
• Their fullpagename can be {{transcluded}}, but only in some cases.
• Searching for Special pages is not possible, although suggestions are given from the search box, and when you typespecial: followed by anything not a pagename, you get a link toSpecial pages.

As explained earlier, the fullpagename, pagename and namespace of a page can be rendered by placing the 'magic words'{{FULLPAGENAME}},{{PAGENAME}} and{{NAMESPACE}} in the wikitext. These three magic words must be in all capitals. These and related magic words also haveparsing abilities, seemeta:Help:Page name for more information on this.

The magic word{{FULLPAGENAME}} renders thefullpagename of a page if inserted in the wikitext of a page. Now the fullpagename of a page will generally be the same as thepage name (note the space in page name), and hence the page's title as explained earlier. The only time the fullpagename will differ from the page's title, is if the displayed title is changed by a method detailed in the 'Changing the displayed title' section beneath; for example, by using the magic word{{DISPLAYTITLE:title}}.

The magic word{{PAGENAME}} renders thepagename (note there is no space in pagename) of a page if inserted in the wikitext of a page. As explained earlier, the fullpagename will be the same as pagename only if the page is in Main namespace (e.g. for encyclopedic articles); in other namespaces, fullpagename will be the same as 'namespace:pagename'.

The magic word{{NAMESPACE}} usually renders thenamespace of a page if inserted in the wikitext of a page. The only time this doesn't happen is in Main namespace, where{{NAMESPACE}} will render a blank instead.

Subpages (except for article pages) are also rendered by these magic words. For example, for the page namedWikipedia:Userboxes/Media/Film, fullpagename would beWikipedia:Userboxes/Media/Film, pagename would beUserboxes/Media/Film, and namespace would beWikipedia.

As an example, for the articleNotability: the page name,{{FULLPAGENAME}} and{{PAGENAME}} would beNotability; and{{NAMESPACE}} would be blank. And for the pageWikipedia:Notability: the page name and{{FULLPAGENAME}} would beWikipedia:Notability;{{NAMESPACE}} would beWikipedia; and{{PAGENAME}} would beNotability.

Adding an E to the end of these variables, like{{FULLPAGENAMEE}}, renders these variables encoded for use inMediaWikiURLs, i.e. with underscores replacing any spaces. Additional magic words for related variables include{{ARTICLEPAGENAME}},{{ARTICLESPACE}},{{BASEPAGENAME}},{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}},{{SUBJECTSPACE}},{{SUBPAGENAME}},{{TALKPAGENAME}},{{TALKSPACE}}. SeeHelp:Magic words for more details.

Wikipedia:Article titles describes the policy for the correct naming of an article, but there are also technical restrictions to the naming of articles on Wikipedia, most of which are listed atWikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions). The sectionChanging the displayed title explains how some technical restrictions may be overcome.

Forward slash (/) in page names provides special functionality in a namespace where thesubpage feature has been enabled. This feature is not active in Wikipedia's Main namespace, so a forward slash in an article name has no particular effect; but it may affect the behaviour of the corresponding talk page, as subpages are enabled in the Main Talk namespace. An example is the articleGNU/Linux naming controversy; it doesn't have a subpage, but the talk pageTalk:GNU/Linux naming controversy is a subpage ofTalk:GNU. But this doesn't particularly cause problems.

For information on how to treat pages whose titles are affected by these limitations, seeWikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions).

In general, a page name can be any string of one or more Unicode characters. However, some strings of Unicode characters cause technical problems with the way Wikipedia functions, and so are limited or restricted.^[4] Note that these rules mostly apply to namespace as well as pagename. These limitations and restrictions include:

• A page name cannot begin with a lowercase letter in any alphabet, except for the German letterß.^[5]
• A page name cannot contain any of the following characters:#<>[]|{}_ (which all have special meanings in wiki syntax); the Unicodereplacement character U+FFFD�; or anyHTML character codes, such as&.^[6] A pagename also cannot contain 3 or more continuoustildes~~~, as these are used formarking signatures on Wikipedia.
• A pagename cannot begin with acolon:.
• A pagename cannot be. or..; or begin with./ or../; or contain/./ or/../; or end with/. or/...
• A pagename cannot exceed 255bytes in length. Be aware that non-ASCII characters may take up to four bytes inUTF-8 encoding, so the total number ofcharacters that can fit into a title may be less than 255.
• A pagename cannot begin with any kind of namespace prefix, except apseudo-namespace prefix, by definition.

Namespace prefixes include: allsubject and talk namespace prefixes (e.g.,Wikipedia: andUser:),virtual namespace prefixes (Special: andMedia:),namespace aliases (e.g.,WT:),Interwiki linking prefixes (e.g.Wikt: forWiktionary;Q: forWikiquote),Interlanguage link prefixes (e.g.fr:,en:). For example, an article about the albumQ: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! has the pagenameQ. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! because of theQ:.

Article titles beginning with a namespace prefix (e.g.Wikipedia: The big adventure) aretechnically possible. However, the article would be in the wrong namespace, which would interfere with search and other functionality, and that space after the colon would have to be added with DISPLAYTITLE as described below. In such situations, thenaming conventions recommend redirecting to an alternative title within mainspace. For example, the articleProject: Mersh is namedProject Mersh, asProject: is anamespace alias for theWikipedia: namespace.

• A pagename cannot consist of only a namespace prefix.
• A pagename cannot begin or end with a space (which would be translated to an underscore in the URL).
• A pagename cannot contain % followed by 2hexadecimal digits (a pagenamecan have the character%, but it must bepercent-encoded as%25 in the URL, to prevent it from being interpreted as a single character. To prevent ambiguity, pagenames cannot contain % followed by 2 hexadecimal digits).
• With namespaces, no capitalization of a namespace name, apart from the first letter, is allowed. Also, no spaces (which are translated to underscores) are allowed before or after the colon of a namespace name. For example, the following are not allowed:HELP:,HeLp:,Help_: orHelp:_ (with spaces rather than underscores).

Although it is not possible to change a page title via themagic word{{DISPLAYTITLE:}}, it is possible to stylize the way a page title is displayed at the top of its page to the reader. This should be done only if the article meets the criteria for a non-standard title format, as detailed in theWikipedia:Article titles policy. Unlike ona few other wikis,$wgRestrictDisplayTitle is true on English Wikipedia, so only limited modifications can be made: the displayed title must stillresolve to the true name of the page; i.e. if the displayed title is copied and pasted into a wikilink, the link should point to the original page.

To be more specific on when it can be used: DISPLAYTITLE allows changing the initial letter to lower case; changing the case of any letter in the namespace; adding one initial colon; changing spaces to underscores; adding a space after a namespace prefix; adding w: or en: at the start of a title; and adding formatting such as italics, bolding, superscripts, subscripts, etc. Someforbidden characters are not supported by DISPLAYTITLE (< and > are allowed in markup, and { and } are allowed for template transclusions). Since 2013 it is not possible to hide part of the title with<span>...</span> or<span>...</span>.^[7]

The syntax to directly use DISPLAYTITLE is{{DISPLAYTITLE:Desired title}}. However, it is often indirectly applied when any of severaltemplates are used, such as:

• {{lowercase title}} (used on articles such aseBay andiPod, and on categories such asCategory:macOS)
• {{lowercase}} (used on templates such asTemplate:iPhone models)
• {{italic title}} (commonly used for scientific names)
• certain infoboxes, such as{{Infobox film}}, which include a built-in DISPLAYTITLE to automatically italicize the page title

If a page directly or indirectly contains more than one instance of DISPLAYTITLE with allowed modifications, and they do not all specify the same desired title, only the last such instance is applied, and an error message is generated showing the markup that would be generated by the conflicting instances. For example:

Warning: Display title "<i>Rocket Ship Galileo</i>" overrides earlier display title "<i>Rocket Ship</i> Galileo" (help).

The preferred solution to this problem is to remove one of the instances of DISPLAYTITLE. While it is possible to suppress the error via the "noerror" parameter, i.e.{{DISPLAYTITLE:Desired title|noerror}}, it is preferable to tweak the template that automatically includes the conflicting DISPLAYTITLE via parameter(s) usually described in its documentation. Many infoboxes have the option|italic title = no or|italic_title = no to suppress its automatic use of DISPLAYTITLE.

You are strongly encouraged to test DISPLAYTITLE changes before saving. Whenpreviewing am article in the Source Editor, DISPLAYTITLE instances will be applied to the visible page title, and any instances with disallowed modifications will produce a warning; note that this will not prevent any other DISPLAYTITLE with valid modifications from being applied to the preview. When using theVisualEditor, no DISPLAYTITLE instances are applied in the preview, nor are warnings given.

Use

, rather than

. This invokes themagic word directly instead of using the template.SeeTemplate:DISPLAYTITLE § Instructions andHelp:Magic words § Behavior switches.

The normal usage of{{DISPLAYTITLE:Draft:Desired title}} will appear to work but it will stop working when the draft is accepted since the new page name will beDesired title instead ofDraft:Desired title.

The preferred way is to use templates (see above). If that is not practical,{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{main other||{{NAMESPACE}}:}}Desired title}} works and will continue to work if the page is moved into the main encyclopedia.

Where page titles are placed in alphabetical order by the system (as atSpecial:AllPages),Unicode-based ordering is used rather than the truly alphabetical ordering that would be expected. For details, seeHelp:Alphabetical order.

In page names, a blank space is equivalent to an underscore. A blank space is displayed in the large font title at the top of the page, while the URLs show an underscore. Wikilinks can use either spaces or underscores (spaces are preferred in article space).

Percent-encoded character codes, such as%41 (which codesA) and%C3%80 (which codesÀ orA-grave), are treated in pagenames as equivalent to their corresponding characters. The codes are generally used for most non-alphanumeric and non-ASCII characters in URLs; although the characters themselves may sometimes work as well, depending on browser. The reason why%C3%80 works is because theUTF-8 for A-grave isC380hex.

Codes are converted into corresponding characters in link labels:[[%41]] and[[%C3%80]] are rendered asA andÀ. The URL of the latter page ishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80 orhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/À. It can be disputed whether the "real" name of the page is%C3%80 orÀ, but in any case there cannot be distinct pages with these names.

In some cases, such as in templates, it is necessary to convert a page name represented by a variable into a form suitable for use in URLs: with underscores for spaces and with % codes for special characters. This can be done using the magic words described below; for full details, seemw:Help:Magic words.

• Certain magic words ending with an extra "E", such as PAGENAMEE, NAMESPACEE, etc., return URL-encoded page names. For example, for this page,{{FULLPAGENAMEE}} givesWikipedia:Page_name.
• Thelocalurl andfullurl functions can be used to generate relative and full URLs to a particular page. Fullurl can also be used for interwiki references; but may not work for links to pages on a project with a different$wgScript.

If pagename variables are usedwithin the localurl or fullurl functions, then use standard variables like{{PAGENAME}} etc., in the first parameter, where they will be encoded anyway; but then use "EE" variables, like{{PAGENAMEE}} etc., in the second parameter, the query string, if present. For example:

• {{fullurl:Special:Allpages|namespace=12&from={{PAGENAMEE}}}} gives here:

//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Allpages&namespace=12&from=Page_name

• {{fullurl:Special:Allpages/{{PAGENAME}}|namespace=12}} gives here:

//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Allpages/Page_name&namespace=12

It is wrong to use:

• {{fullurl:Special:Allpages|namespace=12&from={{PAGENAME}}}} gives here:

//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Allpages&namespace=12&from=Page name, which is the wrong link.

• {{fullurl:Special:Allpages/{{PAGENAMEE}}|namespace=12}} gives here:

//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Allpages/Page_name&namespace=12 . It works here, as the underscore, converted from a space, is not affected by the second conversion; but it does not work with special characters.

• Help:Page name
• Module:Page

• Wikipedia information pages
• Wikipedia article title help

• Wikipedia semi-protected project pages
• Wikipedia move-protected project pages