 | This is anexplanatory essay about thearticle titles policy,broad-concept article guideline, anddisambiguation guideline. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community. |
 | This page in a nutshell: When writing an article about a subject, be careful whenreliable sources are inconsistent in how they refer to it. Look for sources that can clarify whether they are referring to two subjects by the same name, or one subject by different names, and organize the relevant article(s) accordingly. |
An article is meant to cover a single topic withspecific subject matter. However, there are instances where the same name can refer to multiple different subjects, and those different subjects should be covered as different articles. There are also instances where a single subject is referred to by several different names, which should still be covered as a single article. Avoid conflating an article's topic with its name; be careful that you haven't lost track of a subject due to inconsistent terminology.
Deciding the scope of an article's subject matter is guided by several Wikipedia guidelines and policies. TheWikipedia:Disambiguation guideline tells us best practices when one search term refers to more than one subject or topic. TheWikipedia:Notability guideline tells us that some topics are not appropriate for a stand-alone article, but might be appropriate for aredirect ormerge to another article. TheWikipedia:Article titles policy tells us how to title those articles in a way that the subject's name isrecognizable,natural,precise,concise, andconsistent. Finally, theWikipedia:Verifiability policy tells us that all information should be grounded in references toreliable and independent secondary sources, including the heading for the subject itself.
A single word or phrase might refer to different subjects. TheWikipedia:Disambiguation guideline says that the best solution is to cover those subjects with different articles,splitting an existing article if necessary, and to steer readers to an appropriate article using tools such asredirects,hatnotes, anddisambiguation pages. Even in cases where the names of the subjects are related, it is best to cover them as separate subjects when they each have separate significant coverage, in accordance with thegeneral notability guideline.
The disambiguation guideline uses the example ofMercury (element),Mercury (planet) andMercury (mythology). Even though all three topics are named after the Roman god, they are clearly different subjects, with their own significant coverage in reliable sources. The relationship between their names can be described in each separate article, usually anetymology section.
One subject can often earn multiple names, such as a nickname, a name in another language, or even an officialname change. Still, a single subject is best covered in a single article; do not write multiple articles just because there are multiple names. The policy onWikipedia:Article titles tells us that we should strive to use a common name for the subject, which isn't always the official name, or even themost common name.
The policy on article titles gives the example of theGreat Pyramid of Giza. This is the preferred article title, because it is more common than its official name, thePyramid of Khufu, but not so common as to be ambiguous such asThe Pyramids. A good article title tries to identify the subject in a way that isrecognizable,natural,precise,concise, andconsistent. Reliable sources will help identify alternative names that shouldredirect to the primary subject, or if there is no clear primary subject, a disambiguation page.
When an article appears to cover multiple subjects, this is a sign that some subject matter should be removed or relocated to other articles. To determine the best way to organize those subjects, refer toreliable sources to determine if they have separatesignificant coverage, which would justify splitting those subjects into their own separate articles. If the sources reveal that there are two separate subjects, it may become clear that one or both subjects may be further organized, perhaps by renaming it to a clearer title, or even combining it with another article that is largely about the same subject.