Marvel Database:Naming Conventions

Foreword

The Marvel Database Project contains tens of thousands of articles and images. In order to keep the site organized, we use a uniform set of rules when naming articles and files. These conventions attempt to cover the vast majority of situations, though exceptions may arise. The conventions are not optional since often unseen aspects of the site's inner workings depend heavily on consistency.

Thanks!

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General Conventions

• Begin pagenames with a capital letter. No matter what the circumstance or word that may start the article title. This is a software requirement.
• Do not capitalize the following words in a pagename unless they are the first word (see above):

and at by

de for from

in into of

on or the

to van von

with

• Exception: Names should follow the capitalization style used on sources.
  • Example: Victor Van Damme (Earth-1610)

• Capitalize every word in the title (except as above). The convention prevents the confusion of whether certain words should be capitalized or not. (eg. Senator_Kelly_for_President, not Senator_Kelly_for_president)
• Do not capitalize file extensions. Always use lowercase for .jpg, .gif, .png, etc.
• Do not use symbols ( # < > [ ] | { } _ ) in page names. The # symbol is reserved in html code to signify links to a specific area of a page. For more information on technical restrictions, please refer to MediaWiki manual.
• Do not use a forward slash (/). The forward slash symbol (/) is reserved in our software code to signify a separation between sub-pages. Using the symbol on a page name will result a page to be a subpage.
• Avoid using a period (aka full-stop) (.) at the end of an page name. In certain cases having a period at the end of your page name can cause some very unexpected and unwanted results. This is not a requirement as this only occurs when the page is viewed with certain web-browsers.

Article Pages

Character Pages

• List characters by their most well-known real names and Earth-designation whenever possible.
• If the real name is known:
  • Real name consists of: "First name" "Surname" "Jr" (if applicable). None of the names are shortened in any way.
  • Examples: Monet St. Croix, Bruce Banner, James MacDonald Jr, Robert Drake (instead of Bobby)
  • Do not include degrees or titles in a character's name.
  • Example: Victor von Doom instead of Doctor Doom

• If only the surname part of the real name is known:
  • If the character doesn't have a recognizable codename, but has a specific rank, title or degree, the name of the article consists of the rank followed by the surname. The list of ranks includes, but is not limited to: "Agent, Captain, Doctor, General, Professor, Senator..."
    • Example: General Meade
  • If the character is referred to by an honorific title, the name of the article consists of the honorific "Mr.", "Mrs.", or "Ms." (depending on gender and marital status) followed by the surname.
    • Example: Mrs. Jones

• If the real name is not known:
  • Name consists of the most well known (or latest) codename and the partial real name (or alias) in parenthesis. The most well-known codename is better than most recent codename, and real name is better than alias, even if it less complete.
  • Example: Rogue (Anna Marie)

• If the Earth-designation is known:
  • The Earth-designation is listed after the real name in parenthesis.
  • Examples: (Earth-616), (Earth-712)

• If the Earth-designation is not known:
  • Utilize the Temporary Reality Number system. Making sure to check that it is, in fact, not a known reality. Do not reuse previously used Temporary Reality Numbers.
  • Examples: (Earth-TRN150), (Earth-TRN258)

• Multiple characters with the same name
  • Articles receive additional parenthesis before the Earth-designation to specify the difference between two or more articles with the same name and Earth-designation
  • Example: Hamilton Slade (Akkaba) (Earth-616), Hamilton Slade (Rider) (Earth-616)

Items/Vehicles/Locations/Races Pages

• Items, vehicles, races and locations utilize a single, standard page, for all information about their various alternate reality counterparts. All Asgards on the Asgard page, all Quinjets on the Quinjet page, etc. Each alternate reality version, when enough information is present to require one, is presented as a separate section of that page.
• When sharing a name with anything else, the item lists (Item) after its name, the vehicle lists (Vehicle) after its name, and so on.
  • Example: Infinity Gauntlet (Event), Infinity Gauntlet (Item)
• The Earth-designation can be used as a qualifier if the name would be confusing without it.
  • Example: Iron Man Armor MK III (Earth-199999), Iron Man Armor MK I (Earth-904913), Iron Man Armor MK I (Earth-199999)

Comic and Volume Pages

• All volume pages are named by comic title and volume number. Volume number is required, even if it is Volume 1 and Volume 2 does not yet exist. Do not use the # character in the title.
  • Volume Pagename: comictitle_Vol_volumenumber
  • Example: Avengers Vol 2, Punisher Vol 10

• All comic pages are named by comic title, volume number, and issue number. Volume number is required, even if it is Volume 1 and Volume 2 does not yet exist. Do not use the # character in the title.
  • Comic Pagename: comictitle_Vol_volumenumber_issuenumber
  • Example: Iron Man Vol 1 3, X-Men Phoenix Warsong Vol 1 5

• Page names, volume and comic numbers should be consistent with other related comics and based on indicia, common usage and Marvel's current naming convention. When choosing a page name, indicia title should be given more weight than others.

Movie Pages

• Pages list the movie's full release title. If no release title is yet known, or it shares its name with an existing page, the film's year of release and the word film is added in parenthesis following the title.
• Example: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 film), Ultimate Avengers: The Movie

Television Series Pages

• All episode pages are named by series name, season number, and episode number. Season number is required, even if it is Season 1 and Season 2 does not yet exist. Do not use the # character in the title.
  • Series Pagename: seriestitle_Season_seasonnumber_episodenumber
• Example: Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes Season 1 1

Novel Pages

• Novels have the full title of the novel, with "(novel)" following it.
• Example: Wolverine: Election Day (novel)

Disambiguation Pages

• Disambiguation pages are used for resolving ambiguous page titles to help a reader finding the desired page from other possible articles.

Files

Cover Images

• Cover images are named with the following conventions. Volume number is required, even if it is Volume 1 and Volume 2 does not yet exist.
  • Basic Cover: comictitle_Vol_volumenumber_issuenumber.jpg
    • Example: All-New_X-Men_Vol_1_1.jpg
  • Textless Cover: comictitle_Vol_volumenumber_issuenumber_Textless.jpg
    • Example: All-New_X-Men_Vol_1_1_Textless.jpg
  • Additional Covers (such as back covers or wraparound covers): comictitle_Vol_volumenumber_issuenumber_descriptivephrase.jpg
    • Example: All-New_X-Men_Vol_1_1_Wraparound.jpg
  • Variant Cover: comictitle_Vol_volumenumber_issuenumber_descriptivephrase_Variant.jpg
    • Example: All-New_X-Men_Vol_1_1_Rivera_Variant.jpg
  • Sketch Cover: comictitle_Vol_volumenumber_issuenumber_descriptivephrase_Sketch.jpg
    • Example: All-New_X-Men_Vol_1_1_Quesada_Sketch.jpg
  • Vintage Cover (If a digital version of a cover is available, it is the primary file name (see the first example) and any existing cover image which was obtained by a scan should be renamed with the descriptor "Vintage".): comictitle_Vol_volumenumber_issuenumber_Vintage.jpg
    • Example: Amazing_Adventures_Vol_1_1.jpg
    • Example: Amazing_Adventures_Vol_1_1_Vintage.jpg

Full Page Interior Images

• Full page interior images are named by the comic pagename and an appended, incremental number.
• Example: Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_233_001.jpg, Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_233_002.gif

Subject Images

• Images of a specific subject (character, team, item, etc.) are named by the subject and the source material. The incremental number is four digits long to ensure there will be sufficient numbers for future use.
• One Subject: primarysubject_from_source_incrementalnumber.jpg
  • Example: Remy_LeBeau_(Earth-616)_from_Gambit_Vol_5_9_001.jpg
  • Example: Fantastic_Four_(Earth-616)_from_Dark_Reign_Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_4_0001.jpg
• Two or More Subjects: primarysubject,_secondarysubject_and_tertiarysubject_from_source_incrementalnumber.jpg
  • Example: Anthony_Stark_(Earth-616)_and_Steven_Rogers_(Earth-616)_from_Avengers_Vol_5_17_001.jpg
  • Example: Samuel_Guthrie_(Earth-616),_Isabel_Kane_(Earth-616)_and_Josiah_Guthrie_(Earth-616)_from_U.S.Avengers_Vol_1_5_002.jpg

Miscellaneous Notes

• Avoid Abbreviations. The title of a file for Uncanny X-Men Volume 1, #20, should not be 'UXM120.jpg', but rather more fully written out like 'Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 20.jpg'. This helps our search feature more easily locate these images later. It also avoids possibility of conflicting names. The first example is ambiguous and could be interpreted as either Uncanny X-Men #120 or Uncanny X-Men, Volume 1, #20.

• Use subpages. In order to keep related pages grouped together, sub-pages are often utilized. Sub-pages exist in the same namespace as their parent page and can usually be found from automatically generated links in corresponding article templates.
• Some subpage examples include:
  • Character/Gallery
  • Comic/Covers
  • Staff/Artist
  • Staff/Colourist
  • Staff/Cover Artist
  • Staff/Editor
  • Staff/Editor-in-Chief
  • Staff/Inker
  • Staff/Penciler
  • Staff/Writer
  • Team/Gallery
  • User/Blog
  • User/Collection
  • User/Favourites
  • User/Gallery
  • User/News
  • User/Sandbox
  • User/Wishlist

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Please submit any questions regarding special circumstances or any other concerns to the Administrators for review and we will either establish a new, relevant convention or direct you to the existing convention that would be applicable in that case.

Thank you again!

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