Wikipedia:Naming conventions (thorn)

[proposed] convention: it is not a good idea to use the thorn character (Þ/þ) in Wikipedia page names, except for redirect pages.

Rationale

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The basic "naming conventions" principle refers to recognisability, as formulated per naming conventions policy:

Generally, article naming should give priority to what the majority of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making linking to those articles easy and second nature.

Þ/þ fails this recognisability criterion for many native English speakers (not to mention a large body of EAL visitors of wikipedia).

In article text this is less a problem while there the character can be linked to Þ or þ, which both redirect to the Thorn (letter) article.

What to do

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Articles regarding the Þ/þ character

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For articles regarding the Þ/þ character, replace the character by "thorn" or "thorn (letter)" in the article title. Examples:

Provide redirects:

Article titles containing words that in their original version would contain Þ or þ

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For articles where Þ or þ is used as part of a word:

  1. try to find the most common transliteration of the word, not using Þ or þ
    Example: Thor for the Norse/Germanic deity.
  2. If that fails, replace "Þ" by "Th" and "þ" by "th".
    Example: Both "thane" and "thegn" are common renderings of the Old English þegn - the Wikipedia article is at thegn (þ→th - e→e - g→g - n→n).

Provide redirects for the most frequently occurring formats containing the þ/Þ character, e.g.:

  • for the Thor example at least Þórr (Old Norse) and Þunor (Old English)
  • þegn redirects to thegn

Exceptions

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See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Norse mythology) for exceptions.

See also

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