---
title: Canonical naming
---

**Canonical naming** is a [naming convention][naming_convention] where ["the
name of a page on a topic is precisely that topic"][goal_of_subject_wikis].

{% include toc.md %}

## History

## Motivation

Canonical naming can be motivated in various ways:

- As a default position. ("Why name a page *other* than what that page is
  about?")
- As a reaction against other methods of naming (e.g. against clickbait
  titles).

## Difficulties

One difficulty with canonical naming is that the writer must figure out what
the name of the topic actually is. Instead of naming a page based on what the
writer comes up with on the spot, they might have to search around to see what
the topic is usually called, or whether anyone has written anything similar. In
this way, canonical naming enforces a discipline of not reinventing the wheel,
which is an additional cost to the writer.

Another difficulty is that a page might have to be renamed. A page might be
tentatively named, but later a [jargon]({% link jargon.md %}) might be
discovered, forcing a rename. This process of "distilling" titles until they
reach their simplest and precisest form is part of canonicalizing names.

## See also

## External links

[goal_of_subject_wikis]: https://blog.subwiki.org/2009/02/02/the-goal-of-subject-wikis/ "Vipul Naik. “The goal of subject wikis”. The Subject Wikis Blog. February 2, 2009. Retrieved July 30, 2017."
[naming_convention]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_convention "English Wikipedia. “A naming convention is a convention (generally agreed scheme) for naming things.”"