Wikipedia:File names
 | This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Use descriptive file names. Don't upload files with generic, non-specific file names. |
Wikipedia file names should be clear and descriptive, without being excessively long. While the image name doesn't matter much to the reader (they can reach the description page by simply clicking on the image), it matters for editors. It is helpful to other contributors and for maintenance of the encyclopedia if images have descriptive or at least readable file names. For example, "File:Skyline Frankfurt am Main.jpg" is more helpful than "File:Wiki.jpg".
To avoid accidental overwriting of images or other media, very generic filenames should not be used when uploading. For example, a picture of an album cover should not be given the name "File:Cover.jpg", as sooner or later someone else will try to do the same thing and overwrite the old image. The new image will then appear wherever the old one was used—in this case, an album article would then show the wrong album cover.
Good image names
mali niŋExamples of good file names:
"City of London skyline from London City Hall - Oct 2008.jpg"- "KDE Kicker config screenshot.png"
- "1863 Meeting of Settlers and Maoris at Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.jpg"
- "Polyhedron with no vertex visible from center.png"
Examples of bad names: "Image01.png" "Joe.jpg" "DSC00001.JPG" "30996951316264l.jpg"
Disallowed image names
mali niŋImage names may be disallowed either by page protection or by blacklisting the title. There are also a few technical restrictions on what characters can be contained in a title.
Technical restrictions
mali niŋFor technical reasons, file names cannot contain any of the following characters, as these would conflict with wiki syntax: # < > [ ] | : { } / . For the same reason they also cannot contain sequences of tilde characters (~~~).
Like other wiki page names, file names are case sensitive except for the first character, which will always be normalized to uppercase.
Blacklisting
mali niŋDisallowing may be done via the MediaWiki:Titleblacklist and may then generate a variety of error messages—see MediaWiki talk:Titleblacklist. For example, highly generic filenames (such as those produced automatically by digital cameras) produce the error message at MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-custom-imagename.
Generic file names
mali niŋ
Some file names are protected to prevent an image being uploaded with that name because they are too generic. For example, File:Image.jpg, File:Image.png, File:Image.gif and File:Image.svg.
The template {{protected generic image name}} was previously used to indicate this issue on the files involved.
What files should be renamed?
mali niŋWikipedia:File names describes how files should be named. In general, Wikipedia aims to provide stable file names as these may be being used by tools outside of Wikipedia. Currently there are nine widely undisputed uses for rename requests:
| No. | Aim | Examples (old name) | Examples (new name) | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Uploader requested | WP:FNC#1 | ||
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Change from completely meaningless names into suitable names, according to what the image displays | File:22785u9ob807b3c4f4.jpg File:DSC_1342.jpg |
File:Tower_Bridge_2009.jpg File:Pretoria_Venningpark.jpg |
WP:FNC#2 |
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Correct misleading names into accurate ones | File:!My_cuTe!!_MOUSSE.JPG File:1BIGGest_nOSE_everS33n.JPG |
File:Dutch_pet_rabbit.jpg File:John_Doe_at_concert.jpg |
WP:FNC#3 |
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Change generic bio-names into binomial scientific names | File:Unknown_insect_02.jpg File:Unidentified_flowers_HFJ.jpg File:Bird??.jpg |
File:Hogna_radiata_02.jpg File:Echinops_setifer_Japan.jpg File:Copsychus_saularis.jpg |
WP:FNC#4 |
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Correct obvious errors in file names (e.g. wrong proper nouns or false historical dates) | File:Ayres_Rock_3.png File:Van_Gogh_portrait_1787.jpg |
File:Ayers_Rock_3.png File:Van_Gogh_portrait_1887.jpg |
WP:FNC#5 |
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Harmonize file names of a set of images (so that only one part of all names differs) to ease their usage in templates (e.g. diagram symbols, scans of pages of a book, maps) | File:Bhf-BS-Icon.svg File:Icon_HST_bs_1.svg File:Dst_symbol.svg etc. |
File:BSicon_BHF.svg File:BSicon_HST.svg File:BSicon_DST.svg etc. |
WP:FNC#6 |
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Disambiguate files with overly similar names. The software allows for multiple different files to have the same name, but with different capitalization (see ninja example) or different expressions of the same filetype extension (see bunny example). However, these are not ideal situations. | File:Ninja.jpg File:NINJA.jpg Also File:Bunny.jpg File:Bunny.jpeg File:Bunny.JPEG |
File:Ninja_1.jpg File:Ninja_2.jpg Also File:Bunny_1.jpg File:Bunny_2.jpeg File:Bunny_3.jpeg |
WP:FNC#7 |
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Remove pejorative, offensive or crude language that would not be appropriate in the file description | File:Stupid fat bitch.jpg File:Worstpersonever.png File:Kill that nazi leader.JPG |
File:<Name of the person>.jpg File:<Name of the person>.png File:<Name of the person>.jpg |
WP:FNC#8 |
| Tɛmplet:Visible anchor | Rename files that shadow a Commons file or redirect[1] | File:Dog.jpg Commons:File:Dog.jpg |
File:Golden Retriever.jpg Commons:File:Dog.jpg |
WP:FNC#9 |
After moving the file, please replace all uses of the old file link with the new one.
If a file name on English Wikipedia conflicts with a file name at Commons, please check the File usage on other wikis before deciding which should be renamed. Renaming a file at Commons might affect a lot of projects instead of just one.
If the file was moved per WP:FNC#9, after all of the links have been updated, please place {{Db-redircom}} on the leftover redirect (file movers), or delete the leftover redirect using the summary generated by {{Db-redircom}} (administrators). Please see speedy deletion criterion R4 for more information.
Additional naming conventions and exceptions from the above list might be discussed for specific projects.
What files should not be renamed?
mali niŋAs a matter of principle, it is best to leave all files with generally valid names at their locations, even if slightly better names may exist. So, for example:
- File:TowerBridge'09.jpg should not be renamed to File:Tower_Bridge_2009.jpg only because the latter looks a bit better.
- File:Thiswouldbebetterwithspaces.jpg should not be renamed to File:This would be better with spaces.jpg.
However, situations that could cause confusion are to be avoided.
Notes
mali niŋ- ↑ An image on Commons cannot be used here if a locally uploaded image has the same filename, and the Commons guidelines strongly discourage renaming a Commons image for this reason alone.