Narutopedia:Naming policy

This is the policy for the naming of Naruto articles, characters, places, skills, and techniques.

General notes
There are some important notes in the naming policy that apply to all categories of names rather than just a specific group.

Rōmaji
Narutopedia uses Revised Hepburn for the romanization of kanji, like Wikipedia does (to some extent; They have their own tweaks to that system but it's primarily Revised Hepburn).

The primary point here is that fandubs and scanlations commonly use Wāpuro rōmaji. In addition to that the net has a bad habit of spreading bad translations around enough that people begin to believe they are the official only way to write something. So the net is a bad place to hunt down the proper rōmaji to use for a character's name.

The most relevant point here is the difference in treatment of long vowels. In Wāpuro the long o and u vowels are written using an extra u, so long o would be ou and long u would be uu. However in Revised Hepburn they are represented using macrons, long o being ō and long u being ū. This means that some names like Chōji, Hyūga, and Jūgo are mistakenly entered into the wiki as Chouji, Hyuuga, and Juugo by newer editors.

For the most part if you see a uu, or ou used on the wiki it's a mistake that can be cleaned up. Read the rest of the policy to understand what form of the name you should clean that up to.

Italics and Macrons
On the wiki we use italics in some locations to indicate that the written form of a term we are using is in Japanese (commonly rōmaji) rather than English. And we also use the macrons inside of rōmaji to give a pronunciation guide to the reader. However for ease of editing we only require these in certain locations, as it would be a strain to write articles and reformat them when names change if we were to use the stylization everywhere.

Basically, we use italics and macrons in any unique location, ie: one that isn't repeated and bears some significance to the reader. Basically it boils down to:
 * Macrons are not used in the English forms of words (The English translation Hyuga uses no macrons, but the rōmaji Hyūga does use macrons)
 * Macrons and Italics are used inside of the template.
 * The translation template is primarily only used at the top of the article on a topic. In that location the primary name in the first parameter is normally bolded.
 * The third parameter to the translation template (the rōmaji parameter) already contains code to italicise the rōmaji so 's aren't needed there, but if you are using rōmaji in the main parameter 's are needed to italicise it.
 * Macrons are used in the rōmaji parameter for infoboxes. However italics are not since the infobox adds those automatically.
 * However macrons and italics are not used in the repeat occurrences of names inside of articles or links.

Choice of Title
Certain topics are known by more than one name within the series, such as "Team 7" and "Team Kakashi" or "Nine-Tails" and "Kurama". Within the text of articles, editors can refer to the topic using whichever name they feel is appropriate; for example, using "Fourth Hokage" within the context of his leadership role and "Minato Namikaze" within the context of his personal life.

But an article can only have one title. So, when there is more than one name, the most official name should be used, even if an alias or different descriptor is more common. Of the three previous examples, article titles should be "Team 7", "Kurama", and "Minato Namikaze". The other names ("Team Kakashi", "Nine-Tails", and "Fourth Hokage") remain useful and should exist as redirects.

Characters
For reference the following paragraphs will refer to certain terms:
 * Primary name
 * The name primarily used for a character. This name is used as the page title for that character, listed in bold in the first parameter in the template used at the start of that character's page, inside the name parameter (header) of the infobox, and is also used throughout the wiki to refer to the character.

Primary names generally follow the Japanese databooks, except for cases that go against the Revised Hepburn romanization:
 * (Killer B not Killer Bee)
 * (Jūgo not Jyuugo)

Differences in the English dub shall be reflected in the character's infobox.

Contrary to the Japanese last name - first name convention, the wiki uses first name - last name, except for the Japanese and romanizaton in the translation template.
 * (Kushina Uzumaki not Uzumaki Kushina)
 * ( not )

Terms
The Narutopedia's default practice is to translate all terms into their literal English meaning. But there are several exceptions to this practice where the wiki prefers to not translate a term. Many of these terms are listed below. This list is neither definitive nor authoritative, and more often than not editors should simply use their best judgment.


 * Japanese terms that are already familiar to the average English speaker should not be translated. Such terms include but are not limited to Shinobi, Shuriken, and Yin/Yang.
 * Terms inspired by Japanese mythology should not be translated. Such terms include but are not limited to Shinigami, Tsukuyomi, and Yasaka Magatama.
 * This can also be extended to terms based on Japanese culture or idioms whose significance would be lost if translated into English. Such terms include but are not limited to Shinra Tensei, Yosaku Cut, and Benihisago.
 * Village names are not translated. For ease of reading, the "no Sato" (の里) part of the name is omitted.
 * Jutsu classifications are not translated (ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu). This does not apply to jutsu types (chakra absorption techniques, clone techniques, reincarnation ninjutsu).
 * Ninja ranks, including the titles of the specific Kage, are not translated. This does not apply to other ninja categorizations (missing-nin, hunter-nin, medical-nin).
 * Terms that, within the Naruto universe, are rare or unique should not be translated. Such terms include:
 * The various dōjutsu, specifically in reference to the actual eye.
 * The swords wielded by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
 * The puppets created by Sasori.
 * The insects used by members of the Aburame clan.
 * Terms that are more familiar to the fandom when not translated should not be translated. These terms are:
 * Akatsuki
 * Anbu
 * Chidori
 * Hebi/Taka
 * Jinchūriki
 * Kara
 * Nindō
 * Ninken
 * Ninshū
 * Rasengan
 * Rasenshuriken
 * Sannin
 * Tenketsu