Wikipedia:Naming conventions (companies)
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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 the occasional exception. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
This page covers the naming convention of businesses, corporations, companies, public limited companies, limited companies, limited liability partnerships, limited liability companies, proprietary limited companies, unlimited liability corporations, and other types of corporations.
Convention: The legal status of the company (such as Inc., plc or LLC), is not normally included (for example, Microsoft Corporation, Aflac Incorporated, and GMAC LLC). When disambiguation is needed, the legal status, main company interest, or the suffix "(company)" can be used to disambiguate (for example, Target Corporation, BT Group, Converse (company), or Be Inc.). As a rule, common usage is frequently preferred (such as with The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. or simply DuPont for E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company).
If the legal status is used to disambiguate, it should be included in the article title based on the specific preference for the abbreviated or unabbreviated form as promoted by the company (such as with Caterpillar Inc. or CBS Corporation). Likewise, whether or not to include a comma prior to the legal status should be governed by company preference (see, for example, Nike, Inc. and Apple Inc.).
Additionally, in the lead of article itself, the title sentence should include the legal name of the company (for example: "Generic Corp. Ltd. is largest provider of widgets worldwide and is based in Anytown, Bookland.")
In some cases, leading articles (usually The) and suffixes (such as Company, International, Group, and so forth) are an integral part of the company name and should be included as specified by the company, especially when necessary for disambiguation (for example, The Walt Disney Company or The Coca-Cola Company). In other instances, such as with JPMorgan Chase & Co., the common usage of JPMorgan Chase would be preferred. In some limited cases, Corporation may also be a key part of the company's name in common usage, rather than simply as a designator of its official legal status, such as with News Corporation and others.
Legal status may be included, even when disambiguation is not needed, for companies that are commonly known by acronyms such as Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) or British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). Do not abbreviate the legal status in these cases, unless the abbreviated form is preferred by the company in question.
