User:Salmancer/Article Name Priority draft

This article is a proposed policy for Bulbapedia.

Please discuss the proposed policy and suggest possible changes on the article's talk page.

"Elderly people in Alola call [Alolan Vulpix] by an older name—Keokeo,"- Pokémon Sun Pokédex entry

Ugh, inconistent names... With a franchise as large and sprawling as Pokémon, it can be difficult to determine what an article is supposed to be titled. Especially when certain concepts are presented with multiple names, because articles can only have one name. (It really doesn't help that unlike with the real world, The Pokémon Company has full clearance to change things willy-nilly and have gone on record as doing exactly that when the story is better for it.) This policy aims to clarify how to resolve naming conflicts. Just move down this list until the first entry that matches a source providing a name. That's the name the article should use; it literally couldn't be easier!

Okay, it's a little more complicated.

This list will often have to be consulted in cases where an article's scope is limited to a concept from 1 specific medium. (Most often, this manifests as a page about the mechanics of a specific game or a page about TCG rules) In such cases, realistically you only use the portions of the list that apply to that medium. This also applies when writing sections of articles for specific works, in that those sections should lead with the name presented in that work or related works and not the name of the overall article.
There are also cases where a concept specific to a work just isn't named within the portions of the list pertaining to that work. (Looking at you, Pokémon UNITE.) In which case, we're looking at fully undefined behavior and this list is no longer applicable. You're on your own on these, sorry! (Hopefully this can be amended to "defined behavior")
Cases in which sources that provide conflicting names where one is substantially newer than the other should not be resolved using this policy. There may be either a mistake or name change at play, and this situation is better resolved by editor judgement.

Note on "Social Media"

You'll notice that this list excludes various forms of Pokémon related social media. This is because through various sources it has been determined that content released through social media does not go through as rigorous a copyediting check. That's complicated gobbledygook, but the short of it is that since The Pokémon Company is not as strict in mantaining consistent terminology for social media content, we at Bulbapedia have chosen to never allow it as a source for an article name under any circumstances. They may provide supporting evidence, but on their own social media posts cannot be trusted to be accurate representations of the Pokémon brand.

Even still, the terms used by these sources are notable, and likely end up in article text somewhere. It's just not the title.

The following sources are considered to be "social media":

Youtube video descriptions (but not the videos themselves)
Twitter posts
Facebook posts
Instagram posts
Articles on Pokémon.com's News or Strategy sections. (This excludes other forms of content, such as official websites, press releases, rules documents, glossaries, tournament statistics, and so on.)

Double note on "Contributing Writers"

Articles written by a contributing writer are under increased scrutiny. (And since we're already starting from "definitionally false", that's really bad.) The people writing these articles are not employed by The Pokémon Company. They are essentially well known community figures offering their reputation, skill, and time to do freelance work for Pokémon. Citing articles created by contributing writers is paramount to citing ourselves, since Bulbapedia's influence over community terminology is that great. As such, they occupy a tier below "social media", in that the use of terms in articles of this category is Trivia at best.

Priority List

Name from a core series game
1. Name from supplementary material to a core series game (instruction manuals, blurbs)
2. Name from official guides to a core series game.
3. Name from marketing material to a core series game (websites, advertisements, glossaries, press releases)
Name from a side series game
1. Name from supplementary material to a side series game (instruction manuals, blurbs)
2. Name from official guides to a side series game.
3. Name from marketing material to a side series game (websites, advertisements, glossaries, press releases)
Name from a spin-off game (Games based on the TCG are in a bit of limbo, see 8.3 for more)
1. Name from supplementary material to a spin-off game (instruction manuals, blurbs)
2. Name from official guides to a spin-off game.
3. Name from marketing material to a spin-off game (websites, advertisements, glossaries, press releases)
Name from Pokémon the Series/Pokémon Horizons
1. Name from a work associated with Pokémon the Series/Pokémon Horizons, such as The Birth of Mewtwo or After the Story. Note that this excludes Pokémon Live! and novelizations
2. Name from novelizations of Pokémon the Series/Pokémon Horizons
3. Name from marketing material to either of the above series (websites, advertisements, press releases)
Name from other animated or live action productions.
1. Name from a work associated with any aforementioned productions,
2. Name from marketing material to these productions (websites, advertisements, press releases)
Name from Pokémon Live!
Name from a Pokémon manga
1. Name from marketing material associated with a Pokémon manga
Name from the TCG cards
1. Name from supplementary material to the TCG (rulebook, glossary)
2. Name from material included with TCG products (Elite Trainer Box guides, for instance) (Rulebooks used to be released in products, but they already get a higher tier)
3. Name from a digital representation of the TCG (So all the games go here, like TCG Online, TCG Live, the Gameboy games, etc) (Note that while spin-off games are higher up on this list, this group is here so that overall TCG articles aren't named after video game material in most circumstances. When talking about concepts unique to these games, they do get to be sorted as spin-off games)
4. Name from marketing material to the TCG (websites, advertisements, press releases)
5. Name from the TCG card database on the website
6. Name from rulings given through set FAQs and from the Compendium by Pokégym
Name from assorted Pokémon merchandise