Pixar Cars Wiki:Naming

The procedure for naming articles has long been a point of contention here on the Pixar Cars Wiki. Different communities approach the matter in different ways, meaning it might at first be unclear how we prefer to handle it – a puzzle made no simpler by the oftentimes loose consistency in the massive, long-running Cars franchise. This page covers what to prioritize when naming a subject, and how to work around various challenges you might encounter.

Common name

The starting point for naming an article should ideally be its most commonly used English name. As the Pixar Cars Wiki is a primarily English-speaking wiki (in terms of active contributors as well as overall reader demographics), and is centered around an American franchise, it's not too unreasonable to give precedence to the associated releases.

Less straightforward, however, can often be the matter of commonality. This preference is rooted in the practical, real-world purpose of online navigation – by virtue of statistics, a potential reader is most likely to find our site after searching the name a subject is most commonly known as within Cars.

That's where our wiki may differ from others like it: Where the "in-universe" style of certain sites (e.g. Wookieepedia) might favor a birth name or professional name, we have chosen to stick close to Wikipedia’s conventional guidelines and prioritize the most frequent or prominent version of a subject's name. Occasionally, this results in scenarios where a subject may have a more "complete" title officially, but their article title will not necessarily use it – A notorious example being Sally, for instance. While our lovable blue Porsche's surname has consistently been Carrera across every source that has given her one, the examples in question are all largely obscure within the overall context of the series: Her last name has never been uttered or implied during a Cars story, with voice credits and merchandising nearly always having read just "Sally." In essence, the average web-seeker will expect to find information under that name.

In light of such cases, it is crucial to stress that omitting or deviating from other/longer titles is not the same as rejecting the "validity" of that respective name. Unless contradicted, names should always be documented in infoboxes, page intros, and wherever else is appropriate. Page titles are inherently bound by specific needs.

Naming an article

To reiterate, your first line of attack will always be the most commonly used English name. But what if an English name isn't available? Or worse, what if I can't find any name at all?

Consider the following list an order of "backup plans:"

1. Most common English name from a US or North American Cars release
2. Most common English name from another English-speaking region (i.e. Europe or Australia)
3. If no English name exists, the most common name across other non-English languages should be used.
4. Development/production name, derived from behind-the-scenes material or internal files. Though rare, this has occasionally been necessary - until it was found that other regional dubs of Cars: Race-O-Rama listed character names in their end credits, the Guido Kart pitty characters (such as the Chick Hicks Pit Guy) were titled using codenames found when datamining the game ("Pit Crew Chick.")
5. If all else fails, the last resort will be a conjectural name.

Acceptable sources

Besides the issue of languages, you might also find yourself having to discern between the nature of "official" sources, and what takes precedence within that sphere.

Just like before, here is your order of priority:

1. Name given by an in-universe Cars story/installment - including but not limited to the films, TV shorts, video games, books, comics, or any other possible format.
2. Official reference books and other respective material (such as the Car Finder Game, Meet the Cars series, Cars: The Essential Guide, and so on...)
3. Otherwise, you'll be looking at officially licensed merchandise, such as within Mattel's toy line or other promotional material licensed by Pixar.

Special thanks

• MarioWiki:Naming
• Wikipedia:Article titles
• Wikipedia:Naming character articles