Project:One Name Study > Category Guidelines for Name Studies
Every name study will start with a high-level category provided in the format: [[Category:<name> Name Study]]. This high-level category serves as a place in which pages and profiles that are associated with the name study can be stored and organized. This category may also include several different subcategories, depending on the specific needs of the project.
If you are looking for ideas on how to categorize your study, or just want to see how others are working their name study categories, you can browse a list of Name Study categories at Category:One_Name_Studies.
Notes
- Even though no person or group 'owns' categories, please always contact the associated Name Study project members before making any changes to existing categories or structures. Any changes could have a drastic impact on their research and could cause a lot of rework.
- While the [[Category:<name> Name Study]] is high-level category, it should not be tagged as {{Top Level}} since it may be automatically added to profiles by the One Name Study Sticker when no category parameter is provided. If needed, or wanted, you can tag this category as {{Mid Level}}.
- Each category needs text to explain the intended purpose and usage. Please make sure you are adding text to your new category page! A good thing to use would be a standard sentence, or a template in each category. For example, {{ProjectCategory|Example}} on a category page will display as:
This category is managed by the Example Project in association with the Categorization Project. For assistance with this or related categories ask in G2G making sure to tag your question with both categorization and Example.
The following information provides examples of category structures that are commonly included in name study categories. While you can create any number of categories based on this guidance, it is important to note that all Name Study categories need to include the name of the name study in it!
Name Study Location Categorization
For location categories related to a Name Study, naming convention is as follows: [[Category:<location>, <name> Name Study]]. If there are very few subcaegories being used for a name study, you may want to place these categories directly in the main [[Category:<name> Name Study]] so you do not create multiple levels of categories that will only hold one or two subcategories. This will give you a structure, such as:
*[[Category:Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:Bedfordshire, Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:Texas, Example Name Study]]
When there are multiple locations being researched for a name study, or you want to establish a better organization system, it makes it easier to create a container category for similar locations based on the Country. These categories are named as [[Category:<country>, <name> Name Study]]. Again, you will want to categorize these directly in the main [[Category:<name> Name Study]].
To further categorize within each country, use the location categories established for that country as a guideline. For example, in the United States, the next level down is the admin entity "state", so we can further categorize by state and then by county, if that level of detail is desired. Sometimes in a large study, the categories can also break down to the municipal level. This will give you a structure, such as:
*[[Category:Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:England, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Bedfordshire, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Northamptonshire, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Sussex, Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:United States, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Texas, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Louisiana, Example Name Study]]
Topic Name Study Categorization
Topical categories can accommodate a wide range of categorization schemes for Name Studies. These topics could include Occupations (Farmers or Shoemakers), Descendants of a specific person (john Example or Thomas Example), specific time periods (17th Century Examples or 18th Century Examples), etc. These categories follow the naming convention: [[Category:<topic>, <name> Name Study]]
If there are very few subcaegories being used for a name study, you may want to categorize these categories directly to the main [[Category:<name> Name Study]] so you do not create multiple levels of categories that will only hold one or two subcategories. This will give you a structure, such as:
*[[Category:Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Farmers, Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:Descendants of Thomas Example, Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:17th Century Examples, Example Name Study]]
When there are multiple occupations being researched for a name study, or you want to establish a better organization system, it makes it easier to create a container category for similar locations based on the overall Topic. These categories are named as [[Category:<topic>, <name> Name Study]]. Again, you will want to categorize these directly in the main [[Category:<name> Name Study]].
To further categorize within each topic, use a descriptive name and list that category into the applicable Topic. This will give you a structure, such as:
*[[Category:Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:Occupations, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Farmers, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Shoemakers, Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:Descendants, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Descendants of John Example, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:Descendants of Thomas Example, Example Name Study]]
**[[Category:Centuries, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:17th Century Examples, Example Name Study]]
***[[Category:18th Century Examples, Example Name Study]]