Tardis:Character names
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Serials → Characters with one name → Honourifics → Magazine issues → Astronomical objects → Years → Eras → Dates → Human → Parts of a series without clear individual titles → Humanoid → Speedy renames → Lists of appearances → Universe → Integers → Assuming species → In-universe counterparts of minors → Character names |
What names to use for characters (and other in-universe elements) who have had multiple ones in valid sources is a complicated subject, as which name is appropriate varies depending on context and areas of the Wiki.
Generally, as codified at Forum:Overhauling non-T:NPOV compliant policies variant names should be used in in-universe text, corresponding to the name used in the source being cited. However, there exist a variety of policies, guidelines, and precedents on default names which take precedence when it comes to page names and other such contexts.
Default names
Our Wiki generally tries to treat all valid fictional information equally in case of a contradiction, without tallying up sources. Whether the Doctor is or is not half-human is not a numbers game; we don't assert one perspective as being truer than the other, and simply record the claims on both sides. However, as discussed at Talk:Susan Foreman, names are the one area of the Wiki which has to be exempt from this policy to an extent. For example, the page on the Third Doctor's car physically cannot be named both Bessie and Betsy. Were were fanatically committed to complete neutrality even in page titles, we would have to call it Third Doctor's car or Car (Doctor Who and the Silurians), which would help no one.
Instead, we do our best to pick the more prevalent name as the "default". This designation is then used across the Wiki when no other reason prevails. This primarily includes:
- what to name the page on the character
- how to refer to the character in behind-the-scenes sections (with the exception of cast lists which must use the name and spelling given in the credits you're qoting).
- what to name categories related to the character
- what to call the character in summaries and in-universe sections when the source doesn't satisfactorily name them itself.
By forum consensus, this default name should be the name by which the character is most commonly known in DWU sources, with self-identification being favoured over externally-given names where they conflict.
If a full name is provided, though is not generally used, the text of the article itself should include it first in the lede section, but if it conflicts with the most-common-name, the latter should prevail as the default name. For example, the article on the Eleventh Doctor's first companion should be named "Amy Pond" but should begin with:
- "Amelia Jessica Pond, more commonly called Amy Pond, was a companion of ..."
Multiple forum and talk page discussions agree that characters who get married do not generally have their articles renamed to assume the last name of their spouse. The clearest example of this is Gwen Cooper, who's never seriously referred to as "Gwen Williams". Similarly, although Katy Manning's character has been credited as Jo Jones on various occasions ever since TV: Death of the Doctor [+]Loading...["Death of the Doctor (TV story)"], she had many more appearances as Jo Grant during the character's "home era" and beyond, so that is what her article is titled. However, we encourage editors to use common sense; there may be exceptions to this general rule, which should be discussed and dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Special cases
The TARDIS
By default, on our Wiki, "a TARDIS" is something you travel in time in, while "Tardis" is the name of the Wiki itself'. The acronym "TARDIS" is more specifically, again for "default" pruposes, to be rendered unitalicised and in all uppercase with no periods.
Moreover, despite the existence of schools of thought in which "TARDIS" is a bespoke name of the Doctor's ship, and other time machines of the same type are simply "timeships" or "TT capsules", we've set things up such that the page "TARDIS" defaults to the view of TARDISes as a class of time machines, while the page on the blue police box is at "The Doctor's TARDIS".
The Doctor
The Doctor is the Doctor's default name. Although, contrary to decades of "common knowledge", there is plentiful evidence that some form of "Doctor Who" or "Dr. Who" may be, if not the Doctor's real name, then a frequent alias, "the Doctor" remains the "consensus" option which is used in an overwhelming majority of stories. Even sources which freely refer to the character as Dr Who tend to also call them "the Doctor", up to and including the Peter Cushing "Dalek movies".
Thus, "the Doctor" remains the go-to when talking about the overall character, even if peppering in the occasional "Doctor Who" to reflect sources which use that name in narration, dialogue or credits is encouraged by our variants-name policy below. Only variants of the character who are called "Dr. Who" preferentially when one surveys the sources which feature that incarnation in particular, such as Dr. Who (Dr. Who and the Daleks) or Dr. Who (Land of Fiction), can "Dr Who" be used in a Doctor's page name.
Incarnations
Unless a different style is the only one used in official sources for a given character, incarnation-specific monikers of Time Lords (and other such characters with distinct "selves" worthy of their own pages) should, in their default forms, be rendered by capitalising both the character's overall name and the epithet of the specific incarnation (usually an ordinal number, such as "First" or "Second", but sometimes another descriptor, as in "the Fugitive Doctor", "the Thirteenth Azmael", "the Younger Swarm", or "the War Master"). For example, "the First Doctor", "the Second Doctor". Terrance Dicks' use of this form in such novels as The Eight Doctors [+]Loading...["The Eight Doctors (novel)"] and World Game [+]Loading...["World Game (novel)"] indicates that such usage is in fact "in-universe", allowing us to adopt it as the default in most such cases. Ordinal epithets can be used for Time Lord incarnations if their number is known from a valid source, even if the specific, capitalised incarnation moniker has not been used in a valid source: the Doctor after the Fourteenth Doctor as "the Fifteenth Doctor" even before an explicit source declaring him such was found.
Of course, using this form all the time would become very repetitive for our readers. Thus, other forms conveying the epithet may be used. Equally valid are terms like a character's first self, second body, third incarnation, etc. — in which instances neither word need be capitalised — or, in cases of non-ordinal epithets, via the use of quotation marks which capitalise the epithet but not the generic noun to which it is applied, as in the Doctor's "War" incarnation, Rassilon's "Matrix" persona, the Master's "Tremas" self, and so on.
When a source identifies which incarnation the character is in for its duration, but not by name — usually via the simple fact that the audience can see which Doctor etc. they're looking at — the incarnation should initially be specified in text using the correct "default" name, rather than immediately pipe switching immediately to their overall name or to whichenever specific name the story uses. For example, Peter Capaldi's character is only referred to as "the Doctor" in TV: Deep Breath [+]Loading...["Deep Breath (TV story)"], but you should initially describe him as "the Twelfth Doctor" and only then switch to "the Doctor", whether it be in Deep Breath (TV story)#Plot or on some in-universe page. It is especially important to clarify the incarnation of a character on pages where more than one incarnation of that character is discussed.
Additionally, when a character (such as the Doctor) has had incarnations who used various pronouns, the character in general ought to be referred to with singular they/them pronouns. Only specific incarnations might "he", "she", or whatever else. If discussing past events over multiple incarnations, all of whom are male, he/him pronouns can be employed, and vice-versa, but do not default to the character's "most common" gender, nor use constructions like "he/she" to refer to them. In cases of potential confusion, you can always clarify by swapping out a pronoun for a good old noun. "The Doctor hated the Daleks, because they always escaped their grasp" — which might lead to some head scratching — can instead be written, "because they always escaped the Time Lord's grasp".
Romana
Due to overwhelming fan usage with occasional in-universe instances, we decided early on that Romana's incarnations are an exception: numbered Rmanas' default style should be Roman numerals, as in "Romana I", "Romana II", etc., rather than the usual default of First Romana, Second Romana, etc.. Alternative forms should only be used if and when in-universe sources for them are discussed.
K9 Models
K9's many personas, which include both distinct robots built to the same template and upgrades of preexisting individuals, follow a cobbled-together system of their own. Roman numerals after K9 — K9 Mark I, K9 Mark II, K9 Mark III, K9 Mark IV and K9 Mark V — indicate a model which was primarily used in a BBC production. The model used in the Australian K9 television series is to be called K9 Mark 2 to differentiate from Romana II's pet, K9 Mark II.
The Monk
As first discussed at Forum:Mortimus name change, and extensively adjudicated at Talk:The Monk over several discussions, "The Monk" should remain the default designation of the character introduced in TV: The Time Meddler [+]Loading...["The Time Meddler (TV story)"]. Although it does not seem to have been originally intended as an actual self-given name of any kind, it has been depicted as such by subsequent sources, and remains the most recognisable moniker in and out of universe.
K9
As first discussed at Forum:K9, K-9, K-9 (2050), K9 Mark 2, K-9 Mark II, and outlined at K9#Spelling, the name of the iconic robot dog(s) was originally coined as "K9" by his creators, and this remains the most commonly-used form in DWU sources. The hyphenated form "K-9", although a mainstay of the style guide of Doctor Who Magazine and spreading out from there to a number of other media, remains secondary and should only be used in reflection of those specific sources: "K9" is our default spelling to be used in page names, categories, and so forth.
Variant names
When a source actively uses a name other than the "default" for a character, summaries of that source, and in-universe text cited to such sources, should preferably use the name used in the source rather than the more common name, although editors should endeavour to write the latter in such a way as to make the equivalency clear in cases where the names are different enough to cause confusion.
For example:
- The First Doctor first faced "the Monk" in Northumbria. (TV: The Time Meddler [+]Loading...["The Time Meddler (TV story)"]) The same individual, referred to in that account as "the Time-Meddler", would again menace the Fifth Doctor. (COMIC: 4-Dimensional Vistas [+]Loading...["4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)"])
This policy becomes absolutely binding where names representing different copyrights are concerned, as documented more thoroughly at T:HOMEWORLD.
