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 occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

This page lists naming conventions for articles on sports teams. For proposed conventions relating to sports competitors, see Naming conventions (sportspeople).

In cases where there is no ambiguity as to the official spelling of a club's name in English, the official name should be used. No ambiguity means that:

• The name is used on the English-language section of the club's official website
• The name has been adopted at least by a significant section of the English-language media and it is recognizable
• The name is not easily confused with other clubs' names.

In cases where there is some ambiguity as to the official spelling of a club's name in English, the name most commonly used by the English-language media should be used.

Where an article is clearly about a particular sport you do not need to put a prefix or suffix (like RLFC, CCC or FK) throughout the article text but merely in the title. For example, FC Barcelona is the article name but throughout the body Barcelona is sufficient. However, for cross-sport references it may be appropriate e.g. "St Helen's share Knowsley Road stadium with St Helen's FC". Do not extend this to nicknames as they may confuse unfamiliar users.

For North American teams, use both place and nicknames (e.g. Detroit Red Wings rather than Detroit or Red Wings) as non-Americans may not know who the Bears or the Falcons are and it aids cross-referencing. Furthermore, where there is more than one team from a city – New York Giants and New York Jets, for example, this specificity is essential.