Places and people

Telegraph

2 days ago

Britons not Britishers or Brits except in quotations, Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales.
Normally write about Britain or, when there is an Irish angle to the story, 'mainland Britain'. The United Kingdom, or the abbreviation UK, ought to be avoided whether as a noun or an adjective unless the story has a specific relevance to Northern Ireland that would make the use of 'Britain' or 'British' wrong.
Local and regional government in Britain is complicated. For a full explanation of local government in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, read the gov.uk guide.
In many parts of England there are two tiers of local government, with different responsibilities. These are county councils, and district, borough or city councils. However in some areas, there is just one (unitary) tier of local government providing all the services. The three main types are unitary authorities, London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs. Below this structure are parish and town councils.
Our style is only to cap up the proper names of councils: Leeds City Council, Suffolk County Council. Otherwise, say Suffolk council, Kent council, Tameside council. Parish and town councils are always lower case.
Counties
County names should be written in full unless we are placing a town such as Evesham, Worcs. Abbreviate counties in lists.
In this instance we should refer to the ceremonial county, not the administrative area. Many traditional counties no longer exist as administrative entities and are split into separate local authorities: Berkshire comprises six unitary authorities but we should still refer to Newbury, Berks rather than Newbury, West Berkshire.
We should not refer to counties that no longer exist (it is Enfield, north London, not Enfield, Middlesex), or give geographical distinctions for major places (Sheffield, South Yorks). A good rule of thumb is that if a town or city has a football league team, you do not need to say which county it is in.
Addresses should help readers locate a place: small towns with counties; villages in relation to nearby towns; districts (not boroughs or postal codes) for cities. Avoid house numbers unless widely known or relevant. Use 'Street', 'Road', etc., in full and with capital letters.
Counties in England: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Bristol (a city and county), Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon (not Devonshire), Dorset, Co Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne & Wear, Warwickshire, West Midlands, West Sussex, West Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire.
Abbreviations: Beds, Berks, Bucks, Cambs, Derbys, Co Dur, E Yorks, E Susx, Gloucs, Hants, Heref, Herts, Lancs, Leics, Lincs, Northants, Northumb, N Yorks, Notts, Oxon, Shrops (not Salop), Somerset, S Yorks, Staffs, Surrey, Warks, W Mids, W Susx, W Yorks, Wilts, Worcs
Former counties: Cumberland, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Westmorland, and the North, West and East Ridings of Yorkshire were abolished in 1974 (although Cumberland was recreated as a unitary authority within Cumbria in 2023, Huntingdonshire exists as a local government district within Cambridgeshire, and Westmorland is now part of Westmorland and Furness council in Cumbria. Middlesex remains only as a cricket team and a postal address). The counties of Avon, Cleveland and Humberside existed from 1974-1996. Rutland was abolished in 1974 and resurrected in 1997.
Scottish local government authorities: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Dundee City, Edinburgh (City of), Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow (City of), Highland, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, East Lothian, West Lothian, Midlothian, Moray, Orkney (not Orkneys), Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Shetland (not Shetlands), Stirling, Western Isles (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar)
Welsh administrative areas: Isle of Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea, Torfaen, Vale of Glamorgan, Wrexham
Ireland is the country and the island - the style guide used to rule that Ireland should describe the island only. Use the Irish Republic or the Republic if required to differentiate from Northern Ireland, but not Eire. Ulster is acceptable for Northern Ireland. Never the Six Counties. Co Down, Co Cork etc, not County Down, County Cork.
Capital letters for regions: the North, the North East (no hyphen in any region), West Country, East Anglia, Home Counties, but eastern England. East Midlands, West Midlands, but south Devon, north Lancashire except in titles.
Although North, South, East and West take caps for regions of the world or countries which are regarded as political, economic, cultural or historical entities, they remain lower case for sections of continents and countries, unless the name of the country is left understood. Thus: Far East, but south-east Asia (apart from in Travel articles such as 'Explore South-East Asia'). The East-West political divide, the Deep South, the southern United States, South Africa but southern, north, west or east Africa. Central America.
Foreign words in place names
Names of geographical features often include words which should not be repeated in translation (Rio Grande, not Rio Grande river or the river Rio Grande; Sierra Nevada, not Sierra Nevada mountains)
A-Z of place names
Alpine to describe the geographical region, alpine to describe a generic sport
Altrincham (no G)
American refers to the United States of America unless the context dictates otherwise. North America can be used to refer to the United States, Canada and Mexico
Andalusia
Arctic: the Arctic, Arctic Circle, Arctic Ocean, but Arctic current
Argentina: never The Argentine. The people are Argentines, not Argentinians. The adjective is Argentine, not Argentinian
Asian or Asians, not Asiatic or Asiatics
Atlanta, Georgia; Atalanta, Italian football team
Baghdad
Bahamians (people of the Bahamas)
Bahrain
Banjul, capital of Gambia
Barbadians (or Bajan)
Basel, Switzerland (not Basle)
Basutho (the people of Lesotho, sing and pl). Adjective is Basotho
Batswana (the people of Botswana, sing, pl and adj)
Bayreuth (Germany); Beirut (Lebanon)
Beijing not Peking
Belize (formerly British Honduras). Capital is Belmopan
Bermudians
Bern
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Bhutan
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bosphorus, not Bosporus
Botswana
Brasilia (capital of Brazil)
Buenos Aires
Cairngorms
Cambodia, Cambodians. Khmers are the ethnic group
Cameroon, not Cameroons, nor Cameroun
Cape Town
Caribbean
Chinese cities: Beijing (not Peking), Chengdu, Nanjing (not Nanking), Chongqing (not Chungking), Guangzhou (not Canton), Hangzhou (not Hangchow), Tianjin (not Tientsin), Hong Kong (not Xianggang), Tibet (not Xinzhang), Lhasa (not Lasa), Taiwan, Taipei (not Taibei), Kaohsiung (not Gaoxiong); but Macau (not Macao)
Christchurch (Hampshire and New Zealand); Christ Church (Oxford - never Christ Church college)
City: cap only when part of the official title or in references to the City (financial centre). New York City only when readers may think there is a reference to New York state
Colombia (South American country); British Columbia (Canadian province); District of Columbia (Washington)
Comoros – not Comoro Islands
Congo: the Republic of Congo, capital Brazzaville, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, capital Kinshasa. Our style is to use the full titles at first reference, then to call the Republic Congo-Brazzaville (as is widely done in Africa) and to call the Democratic Republic 'Congo' at subsequent uses
Continent and Continental take caps only to distinguish 'mainland' Europe. We should remember that Britain is geographically in Europe
Czech Republic preferred to Czechia
Dakar (Senegal), Dhaka (Bangladesh)
Darfur is a region of Sudan, not a province. It is divided into three provinces: Northern Darfur (local capital El Fasher), Southern Darfur (local capital Nyala) and Western Darfur (local capital El Geneina)
Dhahran (Saudi Arabia)
Djibouti
Dnipro - city and river.
Dominica and the Dominican Republic are separate countries in the Caribbean. Always clarify
Dutch (preferred) or Netherlanders but never Hollanders
East Asia (Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, North and South Korea. Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam). Avoid being specific about boundaries of the region
Ecuador not Equador. Ecuadorean
Eswatini, no longer Swaziland (it may be necessary to explain the name change in copy)
French Canadians (no hyphen), Latin Americans/Latinos, but Irish-Americans, German-Americans
The Gambia
Guinea, formerly French Guinea; Guinea-Bissau, formerly Portuguese Guinea. Equatorial Guinea, another altogether
Gulf: not Iranian, nor Persian, nor even Arabian: just the Gulf
Guyana, formerly British Guiana. Guyanese for the people
Hague: The Hague takes a cap T
Hispaniola, the island comprising the Dominican Republic and Haiti
Hong Kong but Hongkongers
Indian place names: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru instead of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore. The Telegraph style guide retained the cities' old names until the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, at which point referring to the 'Bombay terror attacks' in a digital world seemed out of place. However, use the traditional names when writing about British India.
Indo-China/Indo-Chinese: (NOT Indochina)
Inuit, not eskimos (taken by Canadian eskimos as an insult)
Iran, Iranians
Iraq, Iraqis
Isles of Scilly, not the Scillies
Istanbul: Constantinople only in historical references
Izmir: Smyrna only in historical references
Jakarta
Kathmandu
Khan Younis, Gaza
Khartoum
Kilimanjaro, not Mount Kilimanjaro
Kolkata, not Calcutta (but the Black Hole of Calcutta)
Kosovo
Kyiv, not Kiev
Lesotho. The people and the adjective are Basotho
Liege (but Liegeois)
Livorno, not Leghorn
Llanelli
Lod (Israel), formerly Lydda
Londonderry
Luhansk, Ukraine (not Lugansk)
Luxembourg
Lviv, no longer Lvov
Lyon, no longer Lyons
Macedonia
Madagascar. The people (sing and pl) and the adjective are Malagasy
Mallorca, no longer Majorca (Menorca not Minorca, but Ibiza not Eivissa)
Malaysia is the nation of which Malaya is a part. The people are Malaysian unless there is a specific reference to the Malays, or preferably, Malayans, as an ethnic group
Marseille, no longer Marseilles
Middle East. Mid-East only in heads. Do not use Near East
Middlesbrough (not Middlesborough)
Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin
Mogadishu (Somalia)
Monaco: the people are Monegasque(s)
Mount Fuji, not Fujiyama
Mumbai, not Bombay
Myanmar, no longer Burma
Native Americans, not American Indians
N'Djamena (capital of Chad)
Neuchatel is in Switzerland, Neufchatel in France
Netherlands has supplanted Holland, even when referring to the national football team
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle upon Tyne (no hyphens)
Nigerians come from Nigeria
Nigeriens come from Niger
North Macedonia, formerly the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Nuremberg
Papua New Guinea (no hyphens)
Pathan is preferable to Pashtu or Pushtu
Philippines: adjective is Philippine; but adjective for the people, Filipino; Filipina for women
Phnom Penh
Port-au-Prince (Haiti)
Port of Spain (Trinidad)
Qom. Iranian Holy Place
Quebecois (people and adjective) only in references to the French Canadian people and culture: though a reference to a female would be Quebecoise
Richmond, N Yorks; Richmond, south-west London
Riyadh
Romania
Rwanda
Sahara. Sahara Desert is tautological
Saint John, New Brunswick; St Johns, Quebec; St John's, Newfoundland
Salzburg
Sana'a is the capital of Yemen. The Bab al-Mandab strait separates Yemen from Africa.
Saudi Arabia: never just Saudi, which is the adjective
Schiphol: airport outside Amsterdam
Scotland: the people are Scots, the adjective Scottish, although Scotch can refer to eggs, pies, whisky, tape and wool shops
South Sudan, capital Juba
Soviet Union (former): the former states (preferable to the term 'republics', although can be used synonymously) are: Armenia; Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani); Belarus – not double s – (Belarussian); Georgia; Kazakhstan (Kazakh, not Kazakhi or Turkmeni etc); Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz); Moldova (Moldovan); Russia or the Russian Federation (synonymous), but not the Russian republic; Tajikistan (Tajik); Turkmenistan (Turkmen); Ukraine (not the Ukraine, nor the Crimea); Uzbekistan (Uzbek); also, the Baltic states (not republics), Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all now in Nato and the EU; autonomous republic: Tatarstan (not Tataria); Yakutia; Bashkiria; Chechnya; Ingushetia; Nagorno Karabakh (no hyphen); but Alma-Ata. Chisinau, capital of Moldova, not Kishinev; Lvov, not Lviv. Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk) must have 'y' at start
Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon): the people are Sri Lankans, but differentiate when necessary between Sinhalese and Tamils
Strait of Hormuz
St, Ste: normally abbreviated in place names, but there are exceptions
St Andrews (no possessive)
St Helens, Merseyside; St Helen's, Isle of Wight
Stoke-on-Trent
Stratford-on-Avon district council, but Stratford-upon-Avon (town)
Sudan (no 'the')
Sutton, a town and borough in south London. Note there are various Suttons across England, we should always refer to their county for clarity.
Taiwanese place names continue to take the system used by the Nationalist government
Tbilisi (Georgia), formerly Tiflis
Tehran
Temple Mount: needs occasional Muslim translation, 'Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary (Al Haram al Sharif)'
Turkey not Turkiye
Valletta
Ukrainian place names: before the 2022 invasion we adopted the Russian form to Anglicise place names - Kiev, Dnieper etc. Now we use the Ukrainian form, so Kyiv, Dnipro.
United Arab Emirates: abbreviate to UAE only when the full title has been used repeatedly; the Emirates. They are: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah
United Kingdom. Remember that it includes Northern Ireland. Do not use the phrase interchangeably with Great Britain
United States: US (no full points) acceptable after first mention. Use American as the adjective unless there is danger of confusion with another country in North or South America
Vienna
Washington. Write in full as Washington, DC (for District of Columbia) only when necessary to distinguish from the state of Washington on the Pacific Coast
West Bank: West Bank of the Jordan, the Jordan West Bank or, when the context is clear, the West Bank
Windermere, not Lake Windermere (mere means lake)
Yemen: the united former North Yemen and South Yemen. Capital is Sana'a
Yerevan (capital of Armenia), formerly Erivan