Help:Sorting

Determining the Sort Name

When determing the sort name/title for a band, artist, album or song, here are some rules of thumb we follow.

A, An, The

• Drop "A", "An" or "The" from the beginning of the sort name.

Band Name	Sort Name
The Doors	Doors
The Beatles	Beatles
The The	The
A Perfect Circle	Perfect Circle

but

Band Name	Sort Name
A-Ha	A Ha
A*Teens	A Teens

• Album and song titles follow this same pattern.

Non-English Names & Titles

• For non-English languages, drop the equivalent modifier: El, La, Los, Le, L' and so on.

Band Name	Sort Name
El Mariachi de la Ciudad de Pepe Villela	Mariachi de la Ciudad de Pepe Villela
La Gusana Ciega	Gusana Ciega
Los Lonely Boys	Lonely Boys
Les Ambassadeurs	Ambassadeurs
L'Aura	Aura
Le Roi Soleil	Roi Soleil

but

Band Name	Sort Name
The El Dorados	El Dorados A 50s doowop group.

• Change accented characters to standard english characters to prevent the items from being sorted to the very bottom of the list.

Song Name	Sort Name
Jävla Bengt	Javla Bengt
Hüftschwung	Huftschwung
Le Rétor De Malek Sultan	Retor De Malek Sultan

Proper Names

• If the name is a proper name for an artist, the sort name should present the last name first, with no comma.

Band Name	Sort Name
Ella Fitzgerald	Fitzgerald Ella
Louis Armstrong	Armstrong Louis
Paul McCartney	McCartney Paul
Ben Folds	Folds Ben
Eddie Van Halen	Van Halen Eddie
Mary Tyler Moore	Moore Mary Tyler
Bobby "Boris" Pickett	Pickett Bobby Boris
Frank and Nancy Sinatra	Sinatra Frank and Nancy

but

Band Name	Sort Name
Jethro Tull	Jethro Tull It's a band, not a person.
Grandmaster Flash	Grandmaster Flash "Flash" is not his last name.
MC Hammer	Mc Hammer "Hammer" is not his last name.

• If an album or song title is a proper name, the title is sorted as written.

Song Name	Sort Name
Brian Wilson	Brian Wilson by the Barenaked Ladies

• If the artist is a "Jr" or "III", place the suffix after the first name.

Band Name	Sort Name
Sammy Davis, Jr.	Davis Sammy Jr
Hank Williams	Williams Hank
Hank Williams, Jr.	Williams Hank Jr

• If an artist uses only their first two initials, include each initial as a separate word.

Band Name	Sort Name
J.J. Johnson	Johnson J J
k.d. lang	Lang K D

• If the band is named after a primary artist, that artist's last name is used first, followed by the first name(s), followed by the band's designation.

Band Name	Sort Name
Steve Miller Band	Miller Steve Band
Jimi Hendrix Experience	Hendrix Jimi Experience
Manfred Mann's Earth Band	Manns Manfred Earth Band
Frank Zappa and the Mothers	Zappa Frank And The Mothers
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers	Lymon Frankie And The Teenagers
Ben Folds Five	Folds Ben Five
J. Geils Band	Geils J Band

Punctuation & Case

• If a band name includes punctuation, drop the punctuation in the sort name. Ampersands should be spelled out as "and".

Band Name	Sort Name
Lovin' Spoonful	Lovin Spoonful
A-Ha	A Ha
T. Rex	T Rex
*NSYNC	Nsync
AC/DC	Ac Dc
Earth, Wind & Fire	Earth Wind And Fire

• MediaWiki sorts based on the ASCII character set, which means that capital letters always come before lowercase letters, regardless of where they fall in the alphabet. Given this limitation, to ensure proper sorting, words in sort names should always begin with a capital letter and be followed by all lowercase letters.

Band Name	Sort Name
REO Speedwagon	Reo Speedwagon
ABBA	Abba
AC/DC	Ac Dc
ZZ Top	Zz Top
OutKast	Outkast
KC & the Sunshine Band	Kc And The Sunshine Band

• Album and song titles follow the same patterns.

Acronyms

• Popular acronyms for bands should not be used. The full band name should be used for both filing and sorting.

Band Name	Sort Name
ICP	Insane Clown Posse
ELP	Emerson Lake And Palmer
BTO	Bachman Turner Overdrive
ELO	Electric Light Orchestra
CSNY	Crosby Stills Nash And Young

• If the name or title is actually an acronym, use the acronym.

Band Name	Sort Name
CKY	Cky
H.I.M.	Him
R.E.M.	Rem
KMFDM	Kmfdm

• Album and song titles follow this same pattern.

Numbers

• Names or titles with numbers should include the numbers as-is.

Band Name	Sort Name
U2	U2
311	311
3rd Bass	3rd Bass
Blink-182	Blink 182
The Jackson 5	Jackson 5
10,000 Maniacs	10000 Maniacs
The 5th Dimension	5th Dimension

• Album and song titles follow this same pattern.

Determining the Sort Letter

• The "sort letter" is the first letter of the Sort Name (after following all the rules).
• If the sort name or title begins with a number, use the string "0-9" instead of a single letter or number.