Editing Encyclopedia:Naming conventions (ships) (section)

===Ships from navies without ship prefixes===

Some navies or nations don't use standard ship prefixes.  Titles for articles about these ships have the form: <nationality> <type> <''italicized name''>

====Nationality====
The ship's country in adjective form; for example:
* {{xt|Brazilian}}
* {{xt|Japanese}} (though later Japanese ships use JS (Japanese Ship) or JDS (Japanese Defense Ship))
* {{xt|Ottoman}} (though later Turkish ships use TCG (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Gemisi))
* {{xt|German}} (though early German ships use [[Seiner Majestät Schiff|SMS]] (Seiner Majestät Schiff))

====Type====
Do not be over-specific about the ship type:
* {{xt|Japanese aircraft carrier ''Shōhō''}}, not {{!xt|Japanese light aircraft carrier ''Shōhō''}}

====Italicized name====
Ship names are always italicized:
* {{xt|[[Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov|Russian aircraft carrier ''Admiral Kuznetsov'']]}}
* {{xt|[[German battleship Bismarck|German battleship ''Bismarck'']]}}

====Invented prefixes====
Do not make up a ship prefix for a navy that did not use one. Thus:
* {{xt|German battleship ''Bismarck''}}, not {{!xt|DKM ''Bismarck''}}
* {{xt|Japanese battleship ''Yamato''}}, not {{!xt|HIJMS ''Yamato''}} or {{!xt|IJN ''Yamato''}}
* {{xt|Italian battleship ''Giulio Cesare''}}, not {{!xt|RM ''Giulio Cesare''}}
* {{xt|Russian aircraft carrier ''Admiral Kuznetsov''}}, not {{!xt|RFS ''Admiral Kuznetsov''}}

Some authors use invented prefixes for consistency with "USS", "HMS" etc. It was not a mistake for these authors to do that in their own works, but at Wikipedia we choose not to do so. To forestall attempts to move articles to the wrong place, you might want to add redirects from popular invented ship prefixes:
* {{xt|[[Japanese battleship Yamato|Japanese battleship ''Yamato'']]}} could have redirects from {{xt|[[IJN Yamato|IJN ''Yamato'']]}} and {{xt|[[HIJMS Yamato|HIJMS ''Yamato'']]}}.