Introduction: This guideline is about naming conventions for Wikipedia articles, and discusses use of "The", "A", and "An" at the start of an article title. There are some situations where they are warranted, but many where they are not. When used inappropriately, they violate common usage, only serving as noise words. More importantly, this can cause problems with the length of the name, the quick search function, and sorting. Due to these problems, the default rule is to exclude them unless certain specific conditions are met, usually where they are integral to the article subject's name.
Convention: In general, a definite ("the") or indefinite ("a" or "an") article should be included at the beginning of the title of a Wikipedia article only if at least one of the following conditions is met:
Not all of the Wikipedia article names which belong to these categories meet the above-listed conditions. For instance, Mona Lisa is the name of a work of art, and Eurythmics is the name of a musical band, but neither includes a definite or indefinite article.
These guidelines also apply to foreign-language equivalents, such as Spanish El/La, German Das/Der/Die, etc.
The definite or indefinite article is sometimes included in the official title of literary works as well as other kinds of fiction and non-fiction publications and works such as newspapers, films and visual artworks. In this case, the article should be included in the name of the corresponding Wikipedia article as well. For example,
This does not apply if the definite or indefinite article is not a part of the official title of the work or publication. Thus, Mona Lisa is preferred to The Mona Lisa. Particular usages for the titles of visual artworks are described in the Art Manual of Style.