Talk:River Thames

Etymology - Brittonic origin

A recent edit in River Thames#Brittonic origin split 'tamesis' and stated that the Oxford River name came from '...esis'. This is plausible but it needs verification with a reference. The trouble with plausible statements is they are believed even if false (and the false belief hangs around long after they're refuted) so a [citation needed] tag is not sufficient. Rather than delete it out of hand, I have commented out the edit so that it can be reinstated if a reference is found. OrewaTel (talk) 21:02, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 24 January 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Favonian (talk) 11:11, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

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River Thames → Thames – Shorter title and consistency; see the articles on the Nile, Ganges, Danube, etc. None of those have "river" in the title. Mast303 (talk) 05:12, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

• Yes but we then need a redirect reference for Thames (commercial vehicles) OrewaTel (talk) 05:35, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
• No After reading arguments here, I asked some friends. They universally said 'River Thames'. One also commented that 'Thames' without 'River' referred to the Coromandel town, Thames. I've changed my mind. OrewaTel (talk) 03:15, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

  @OrewaTel: "Thames" already redirects to River Thames, so the Coromandel town is irrelevant. Mast303 (talk) 04:57, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

• Support. Sources using just "Thames" are abundant enough to call this the WP:COMMONNAME. As for the hatnote, "Thames" already redirects here, so that is a non-issue. BD2412 T 06:04, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
• Support per nom and NATURAL.--Ortizesp (talk) 07:23, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
• No - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Britain's national mapping agency have always referred to it as River Thames - why differ? As for consistency, irrespective of what may have been done with Danube etc, it would be inconsistent with other British river articles. Geopersona (talk) 08:00, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
• Oppose per Ordnance Survey and Britannica "River" is part of the name just like Mississippi River even though that is tautological, see WP:NCRIVER. Crouch, Swale (talk) 09:26, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

  @Crouch, Swale: In the case of Mississippi River, the "river" part is used purely for disambiguation, since Mississippi is the name of a state, and the state is the primary topic. Mast303 (talk) 00:16, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

  It isn't, in the US rivers generally have the name "River" as a suffix even if primary, see Brazos River/Brazos for example, see also Talk:Mississippi (disambiguation)#Requested move 30 September 2020. Crouch, Swale (talk) 20:27, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

• Oppose River is opart of the name, note it is the River Thames, not the Thames river. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 13:21, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. And to the nominator's point, there are lots of river article titles that have "River" in the title. Rreagan007 (talk) 19:20, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
• Oppose - I suspect part of this is a geographical thing, it tends to be just "the Thames" for people in London following a general trend for any river to not need the "River" bit locally, whereas further away it is more likely to include "River". And yes, that "local", without "river" format applies at a global level on Wikipedia to the very biggest, continental-scale rivers but even eg the Brahmaputra River and the Mackenzie River get "river" when they dwarf any river in the UK. Also looking more locally, the biggest UK watersheds like River Severn, River Trent and River Great Ouse get "river". Finally, it helps USians who without more direction tend to call it the Thames River... FlagSteward (talk) 17:27, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Units

The Thames has been described as being 215 miles long. This is equivalent to 346 km. The lead paragraph contains the text {{convert|215|mi|adj=off}}. Recently this was changed to {{convert|346|km|adj=off}}. In principle this correct. We should prefer SI units over parochial units. The trouble is that all the sources, such as they are, give the length as 215 miles. Should we stay with the sources? OrewaTel (talk) 21:19, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

In any case we should use miles for this particular article. From MOS:UNIT:-

"In non-scientific articles with strong ties to the United Kingdom, the primary units for most quantities are metric or other internationally used units, except that:

...

the primary units for distance/​length, speed and fuel consumption are miles, miles per hour, and miles per imperial gallon (except for short distances or lengths, where miles are too large for practical use);" Ttocserp 21:30, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Which leads to the inconsistency that just about every other measurement used in the article is expressed in metric terms. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 06:45, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

There are 26 measurements in imperial units and 13 SI in the article itself. A number of the SI units come directly from scientific reports such as "Sediment cores up to 10 m deep ..." The infobox contains 11 items using SI units which is the river infobox standard. OrewaTel (talk) 09:26, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Welcome to the Untied Kingdom. Inconsistency using metric and imperial units is normal for this country, and it is not Wikipedia's job to impose standardisation where none exists in the real world. Thryduulf (talk) 11:49, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Durnovaria

This seems to link to Durnovaria in Dorset instead of the one in the Thames Valley. Will try and check when not on my phone. --Deanna Earley (talk) 06:36, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

It certainly does, I have removed the link as there is no article for the Thames Valley location, not even a mention in the history of the modern town. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 09:12, 8 July 2024 (UTC)