Talk:Dragash

Requested move 25 March 2026

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; page title restored to Dragash. Clear consensus that Dragash is the preferred name, both as the long-term stable title and per various listed guidelines. (closed by non-admin page mover) BilledMammal (talk) 03:18, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

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Dragaš, Kosovo → Sharr – national name --Altenmann >talk 23:48, 25 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 02:26, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Comment: @Altenmann: - On English Wikipedia, we use the WP:COMMONNAME in the English language. Have you got evidence that "Sharr" is the common name in English? If so, I'll gladly support this RM. Kind regards IJA (talk) 07:12, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

I've done a Google Ngram search and "Sharr" is definitely in first place but this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as some of the results will be for the Sharr aka Šar Mountains and not the Kosovan town. That being said, Dragaš (surname) is a surname, so some of the results will be for people and not the Kosovan town. It's going to be hard to tell for sure which is the common name in the English language. IJA (talk) 07:30, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

There is another rule: when a place is barely noticeable in English sources, we go with local name. I dont think that a town with population of 1,332 is noticeable on English maps. There are villages large than this (BTW, the lede had a correct but confusing statement " the municipality has 28,896 inhabitants", which hid that fact that the municipality is a large rural area, with the town in question having only 1,300 residents. I fixed this.)--Altenmann >talk 16:00, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Please can you link me to the policy for this rule? IJA (talk) 18:35, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

WP:MLN, WP:GNUE, WP:MPN --Altenmann >talk 18:39, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

It's not clear what the local name is, though, when the lead section says the Albanian names are both "Dragash" and "Sharr".

Here's a possibly better Google Books Ngrams: * Dragas,Dragas *,* Sharr,Sharr *,* Dragaš,Dragaš *,* Dragash,Dragash * without smoothing, which shows which words appear next to these terms. It seems the vast majority of these book references seem to be about people, not places.

The Sharr redirect doesn't seem to be warranted either: All pages with titles containing Sharr indicates it's shadowing a fair few other articles. (I disambiguated it since.)

The Dragash redirect seems the least ambiguous, and the Category:Dragash is named like that too, but I'm not sure if that's the most common name even if it sounds like a good compromise based on less ambiguity. --Joy (talk) 20:14, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

It seems that Dragash/Dragaš (in fact often occurring as a double name) is clearly preferred for the municipality (e.g. official tourist portal, projects on EU website, UNDP page, European Country of Origin Information Network, Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland) and the name Sharr is primarily used as the name of the mountain range and the national park. Dragash is used on booking.com and Dragaš in Google Maps. See also JSTOR results comparison Dragash vs Sharr. It is unclear if Dragash or Dragaš is more common, but since Dragash regularly occurs first in the double name and since there is no need for a disambiguator afterwards (see WP:NATURAL), I vote for move to Dragash. FromCzech (talk) 11:47, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

I just found out that shortly before this RM the page was moved from Dragash. If there is no clear result of the RM, it is definitely necessary to restore the established name. FromCzech (talk) 11:53, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm trying to find more on this topic, and I believe that Sharr is not used as an alternative name for the town at all and refers only to the mountain range and the national park. After closing the discussion, I suggest dropping it from the page. Or please provide reliable sources that clearly confirm the use of Sharr for the town. FromCzech (talk) 12:54, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Kosovo and WikiProject Cities have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 02:27, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

• Support move to Dragash - As there is no established WP:COMMONNAME, I'd support a move to Dragash per WP:MLN, WP:GNUE, WP:MPN. Also, the nominator unilaterally moved the article title from Dragash to Dragaš, Kosovo before opening an RM to Sharr the same day. This article should not have been unilaterally moved without consensus in the first place. Lets move it back to the agreed upon article title. Any move needs to be done via consensus like it was in May 2022. IJA (talk) 10:03, 2 April 2026 (UTC)
• Move back to Dragash per above. DankJae 02:08, 6 April 2026 (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.