Talk:French Bay

Requested move 20 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: moved. – robertsky (talk) 11:55, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

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French Bay / Otitori Bay → French Bay – French Bay is the common name for this bay, 'French Bay' currently redirects to the Bay of Biscay but that is not actual alternate name for the bay and is instead a neologism invented by an editor in 2005. Evidence below Traumnovelle (talk) 01:24, 20 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 04:08, 27 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 07:33, 3 April 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 10:42, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

Extended content

NZ Herald since 2020 exclusively uses French Bay (only hits for Otitori are for a road):

RNZ since 2020 exclusively uses French Bay (only hits for Otitori are for a road):

Stuff since 2020 using just French Bay: (this one is a Newshub reprint but I think Stuff owns Newshub?)

Stuff since 2020 uses the dual name once and does not use the name Otitori on its own:

It was a bit hard to do a scholar search for French Bay but there are no results on scholar using the name outside of the road, some extra sources using just French Bay:

• Oppose at this stage. I think the redirect needs to be dealt with at WP:RfD first, but even setting that aside I'm not fully convinced that all of the sources are talking about the body of water as opposed to the area / settlement. The LINZ map has two labels in the area: "French Bay", in the same style as other suburbs nearby, and "French Bay / Otitori Bay", in the same style as other bays / water-based features. A cursory look suggested that quite a few of the sources were referring to the suburb / settlement / whatever you want to call the area around the bay, with few actually referring to the bay itself. And even then, there are two other French Bays in New Zealand alone, so I find it difficult to think that this would be the WP:PRIMARY. All in all, I think there are a few different concerns which limit the proposal at the moment. Turnagra (talk) 09:19, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

  French Bay is not a term used to refer to the Bay of Biscay, there is not a single reliable source using the term French Bay to refer to the Bay of Biscay. There is no other article on Wikipedia known as French Bay, so there is nothing else to consider for the primary topic here currently, simply which name is more common. Even if we have a distinction between the bay and locality there are still so few sources using the dual name that the single name is undoubtedly more common. Half the New Zealand Herald sources are explicitly about the bay for example. Traumnovelle (talk) 20:37, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: I'm unsure about how to interpret what the reporting is referring to with the whole bay/area around the bay distinction going on. I didn't find much guidance at WP:NCNZ either as that also pretty much just comes down to what the common name is. I do want to say that there is no need to do this in two parts, one RfD and one RM, and that the redirect can and should be changed to direct to French Bay / Otitori Bay, which can be done without needing a discussion (just edit the redirect page) as it seems pretty uncontroversial considering the lack of basis for redirecting "French Bay" to somewhere that isn't called that at all rather than the place that is called that. I would like to note that one of the other French Bays in New Zealand is listed as being officially named while the others are not. Per WP:NCNZ and WP:NZGB that isn't enough to settle anything on it's own but I felt it was worth pointing out. ⹃Maltazarian ^{ᚾparlay$\lor$investigateᛅ} 13:48, 27 March 2026 (UTC)
• Support per nom, sources in the article, and lack of use of the dual name by secondary sources, WP:COMMONNAME, WP:MLN and WP:NCNZ, dual-names must only be used when they are common. More sources use "French Bay" on its own, even if for like the adjacent beach, with the dual is less used, only found by OneRoof and Stuff, otherwise mainly from database or Wikipedia-based sites, with other form "French Bay (Otitori Bay)" used instead. Few Google news sources use "Otitori Bay" itself, let alone the dual, and all, but one, are about the road, except the council result which switches it the other way round. There is no other French Bay article to dispute with at this stage. Support overriding the redirect from Bay of Biscay, cannot see any use of "French Bay" for that, France has many bays. DankJae 02:02, 6 April 2026 (UTC)
• Support per nom and WP:COMMONNAME. Nobody calls the Bay of Biscay the French Bay. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:02, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Note: Wikipedia:New Zealand Wikipedians' notice board has been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 10:42, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

• Support per WP:COMMONNAME in news sources as linked.

Traumnovelle, you have copied in the wrong link for the Stuff source currently labeled [20]. And in retrospect you should really have re-targeted the redirect page before opening this RM, as it does appear to just be a long-standing unnoticed error. — HTGS (talk) 03:09, 14 April 2026 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks. Traumnovelle (talk) 04:06, 14 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.