Talk:Mississippi

Semi-protected edit request on 5 July 2026

Change Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-38272-00 (talk) 14:54, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: See Talk:Gulf of Mexico/FAQ. jolielover♥talk 16:59, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

Requested move 27 August 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 to the proposed title at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasuよ! 06:57, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

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Mississippi → Mississippi (state)Mississippi (state) – I know this has been discussed before, but I don't think there is sufficient evidence that the state is the primary topic for "Mississippi". The page-view figures for Mississippi and Mississippi River are comparable, so usage does not appear to establish a clear primary topic. I also don't find the argument that the river is primarily known as "Mississippi River", rather than simply "Mississippi", particularly convincing. There is no evidence that readers looking for the river are substantially more likely to type "Mississippi River" than just "Mississippi". In ordinary English, the river is very commonly referred to simply as "the Mississippi". A particularly obvious historical example is Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi: "Mississippi" there unambiguously refers to the river, without "River" being part of the name used in the title. Indeed, Twain's book is specifically about his experiences on and travels along the Mississippi River. Long-term significance does not clearly favor the state either. The Mississippi River has had enormous geographical, historical, economic, and cultural significance in North America and American history. Given that the two topics have comparable readership and that "Mississippi" is itself a well-established way of referring to the river, I don't see a convincing basis for treating the state as the primary topic. ~2026-46677-92 (talk) 08:14, 27 August 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. –Maltazarian ^{ᚾparley$\lor$investigateᛅ} 15:02, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose While there is not technically a primary topic by pageviews nor longterm significance, functionally speaking, nobody is going to type purely "Mississippi" expecting to get the river and not the state. Outgoing viewers from the state page only comprise 1.9% of the river's monthly views, according to WikiNav, so people are not accidentally navigating to the state, backing up that assertion. This is a situation where common sense overrides "typical" process for Wikipedia naming. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 11:04, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose move. As mentioned above, most people typing "Mississippi" are looking for the state. O.N.R. ^(talk) 12:06, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
• Weak oppose, the river is probably NATURALLY disambiguated.--Ortizesp (talk) 12:45, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose. No one calls the river just "Mississippi". It's either the "Mississippi River" or "the Mississippi". Jessintime (talk) 12:57, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

  Exactly. I’m sure most all examples anyone could find of "Mississippi" referring to the river are actually just "the Mississippi", which is not the same thing. Hugo P. Behrmann (☎) 15:28, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

  So? That's true for every river, but people don't necessarily type in a definite article when searching for something. People only say "the Volga" and "the Sun" but the articles are titled Volga and Sun. ~2026-45985-49 (talk) 16:42, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

  Outside the US, the river is more notable than the state. ~2026-45985-49 (talk) 16:42, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

  WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS Grilledcheeseisgreat ^✉ 17:02, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

  What is meant by this response? I don't see how that essay relates to my comment. ~2026-45985-49 (talk) 18:06, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

  Just because Volga and Sun do it that way doesn't mean we should. Grilledcheeseisgreat ^✉ 21:45, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

  Similar naming of other pages can be invoked per WP:CONSISTENT when it comes to moves, so OTHERSTUFFEXISTS is a tougher argument to invoke in moves than it is for AfD.

  I personally think that the common name for the river would indeed be "Mississippi", and it is only titled "Mississippi River" due to natural disambiguation. I don't think there's a point arguing otherwise. However when searcher intent is factored in, it seems the vast majority who type in Mississippi intend to go to the state. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 02:52, 29 August 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose, per all oppose !votes above. From policy and even more so practicality it doesn't make much sense.

Grilledcheeseisgreat ^✉ 17:04, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

• Support per last time. Crouch, Swale (talk) 18:54, 28 August 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose per above oppose votes. FiddleheadLady (talk) 01:28, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
• Support. The fact the river is usually known as "the Mississippi" would only be relevant if our article was titled The Mississippi! Otherwise, there is no primary topic. I'm afraid that comments that nobody is going to type "Mississippi" if they were looking for the river are clear rubbish. What would they type then? I would certainly type "Mississippi" if I was looking for the river! -- Necrothesp (talk) 11:49, 2 September 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose per above votes. "Mississippi" is literally the name of the state. Babin Mew (talk) 11:50, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

Relisting comment: A lot of assertions and anecdotes and very little evidence means a relisting is warranted. –Maltazarian ^{ᚾparley$\lor$investigateᛅ} 15:02, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

And "Mississippi" is also literally the name of the river! -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:23, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

Would you use similar logic with the Ohio River and Ohio, or Niger and the Niger River? A whole lot of places are named directly after rivers, and Wikipedia essentially never lets the river take the bare name in article titles, as far as I'm aware. Hugo P. Behrmann (☎) 17:48, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

See Thames ve Thames (disambiguation) and Severn v Severn (disambiguation). Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:53, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

1. Notice how if you'd click on the articles you gave me, the article for the river still has "river" in the name, and so my point of the river not having the "bare" name stands

2. Are you meaning to tell me "Severn (Caldicot ward)" and "Thames (Reading ward)" are of equal signifigance to Ohio, Niger, or Mississippi? These are not good examples when factoring in how important the names of each place is.

3. What are your actual thoughts on Ohio and Niger? Would you apply these same standards there, even though that would completely boggle the minds of the readers? Hugo P. Behrmann (☎) 20:19, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

See also River Nile and River Nile State; Blue Nile and Blue Nile State; White Nile and White Nile State. Moscow Mule (talk) 18:02, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose Haven't seen a strong enough argument for making this change. In the United States, there's a clear difference when people talk about the river and the state. The status quo reflects that reality. Nemov (talk) 15:28, 3 September 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose: The article titles are already WP:NATDIS... Raskuly 🐰 22:31, 4 September 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose per the arguments above. I would not think to type Mississippi and expect to end up on the river page and not the state page. Nothing has changed since the last discussion in 2020. FromCzech (talk) 07:59, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

Oppose since the state of Mississippi and the river are distinct enough. AnthonyTheGuy (talk) 06:47, 9 September 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.