Talk:The Bahamas

Crime and homicide in the Bahamas

Strange that there is no section or even mention of crime and also homicide on the main page given that the Bahamas has one of the highest murder rates in the world according to Wikipedia's page on that subject. Anybody have any information on crime and murder in the Bahamas??? Betathetapi454 (talk) 08:43, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

How Many Islands??

The lede of this article says 3,000. The lede of Geography of the Bahamas says 700. I'm not seeing a source citation for either number. Surely this discrepancy needs to be cleared up, authoritatively, but I'm a tired old man, so I will let you young'uns have the fun of diving for sources. Textorus (talk) 14:48, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

:In The Story of the Bahamas (1975 - Macmillan Caribbean), Paul Albury says about 700 is a good estimate for the number of islands, along with thousands of rocks.(p. 5) An 1864 government report counted 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 rocks.(p. 6) I am not aware of any more recent precise count. Donald Albury 16:59, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

And I thought that count was in the article. It seems I moved the full count, with a citation to Albury, from the lead to the Geography section 13 years ago. Somebody obviously later removed it, but it's not worth it to me to figure out who or when. Donald Albury 17:09, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

The 700 islands is sourced in the Geography section. I'm off to the other article. - Donald Albury 17:28, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

The intro paragraph

It appears to have a 7% probability of being AI-generated. Angrythewikipedian (talk) 17:04, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

Considering that the first paragraph does not appear to have changed in the past four years, I don't think anyone has snuck in and replaced the old lead with an AI-generated one. Whatever detection program you are using is probably detecting the Wikipedia style, some of which has infected LLMs. Donald Albury 17:23, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

@TurboSuperA+, If this is what you tagged the page over, I feel like the tag should be removed. ✶Quxyz✶ (talk) 12:36, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Nevermind, I found the section. ✶Quxyz✶ (talk) 12:38, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Sorry about tagging the whole article. The template has been changed now to allow for sections to be tagged separately. TurboSuperA+_[talk] 13:33, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

I looked over the climate section and it looks to be just poorly done instead of written by an LLM. I definitely see why you thought it was AI, though. It uses a lot of weird metaphors that really should not be in a Wikipedia article. ✶Quxyz✶ (talk) 13:39, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

The county's name, once again

@user:Donald Albury, user:VexVector, and others. There still is no consistent approach. Previous discussions have related to different contexts so applying any agreed decision about one context does not apply to another. Should there be yet further discussion here to establish firm guidelines that are simple to use and have broad approval, meaning they will work? Roger 8 Roger (talk) 06:41, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

I think that for the most part sentence case (i.e., "the Bahamas") should be used, but when giving the official name, it is equivalent to a quote, and "The Commonwealth of The Bahamas" should be used. Donald Albury 16:13, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

That's basically been my view too. Interesting, its official name according to the UN uses lower case the. What or where is the definitive official name? I also wounder if we are not unnecessarily focused on the spelling - the word is 'the', there are not two words, just two spellings. Roger 8 Roger (talk) 01:35, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

I did notice a while ago that the Bahamas Government websites are inconsistent on the capitalization. And now I see (at the constitution), that the preamble of the constitution says "Commonwealth of The Bahamas", Chapter 1, Section 1 says "Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and Section 2 says "Commonwealth of The Bahamas". Messy! Donald Albury 18:07, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

Requested move 19 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. Nothing has changed since the previous discussions, and WP:THE explicitly lists The Bahamas as an exception to the rule. Side note: This is the 5th such move discussion with the same outcome. If consensus is to be changed, more work will need to be done, likely in an RFC. (non-admin closure) {{GearsDatapacks|talk|contribs}} 15:44, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

---

The Bahamas → BahamasBahamas – countries such as the Philippines and the Netherlands have "the" as a prefix in their name, but not in the article title. I don't see why the Bahamas should be any different. Dr. Precursor (talk) 02:52, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

Hell, there are even more countries that are instances of this, such as the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Provides even more reason for my move request. Dr. Precursor (talk) 02:55, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose move. WP:THE specifically lists The Bahamas as an example of a country which uses "The", alongside The Gambia. O.N.R. ^(talk) 09:06, 19 March 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose, perennial attempt (this is the fifth move attempt). What has changed to bring this back to RM with the same request? Randy Kryn (talk) 12:26, 19 March 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose and speedy close. WP:NCTHE specifically covers this situation: When definite and indefinite articles should be used (...) The Bahamas (because it is one of two countries that have "The" as part of their common and official name); When definite and indefinite articles should be avoided (...) Netherlands (because it does not have "The" as part of their common and official name). There have been four other RMs over the years proposing the exact same move, and all of them were closed as no consensus/not moved. No new circumstances have been brought that can lead to a different outcome here nor to justify the inapplication of NCTHE. Impru20^talk 15:13, 19 March 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose per Britannica unlike Netherlands and Philippines "The" is part of the name. Note that I'm not suggesting that we use the long official name namely "Commonwealth of The Bahamas". Crouch, Swale (talk) 18:32, 19 March 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose as others have said, The Bahamas is both the official and most commonly used name, there's no need to change it. Eustathius (talk) 20:27, 19 March 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose for me as with the responses above. Santiago Claudio (talk) 08:01, 20 March 2026 (UTC)
• Support. I may be outnumbered, but I entirely agree with the nominator. WP:THE applies here. In general, the definite article is lowercased in running text. -- Necrothesp (talk) 12:25, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

  That I attribute mostly to sloppiness, I have reviewed the text to capitalise the definite article when referring to the nation whilst leaving lowercase definite articles intact when referring to the islands. Eustathius (talk) 22:24, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

  MOS:THECAPS says that it should be lowercase, though. —Eyer (he/him) If you reply, add {{reply to|Eyer}} to your message. 22:38, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

  The question is does the quoted area 'the weather in the Bahamas' refer to the islands or the country, as per Wikipedia:THE 'Besides the above-mentioned cases, "The" is sometimes used at the beginning of some other proper names: The two countries that have "The" as part of their common and official name: The Bahamas – a country of islands in the Caribbean Sea' it would appear these two guides conflict I have steered a middle course in using the capitalised definite article for the political entity whilst not doing so with the island group itself Eustathius (talk) 22:45, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

  I meant in the real world, not on Wikipedia! -- Necrothesp (talk) 16:34, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

  In that case, I would recommend looking through Bahamian newspapers, major newspapers such as the Nassau Guardian and the Tribune, both of which consistently use the capitalised definite article. Eustathius (talk) 17:24, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

  Simply because they are following the government line. -- Necrothesp (talk) 08:28, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

  The Bahamas has freedom of the press, these newspapers use it because it is correct according to their style guides. Eustathius (talk) 11:52, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

  Which we are not obliged to follow! -- Necrothesp (talk) 08:36, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

  Nor are we obliged to disregard this evidence of common usage because we feel like it.Eustathius (talk) 15:25, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

• Support The Bahamas and the Gambia should not be treated differently from the Philippines. Even the UNGEGN database does not make this distinction. So why should we? --Martin Tauchman (talk) 21:45, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

  Because in both instances 'The' is part of the official shortening, which is not so in the case of the Philippines. Eustathius (talk) 22:02, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

  And do you have a reference that would support your claim? Martin Tauchman (talk) 23:10, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

  I would direct one to read the constitution of The Bahamas that is referenced in the page's lede, and I would also direct one to read the same document for The Gambia, that is referred to here. Eustathius (talk) 00:11, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

  I would point you to WP:OFFICIAL. -- Necrothesp (talk) 16:34, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

  And I would point you to WP:THE:

  "Besides the above-mentioned cases, "The" is sometimes used at the beginning of some other proper names: The two countries that have "The" as part of their common and official name: The Bahamas – a country of islands in the Caribbean Sea, The Gambia – a country in West Africa" Eustathius (talk) 17:31, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

  That doesn't mean that this cannot change. Which is why we're having this debate. If an exception is illogical (as this very clearly is) then it should not be set in stone. -- Necrothesp (talk) 08:27, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

  It can, but this exception was carved out with good reason, and is hardly illogical as you claim it to be. Eustathius (talk) 11:51, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

  I can see no "good reason" whatsoever other than WP:ILIKEIT and "that's how it's always been". Whereas my arguments are clearly policy- and guideline-based. -- Necrothesp (talk) 08:35, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

  The good reason is because it is both common and official, thus the exception to the norm. were it not common or official then you would have good grounding to disregard, but you don't. Eustathius (talk) 15:27, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

  The UNGEGN does make a distinction. The UNGEGN national official name for the Bahamas is "The Bahamas" and for the Gambia it is "The Gambia". The UNGEGN national official name for the Philippines on the other hand is "Philippines (the)". CMD (talk) 02:14, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

  The UNGEGN lists it as ‘Bahamas (the)’. See . Martin Tauchman (talk) 23:09, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

  That linked map also has "Gambia (the)". My recollection is that a lot of sources use "Gambia" without "the" (sometimes including the government of the country itself, if I recall correctly). Here is an example of "Gambia" without "the" from The New York Times. BBC's country profile is headlined "[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18722984 Bahamas country profile". —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 23:28, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

  That is not the national official name but the UN one. The national official names are included in . CMD (talk) 01:55, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

• Opppose. Because it is the official and the common name. Donald Albury 23:13, 20 March 2026 (UTC)
  • It clearly isn't the common name! Unless we're going to have The Netherlands, The United Kingdom and The United States, which are also always written in running text with a definite article. Otherwise, the capitalised definite article clearly falls under WP:OFFICIAL and WP:THE. The country may like it, but in running text in most sources it generally is not capitalised. So, effectively we're saying that for these two countries we should make an exception to WP:OFFICIAL and WP:THE and I can see no real explanation why other than "just because". -- Necrothesp (talk) 16:34, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

    WP:THE makes an exception for The Bahamas and The Gambia. Eustathius (talk) 17:28, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

    @Necrothesp: As I've said in previous RMs the word "The" is part of the official (short) name unlike Netherlands. International independent sources treet "The" as being part of the name and in terms of lower case I'd point out that the consensus as the banner at the likes of Talk:Taxman says to use a lower case "the" for the Beatles and I think this is similar. There is an article here on why these 2 countries are different. Crouch, Swale (talk) 18:12, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

    As I have made perfectly clear, I see no reason whatsoever why exceptions should be made to WP:THE and WP:OFFICIAL for these two countries. Using the definite article in the country's name is merely the preference of their governments, not real-world usage. And generally following government style "just because it's the official name" is obviously the very definition of WP:OFFICIAL. There is no reason not to follow our own guidelines on this issue. Most people would not write "I visited The Bahamas" (whether they meant the country or just the islands), hence WP:THE is met. -- Necrothesp (talk) 08:27, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

    • @Necrothesp: The usage of "The" is established as part of the name in various sources such as Britannica, The World Factbook (now closed) and the UK government, as World Atlas notes the name is a direct reference to one of its geographical features like The Gambia rather than just a noun for the lowlands as with the Netherlands. I think OFFICIAL is normally used to avoid long names that aren't really part of the name like "Commonwealth of The Bahamas", in the short name "The Bahamas" the "The" is an integral part of the name rather than a long obscure description so I don't see a problem here. If independent sources prefer it as well as primary sources than I think we should include it. Crouch, Swale (talk) 20:21, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

      On the contrary, OFFICIAL is used to oppose any "official" name that doesn't conform to Wikipedia's guidelines, as this clearly does not. As I have said, I see no reason to make an exception to our own guidelines for these two countries. And I have seen nothing here that would make me change my mind. -- Necrothesp (talk) 08:33, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

      Aren't you convinced by the sources I and others have cited such as Britannica? WP:COMMONNAME says Other encyclopedias are among the sources that may be helpful in deciding what titles are in an encyclopedic register, as well as what names are most frequently used. Crouch, Swale (talk) 09:35, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

• Weak support: I am persuaded by Martin Tauchman and Necrothesp here. There doesn't seem to be a good reason for the two isolated exceptions. The reason the WP:THE guideline mentions two exceptions is that they exist on Wikipedia. If they no longer exist, it will no longer need to mention them. I'll add Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands to the list of examples to consider. Gambia is often referred to without "the". Officialness is not persuasive. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 19:40, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Countries, WikiProject Bahamas, WikiProject Caribbean, and WikiProject African diaspora have been notified of this discussion. ASUKITE 14:39, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

'Oppose. Their full Official name is The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. See their government website. (Website of the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas) CaribDigita (talk) 14:54, 27 March 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.

There is no article about the Constitution of the Bahamas

I'm surprised that the Constitution of the Bahamas is not mentioned anywhere on Wikipedia. Constitution of the Bahamas is a redlink. And the existing articles Law of the Bahamas and Politics of the Bahamas discuss it at all. SVG-image-maker (talk) 00:55, 24 May 2026 (UTC)