• Thanks for the time take to respond. I am really not looking for particular conventions but rather to solidify a list of points that should be address as an organization sets it standard.

    So instead of

    Jeff Moden (12/6/2012)

    I almost never pluralize table names. I'll have a table named "Company". I can't see having one called "Companies" especially if you use IDENTITY columns and follow the naming convention of tablenameID for such columns. To wit, I name the table after what a single row contains information about.

    I would put on my list:

    1. Are table names plural or singular? If plural, how are they pluralized? Are there common exceptions?

    base ex: Company vs Companies vs Companys

    example of possible exception: User vs Users vs AppUser [because user is a reserved word."

    2. How are surrogate keys named?

    example: id vs tableNameid vs idTableName vs tableName

    Jeff Moden (12/6/2012)

    I also strongly enforce the use of 2 part naming conventions and the general avoidance of 3 and 4 part naming except where absolutely necessary (in a Synonym, for example).

    This statement of a standard implies a decision point along the lines of:

    9. Where do we use 1,2,3 or 4 part names? Do we use 1 part names if the schema is dbo? Do we user 1 part names for references within a single schema? Where to we require 2,3 or 4 part names?

    Good stuff all.

    Thanks!