Table names – Singular or Plural

Earlier this morning I tweeted asking for a quick idea of whether to go with singular table names or plural table names. i.e. the difference between having a table called “Country” vs. “Countries”

Here are the very close results:

• Singular: 8
• Plural: 6
• Either: 1

Why Singuar:

• That’s how the start off life on my ER diagram
• You don’t need to use a plural name to know a table will hold many of an item.
• A table consists of rows of items that are singular

Why Plural:

• It is the only choice unless you are only ever storing one row in each table.
• because they contain multiple items
• It contains Users
• I think of it as a collection rather than a type/class
• SELECT TOP 1 * FROM Customers

Why either:

• Either works, so long as it is consistent across the entire db/app