There are several possibilities for why you will want to rename a page (one that you have found or created):
The terms "rename" and "move" mean the same in this context. They just refer to different models for picturing the operation:
Since the system marks the page with the old name as new page, it applies the first of the two models. This model avoids "changing the history", a kind of "historical revisionism". An oddity is that the renaming itself, which can be considered an important event in the history of the page, is not recorded as such; it is recorded indirectly, namely in the history of the redirect page.
It is not possible to rename an image or image description page. Instead, upload it again under the new name.
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Note that you have to be logged in to rename a page this way; regarding the set preferences:
When you've got your article up, click on the move link at the top of the page. You'll be asked for a new name for the article, and given the option to also move the article's talk page. (Unless you know what you're doing, it's safest to say yes.) Click the "move page"and the page will be renamed to the new title. The old title will become a redirect page, so any links to the old title will still go to the new page. However, note that double redirects (pages that redirect to the original article), will not automatically follow to the new article, so you will have to refer them manually. (as explained below)
The "move page" function keeps the entire edit history of the article, before and after the move, in one place, as if the article were always named that way. So, it's preferable to use this method over just cutting text out of one article and pasting it into a new one; old revisions, notes, and attributions are harder to keep track of it you do that. (But you may have to if, for instance, you're splitting a page into multiple topics. If you do, please include a note in the new article's summary and talk page of where you took the text from.)
The move itself is shown in the edit history of the page with the old title. However, if the page is moved back, the edit history of the page with the intermediate title shows the latest move only, with the corresponding user name, but with the date and time of the first move(!), . Accordingly, the name of the user who moved the page the first time and the date and time of the second move are lost (except that they appear in the Recent Changes).
If the new title already exists and isn't just a redirect with no history (and sometimes even then), the wiki will tell you that you can't rename the article. You'll either have to manually merge the two pages together, or—only if there's no real content in the page—ask to have it deleted to make room for moving the page.
Another thing to remember is that redirects to redirects aren't automatically followed (this prevents infinite loops and spaghetti linking). After moving, be sure to check the What links here for your page and fix the links for any multiple redirects to point to the new location. But this can be troublesome because your new moving might be undone (see below) soon. Take some time to make sure there is no objection to your moving.
It is useful to copy the message "Page ... moved to ..." to the new talk page, especially if there has been discussion about the name of the page.
If a page is moved while someone has that page, or its talk page, open for editing, then weird stuff can happen. We reckon this is all fixed now, but keep an eye out.
Sometimes moves leave the talk page behind, even when you've asked for the talk page to be moved, and you can see no reason for this. Weird, no? If you care about this, see Ireland Information Guide:bug reports.
Sometimes we move things and regret it later. Normally, to undo a move from page A to page B, simply:
However, if page A has subsequently been edited, or the move software is behaving weirdly, only an admin can sort things out:
"Move wars" are highly unproductive, and leave vast numbers of pointless redirects littering the place, which some poor soul will have to fix. Keep cool: don't engage in move wars.
Main page: How to fix cut and paste moves