Element Naming

[ben2ong2]

XML elements must follow these naming rules:
·   Names can contain letters, numbers, and other characters
·   Names must not start with a number or punctuation character
·   Names must not start with the letters xml (or XML, or Xml, etc)
·   Names cannot contain spaces
Take care when you "invent" element names and follow these simple rules:
Any name can be used, no words are reserved, but the idea is to make names descriptive. Names with an underscore separator are nice.
Examples: <first_name>, <last_name>.
Avoid "-" and "." in names. For example, if you name something "first-name," it could be a mess if your software tries to subtract name from first. Or if you name something "first.name," your software may think that "name" is a property of the object "first."
Element names can be as long as you like, but don't exaggerate. Names should be short and simple, like this: <book_title> not like this: <the_title_of_the_book>.
XML documents often have a corresponding database, in which fields exist corresponding to elements in the XML document. A good practice is to use the naming rules of your database for the elements in the XML documents.
Non-English letters like éòá are perfectly legal in XML element names, but watch out for problems if your software vendor doesn't support them.
The ":" should not be used in element names because it is reserved to be used for something called namespaces (more later).