diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 310ebf2bc..82fe7be98 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # pkgdown (development version)
 
+* `template_reference()` and `template_article()` now only add backticks to function names if needed (#2561).
 * Custom navbars that specify `icon` but not `aria-label` will now generate a message reminding you to provide one for to improve accessibility (#2533).
 * `init_site()` will no longer automatically build favicons on CI systems (e.g. GHA). This is an expensive operation that uses an external service so it should only be run locally (#2553).
 * `build_home_index()` now reports when rendering the home page (#2544).
diff --git a/R/build-articles.R b/R/build-articles.R
index 6ce95d7d3..49d30859a 100644
--- a/R/build-articles.R
+++ b/R/build-articles.R
@@ -453,7 +453,7 @@ default_articles_index <- function(pkg = ".") {
     list(
       title = tr_("All vignettes"),
       desc = NULL,
-      contents = paste0("`", pkg$vignettes$name, "`")
+      contents = auto_quote(unname(pkg$vignettes$name))
     )
   ))
 }
diff --git a/R/build-reference-index.R b/R/build-reference-index.R
index 67e257ba5..2a31f110a 100644
--- a/R/build-reference-index.R
+++ b/R/build-reference-index.R
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ default_reference_index <- function(pkg = ".") {
   print_yaml(list(
     list(
       title = tr_("All functions"),
-      contents = paste0('`', exported$name, '`')
+      contents = auto_quote(unname(exported$name))
     )
   ))
 }
diff --git a/R/usage.R b/R/usage.R
index 49d179f2f..991b6dad3 100644
--- a/R/usage.R
+++ b/R/usage.R
@@ -67,12 +67,7 @@ parse_usage <- function(x) {
 
 short_name <- function(name, type, signature) {
   name <- escape_html(name)
-
-  if (!is_syntactic(name)) {
-    qname <- paste0("`", name, "`")
-  } else {
-    qname <- name
-  }
+  qname <- auto_quote(name)
 
   if (type == "data") {
     qname
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index cc59dcee1..3b9c0afbd 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ rstudio_save_all <- function() {
 
 is_syntactic <- function(x) x == make.names(x)
 
+auto_quote <- function(x) {
+  ifelse(is_syntactic(x), x, paste0("`", x, "`"))
+}
+
 str_trim <- function(x) gsub("^\\s+|\\s+$", "", x)
 
 str_squish <- function(x) str_trim(gsub("\\s+", " ", x))
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-build-articles.R b/tests/testthat/test-build-articles.R
index 6d6e112d4..ade1a43d4 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-build-articles.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-build-articles.R
@@ -253,6 +253,15 @@ test_that("internal articles aren't included and don't trigger warning", {
   expect_length(index$sections[[1]]$contents, 2)
 })
 
+test_that("default template includes all articles", {
+  pkg <- local_pkgdown_site()
+  dir_create(path(pkg$src_path, "vignettes"))
+  file_create(path(pkg$src_path, "vignettes", "a.Rmd"))
+  pkg <- as_pkgdown(pkg$src_path)
+
+  expect_equal(default_articles_index(pkg)[[1]]$contents, "a")
+})
+
 test_that("check doesn't include getting started vignette", {
   pkg <- local_pkgdown_site(test_path("assets/articles-resources"))
   getting_started <- path(pkg$src_path, "vignettes", paste0(pkg$package, ".Rmd"))
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-build-reference-index.R b/tests/testthat/test-build-reference-index.R
index 8bd73f716..f6d5c8abc 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-build-reference-index.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-build-reference-index.R
@@ -60,9 +60,9 @@ test_that("warns if missing topics", {
   expect_snapshot(data_reference_index(pkg), error = TRUE)
 })
 
-test_that("default reference includes all functions", {
+test_that("default reference includes all functions, only escaping non-syntactic", {
   ref <- default_reference_index(test_path("assets/reference"))
-  expect_equal(ref[[1]]$contents, paste0("`", c(letters[1:3], "e", "?"), "`"))
+  expect_equal(ref[[1]]$contents, c("a", "b", "c", "e", "`?`"))
 })
 
 test_that("errors well when a content entry is empty", {