CorporisPublica:Manual of Style/Biographies

This page sets out guidelines for achieving visual and textual consistency in biographical articles and in biographical information in other articles; such consistency allows CorporisPublica to be used more easily.

See also: CorporisPublica:WikiProject Biography and CorporisPublica:Biographies of living persons.

Opening paragraph
The opening paragraph should have:
 * 1) Name(s) and title(s), if any (see, for instance, also CorporisPublica:Naming conventions (royalty and nobility));
 * 2) Dates of birth and death, if known (see CorporisPublica:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers);
 * 3) Context (location, nationality, or ethnicity);
 * 4) In most modern-day cases this will mean the country of which the person is a citizen, national or permanent resident, or if notable mainly for past events, the country where the person was a citizen, national or permanent resident when the person became notable.
 * 5) Ethnicity or sexuality should not generally be emphasized in the opening unless it is relevant to the subject's notability. Similarly, previous nationalities or the country of birth should not be mentioned in the opening sentence unless they are relevant to the subject's notability.
 * 6) The notable actions or roles the person played;
 * 7) Why the person is significant.

For example:
 * Cleopatra VII Philopator (December 70 BC/January 69 BC – c. August 12, 30 BC) was a queen of ancient Egypt. She was the last member of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty to rule Egypt ...
 * Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch (1304–1374) was an Italian scholar, poet, and humanist, who is credited with having given the Renaissance its name and inventing the concept of the Dark Ages ...
 * Cesar Estrada Chavez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW) ...
 * François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was the 21st President of the French Republic ...

Generally the guidelines for lead sections specify what should be in the first section. For example, exact birth and death dates are certainly important to the person being described, but if they are also mentioned in the body, the vital year range can be sufficient to provide context in some cases. Birth and death places should be mentioned in the body if known, and in the lead if they are relevant to the person's notability; they should not be mentioned within the opening brackets.

First mention
While the article title should generally be the name by which the subject is most commonly known, the subject's full name should be given in the lead paragraph, if known (including middle names, if known, or middle initials). Many cultures have a tradition of not using the full name of a person in everyday reference, but the article should start with the complete version. For example:
 * (from Fidel Castro): Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) ...
 * (from François Mitterrand): François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (October 26, 1916 – January 8, 1996) ...
 * (from Brian Jones): Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) ...

In some cases, subjects have legally changed their names at some point after birth. In these cases the birth name should be given as well:
 * (from Bill Clinton): William Jefferson Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) ...
 * (from Jack Benny): Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) ...

Maiden names
It is common to give the maiden or birth family name (last name, surname) of a woman better known under her married name, for example:
 * Lucy Washington (née Payne, 1772?–1846), widow of Major George Steptoe Washington…

An alternate form, Lucy (Payne) Washington, is also widely accepted.

A woman should be referred to by her most commonly used name, which will not necessarily include her husband's surname.

Changed names
If a person is named in an article in which they are not the subject, they should be referred to by the name they were using at the time of the mention rather than a name they may have used before or after the mention.

Child named for parent or predecessor
Do not place a comma before Jr., Sr., or Roman numeral designation unless it is the preference of the subject or the subject's biographers. Examples: Sammy Davis Jr., George Welton III.

Pseudonyms, stage names and common names
For people who are best known by a pseudonym, the legal name should usually appear first in the article, followed closely by the pseudonym. Follow this practice even if the article itself is titled with the pseudonym:
 * Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. (June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983), better known by the stage name Slim Pickens ...

Investigation may sometimes be needed to determine whether a subject known usually by a pseudonym has actually changed their legal name to match. Reginald Kenneth Dwight formally changed his name to Elton Hercules John early in his musical career. Where this is not the case, and where the subject uses a popular form of their name in everyday life, then care must be taken to avoid implying that a person who does not generally use all their forenames or who uses a familiar form has actually changed their name. Do not write, for example "John Edwards (born Johnny Reid Edwards, June 10, 1953) ...". It is not always necessary to spell out why the article title and lead paragraph give a different name.

Once the most common name has been determined, remember to add the full personal names and alternative names as redirects. For example, "William Jefferson Clinton" would be added as a redirect to "Bill Clinton". This will dissuade others from moving the article later to what they may believe is the proper name for the article. This also lets future editors know that the chosen shortened name was not an oversight, but was thoughtfully planned.

Royal surnames
Most royal families do not have surnames. Many that do have different personal surnames from the name of their Royal House. For example, different members of the Royal House of Windsor have a range of surnames: Windsor, Mountbatten-Windsor, etc. Charles, Prince of Wales, for example, is not Charles Windsor but Charles Mountbatten-Windsor, as are his siblings and all their children. But many of his cousins are Windsor or other names. Similarly, the House of Habsburg is different to the surnames of some members of the Habsburg/Habsburg-Lorraine family.

Incorporate surnames if they are known in the opening line of an article, e.g., Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor. But do not automatically presume that a name of a Royal Family is the personal surname of its members. In many cases it is not. For visual clarity, an article should begin with the form "{royal title} {name} {ordinal if appropriate} (full name (+ surname if known, but not for monarchs)" with the full name unformatted and the rest in bold (3 apostrophes). In practice, this means for example an article on Britain's Queen Elizabeth should begin "Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary)". Using this format displays the most important information clearly without an unattractive excess of formatting. Other information on royal titles should be listed where appropriate in chronological order.

Academic titles
Academic and professional titles (such as "Doctor" or "Professor") should not be used before (or after) the name in the initial sentence or in other uses of the person's name. Verifiable facts about how the person attained such titles should be included in the article text instead. In cases where the person is widely known by a pseudonym or stage name containing such a title (whether earned or not), it may be included as described above. Post-nominal letters indicating academic degrees (including honorary degrees) should not be included following the subject's name in the first line (although they may occasionally be used in articles of which the person with the degree is not the subject to clarify their qualifications).

For example:
 * Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920? – April 6, 1992; originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as Айзек Азимов) was an American author and professor of biochemistry, ... he went on to Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1939, later returning to earn a PhD in biochemistry in 1948 ...
 * Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS (born January 8, 1942) is considered one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge ...
 * David Drew Pinsky (born September 4, 1958), nicknamed "Dr. Drew", is a board-certified physician and addiction medicine specialist. ... Pinsky ... earned his MD at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1984 ...

Post-nominal initials
Post-nominal letters, other than those denoting academic degrees, should be included when they are issued by a country or widely recognizable organization with which the subject has been closely associated. Honors issued by other entities may be mentioned in the article, but should generally be omitted from the lead.

Writers should remember that the meaning of the most obvious (to them) post-nominal initials will not be obvious to some readers. When post-nominal initials are used the meaning should be readily available to the reader. This is most easily done with a piped link to an article with the appropriate title thus:

ensuring that readers who hover over the initials see the expanded abbreviation as a hint and in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Readers who click immediately on the link, missing hints will hopefully see a short article with the definition clear and near the start. (See above in regard to academic titles and post-nominal initials.)
 * gives   Joe Bloggs, VC
 * gives   Jack Brabham, OBE

In special cases where an individual (e.g. Charles, Prince of Wales) holds a large number of post-nominal letters, or seldom uses their post-nominal letters (for instance because they hold a much "higher" style), that individual should be considered exempt from this practice – that is to say, post-nominal letters should be omitted from the lead and included elsewhere.

Note that post-nominal initials signifying honours awarded by the United Kingdom (e.g. KCB, CBE) may be used as soon as they are gazetted. Investiture is not necessary.

Honorific prefixes
The inclusion of some honorific prefixes and styles is controversial. See CorporisPublica:Naming conventions (royalty and nobility) for use in article titles.

In general, styles and honorifics should not be included in front of the name, but may be discussed in the article. In particular, this applies to:
 * styles and honorifics derived from a title, position or activity, including The Most Noble, The Most Honourable, The Right Honourable, and The Honourable;
 * styles and honorifics related to clergy and royalty, such as His Holiness and Her Majesty. Clergy should be named as described in CorporisPublica:Naming conventions (clergy).

There are some exceptions:
 * Where an honorific is so commonly attached to a name that the name is rarely found without it, it should be included. For example, the honorific may be included for "Father Coughlin" (presently at Charles Coughlin) and Mother Teresa.
 * The prenominals Sir, Dame, Lord and Lady are discussed in the "Honorific Titles" section below. Honorary knights and dames are not entitled to "Sir" or "Dame", only the post-nominal letters.
 * In Burmese names, honorifics may be preserved if they are part of the normal form of address, even for ordinary people.

Honorific titles
The honorific titles Sir, Dame, Lord and Lady are included in the initial reference and infobox heading for the person, but are optional after that. The title is placed in bold in the first use of the name. Except for the initial reference and infobox, do not add honorific titles to existing instances of a person's name where they are absent, since doing so implies that the existing version is incorrect (similar in spirit to the guideline on British vs. U.S. English spelling). Similarly, honorific titles should not be deleted when they are used throughout an article unless there is consensus. Where the use of an honorific title is widely misunderstood, this can be mentioned in the article; see, for example, Bob Geldof. Honorific titles used with forenames only (such as "Sir Elton", "Sir David", "Dame Judi") suggest an unencyclopedic level of familiarity with the person and should be avoided unless this form is so heavily preferred in popular usage that the use of the surname alone would render the entire name unrecognizable.

Note that titles signifying honours awarded by the United Kingdom (i.e. Sir, Dame) may be used as soon as they are gazetted. Investiture is not necessary.

Subsequent use
After the initial mention of any name, the person should be referred to by surname only, without an honorific prefix such as "Mr", "Mrs", "Miss", or "Ms". For example:


 * Fred Smith was a cubist painter in the 15th century. He moved to Genoa, where he met singer Jane Doe. Smith and Doe later married.

However, where a person does not have a surname but a patronymic (like some Russians and most Icelanders) then the proper form of reference is usually the given name. (See also Country-specific usage below.) For example:


 * Iceland's Prime Minister is Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. Jóhanna was elected to the Althing in 1978.

The person may be referred to by given name in the case of royalty, or as "Prince John", "Princess Jane", "The Duke," "The Earl," "The Duchess," "The Countess," etc. For other subjects, it is preferable to refer to the person by surname, not given name, even if the subject is not controversial. The use of the given name gives the impression that the writer knows the subject personally, which, even if true, is not relevant.

A member of the nobility may be referred to by title if that form of address would have been the customary way to refer to him or her; for example Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester may become "the Earl of Leicester" or just "Leicester" in subsequent mentions. Be careful not to give someone a title too soon; for example, one should use "Robert Dudley" or "Dudley" when describing events prior to his elevation to the peerage in 1564.

People who are best known by a pseudonym should be subsequently referred to by their pseudonymous surnames, unless they do not include a recognizable surname in the pseudonym (i.e. Madonna, Snoop Dogg, The Edge), in which case the whole pseudonym is used. For people well known by one-word names, nicknames or pseudonyms, but who often also use their legal names professionally (e.g. musician/actors Beyoncé Knowles, André Benjamin, Jennifer Lopez; doctor/broadcaster Dr. Drew Pinsky), use the legal surname.

For people with academic or professional titles, subsequent uses of names should omit them. For example, use "Asimov", "Hawking", and "Westheimer"; not "Dr. Asimov", "Professor Hawking" or "Dr. Ruth".

Country-specific usage

 * Thai people are often referred to by their first name (i.e. given name) without a family name, even in formal situations. Hence, on second and subsequent mentions, they should be referred to by their first name.

Family members with the same surname
To distinguish between family members with the same surname, use given names or complete names to refer to relatives upon first mention. For subsequent uses, refer to relatives by given name for clarity and brevity. When referring to the person who is the subject of the article, use just the surname unless the reference is part of a list of family members or if use of the surname alone will be confusing.

For example, in the text of an article on Ronald Reagan:


 * {|style="background:transparent"

In the text of an article about the Brothers Grimm:
 * -valign=top
 * Incorrect:  ||Ronald and Nancy Reagan arrived separately, Ronald Reagan by helicopter and Nancy Reagan by car.
 * -valign=top
 * Correct:               ||Ronald and Nancy Reagan arrived separately, Ronald by helicopter and Nancy by car.
 * -valign=top
 * Correct:               ||The Reagans arrived separately, Ronald by helicopter and Nancy by car.
 * }
 * {|style="background:transparent"


 * -valign=top
 * Incorrect:  ||Jacob Grimm was 14 months older than his brother, Wilhelm Grimm.
 * -valign=top
 * Correct:              ||Jacob Grimm was 14 months older than his brother, Wilhelm.
 * }

Occupation titles
When used to describe the occupation, apply lower case; such as: (De Gaulle was a French president; Louis XVI was a French king; Three prime ministers attended the conference).

When used as part of a person's title, begin such words with a capital letter (President Obama, not president Obama). Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper nouns (The British Prime Minister is David Cameron; Hirohito was Emperor of Japan; Louis XVI was King of France). Royal styles are capitalized (Her Majesty; His Highness); exceptions may apply for particular offices.

Tense
Biographies of living persons should generally be written in the present tense, and biographies of deceased persons in the past tense. When making the change upon the death of a subject, the entire article should be reviewed for consistency. If a person is living but has retired, use the present tense "is a former" rather than the past tense "was", e.g.


 * Correct – John B. Smith (1946–2003) was a baseball pitcher ...
 * Correct – John A. Smith (born 1946) is a former baseball pitcher ...
 * Incorrect – John A. Smith (born 1946) was a baseball pitcher ...

Historical events should be written in the past tense in all biographies:


 * Smith played for the Baltimore Orioles between 1968 and 1972 ...

Out-of-date material
It is often good to avoid giving the current age of a living person, as it will be out of date within 12 months. If it is given, include a phrase like "as of April 2011" or "in April 2011". See also CorporisPublica:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers.

There is no need to add "deceased" to a person's article, or those in which they are mentioned. If they have their own article, this should already be sourced. Otherwise, it is unnecessary.

Sexuality
See also: MOS:IDENTITY.

= Resources =