Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography

This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things look alike — it is a style guide. The following rules don't claim to be the last word. One way is often as good as another, but if everyone does it the same way, the Wikipedia will be easier to read and easier to use, not to mention easier to write and easier to edit.

New contributors are reminded that clear, informative and unbiased writing is always more important than presentation and formatting. Writers are NOT expected or required to follow all or any of these rules: the joy of wiki editing is that perfection is not required. Copy-editing wikipedians will be referring to these pages and pages will be gradually made to conform with this guide.

see also: Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography

Opening paragraph

The opening paragraph should give:

1. Name(s) and title(s), if any (see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles))
2. Dates of birth and death, if known (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Dates of birth and death)
3. Nationality
4. What they did
5. Why they are 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...

Pseudonyms

For people who are best known by a pseudonym, the birth 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, 1929–December 8, 1983), better known by the stage name Slim Pickens...

Alternatively, the birth name can appear in apposition to the pseudonym:

• Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899–October 1, 1985), was an American author, essayist, and noted prose stylist...

Honorific prefixes

If the person has any honorifics, these should be used in the initial reference, and elsewhere in the article where appropriate, but not included in the entry title. For example:

• Sir Elton John
• Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu; Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa
• St John the Apostle; St Francis of Assisi; St Stephen
• Reverend Al Sharpton

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles) for their use in article titles.

Subsequent uses of names

After the initial mention of any name, the person may be referred to by surname only. For example:

Fred Smith was a cubist painter in the 15th century. He moved to Genoa, where he met John Doe. Smith later commented: "Doe!"

The person may be referred to by their first name in the case of royalty. Similarly, if someone has been knighted they may be referred to as Sir Steve or Dame Judy. Nobility may be referred to by their title if that form of address would have been the normal way to refer to them, 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 use "Robert Dudley" or "Dudley" until his elevation to the peerage in 1563.

To disambiguate between siblings, use the surname of the article header to indicate that person, and use first names or complete names to indicate siblings.

See also

• Wikipedia:Auto-biography
• Wikipedia:Criteria for Inclusion of Biographies
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography
• Wikipedia:Categorization of people