Forum:Article Names for Living People: (1920) or (1920-)

Forums: Index > Help desk > Article Names for Living People: (1920) or (1920-)

Does anyone know which is correct procedure?

I have been doing this:

Jane Citizen (1920-) if I don't know the death year but assume or know they are deceased

Jane Citizen (1920) if I know or assume they're still living.

Am I on the right track? What do you do?

Thanks Cv-s 13:02, October 1, 2011 (UTC)

Apology for not answering this earlier!!! (Maybe it didn't show in the list because the text was above the header lines instead of below as was requested.)

I used to follow that convention too, as it does give an indication of whether the writer believes a person is still alive. But our most prolific contributor believes that it's better to give everyone the hyphen, which everyone will need eventually and it reduces the chance of duplication and it makes it more obvious that the single year is a birth year. So I have switched to using the hyphen too. --- Robin Patterson (Talk) 11:10, May 22, 2020 (UTC)

Settled six months later: always include hyphen. --- Robin Patterson (Talk) 08:53, December 6, 2020 (UTC)

An advantage of using the hyphen is apparent if the Siblings template is used. If some siblings are deceased, if the hyphen is missing, the living siblings (with no hyphen) who are dead will be listed first. If hyphen is used, the siblings will be listed in the order of their birth year. Afil (talk) 17:49, December 8, 2020 (UTC)

Amazing discovery. I've often wondered why lists don't follow code order. --- Robin Patterson (Talk) 08:01, December 23, 2020 (UTC)