Editing Encyclopedia:Manual of Style (section)

===Identity===
{{Shortcut|MOS:IDENTITY|MOS:ID}}
{{See also|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Child named for parent or predecessor|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Sexuality|Wikipedia:Verifiability#Self-published or questionable sources as sources on themselves}}

When there is a discrepancy between the term most commonly used by reliable sources for a person or group and the term that person or group uses for themselves, use the term that is most commonly used by recent{{efn|name=recent|In MoS's own wording, "recent", "current", "modern", and "contemporary" in reference to sources and usage should usually be interpreted as referring to reliable material published within the last forty years or so. In the consideration of name changes of persons and organizations, focus on sources from the last few years. For broader English-language usage matters, about forty years is typical. While style guides with fewer than five years in print have not been in publication long enough to have had as much real-world impact as those from around 2000–2015 (on which MoS is primarily based), the corpora used for [[Google ngrams|Google {{var|n}}grams]] are updated through 2022, and we frequently [[Wikipedia:Search engine test#Some search engine tests|rely on]] what they indicate from the late 20th century and onward.}} reliable sources. If it is unclear which is most used, use the term that the person or group uses.

Disputes over how to refer to a person or group are addressed by Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Content policies|content policies]], such as those on [[Wikipedia:Verifiability|verifiability]], and [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|neutral point of view]] (and [[Wikipedia:Article titles|article titles]] when the term appears in the title of an article).

Use specific terminology. For example, it is often more appropriate for people or things from Ethiopia (a country in Africa) to be described as ''Ethiopian'', not carelessly (with the risk of [[stereotyping]]) as ''African''.

====Gender identity<span class="anchor" id="GENDERID"></span>====
{{Main|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Gender identity}}

[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Gender identity|Specific guidelines apply]] to any person whose gender might be questioned, and any living transgender or non-binary person. In summary:
*Use gendered words only if they reflect the person's latest self-identification as reported in recent sources.
*If the person is living and was not notable yet when a former name was in use, that name should not be included in any Wikipedia page, even in quotations, as a privacy matter. Exception: Do not expunge or replace names in source citations (whether as authors or mentioned in work titles).
*Former names under which a living person was notable should be introduced with "born" or "formerly" in the lead sentence of their main biographical article. Name and gender matters should be explained at first appearance in that article, without overemphasis. In articles on works or other activities of such a person, use their current name by default, and give another name associated with that context in a parenthetical or footnote, only if they were notable under that name. In other articles, do not go into detail about such a person's name or gender except when directly relevant to the context.
*Avoid confusing constructions by rewriting. Paraphrase, elide, or use square brackets to replace portions of quotations as needed to avoid confusion, former names, and mismatching gendered words.
{{crossref|pw=y|For examples and finer points, see {{section link|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Gender identity}}.}}