Project:Policies specific to people

Creating an Entity for a Person

First, add a new item with a label that is the name the person is most commonly known by in that language. Then add any and all aliases for that person.

After creating the entity for the person, decide if that person is a real-life human being or not. If they are, then add a statement that is instance of (P1) human person (Q8775). It is recommended to add other instance of (P1) properties based on things that person is said to be in various sources. For example, in the American National Biography, Marsha P. Johnson (Q15202) is referred as in the following sentence as a gay rights activist: "Johnson, Marsha P. (14 Aug. 1945—6 July 1992), gay and trans rights activist, was born... to a working-class African American family in Elizabeth, New Jersey." therefore we can add a statement that is instance of (P1) gay rights activist (Q23164).

After creating the entity for the person, create a companion entity for the concept that represents the person. For example, for Marsha P. Johnson, the concept that is related to the person is Marsha P. Johnson. It's a good idea to have an alias that is "person name (person)" for the person and an alias that is "person name (concept)" for the concept. You relate these two to one another by declaring a statement of identifies (P1148) "person name (person)" on the concept and a statement of identified by (P1142) "person name (concept)" on the person. This distinction follows the MADS/RDF Primer that distinguishes between real-world objects (in this case, the person) and authorities (in this case, the concept representing the person).

There are a number of properties available for persons, but typically, some of the following are good ideas to add:

• date of birth (P141)
• date of death (P142)
• place of birth (P1266)
• place of death (P1268)