The following is a list of guiding principles for handling names correctly.

Where possible, we try to word the principle in a positive form, and try to minimise usage of the negative in page titles. However, for many of the principles here, it was challenging to do this, and improvements are still being made.

• Do not attempt to match names to determine whether two names refer to the same person
• Allow the user to update their own name
• Use Unicode to store names
• Do not try to validate names
• Do not impose a limit on name length
• Make name entry a single field
• Do not attempt to split a name into parts
• Do not attempt to transform names
• Do not attempt to “cleverly” sort names
• Do not force a user to enter a name at all
• If possible, allow a person to input their name as an image and/or sound