January 1, 1900

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Do NOT use this template when the exact date of birth is disputed or unknown; consider ((Birth year)) instead.

This template is used on approximately 390,000 pages, or roughly 1% of all pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Shortcut

((dob))

This template tracks the Wikidata property:

date of birth (P569) (see uses)

This template uses Lua:

Module:String (sandbox)
Module:Wd (sandbox)

Template:Birth date will return a person's date of birth. Using this template rather than simply inserting the date into articles allows for the inclusion of hidden metadata about the date. This metadata can be used by web browsers and other software tools to extract the details, and display them using some other website or mapping tool, index, or search them.

For an article about a living person, consider using ((Birth date and age)) instead.

Usage

Unnamed parameters for year, month, day: ((Birth date|year of birth|month of birth|day of birth|additional parameters))

Named parameters for year, month, day: ((Birth date|year=year of birth|month=month of birth|day=day of birth|additional parameters))

Additional parameters

The df (day first) and mf (month first) parameters indicate the intended date format to display. The appropriate parameter should be set to "y" or "yes", e.g. |df=y or |df=yes.

The default output of this template is to display the month before the day. This default may not be appropriate for articles about people from parts of the world where the day precedes the month in a date. In such articles the parameter, "df", should be set to display the day before the month.

The parameter "mf", while not actually used by the template, will indicate that month first format is intended. Using these parameters can assist bots or other automated processing to detect which date format is intended; leaving the format as default may lead an editor or bot to change the format to an unintended value.

Do not specify both "df" and "mf" parameters in the same use of the template, as these formats are mutually exclusive.

hCard microformat

This template also returns the date, hidden by CSS, in the ISO 8601 standard.^[1] ^[2] For example:

(<span class="bday">1993-02-24</span>)

Note: For the "foundation", "built" and similar set-up dates of companies, buildings etc., use ((start date)) (this will work for year-only or month-year dates). Because the ISO 8601 standard requires the Gregorian calendar, this template should not be used if the date is given in the Julian calendar.

For further information, visit the microformats project.

References

^ "Date Design Pattern". Microformats Wiki. April 7, 2013.
^ "hCalendar closed issues". Microformats Wiki. August 28, 2009. Specifically rejects supporting the Julian calendar.

Notes

Do not use with non-Gregorian dates because the resulting hCard hidden date will be false.
The template will appear broken when the parameters are left blank.
When only the month or year of a person's birth and/or death are known, or if it is desired not to state a person's full dates of birth for privacy reasons, consider using the templates ((Birth year)) or ((Birth year and age)) instead.

Examples

Unnamed parameters for year, month, day:

((Birth date|1993|2|24)) → (1993-02-24)February 24, 1993

((Birth date|1993|2|24|df=yes)) → (1993-02-24)24 February 1993

((Birth date|1993|2|24|mf=yes)) → (1993-02-24)February 24, 1993

Named parameters for year, month, day:

((Birth date|year=1993|month=2|day=24)) → (1993-02-24)February 24, 1993

((Birth date|year=1993|month=2|day=24|df=yes)) → (1993-02-24)24 February 1993

((Birth date|year=1993|month=2|day=24|mf=yes)) → (1993-02-24)February 24, 1993

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Birth date in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Birth date

This template will return a person's date of birth. Using this template rather than simply inserting the date into articles allows for the inclusion of hidden metadata about the date. This metadata can be used by web browsers and other software tools to extract the details, and display them using some other website or mapping tool, index, or search them.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Year of birth	`1` `year`	The year in which the person was born. Example 1993	Number	required
Month of birth	`2` `month`	The month (number) in which the person was born. Example 2	Number	required
Day of birth	`3` `day`	The day (number) in which the person was born. Example 24	Number	required
Day first	`df`	When set to 'y' or 'yes', the date of birth is output in a DMY format. Example y	String	optional
Month first	`mf`	When set to 'y' or 'yes', stresses that the default MDY date format is intended for the date of birth. Example y	String	optional

Tracking categories

Category:Pages using age template with invalid date (0)
Category:Date of birth not in Wikidata (15,075)
Category:Articles without Wikidata item (145)

Birth templates	Description / use
((Birth date))	To display a birth date and related hidden metadata.
((Birth-date))
((Birth date and age))	((Birth date)) with suffix '(age N)'.
((Birth date and age2))	((Birth date and age)) plus age as of a specified date.
((Birth-date and age))	As ((Birth date and age)), but accepts dates in text form ('15 June 1950', 'June 15, 1950', 'June 1950', etc.).
((Birth date and age in years and days))	((Birth date and age)), but with the age displayed in years and days rather than just years.
((Birth year and age))	Year of birth and approximate age.
((Birth based on age as of date))	To display approximate birth year and current age given a particular date (e.g. when a dated reference mentions the age of a person), only works for living people.
((Birth based on age at death))	To display approximate birth year based on age at death, or on age at a specific date if death date isn't known.

Death templates	Description / use
((Death date))	To display a death date and related hidden metadata.
((Death-date))
((Death date and age))	((Death date)) with suffix '(aged N)'; also called with ((event date and age)).
((Death-date and age))	As ((Death date and age)), but accepts dates in text form ('15 June 1950', 'June 15, 1950', 'June 1950', etc.).
((Death date and given age))	To display a death date and specified age.
((Death year and age))	To display a year of, and approximate age at death.

age only

Conventional age templates	Description / use
((Age in years, months, weeks and days))	Number of complete years, months, weeks and days between two dates.
((Age in years, months and days))	Number of complete years, months and days between two dates.
((Age in years and months))	Number of complete years and remaining months between two dates.
((Age in years and days))	Number of complete years and remaining days between two dates.
((Age in years and days nts))	((Age in years and days)) with output formatted for use in number sortable tables.
((Age in decimal years))	Number of years between two dates, rounded to the specified number of decimal places.
((Age in years))	Number of years between two dates.
((Age in years nts))	((Age in years)) with output formatted for use in number sortable tables.
((Age in months))	Number of months between two dates.
((Age in weeks and days))	Number of weeks and days between two dates.
((Age in weeks))	Number of weeks between two dates.
((Age in days))	Age in days between two dates.
((Age in days nts))	((Age in days)) with output formatted for use in number sortable tables.

Reverse-determined age template	Description / use
((Age))	Age based on number of complete years between two dates.
((Age nts))	((Age)) with output formatted for use in number sortable tables.
((Age as of date))	Current age (in years) from a known age at a specified date.
((Age for infant))	Current age for infant: months and days up to one year, years and months up to three years, and years beyond age 3.

start / end dates

Date-focused templates	Description / use
((Start date)) / ((End date))
((Start-date)) / ((End-date))
((Start date and age))
((End date and age))

miscellaneous

Template	Description / use
((OldStyleDate))	Dates in Julian calendar.
((OldStyleDateDY))	As ((OldStyleDate)) but used when Julian / Gregorian dates fall in different years.
((OldStyleDateNY))	As ((OldStyleDate)) but without the year.
((Unidentified for))
((Missing for))

References

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Birth date/doc.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.

Usage

Additional parameters

hCard microformat

Notes

Examples

TemplateData

Tracking categories

See also

References