Automatically abbreviate authors' first names in LaTeX

Question

Using natbib/Latex/Bibtex, in the references section I get references with full first names like:

Vladimir Iosifovich Levenshtein. Binary codes capable of correcting deletions, insertions, and reversals. Technical Report 8, 1966.

I would like automatically abbreviated first names like:

V. I. Levenshtein. Binary codes capable of correcting deletions, insertions, and reversals. Technical Report 8, 1966.

If you have an idea how to do this I will be glad to hear.

Caspar's answer is great, but should be replaced by `\usepackage[backend=bibtex,giveninits=true]{biblatex}` because `firstinits` is declared as deprecated. — flipper, Nov 22 '18 at 12:56

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 07 '11 at 15:34

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Use a BibTeX style that does this. Alternatively, create your own style by modifying an existing one. You will have to change the function format.names, so that a line similar to this:

s nameptr "{f.~}{vv~}{ll}{, jj}" format.name$ 't :=

has f. as shown. The full first name would be shown if it is ff.

answered Jul 07 '11 at 15:34

Svante

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I use the \bibliographystyle{plainnat}, where should I edit the function (in which file?). Thanks! – TTT Jul 14 '11 at 21:02
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@TTT: Copy the file `plainnat.bst` into your working directory under a different name (e.g. `my-plainnat.bst`). Look for the `FUNCTION {format.names}`. About the seventh line of that function is the line shown above. Modify it to `f.` instead of `ff`. Then, use `\bibliographystyle{my-plainnat}` in your LaTeX file. – Svante Jul 15 '11 at 06:43
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Thanks, this worked! Additional step is that you need to update your index. Check out [link](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Packages/Installing_Extra_Packages) and scroll down to "4. Update your index" for instructions. – TTT Aug 25 '11 at 19:02
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Should this answer be moved to tex.stackexchange? – Chogg Mar 04 '14 at 09:15

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '23 at 15:48

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If you are using Biblatex, just add this in your preable when calling for Biblatex:

\usepackage[backend=bibtex,giveninits=true]{biblatex}

Note: For older latex versions: use firstinits instead - firstinits was recently replaced by giveninits.

edited May 23 '23 at 15:48

codeling

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answered Feb 10 '15 at 04:08

Caspar

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See flipper's comment above: as of 2020, `firstinits` is deprecated and should be replaced by `giveninits`. – Dr_Zaszuś Jan 20 '20 at 10:20

Automatically abbreviate authors' first names in LaTeX

2 Answers2