https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

If you insert the same item that appears with initial as the only citation in the new document, does it still have initials? If not, it's definitely the issue dstillman links to. If it does, then the problem is how the name is entered in Zotero (it needs to be lastname, firstname in separate fields)

But how about the first part -- does the citation look right if you enter it as the only citation in a new document.
I wrote large chunks of the APA style implementation and I've used it extensively (as have many others). It definitely works correctly and name entry or disambiguation are the only two reasons you'd see initials in in-text citations.

You still haven't answered the first part of my question, which would be the basis of any further troubleshooting -- do you still get the initial in a fresh document with one single citation?
(You can upload screenshots to any image hosting site (imgur.com, e.g.) and link to them here, though it's not like I don't believe that you're seeing initials, so I'm not sure how much that'd help here)

APA requires disambiguation for all primary authors, not just for the same year, so mostly this is working add intended. Arguably it should add full first names in the bibliography, too, but in your case, it looks like it just the same author added differently to zotero, so you'd just want to clean that up in you database.

This may be solved with ORCID at some point, but I don't think I have the right to change the first name of an author in my database for consistency. Authors and publishers chose to register a book with a certain name for their own reasons, and that name is printed all over the book and store in the ISBN database. At some point in their lives authors sometimes change the spelling of their surname too.

If this form of disambiguation is an APA feature, I can't do very much other than change to another style. In this examples it looks odd, others thought it was a mistake and corrected it, and it doesn't help unless you know that that 'C.' in the bibliography stands for.

It remains a mystery why in-text citations of the same works look different when I insert them in a new document. Shouldn't the algorithm produce the same citations?

Up to you, of course, but authors are frequently listed differently in various places even within the same book (e.g. title and LoC listing if present) as well as on the publisher's website and with the metadata they provide, so I wouldn't be that picky about unifying them across your database.

My guess for the different displays is that they'd unify once you hit the Refresh button in the add-on. It's quite time consuming to troubleshoot this, so I'm not really going to go there unless there's indication of a relevant bug.

most styles that aren't Chicago or APA only use initials for same year _and_ author, so you have a lot of choice. Some never use initials, but those are a bit harder to find

Not related to the issue, but you can now also write that (optionally) as ...
original-date: 2017-02-27

... which is a little easier on the eye.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I assume that's preferable to starting a new one on an old issue.

Anyways, I'm having a very similar problem with Chicago (Author-Date) and I just can't figure out why. When I first noticed it I found this thread and promptly made sure that all the authors I am citing have the same spelling & format for all of their entries in Zotero. That fixed most of them, but I'm still getting one that stubbornly won't change. I have checked and rechecked to make sure the name is the same across citations. I also tried it in a fresh document and it came out properly. However, no amount of tinkering seems to get it to revert in my current document.

The only thing I can think of is that the author is also an editor on two of my citations. So in total I have one book authored by him, one chapter by him in a volume he also edited, and a few chapters in that volume from other authors. I also wonder if it's getting tripped up because he is both author and editor in one citation? I can't imagine why. Again, I have checked that the entry is set to two fields and the name right across all citations.

Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: I also just tried deleting the bibliography and the specific inline citation, and then redoing the citation. Still a first name initial there...

I have the same problem with the initials or first name of some authors listed in in-line citations when using APA format. I currently use Google Docs.

It is a real pain, I have tried the above. What I note is that deleting the citation and re-entering it in the document at first shows it correctly (i.e., without initial), but when I "refresh" the document (through the Zotero menu option "Refresh"), the initials are included again (only for certain citations).

I look at my library, but the papers are definitely correctly entered. This seems to me a bug in Zotero.

My only solution is to manually fix that before finishing off the paper. Very frustrating.

This would not be a bug in Zotero. There are a few options.

If the items are by different authors (e.g., J. Smith and O. Smith):
1. Adding initials in this case is correct APA style. This rule is often something authors don’t realize. You should leave these initials in place.

If these are the same author (e.g., J Smith), then:
2. You have author names entered inconsistently across items in Zotero (e.g., James Smith vs J Smith), so Zotero is treating these as different authors and disambiguating per APA’s rule.
3. You have the name for one of the items entered incorrectly in your Zotero library data (e.g., you have “J. Smith” in the Last Name field).

For either of those, check the items in Zotero that have the initials being added and correct. To select the items in your library, place your cursor in the citation in your document, click the Add/Edit Citation button, click the blue bubble for the item, then click the Show in My Library button.

Another possibility:
4. You have a citation that is disconnected from your library, such as if you deleted a duplicate item rather than merging the duplicates. Then that orphaned item might have incorrect data even if the items left in your library don’t. You will be able to see this when you try to click the blue bubble in the Add/Edit Citation window and there is no “View in My Library” button. In that case, delete the citation and re-insert from your library.

Hello, resurrecting this thread in case there are other possible solutions. although, right now, i've manually removed the initials inside the parentheses.

Context. I have two authors with last name LEE. One article is sole author by Se Woong LEE. Other article is multiple authors with first author as Hwee Hoon LEE. different years too. Both Lees are cited in-text with their initials: (S.W. Lee, 2018) and (H.H. Lee et al., 2015).

I tried out all the suggestions here from previous years. New document with nothing in it will show initials. Deleted and reencoded their names in Zotero to ensure last name & first name are in correct boxes.

I'm wondering where the bug is. and if it is a bug. because in the entire paper, it's only with this LEE authors that's showing initials. I have other authors with multiple years but none of them show initials.

(S.W. Lee, 2018) and (H.H. Lee et al., 2015) is correct APA style for these two authors. You should leave it as shown

I am not sure where to look in the code to get this bug fixed!