@Mar2796 Zotero will add suffixes according the manual rules. How exactly are you adding the citations and what exactly are you seeing on your screen.

@Maxwell%20Leadership%20Institute See https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

Note that it is correct APA style to add initials when different first authors have the same family name.

There's no circumstances under which Zotero's APA style would produce Niccolo, Machiavelli with correctly input metadata. Are you at Syracuse U Maxwell?

There is one bar to opt for a single field entry available. I looked at that earlier in trying to determine why it comes out as stated in my followup comment. I restarted both Zotero and Word. It the same. The way it works is if I delete the first name completely? I have Zotero 5.0.95.1. Would reinstalling help?

This is something very basic or something very bizarre. Please step back and eliminate the basic issues. I'm not trying to be insulting or patronizing. So if it seems that way I apologize. I'm remembering my own errors from the past. I'm recalling painful memories so my comments and questions are less coherent than I'd like them to be.

First, to answer your metadata question: the term metadata refers to data about other data. In the context of citation it means the title, authors, journal name, volume, issue, pagination and date. For a book chapter, the chapter name, book title, author(s) of the chapter, editors of the book, pagination, publisher, and date of publication. etc. Sometimes, author names and other metadata provided by publishers are not accurate nor in the expected format!

Are you _certain_ that you have selected APA style and not some other style for your document?

Could you have _ever_ had that author name in Zotero entered as a single field instead of the proper 2-field lastname firstname. What happens if you delete that reference from your document and reinsert it? (Be sure that when you reinsert it you select from your Zotero library/collection and not from any list already-used references). Could you have duplicate records in Zotero -- one with the author as a single field?

Have you submitted your document to someone else who looked at it and returned the document to you? In your document, is that citation a _live_ zotero field or is it no longer linked to Zotero?

This seems to be about the way the author name was entered into your Zotero record. Did you hand-enter the author, title, and other information into Zotero or did you import it from a publisher or database? Look in your Zotero record for this item. You say that, "There is one bar to opt for a single field entry available...". Thus, it seems that you have the name entered properly. What happens if you click on the single-field bar to convert the 2-field record to a single field and then click on the 2-field button to convert back to the 2-field version? What if you delete the author name from the Zotero record and reenter the name by hand in the 2-field name?

DWL-SDCA, adamsmith: I thank the both of you for your feedback; the feedback has made see the value of the forum. I appreciate the different approaches to resolve the problem. I am working on a manuscript with over 250 separate references and must get through it. Most steps I call troubleshooting from my time in the IT world, one must get back to the basics and proceed in an orderly process to avoid overlooking, but finding the problem. I thank you both for the suggestions put forth. I learn much from the process, because when it works well one can take much for granted. As I mentioned earlier, the items of concern were built in 2018 either downloaded or downloaded then modified to complete the required data fields for the item. There was a duplicate item for Machiavelli (1532), but at the same time other items for the same author but with different dates. I checked for availability of the item(s), then I download it/them again from the related database. The items in question to the eye looked fine according to your suggestions and input above. However something was not right somewhere. Therefore I copied any associated notes, ensured retention of the attachments if any, and deleted the original items. Then searched the word document for the occurrences for that author and used the recent download after refreshing the database (N Machiavelli, 1532) became (Niccolo, Machiavelli, 1532)! The same steps were used to fix the (Stogdill, 1974) item that was showing up as (Stogdill, 1974a) or (Stogdill, 1974b) or (Stogdill, 1974c). Thank you again!

Note: For those who study leadership, Machiavelli in The Prince gets much of the credit for long-held authoritarian style leadership in world, where leaders sought to be feared as an essential quality as a sign of respect. Actually he understood that a loved ruler sustains authority by obligation, while a feared leader rules by the fear of punishment. He also stated "do not diverge from the good if he can avoid doing so, but if compelled, then to know how to set about it” (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1532, p. 105). When a great father or mother punishes a child, out of love for the child and fear for the child's future if not corrected, rather than in anger leading to abuse; the same father and mother is feared for such instances of wrong, but also respected because the child mostly experiences love as a rule. Most in the world are positively or negatively impact (influenced) by that which most call leadership according to its common understanding. Just thought I would share something precious, since you all went through this issue with me. Take care . . .