The names of the NZers who have biographies and photos, as at June 2011, at Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (DNZB). It is the foremost reference work on the lives of people who shaped this country’s history and culture from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. It includes more than 3000 biographies, written by specialists and produced to a high standard by a team of researchers and editors. The DNZB’s 500 biographies on Maori subjects are also available in te reo Maori, which – together with the te reo sections of Te Ara – forms the largest Maori-language publishing programme yet undertaken.
The DNZB was originally published in five print volumes between 1990 and 2000, covering the lives of people who came to prominence before 1960 and died before 1998. All the biographies were released on a stand-alone website in 2001, and relaunched as part of Te Ara in 2010. Since that time the Dictionary has been solely digital. Fifteen new biographies were launched in 2010–11 and a new batch of 25 biographies of women were published in 2018 to celebrate 125 years of women’s suffrage. New batches of entries have been published twice yearly since 2019. Go to their link above for recent additions


Abbot-Ayton ~ Baber-Bell ~ Bellamy-Bragge

Braithwaite-Buxton ~ Cabot-Chapman/Taylor

Chapple-Copeland ~ Corban-Cussen ~ Dacre-Dyson

Eady-Eyre ~ Fabish-Fyffe ~ Gage-Guthrie/Smith

Haast-Hayes ~ Hayward-Hodgson ~ Hofmann-Hyde

Ihaka-Ivey ~ Jack-Jury ~ Kaaro-Kynnersley

La Trobe-Lyttleton ~ Maaka-Mann ~ Mannering-McCormick

McCullough-Merton ~ Messenger-Myers ~ Nahe-Nutsey

O'Brien-Otway ~ Paewai-Peters ~ Petersen-Pyke

Quaife ~ Radcliffe-Rigg ~ Rikihana-Rymill

Salaman-Sladden ~ Slattery-Syme ~ Taglicht-Te Rauparaha

Te Rei Hanataua-Tyree ~ Ulrich-Uru ~ Vaile-Vosseler

Waaka-Wynyard ~ Yate-Yue ~ Zedlitz-Zotov

B
Baber, Esther Mary
1871?1956
Headmistress

Babich, Josip Petrov
1895?1983
Gum-digger, wine-maker, farmer

Badger, Charlotte
fl. 1806?1808
Convict

Baeyertz, Charles Nalder
1866?1943
Teacher, journalist, editor, critic

Bagley, Amelia
1870?1956
Hospital matron, midwife, nursing administrator

Bagnall, Austin Graham
1912?1986
Librarian, bibliographer, historian

Bailey, Chip
1921?1963
Communist, taxi driver, trade unionist

Bain, Wilhelmina Sherriff
1848?1944
Teacher, librarian, feminist, peace activist, writer

Baker McLaglan, Eleanor Southey
1879?1969
Doctor

Baker, Frederick
1908?1958
No Nga Puhi; he kaikaute, he kaihautū hoia, he apiha whakanohonoho hoia, he kaimahi kawanatanga

Baker, Isabel Noeline
1878?1958
Suffragist, wartime women's labour administrator, gardener, peace educator

Baker, John Holland
1841?1930
Surveyor, public servant

Baker, Louisa Alice
1856?1926
Journalist, novelist

Balfour, David Paton
1841?1894
Sheepfarmer, station manager, roading supervisor, diarist

Ball, Douglas George
1895?1986
Teacher, school inspector, educational administrator

Ball, Thomas
1809?1897
Coloniser, landowner, politician

Ballance, John
1839?1893
Newspaper proprietor and editor, politician, premier

Ballantyne, David Watt
1924?1986
Journalist, novelist, short-story writer

Ballantyne, Jean
1906?1980
Ballet teacher and examiner, choreographer

Balneavis, Hēnare Te Raumoa Huatahi
1880?1940
No Te Whakatohea, no Ngai Tamanuhiri; he kaiwhakamarama reo, he hekeretari ki te Minita Maori, he kaiwhakahaere tumatanui

Balneavis, Henry Colin
1817-1819??1876
Soldier, public servant

Banahan, Mary Gertrude
1855/1856??1932
Catholic nun, teacher

Bannerman, Jane
1835??1923
Presbyterian church leader, philanthropist

Bannerman, William
1822?1902
Presbyterian minister

Barbier, Ad?le Euphrasie
1829?1893
Catholic nun, teacher, religious founder

Barker, Alfred Charles
1819?1873
Doctor, photographer

Barker, Harry Heaton
1898?1994
Newspaper journalist and editor, local politician

Barker, Mary Anne
1830-1832??1911
Writer

Barker, Tom
1887?1970
Tram conductor, trade unionist, socialist

Barnard, William Edward
1886?1958
Lawyer, politician, parliamentary Speaker

Barnes, Freda Ellen
1902?1991
Law clerk, political activist

Barnes, James George
1908?1995
Clerk, athlete, military aviator, prisoner of war, politician,
sharebroker, sports administrator, community leader

Barnes, William Henry
1827??1918
Blacksmith, labour reformer

Barnett, John Maughan
1867?1938
Organist, choirmaster, pianist, composer, conductor

Barnett, Louis Edward
1865?1946
Surgeon, university professor

Barnett, Miles Aylmer Fulton
1901?1979
Physicist, meteorologist

Barnicoat, Constance Alice
1872?1922
Secretary, interpreter, mountaineer, journalist

Barr, John
1809?1889
Poet

Barr, John
1887?1971
Librarian

Barr, Peter
1861?1951
Accountant

Barraud, Charles Decimus
1822?1897
Pharmacist, artist

Barraud, Sarah Maria
1823??1895
Homemaker, letter-writer

Barrer, Nina Agatha Rosamond
1879?1965
Teacher, community leader

Barrett Crumen
1878?1968
Seaman, swagger

Barrett, Huiatahi
1873/1874??1952
No Ngati Maniapoto; he kaiarahi

Barrett, Richard
??1847
Trader, whaler, interpreter, hotel owner

Barrett, William Daniel
1878?1953
No Ngai Tahu; he kaiwhakahaere no te Koti Whenua Māori, he hekeretari poari kaitiaki

Barrington, Alphonse J.
fl. 1863?1864
Gold prospector, explorer

Barrington, Archibald Charles
1906?1986
Clerk, secretary, pacifist

Barron, Hannah Ward
1829?1898
Businesswoman, hotel proprietor

Barrowclough, Harold Eric
1894?1972
Military leader, lawyer, chief justice

Barry, William Jackson
1819?1907
Adventurer, writer

Barsanti, Ottavio
1825/1826??1884
Missionary, priest, writer

Barth, Beatrice Mary
1877?1966
Piano teacher

Barton, Charles John Wright
1852?1935
Farmer, businessman, mayor, town clerk

Barton, John Saxon
1875?1961
Accountant, writer, lawyer, magistrate, public administrator

Bartrum, John Arthur
1885?1949
Geologist, university professor

Basham, Maud Ruby
1879?1963
Singer, radio broadcaster and personality, writer

Bassett, Cyril Royston Guyton
1892?1983
Banker, soldier

Basten, Alice Henrietta Gertrude
1876?1955
Businesswoman, local politician

Bates, Sophia Ann
1817?1899
Teacher, postmistress

Batham, Elizabeth Joan
1917?1974
Marine biologist, university lecturer

Bathgate, Alexander
1845?1930
Lawyer, company director, writer, conservationist

Bathgate, John
1809?1886
Lawyer, businessman, politician, judge

Batley, Robert Thompson
1849?1917
Seaman, farm worker, storekeeper, sheepfarmer

Batten, Jean Gardner
1909?1982
Aviator

Baucke, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm
1848?1931
Linguist, ethnologist, journalist, interpreter

Baughan, Blanche Edith
1870?1958
Poet, writer, penal reformer

Baume, Frederick Ehrenfried
1862?1910
Lawyer, politician

Baume, Rosetta Lulah
1871?1934
Teacher, feminist, community leader

Baxter, Archibald McColl Learmond
1881?1970
Pacifist, writer

Baxter, James Keir
1926?1972
Poet, postman, teacher, dramatist, writer, social critic

Baxter, Kenneth McLean
1893?1975
Printer, trade unionist

Baxter, Millicent Amiel
1888?1984
Pacifist

Bayly, William Alfred
1906?1934
Farmer, convicted murderer

Beaglehole, Ernest
1906?1965
Psychologist, ethnologist, university professor

Beaglehole, John Cawte
1901?1971
Historian, lecturer, writer, typographer, critic, university professor

Beale, Bernard Charles
1830?1910
Doctor, registrar, mayor

Beattie, James Herries
1881?1972
Bookkeeper, journalist, historian, ethnologist, bookseller

Beatty, May
1880?1945
Singer, actress

Beauchamp, Harold
1858?1938
Businessman, banker, philanthropist

Beck, John
1883?1962
Public servant, child welfare reformer

Bedford, Harry Dodgshun
1877?1918
Labourer, politician, lawyer, professor of economics and history

Beeby, Clarence Edward
1902?1998
Educational psychologist, university lecturer, educationalist, senior public servant, ambassador

Beere, Estelle Girda
1875?1959
Dancing teacher

Begg, Alexander Charles
1912?1991
Radiologist, historian, conservationist

Begg, Charles
1825??1874
Piano manufacturer, piano tuner, music shop proprietor

Begg, Charles Mackie
1879?1919
Doctor, surgeon, army health administrator

Begg, Jean
1886?1971
Welfare worker and administrator, feminist

Begg, Neil Colquhoun
1915?1995
Paediatrician, historian, conservationist

Begg, Robert Campbell
1886?1971
Doctor, politician

Belcher, William
1859/1860??1926
Seaman, unionist

Bell, Allen
1870?1936
Farmer, soldier, land agent, newspaper editor, politician

Bell, Elizabeth Viola
1897?1990
Teacher, sports administrator, community leader

Bell, Francis Dillon
1822?1898
Public administrator, runholder, politician

Bell, Francis Gordon
1887?1970
Surgeon, university professor

Bell, Francis Henry Dillon
1851?1936
Lawyer, mayor, politician, prime minister

Bell, Francis Wirgman Dillon
1896?1987
Radio pioneer, sheep farmer

Bell, George
1809?1899
Newspaper proprietor and editor

Bell, James Abbott Mackintosh
1877?1934
Geologist, writer, company director

Bell, Kathrine McAllister
1895?1970
Teacher, farmer, political organiser, educationalist

Bell, Margaret Brenda
1891?1979
Radio pioneer, community leader

Bell, Muriel Emma
1898?1974
Nutritionist, medical researcher