[Tex/LaTex] biblatex, authoryear style: In-text citations display first name initials for certain bibliography entries

biblatex

I'm using biblatex with the authoryear style and two of my bibliography entries include the initials of the first author when cited in-text (R. Chen and Holmes, 2006 and B.J. Chen et al., 2008 shown below). Only these two entries are affected:

In text citation displays initials

I thought that there may be a problem with my bibfile, but this issue still occurs when the bibliography entries are included directly in a LaTeX document, as shown in the MWE below:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,oneside]{report}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage[
hyperref=true,
firstinits=true, % render first and middle names as initials
maxcitenames=3,
maxbibnames=99,
style=authoryear,
dashed=false, % re-print recurring author names in bibliography
natbib=true,
useprefix=true, % for inclusion of 'de' 'da' in surname
urldate=long,
backend=biber
]{biblatex}



% No unit separator after publication year:
\usepackage{xpatch}\xapptobibmacro{date+extrayear}{\nopunct}{}{}

% No month for publication year:
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{month}}

% Use single quotes around titles:
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\DeclareNameAlias{author}{last-first}
%\renewcommand*{\mkbibnamefirst}[1]{{\let~\,#1}} % insert thin spaces between author initials
%\renewcommand*{\bibnamedelimd}{\addlpthinspace} % insert thin spaces between author initials
\renewcommand*{\bibinitdelim}{} % no spaces between author initials (requires biber)
\renewcommand*{\nameyeardelim}{\addcomma\addspace} % insert a comma between author and year in-text citations
\renewcommand*{\newunitpunct}{\addcomma\addspace} % comma as separator in bibliography, not full stop
\renewbibmacro{in:}{} % remove 'in:' preceding article title

% Place volume number within parentheses:
\renewbibmacro*{volume+number+eid}{%
    \printfield{volume}%
    \setunit*{\addnbspace}% NEW (optional); there's also \addnbthinspace
    \printfield{number}%
    \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
    \printfield{eid}}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{number}{\mkbibparens{#1}}

% Spacing in bibliography:
\setlength{\bibitemsep}{12pt}
\setlength{\bibhang}{16pt}% the hanging indent

\DeclareFieldFormat{year}{\mkbibparens{#1}}
\DeclareFieldFormat{type}{\mkbibbrackets{#1}}
\DeclareFieldFormat{url}{Available at: \url{#1}}


\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}

@Article{Example_Article_1,
  Title                    = {Title 1},
  Author                   = {Smith, A. B. and Jones, D. C.},
  Year                     = {2012},
  Month                    = {Oct},
  Number                   = {1},
  Pages                    = {42},
  Volume                   = {10},
  Journal                  = {Example Journal},
}

@Article{Example_Article_2,
  Title                    = {Title 2},
  Author                   = {Smith, A. B. and Jones, D. C.},
  Year                     = {2012},
  Month                    = {Oct},
  Number                   = {1},
  Pages                    = {42},
  Volume                   = {10},
  Journal                  = {Example Journal},
}

@Article{Chen_2006,
  Title                    = {Avian influenza virus exhibits rapid evolutionary dynamics},
  Author                   = {Chen, R. and Holmes, E. C.},
  Year                     = {2006},
  Addendum                 = {[Online]. Available at: \url{example.com} (Accessed: 01 January 2013)},
  Month                    = {Dec},
  Number                   = {12},
  Pages                    = {2336--2341},
  Volume                   = {23},
  Journal                  = {Mol. Biol. Evol.},
}

@Article{Chen_2008,
  Title                    = {The influenza virus M2 protein cytoplasmic tail interacts with the M1 protein and influences virus assembly at the site of virus budding},
  Author                   = {Chen, B. J. and Leser, G. P. and Jackson, D. and Lamb, R. A.},
  Year                     = {2008},
  Addendum                 = {[Online]. Available at: \url{example.com} (Accessed: 01 January 2013)},
  Month                    = {Oct},
  Number                   = {20},
  Pages                    = {10059--10070},
  Volume                   = {82},
  Journal                  = {J. Virol.},
}

\end{filecontents}


\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}


\begin{document}

\parencite{Example_Article_1}
\parencite{Example_Article_2}
\parencite{Chen_2006}
\parencite{Chen_2008}

\printbibliography[title=References]

\end{document}

Does anyone have any ideas?

My setup consists of TeX Live 2012 and biblatex 1.7-1 on Debian Wheezy.

Best Answer

By default, biblatex adds first name initials if different authors share the same last name. To turn off this behaviour, add the package option uniquename=false to your example. See section 4.11.4.1 of the manual for details.

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