An earlier work of the same name in two volumes containing 2,250 entries, published in 1940 by Guy Scholefield with government assistance, is unrelated.

[2] These later volumes made a conscious effort to move towards a more representative view of New Zealand with greater female and Māori entries.

Many of these people were included because detailed accounts of their lives were readily available, in archives, academic studies and official histories.

Others were prolific diarists (Catherine Fulton, Sarah Louise Mathew, Alexander Whisker, James Cox, etc.).

Helen Clark as Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage launched the online version of the DNZB on 19 February 2002.

Subsequent rounds will illuminate the lives of significant and representative people from a cross-section of New Zealand society, with a focus on the decades after 1960.