International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) The International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) is an ISO standard (ISO 27729) that identifies public identities of parties. Essentially, this means the identities used publicly by individuals or organizations involved in creating, producing, managing and distributing content. The ISNI system uniquely and authoritatively identifies Public Identities across multiple fields of creative activity. ISNI provides a tool for disambiguating Public Identities that might otherwise be confused (such as Michele Smith the female singer, and Michele (Italian form of "Michael") Smith the male author).