Person Name Data Standard

Intended Audience and Contact Information

Contact	Chief Data Officer, Office of the CIO
UDM Domain	Person
Intended Audience	Internal UBC

Purpose

This standard aims to achieve consistency around data collected for Person Name; the format in which it is collected and stored.

This standard is based on the general Person Name standards laid out by the ISO Standard Tag Set¹ and student name standards presented in the National Transcript Guide for use in Canadian Postsecondary Institutions² by the Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC). Alberta Government’s Guidelines for Best Practices: Creating Learning Environments that Respect Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities and Gender Expressions³ and British Columbia Government’s Guidelines for the Acceptable Use of Names, Date of Birth and Sex (Gender)⁴ have been adopted as a guideline for capturing a person’s Legal Name.

In case of the exception of a mono-name (where a person only has either a Given Name or a Family Name but not both), Canadian Immigration Guidelines have been adopted as part of the data standard.

This standard applies to all UBC applications collecting Person Names. Exceptions are listed in the Dispensation section.

Standard

Supported Name Types

The following types of Person Names are supported at UBC:

Person Name Type	Requirement	Definition
Legal Name	Required	Legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person’s legal name may be confirmed with official documents.
Preferred Name / Chosen Name	Optional	A preferred name may be chosen by a person to be used instead of a legal name.
Alternate Name	Optional	Person’s name is other than Legal and Preferred Names. It may be recorded in English or non-English characters.

Legal Name Standard

Legal Name is typically gathered from a legal or official document. For a complete list of accepted official documents go to Collibra (to be updated).

In the event where a person’s Legal Name is confirmed at UBC from a government-issued official document, the Legal Name needs to be recorded in the same way as on official or legal documents issued by a Canadian or a recognized foreign government body.

In the event where a person’s Legal Name differs on separate legal documents, the name as indicated on the legal document issued most recently is to be recorded as the person’s Legal Name.

A person’s record can only have one active Legal Name.

Only roles that need to fulfill certain business processes can have access to legal name. All others must default to preferred, chosen and/or alternate name including data access requests for an individual's name.

Business processes that can access legal name may include employment agreements, offer letters, admission letters, government ID validation, visa validation, legal name or personal information change, background check, criminal record check, health record checks, tax processes, payroll, banking information, benefits and pension administration, and administration of official documents including student transcripts, diplomas and program completion letters.

Legal Name Attributes

The table below shows the attributes of all Legal Name Types:

Attribute	Requirement	Definition
Prefix	Optional	Title(s) used before the person's name. A separate standard is defined for accepted name prefixes.
Given Name	Required (optional, in case of a mono-name)	An identifier used to differentiate a person from other members of their family or clan. It is also known as First Name or Forename.
Middle Name	Optional	An identifier, other than a Given Name, used to differentiate a person from other members of their family or clan.
Family Name	Required	An identifier used to identify a person's family or clan. It is also known as Last Name or Surname.
Suffix	Optional	Code(s) or title(s) used after a person's name. A separate standard is defined for accepted suffixes.
Phonetic Name	Optional	Speech sounds of a person's name in text form.
Name Audio	Optional	Audio recording file of the pronunciation of a person's name.
Effective Start Date	Required	The date when the name is recorded or changed.
Effective End Date	Optional	The date after which a name should no longer be used.

Mono-name

In the event where a person has a mono-name, which is when a person has either a Given Name or a Family Name but not both, the person’s name must be placed in the Family Name field, and the Given Name field must be left blank.

Person Name Attributes for Legal Name

The table below shows the attributes of Legal Name only:

Attribute	Requirement	Definition
Confirmed with Official Documents	Optional	A value that indicates that the Legal Name has been verified against accepted official documents

Accepted Data Values for Confirmed with Official Documents

Following values are accepted for the attribute Confirmed with Official Documents.

Accepted Data Value	Definition
Verified	Legal Name verified against accepted official documents.
Self-declared	Legal Name as declared by the person and not verified against an accepted official document. This is the default value for Confirmed with Official Documents.
Unverified	Legal Name not verified against an accepted official document and not self-declared by the person.

Preferred or Chosen and Alternate Name

Preferred, chosen or alternate name must be the default name type for access, with the exception of roles that require access to legal name to fulfill certain business processes. Refer to the Legal Name Standard section above for more details.

The table below shows the attributes of all Preferred or Chosen and Alternate Name Types:

Attribute	Requirement	Definition
Prefix	Optional	Title(s) used before the person's name. A separate standard is defined for accepted name prefixes.
Given Name	Optional	An identifier used to differentiate a person from other members of their family or clan. It is also known as First Name or Forename.
Middle Name	Optional	An identifier, other than a Given Name, used to differentiate a person from other members of their family or clan.
Family Name	Optional	An identifier used to identify a person's family or clan. It is also known as Last Name or Surname.
Suffix	Optional	Code(s) or title(s) used after a person's name. A separate standard is defined for accepted suffixes.
Phonetic Name	Optional	Speech sounds of a person's name in text form.
Name Audio	Optional	Audio recording file of the pronunciation of a person's name.
Effective Start Date	Required	The date when the name is recorded or changed.
Effective End Date	Optional	The date after which a name should no longer be used.

Name Prefix

The standard for Name Prefixes is available here.

Name Suffix

If a Name Suffix constitutes part of the person’s Legal Name, it is added exactly as shown on the primary legal document. For example, Walter III is captured as one name in the Family Name field when "Walter III" is indicated as the Family Name on the primary legal document. When the primary legal document has separate Family Name and Suffix fields, "Walter" is captured in the Family Name field and "III" in the Suffix field.

The standard for accepted Name Suffixes is available here.

Valid Characters

Valid characters for Given Name, Middle Name and Family Name are alphabets, numbers and special characters as listed in Collibra. Language-specific characters that are supported by the system of record can also be used.

Name Initials

Name Initials are not allowed. If Name Initials are required, these may be derived as required.

Compliance

This standard about Person Name must be complied with through every stage of the data lifecycle with the exception of dispensations listed on the Dispensation section.

All applications must collect Person Name as recommended in this standard.
Enterprise Data Integration must adopt this standard.

Dispensation

Legacy systems are exempt from this data standard. Examples of legacy systems are:

Student Information System (SIS)
Human Resource Management System (HRMS)
Finance Management System (FMS)

As systems are replaced, adoption of this standard is required.

As existing systems change to adopt this standard, the Enterprise Data Governance team needs to be informed.