This article provides guidance for the use of student legal and preferred names in the NCSIS, Infinite Campus.
Additional Identities
The legal name is the primary source to identify a student, but NCSIS allows the use of additional identities, which can display the preferred name for a student to users of NCSIS.
Legal Name and Preferred Name Display
The legal name will display in the following reports or systems:
- Student UID
- North Carolina transcript
- CFNC
- ECATS
- EVAAS
- School Nutrition
- CFS Report
- Amplify
- *CEDARS
The preferred name will display in the following reports or systems:
- Report cards
- Teacher gradebook
- SchoolNet
- Canvas
- TIMS
- NCEdCloud/IAM
- *CEDARS
*Both legal and preferred name will flow into this system
It is a PSU decision which of these fields to send to a third-party vendor. All legal documents must display the student's legal name. Other reports that are not considered legal documents may display the student's preferred name if desired.
Definitions and Guidance
The Legal Name is defined as a person's name on the legal birth certificate or a name that has been declared the person's name by a court.
The Preferred Name is an option for students to use, i.e. a nickname or a middle name. Students may wish to be called by a preferred name that is different from their legal first name. For example, a student's legal name may be John Thomas Smith; however, the preferred name may be Tom or J.T.
When initially enrolling a student in the SIS, the legal name must be entered as it appears on the legal document used to determine the legal name. At the request of a parent or guardian, the preferred name can be added as an additional Identity for a student after the initial enrollment process.
These fields should be free of special characters such as parentheses, emojis or double quotes; however, no other restrictions apply at this time.
The Department of Public Instruction advises that legal name only be visible and explicitly used on all legal documents. For all other uses requiring a name, the preferred name may be used to benefit students who go by a different name.
Please consult your local board attorney to define which documents are legal and require the legal name.
Use of Identities
Please refer to the Infinite Campus Knowledgebase article on Identities for directions and scenarios:
Navigation: Menu > Census > People > Identities > Protected Identity Information
Field Names for Ad Hoc Filters and Reporting
| Legal Name fields: | Preferred Name fields: |
| legalFirstName | lastName |
| legalLastName | firstName |
| legalMiddleName | middleName |
| legalSuffix | suffix |
