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Name Variants in PureName Variants in Pure
What
Name variants can be used to capture different variations of a persons original name (the name added in First and Last name in Person profile). Below is a summary of which name variants exists and where they are used in Pure and on Portal.
How
A number of name variants can be added to reflect the dynamics of names throughout time and place. The following table lists available variants and their usage.
| Name variant | Scenario where to use |
|---|---|
| Default publishing name | Use this if you usually publish under a different name than your original name. When new Research outputs are created this name variation will be used and the original name will be listed in parentheses ( ). |
| Former name | Use if your name has changed, e.g. due to marriage, but you still want to be found (searchable) by your former name. |
| Known as | Use this if you are recognized in Pure by a different name (variation) than your original name. Both names are searchable. The Known as name will then be used in renderings in Pure and on the portal etc. instead of the original name. Except if Default publishing name is used on Research outputs. Other examples could be Jim vs. James, Bill vs. William etc. |
| Translated name |
Useful when you want to provide a transcribed name e.g. from English to Chinese:
|
| Portal sort name | Useful if you want name to be sorted differently than default, e.g. when you have prepositions in your name as 'van der' or 'de la' and want to take that into consideration. |
Effect of changing name
- If you change your original name in Pure, only future content is affected. Records created while you had your former name continue to show that former name. Content is not corrected backwards in time.
- You can also add this former name as a name variant, especially if you changed your name before beginning to use Pure.
Using name variants for automated search and online import
- When configuring Automated search, Pure automatically suggests name variants to use for search query based on your original name and your default publishing name. You can manually add other variants.
- When matching persons in Pure to authors of records imported from online sources, Pure matches based on all name variants if no Scopus Author ID is present on the Person.
Using multiple of the same name variant
- 'Former name' and 'Translated name' can be used multiple times. This can be done by adding the classification url of the name variants at:
- Administrator > System settings > Person > Allow entry of multiple names for 'name variant' classification. Examples on how to do that are found there.
- Note: It should be strongly considered the specific usage of each type of name variant instead of creating multiple name for a name variant.
- It is not possible to use multiple Known as names. The reasons why Pure does not support this are:
- Pure uses this 'Known as name' when rendering authors on Research Outputs. Therefore, it will be misleading to have multiple 'Known as names' as it will not be clear which one is used and which one is not.
- Using multiple 'Known as names' would have the side effect of duplicating a person in the results when performing a search.
- It is not possible to use multiple 'sort name', and 'default publishing name', so adding only one of these types is supported.
Updated at July 27, 2024