I have a person whose name was changed (not by deed poll) to a ‘known as’ name during his childhood. All his descendants go by his AKA surname so I’ve added him under the AKA name. Normally I would add a person under the name on their birth certificate but I was wondering if there’s a better way to add him. “Called” and “Nickname” don’t seem to be the correct descriptions in this case.
It would be helpful if there was an AKA option in these cases where the birth name and AKA name could be viewed either at the click of a button or as an optional entry.
I’m using Gramps 5.1.5 on the latest version of Ubuntu.
Gramps supports multiple names and a preferred name. So can add both the birth and AKA name. When you use the AKA name as preferred name the Gramps interface and the report will display this name.
If you want to display both name at the same time you can use one field of the preferred name to enter the other name. In Gramps settings you can change the name display options to also display this field e.g. “nick name” (which contains the other name).
Depending which fields have entries, Common will use the Call entry first, the Nickname as the next option, and finally the first entry of the Given name.as the final available option.
This used together with a person having multiple name entries should allow for displaying a person’s name as needed. The last decision to make is to decide which name option gets slotted as the Preferred Name (right-click any name in the list of names).
An additional option can be found in the Name Editor. On an individual record, the display name and/or the way the name sorts can be set overriding the default set in Preferences. above.
Thanks guys for your replies. I don’t quite understand what you are suggesting. In the Edit Person window I clicked on the Name tab and saw that there were the Preferred Name and Alternate Name options. I thought I may be able to use the Alternate Name option to enter his birth name details. But I can’t see how to add this name as the alternate name.
Here are the details: His birth name was William McDougall ORDIGE. His name was changed to William Ordige BLUNDELL. His mother’s surname was ORDIGE but his birth father’s name is unknown (presumably McDOUGALL). I want to enter the birth name as his Alternate Name but all I’m getting is the preferred name mixed in with the birth name, currently showing his preferred name as William McDougall Blundell ORDIGE.
You add Alternative names in the Names Tab of the Edit Person dialog. It is initialized with only the Preferred Name and a zero count of “Alternative names” below that. There’s a ‘+’ icon button to add more alternate names. After more than one name is defined, you can drag’n’drop an alternative name into the Preferred Name section or use the re-ordering Up & Down buttons. All new names default to “Birth name” type.
In the Name Editor illustration below, the name type field is highlighted blue.
Thanks so much, Brian. That worked. I’ve never used the Name Edit option before so was unaware of how it worked. Quite simple when it’s explained. Thank you again.
