# What purpose does Date serve on Names? Questions and Ideas

**URL:** <https://gramps.discourse.group/t/what-purpose-does-date-serve-on-names-questions-and-ideas/5929>\
**Category:** Ideas\
**Created:** [August 24, 2024, 9:28pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/what-purpose-does-date-serve-on-names-questions-and-ideas/5929 "2024-08-24T21:28:38Z")\
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**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/what-purpose-does-date-serve-on-names-questions-and-ideas/5929/2 "2024-08-24T23:43:49Z")

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Dates for names and places are applied in Reports, Gramplets and elsewhere.

You need to make certain that the Preferred Name also have a Date range. If that date field is left blank, Gramps doesn’t know when to override with an Alternative name, even though that _ **does** _ have a date,

see

- [Middle name, religious name and various last names used by a person](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/middle-name-religious-name-and-various-last-names-used-by-a-person/5712)

In the the following posting, a dated “Reign Name” with an override “display as” (Title Given SUFFIX) format was applied along with the different Given and Surname.

> [@Names formatting (alias supporting)](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/names-formatting-alias-supporting/3055/2):
>
> There are quite a lot of options for achieving this: In Display preferences, you can create custom display formats for Names. And you can switch between using those various formats. In the Names tab of the Edit Person dialogs, you can create multiple alternate forms for a person. And, although “Birth Name” is the default, you can can make any of those alternate forms the ‘preferred’ format for a particular person. (Because of the couverture custom of the bride taking the groom’s surname in t…

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/0/0f2163c971dc042c251557ee275f48f5312471b5.png)

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