Constituents with same name

Megan Henkes 2 · August 2018

I have two constituents (father and son) who happen to have the same name. For example John Doe, II and John Doe, III. When you go to search you can see addresses, spouse, and other information that makes it easy to see which one you are clicking on. However, other parts of RE (i.e., the "recently accessed records" just list them and John Doe and John Doe, super helpful!

Does anyone else have this issue? How do you distinguish them when RE only is giving you the first and last name? I'd hate to add a nick name to the first name field in the record, but I'm out of ideas.

Megan

JoAnn Strommen · August 2018

I believe the recently accessed records displays the primary addressee. Have you tried adding suffix to your primary addressee format? That might do it - show John Doe, II.

Cassondra Farris · August 2018

Megan Henkes:

I have two constituents (father and son) who happen to have the same name. For example John Doe, II and John Doe, III. When you go to search you can see addresses, spouse, and other information that makes it easy to see which one you are clicking on. However, other parts of RE (i.e., the "recently accessed records" just list them and John Doe and John Doe, super helpful!

Does anyone else have this issue? How do you distinguish them when RE only is giving you the first and last name? I'd hate to add a nick name to the first name field in the record, but I'm out of ideas.

Megan

Hello Megan,

We have that same issue, and we found that when you list under suffix and change the Addressees/Salutations to include that suffix, it will also change it on the search page. Hope that helps.

Cassondra

James Kew · August 2018

Here's the solution from Knowledgebase:

https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/41441

Christine Cooke 2 · August 2018

Megan Henkes:

I have two constituents (father and son) who happen to have the same name. For example John Doe, II and John Doe, III. When you go to search you can see addresses, spouse, and other information that makes it easy to see which one you are clicking on. However, other parts of RE (i.e., the "recently accessed records" just list them and John Doe and John Doe, super helpful!

Does anyone else have this issue? How do you distinguish them when RE only is giving you the first and last name? I'd hate to add a nick name to the first name field in the record, but I'm out of ideas.

Megan

if you have a 'name for publication' type of add/sal that you use for annual reports and the like, you could change your preferences to have that name show in the title bar of the record when it's open. If you do that, then it will also show in the 'recently accessed'. I find that helpful with the Jr, Sr. II, III and orgs that have multiple contacts because the main contact is listed with the org name

Donna Mortensen · August 2018

Our recently accessed list shows the suffix, so we can tell them apart without opening their records. I don't know how to set that up but I know it can be done. Time for a call to bb help?

Jen Claudy · August 2018

In User Options, you can set the Title Bar name for Individual Records to use any Addr/Sal configuration. You can also set Organization Records to display name and ConstID. RE will display this configuration at the top of the record's window, and also in the Recently Accessed list. Per-user setting.

Christine Cooke 2 · August 2018

Megan Henkes:

I have two constituents (father and son) who happen to have the same name. For example John Doe, II and John Doe, III. When you go to search you can see addresses, spouse, and other information that makes it easy to see which one you are clicking on. However, other parts of RE (i.e., the "recently accessed records" just list them and John Doe and John Doe, super helpful!

Does anyone else have this issue? How do you distinguish them when RE only is giving you the first and last name? I'd hate to add a nick name to the first name field in the record, but I'm out of ideas.

Megan

I do two things.

1. I go change the Title Bar on the record to show the 'name for publication' which includes the full name including any suffixes. By doing this the recently accessed will show that same info.

2. I have a query set that has an output field of Suffix that I permanently pull into the Find a Constitutent that consists of nothing in the search Criteria and on the Output tab includes all the fields I want to see in the Search results window: Name, Suffix 1, Constituency Code, Preferred Address Line 1, Preferred City, Preferred State, Preferred Zip. Use the binoculars fields in the Find a Constit window and find the Suffix Query you just made.

We you then search for a constituent it will show all the fields listed in the query - you can then identify the differences in those folks that have the same first and last name. Usually the Suffix and/or the Constit Code will give you the hint you need to open the correct record.

Christine Cooke 2 · August 2018

Christine Cooke bCREPro:

Megan Henkes:

I have two constituents (father and son) who happen to have the same name. For example John Doe, II and John Doe, III. When you go to search you can see addresses, spouse, and other information that makes it easy to see which one you are clicking on. However, other parts of RE (i.e., the "recently accessed records" just list them and John Doe and John Doe, super helpful!

Does anyone else have this issue? How do you distinguish them when RE only is giving you the first and last name? I'd hate to add a nick name to the first name field in the record, but I'm out of ideas.

Megan

I do two things.

1. I go change the Title Bar on the record to show the 'name for publication' which includes the full name including any suffixes. By doing this the recently accessed will show that same info.

2. I have a query set that has an output field of Suffix that I permanently pull into the Find a Constitutent that consists of nothing in the search Criteria and on the Output tab includes all the fields I want to see in the Search results window: Name, Suffix 1, Constituency Code, Preferred Address Line 1, Preferred City, Preferred State, Preferred Zip. Use the binoculars fields in the Find a Constit window and find the Suffix Query you just made.

We you then search for a constituent it will show all the fields listed in the query - you can then identify the differences in those folks that have the same first and last name. Usually the Suffix and/or the Constit Code will give you the hint you need to open the correct record.

aaaand you can tell I'm not awake because I did not note that I had already answered this question once already. :-P

Constituents with same name

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