Answers.Body: <p>A custom field works well, but I would also consider repurposing the nickname field via Word Replacements, since you can enable QuickSearch on nickname.</p>
  
  <p>With regard to legal/financial documents, I'd probably repurpose the postal and email greetings for normal communications and communications requiring the deadname.  If you're already using those, you could also create a deadname salutation using the <a href="https://github.com/josephlacey/com.jlacey.salutations" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Salutations</a> extension.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-02-06T19:00:48.993Z
Answers.Text: Instead of Word Replacements you can update the display and sort name format to include `{contact.nick_name}`. At admin - customize - display preferences.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Demerit
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-02-06T19:05:47.510Z
Answers.Text: Would use use the deadname as the main contact name? I would be tempted to use nickname/legal_name, for example, as the deadname, and customize the contribution receipts to use it if it exists.
Answers.UserDisplayName: bgm
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-02-06T20:29:57.850Z
Answers.Text: No, I'd use their current first name as their contact name.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jon G - Megaphone Tech
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-02-06T16:40:51.123Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-02-06T16:40:51.123Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jon G - Megaphone Tech
Body: <p>Are there any recommendations with how to store the deadname of a contact that is undergoing a gender change? i.e. They have not yet changed their legal first name and we want to communicate with them using their (corrected) first name, but legal/financial documents must use their deadname.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-02-06T15:05:24.957Z
Comments.Text: Interesting question! Another exemple that happens to us is people who have a legal name like "María Concepción" but colloquially say "Conchi". We must address her as Conchi but for the presentation of taxes we must do so with the legal name "María Concepción". At the moment we store this information in a couple of custom fields "Legal Name" and "Legal Lastname"
Comments.UserDisplayName: Francesc Bassas i Bullich
Tags: <contacts>
Title: How to handle deadnames?
ThreadText: # How to handle deadnames?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-02-06)
  
  Are there any recommendations with how to store the deadname of a contact that is undergoing a gender change? i.e. They have not yet changed their legal first name and we want to communicate with them using their (corrected) first name, but legal/financial documents must use their deadname.
  
  **Tags:** contacts
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Interesting question! Another exemple that happens to us is people who have a legal name like "María Concepción" but colloquially say "Conchi". We must address her as Conchi but for the presentation of taxes we must do so with the legal name "María Concepción". At the moment we store this information in a couple of custom fields "Legal Name" and "Legal Lastname"  
  
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  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2019-02-06. Score: 4 | Accepted answer
  
  A custom field works well, but I would also consider repurposing the nickname field via Word Replacements, since you can enable QuickSearch on nickname.
  
  With regard to legal/financial documents, I'd probably repurpose the postal and email greetings for normal communications and communications requiring the deadname. If you're already using those, you could also create a deadname salutation using the [Salutations](https://github.com/josephlacey/com.jlacey.salutations) extension.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_3**: Instead of Word Replacements you can update the display and sort name format to include `{contact.nick_name}`. At admin - customize - display preferences.  
  > **username_0**: Would use use the deadname as the main contact name? I would be tempted to use nickname/legal_name, for example, as the deadname, and customize the contribution receipts to use it if it exists.  
  > **username_2**: No, I'd use their current first name as their contact name.  
  
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