Name:
First Name Field:
- Enter the first name in the first name field
Middle Name Field:
- Enter the middle name or initial in the middle name field.
- If the candidate or office holder provides only a middle initial, please include a period.
Last Name Field:
- Enter the last name in the last name field
- If a last name is hyphenated, treat it like one name and put it in its entirety in the last name field. If you can't find the name in our system check both last names, some previous candidates have had their maiden names inserted into the first/middle name field or the candidates' last name has been recently hyphenated.
- Examples:
- Kay Bailey Hutchison
- Carol Moseley-Braun
Suffix Field:
- If a suffix such as Jr., Sr., or III is provided, type it in the "Suffix" field. Do NOT place it in the last name field. Put a period after Jr., Sr. or equivalent but NOT after II, III, etc. Do not enter education or professional suffixes such as: PhD, MD, DVM, etc.. Educational information should be included in the "Education Experience," whereas professional information should be included in the "Professional Experience" section.
- Example:
- Tyler J. Byrnes Jr.
Preferred Name Field:
- This selection will determine which of the name fields will be displayed by default, allowing for greater name recognition and improved placement in search results. For example: We have Joe Biden's name as Joseph "Joe" Robinette Biden Jr. Since he is commonly known as Joe, we would make his preferred name be "nickname"
- It is okay to have multiple nicknames in the nickname field, as it will only draw the first one. Just make sure that the preferred nickname is listed first and that each nickname is separated by a comma and space.
- Whenever you do a bio update, be sure to check this with their website and make the appropriate change. Ideally we'd like to go with how they are commonly known. For those who you are not sure of, you should go with how a candidate refers to themself or what their campaign calls them. If it is unclear, the default should just be their first name.
- An exception to this would be if someone has their name listed as J. Michael. In this case, we'd put J. in as the first name, Michael as the middle name, and select "middle name" as the preferred name. There might be people in our system with "J. Michael" all in the first name field, and these need to be corrected as stated above.
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