How do you handle name changes?

[Guest]

In theory a person can have one or more names, surnames in marriage for
example, and properly normalized there would be another table for this. But
it's not real common. Do you go ahead with the second table, or do you stick
the previous name(s) in a comment field?

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Ricter

Are you saying that you want to preserve a person's "history of name
changes"? That suggests a "history" table.

If your tlbPerson has a primary key (it should!), you could use that to
preserve "identity", no matter what the individual's current name (and
history of name changes) is.

A name history table could have its own primary key, plus a foreign key that
points back to tblPerson, and From and To date fields, plus the name in
effect at that point in time.

As for sticking "the previous name" in a comment field, which one (no, not
which field, which previous name)?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP