Using Preferred Names

What Are Preferred Names?

Some students go by a name different from their legal name. ReportRocket's Two-Name Comments feature lets teachers record both names and control how each appears in AI-generated report comments.

For example, a student enrolled as "Alexander" might go by "Alex" in the classroom. With preferred names enabled, the AI can use "Alex" naturally in the report while the legal name appears where required.

Enabling Preferred Names

This is a school-wide setting that only admins can toggle.

1. Go to School Admin > Overview
2. Scroll to the School Settings card
3. Turn on the Two-Name Comments toggle

When enabled, a Preferred Name field appears on every student across the school. When disabled, the field is hidden and any previously entered preferred names are preserved but not used.

Adding a Preferred Name to a Student

1. Navigate to your class
2. Click on a student to open their details
3. Enter the preferred name in the Preferred Name field
4. The name saves automatically

You can also set preferred names during CSV bulk upload by including a preferred_name column in your CSV file.

How It Affects AI Generation

When generating a report comment for a student who has a preferred name set:

• The AI receives both names as context
• Your style guide and examples control how each name is used
• You can write style guide instructions like: "Use the student's preferred name throughout the body of the comment, and their legal name only in the opening greeting"
• If no preferred name is set, the AI uses the student's primary name as usual

Tips

1. Use your style guide to control naming conventions rather than relying on the AI's default behaviour
2. Preferred names are optional on every student. Only set them where the student actually goes by a different name
3. CSV upload supports a preferred_name column for bulk entry

Next Steps

• Adding students to your class
• Style guides and examples
• School administrator overview