Changes to HCM now allow University of Colorado faculty and staff select a preferred name using the employee portal. 

Preferred name differs from a legal name. If an employee would rather be referred to by a nickname, professional name, anglicized name or a name that aligns with their gender identity, they can do so in their employee portal.

Here's how employees can make this change:

1. Go to my.cu.edu.
2. From the CU Resource drop-down menu, select My Info and Pay.
3. Click the My Info tile.
4. Click Name on the left-side menu. A pop-up window will populate. Enter your preferred name at Preferred First Name.
5. Select Save.

Note: CU Denver and CU Anschutz will not participate in preferred name at this time.

How names will display

An employee’s legal name will still appear on all legal forms such as W-2s, W-4s and paychecks.

Within all portal self-service pages, the name will display in the following format: Preferred First Name Last Name. Ex: John Doe 

Within HCM, an employee's name will display in the following format: Preferred First Name/Legal First Name Last Name. Ex: Jon/Jonathan Doe.

HCM users can search for an employee by either their legal or preferred name. Reports within PeopleSoft, the Central Information Warehouse (CIW) and Master Data Management (MDM) and in downstream systems can include an employee's preferred name without their legal first name.

Campus specific systems

The use of preferred names across the university will continue to evolve, as each campus looks at ways to integrate preferred first name information into campus-specific systems and software.

CU Boulder is providing faculty and staff option to also update preferred name in the IdentiKey Manager, allowing faculty and staff to have that name reflected in their Colorado.edu email, CU People Search and Microsoft Office 365.

UCCS has integrated preferred name information in 15 university systems and records, including active directory, library, rec center and more.

CU Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus is not participating in preferred name at this time, but will look at this functionality in the future for campus-specific systems.

For more information or links to campus-specific information, please visit UIS’ Preferred Name project page.