Salutations in Active Directory/Entra

[Mr.Ben]

Hello Edugeekers,

 

I'm working with a school that currently uses Mr/Mrs XXXXX in the display name field, which is breaking several systems and making it hard to identify people.

 

Do any others still use this format for accounts - if so, how do you make it work with systems that required a first name?

[3s-gtech]

Yes, we do. So first name would be Mr S, then Display Name would be ‘Mr S Smith - English’

If I put first names in there my sensitive parts would become jewellery.

[Rob_D]

10 hours ago, Mr.Ben said:

Do any others still use this format for accounts - if so, how do you make it work with systems that required a first name?

We put the first name in the first name field on AD, but change the display name to "S Smith", and the login name is something else entirely.

[Zedster1974-MGS]

We do as well, for example Mr J A Bloggs, Mrs B Smith, etc.  Personally I hate it but teachers don't (understandably) want kids knowing their names and just having J A Bloggs, B Smith opens up different issues.

 

Same as Rob_D that display name and firstname are different fields.

[psydii]

Off topic from the OP's question somewhat... There's a lot of power to be gained by setting up a culture within a school that says "you can know my name, but you must call me by my title" it sets in place certain expectations/patterns of behaviour  in a low-risk-low-stakes way, that bleeds over into other areas.... to generalise: "you are free to have your opinion but in this context you will do as I tell you"

 

It seems to me teachers have really started to loose confidence in their "soft power" and increasingly defer to technological restrictions instead.

[Zedster1974-MGS]

4 minutes ago, psydii said:

Off topic from the OP's question somewhat... There's a lot of power to be gained by setting up a culture within a school that says "you can know my name, but you must call me by my title" it sets in place certain expectations/patterns of behaviour  in a low-risk-low-stakes way, that bleeds over into other areas.... to generalise: "you are free to have your opinion but in this context you will do as I tell you"

 

It seems to me teachers have really started to loose confidence in their "soft power" and increasingly defer to technological restrictions instead.

Agree entirely.  Also, and again off topic - a majority of our teaching staff don't want their staff ID used in Teams, etc.  We use a generic branding image.

[jthompson]

We have firstnames in the givenName attribute (i.e. the attribute AD uses for firstname) and surname in sn.

Display names in our first-party systems are "Firstname Surname". We're a secondary, where that hasn't ever appeared to be problematic.

 

I've added a personalTitle attribute to AD and use that to hold Ms, Mrs, Dr, etc. That's synced to our Google Directory as a custom attribute.

 

The only place personal titles are used in our first-party systems is in staff Gmail signatures, which are automated and include that custom attribute. Some staff choose to have their personal title omitted from their email signature, which is why it's held separately from other name fields.

[MrBitey]

53 minutes ago, psydii said:

Off topic from the OP's question somewhat... There's a lot of power to be gained by setting up a culture within a school that says "you can know my name, but you must call me by my title" it sets in place certain expectations/patterns of behaviour  in a low-risk-low-stakes way, that bleeds over into other areas.... to generalise: "you are free to have your opinion but in this context you will do as I tell you"

 

It seems to me teachers have really started to loose confidence in their "soft power" and increasingly defer to technological restrictions instead.

Definitely.

As an ex primary teacher, I used to make the 'guess Sir's first name' game as boring as possible.  First time I was asked or even on my first day with a class I would tell them and say that we don't use that name in class as a matter of respect.  

[lornebooker]

On 06/08/2026 at 12:53, jthompson said:

We have firstnames in the givenName attribute (i.e. the attribute AD uses for firstname) and surname in sn.

Display names in our first-party systems are "Firstname Surname". We're a secondary, where that hasn't ever appeared to be problematic.

 

I've added a personalTitle attribute to AD and use that to hold Ms, Mrs, Dr, etc. That's synced to our Google Directory as a custom attribute.

 

The only place personal titles are used in our first-party systems is in staff Gmail signatures, which are automated and include that custom attribute. Some staff choose to have their personal title omitted from their email signature, which is why it's held separately from other name fields.

 

Would certainly be interested in hearing how you've automated Gmail signatures.