alName

alName is a term used in data modeling to denote an alternate or alias name associated with a primary entity. It is commonly employed in identity management, bibliographic catalogs, multilingual datasets, and knowledge graphs to link variants of a name across languages, scripts, or contexts. Although not a formal standard, alName serves as a concise label for a field or structure that stores name variants alongside a core identifier.

Origin and usage patterns are informal in most contexts, arising from practical needs to reconcile different spellings, transliterations, nicknames, former names, and titles. In systems designed for interoperability, alName entries are typically mapped to existing naming conventions such as authority records, RDF properties like alternativeLabel, or language-tagged rdfs:label values.

Data model and fields commonly associated with alName include: value (the alternate name), type (alias, transliteration, former name, nickname, title), language or script, script direction, source or provenance, validity period, and a confidence or quality score. AlName records are linked to a primary identifier (for example, a personID or organizationID) and may be constrained against duplicates, with provenance indicating how and when the alias was established or updated.

Applications and benefits include improved identity resolution, multilingual cataloging, bibliographic metadata, and enhanced search and recommendation features in digital libraries and knowledge graphs. Related concepts include aliasing, authority control, and alternativeLabel in linked data standards, all of which address how supplementary names are stored and used.