[People] A way to identify/distinguish between students with identical names is necessary
![Community Coach Community Coach](https://community.canvaslms.com/html/@70547A9FEA033443EB1FB5B5E3C1FBC2/rank_icons/inst_coach_logo.png)
In large courses, there are often one or more pairs of students with identical first and last names. When sending a message to students and selecting specific students, there is no way to differentiate which student is which. For example, you have two students named John Doe. When selecting a student's name, you will see John Doe twice. There is no way to differentiate who is who. This issue also occurs throughout the Canvas platform. For example, when viewing grade book history and in the SpeedGrader. There is a possibility that this is an issue in other places. Also, recent versions of the Gradebook now seem to do this automatically (as of whatever version we have been using since January), but the issue is that the same change is needed in other Canvas tools where students are searched for by name.
Proposed solution:
Include a display option to add the students' middle names and/or include the students' SIS ID when selecting students in Inbox Messaging, viewing grade book history, SpeedGrader, and anywhere else where students' names would be revealed.
admin,instructor,student,ta,designer,observer
Added to Theme
Facilitate inclusion of diverse student groups in Canvas Theme Status: Identified