Preferred First Name
Your preferred first name is a name by which you are normally addressed, and is different from your legal first name. The Preferred First Name Procedure enables students to use an alternate preferred first name for certain purposes while studying at McGill.
Students who wish to use a preferred first name should enter this information into Minerva as soon as possible in order to ensure that their preferred first name is used as widely as possible.
The preferred first name may be used on all unofficial university documents and tools, such as:
The student's legal name must appear on official university documents, such as:
- Official university transcripts
- Reports to government
- Letters of attestation
- Diplomas and certificates
- Tuition fee e-bills
It is important to note that making a request to use a preferred first name at McGill does not change a student's legal name in the McGill student record or records with government authorities.
You can provide a preferred first name on your application for admission or, once admitted, on , under the Personal Menu. From the Personal Menu, select Name Change and then add your preferred first name in the preferred first name field.
You can also request that your preferred first name be part of your McGill email address by submitting a change to Network and Communications Services (NCS) via the tool. For further details, see www.mcgill.ca/students/records/address.
Please see the Preferred First Name FAQ for more information.