Aliases are different names or permutations of the same name associated with a candidate. When applicable, Checkr uses aliases to identify records under names that differ from the candidate’s current legal name, thus increasing the comprehensiveness of the background check report.
Aliases are identified through names returned from various sources, including candidate creation, SSN Trace records, Motor Vehicle Records search, and document transcriptions. These returned names are stored as “name occurrences”, and evaluated to generate aliases.
- Candidate Submission: The information submitted by the candidate to Checkr acts as a starting point for the record.
- SSN Trace: Checkr identifies additional names from SSN Trace data. These names are aggregated into the candidate’s record and stored.
- Motor Vehicle Records: MVR searches often return name variants. These names are aggregated into the candidate’s record and stored.
- Document transcription: Customer or Checkr Candidate Experience teams' document transcriptions may introduce additional names for the candidate.
- Name normalization: Checkr software identifies potential nicknames for a candidate. For example, if a candidate submits Bob as a first name, our software automatically recognizes that Bob is a nickname for Robert and stores Robert as a first name for that candidate.
Checkr uses name occurrences from all reports associated with the candidate when computing aliases, but does not apply name occurrences across different candidate IDs.
Alias use in screenings
Checkr enables the use of aliases for the following searches:
- National Criminal Search
- Sex Offender Search
- Global Watchlist Search
- Federal Search
- County Criminal Search
- County Civil Search
- State Criminal Search
- Pointer State Search
Also see Checkr's candidate alias process for additional details.