Handling alternative and previous names of an entity

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From alca.ai:

It is quite common for entities to change their names. Consider adding "pastName array[array[string, start date, end date]]". This would help tracking companies, when doing internet search or reviewing legal docs, else once the name has changed and you have not kept the history, then it is not possible to extract meaningful information.

Entity statements currently have an alternateNames array, but this does not contain any information about:

(a) whether this name is current; (b) the dates the name was active from/until

Note: We use an array model for personStatement/names with a codelist of name types.

Research

OpenCorporates has a previous_names property, described as:

an array of previous name objects. Each previous name object has a company_name attribute and type attribute (e.g. 'trading', 'legal') and the following optional attributes: start_date, end_date, language as ISO-639 code (for example if it is an alternative legal name in another language)

Options

1. Add a previousNames property, and follow OpenCorporates data structure (with adaptations to BODS idiom (e.g. startDate rather than start_date)

2. Update alternateNames to become an array of objects (with optional start and end dates), such that a wider variety of alternate names, and their nature (translations, trading names, former names etc.) can be expressed.

Option (1) would be non-breaking and possible in a minor upgrade. Option (2) would not be backwards compatible, and would require a major version upgrade.