Filter Employees by Name

HR Administration Guide

Version
R2026.1.1
ft:lastEdition
2026-05-13
Filter Employees by Name

Use the Name filter in the Filter panel in People to find employees. The Name filter is customizable and you can specify how you want it to work by selecting an operator and name type.

When you first access the Filter panel in People, the Name filter is collapsed. You must click the down arrow to expand the filter and show the Select Name Types drop-down list, as shown in the following screenshot.

Name filter with operator drop-down and name type drop-down.

The following table describes which operators are available in the Name filter.

Name filter operators
Operator Description
= Returns results that match all of what you enter. For example, if you enter Alex, it won't return Alexa.
contains This is the default option. Returns results that have at least all of what you enter. For example, if you enter Nick, then Nick Smith and Nick Jones are returned. However, if you enter Nick Jones then Nick Smith isn’t returned.
begins with Returns exact matches starting from the beginning of a name. For example, if you enter Ba, Barbara Bourdeau and Paisley Ball are returned.

In addition, you can narrow your filter to one of more of the following name types by selecting it in the Select Name Types drop-down list so that Dayforce doesn’t search across all name-related you aren’t interested in:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Display Name
  • Middle Name
  • Preferred Last Name
  • Common Name
  • Maiden Name
  • Last Name Prefix

The following table provides some examples for a People list that contains the following employees:

  • Emily May
  • Joshua May
  • Maya Patel
  • Maya Walsh
  • Rebekah Mays
  • Otilio Santos Montemayor
Name filter examples
Name type Operator Criteria Results
All contains May
  • Emily May
  • Joshua May
  • Maya Patel
  • Maya Walsh
  • Rebekah Mays
  • Otilio Santos Montemayor
All equals May
  • Emily May
  • Joshua May
All begins with May
  • Emily May
  • Joshua May
  • Maya Patel
  • Maya Walsh
  • Rebekah Mays
First Name contains May
  • Maya Patel
  • Maya Walsh
Last Name contains May
  • Emily May
  • Joshua May
  • Rebekah Mays
  • Otilio Santos Montemayor
First Name equals May None