Our district uses the "Comment" Section for this. It is not visible to the employees, but only to those with admin access. Probably not ideal, but it works for us at the moment.

Agree! It would also be helpful to be able to run a report with all former names as well.

This would be helpful.

YES please!! This or some sort of "internal notes" section for Admin. We have several name changes each year. Being able to include their maiden or former name would be incredibly helpful in matching RR reports with Payroll or HR reports.