Person-name was assumed to be unique, but now must differentiate

Question

A few months ago, some coworkers of mine received an xls containing the names (and other data) of the employees then working in the company we provided a SAS for. Amongst this list were two guys, who miraculously (or not) had the exact same name. I'm calling them John Doe Woo.

The first problem happened two weeks ago: Since both of them had (don't ask me how them or the HR people of their company didn't notice) the same email : jwoo@cpny.com, and there are a few queries that use the distinct clause in this particular fields, we had to call our client to demand that their emails were changed. In the end, one of them ended up calling jdoe@cpny.com.

The second problem happened yesterday. We've noticed that we don't use the distinct clause only for the email field, but also for the name field (in other queries). So, given the facts that :
a) I can't change the queries without employing an enormous amount of time (and money, per se)
b) I can't change their names in any visible fashion at all
c) (consequence of a) ) : The only way to avoid the mistakes is by changing their names in the database d) I need to change the names in any means.

What are my options?

Answer 1

You can add a space to the name, or use capital letters to distinct between the two...

I would go with capitalizations:
one would be "John Doe Woo" and the other "Joh doe Woo".
you can also use "-" "John-Doe Woo" and "john Doe Woo"...

But - it is clear that this is not what you should do,
you should fix the DB design..

Answer 2

1. Change the data: diffentiate the names.
2. Change the database: revise tables and/or queries
3. Change the data, but do it invisibly.

There is certainly a way to frame this up for management to decide. I don't think you have a viable alternative to making that presentation.

Edit: I presented the last option with Sarcasm Strike-though to indicate I don't consider it a good option. Apparently it's the direction you actually went, so let me say I am glad you found a solution and wish you the best.