Database Date Field Naming Convention

I use a simple naming convention for most of my date fields:

{Past Tense Action Verb}On   -- Date only fields
{Past Tense Action Verb}At   -- Date/time fields

This tells me at a glance whether a field contains:

  • A date-only value
  • A date/time value
  • A non-date value

It also informs me of the user action that corresponds with the date/time value.

Let's say I want to keep track of when a user marked a record as inactive.  I would use one of the following field names:

  • InactivatedOn
  • InactivatedAt

What's your preferred date field naming convention?  Let me know in the comments below.

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