---
title: "Definition aliases"
slug: "definition-aliases"
abstract: "A definition's alias is the culture-independent name of a definition."
---
# Definition aliases

A definition’s alias is represented by the definition’s *item name* in Sitecore and is the culture-independent name of a definition. In the following example, the goal’s alias is **My goal name** and its English name is **English goal name**. Culture-specific names are represented by the **Name** field on the item as shown:

![Example definition alias and a culture-specific name](https://doc.sitecore.com/api/markdown-image/xp/en/developers/103/sitecore-experience-platform/images/aliases1.png)

You must specify an alias and a culture-specific name each time you create a definition.

```csharp
Guid goalId = Guid.NewGuid(); // Goal ID
CultureInfo goalCulture = new CultureInfo("es"); // Goal culture
string goalName = "Newly created goal"; // Goal name
DateTime creationDate = DateTime.UtcNow; // Goal creation date
string createdBy = "sitecore\admin"; // Goal creator
var goalAlias = "Newly created item name/alias"

Sitecore.Marketing.Definitions.Goals.GoalDefinition goal = new Sitecore.Marketing.Definitions.Goals.GoalDefinition(goalId, goalAlias, goalCulture, goalName, creationDate, createdBy);

```

## Alias uniqueness and validation

Aliases must be unique within definition types. For example, you can have a goal named *Hello World* and a campaign named *Hello World*, but you cannot have two campaigns named *Hello*. This is true even if the campaigns are created in different parts of the content tree.

By default, aliases are validated against the following regular expression: `^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-\x20]*$`

You can customize alias validation by changing the regular expression in the `MarketingDefinitionAliasValidationRegex` application setting for all instances of the roles that marketing operations are included in: Content Delivery, Content Management, and xDB Processing. You must use the same expression in all instances of the setting. Replace the following default expression:

```xml
<appSettings>
  <add key="MarketingDefinitionAliasValidationRegex" value="^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-\x20]*$" />
</appSettings>

```