displayName

DisplayName, in computing and software design, refers to a user-facing name used for display in interfaces such as profiles, chats, and leaderboards. It is typically distinct from login credentials like a username or email and from a person’s legal or official name. The purpose of a display name is to provide a friendly or recognizable identifier that can be easily read in chats, lists, and messages.

In most systems, a displayName is a configurable, optional field that users can modify themselves. It may or may not be required, and it is often not guaranteed to be unique across users. Depending on the platform, it may support a wide range of characters, including spaces and Unicode, and it may have length or content restrictions to prevent inappropriate or disruptive names.

Display names are commonly used in contexts such as social networks, collaboration tools, and gaming platforms to identify a user in places where a real name is not necessary or desired. They can be shown in posters, profile cards, avatars, and message headers. In some systems, displayName can be derived from other fields (for example, a user’s name fields) if the user has not set a custom value.

From a design and security perspective, displayName should be validated and moderated to prevent abuse, sanitized for display, and treated as a non-authenticating attribute—changing it should not affect login or permissions. It plays a key role in user experience by providing a recognizable and adjustable label for each user.