The Flexible Nickname in WordPress User Profiles

By Leora Wenger

If you are using self-hosted WordPress, there is a field called “nickname” that I want to draw to your attention. Usually, when one hears nickname, one thinks of Bill as short for William or Kathy as short for Katherine. With the WordPress user profile field “nickname”, however, one can put whatever one likes in the field. You can be Hiawatha or Screeching Eagle or Mata Hari.

So, for example, the name section of my user profile looks like this:

By editing the nickname field, it now displays as Purple Headed Monster:

In order for my name to display as Purple Headed Monster, I would need to pull down the menu on Display Name Publicly As and select Purple Headed Monster.

How is this useful, you ask? Recently I found two uses for the nickname field.

Use Nickname for Multiple Authors of One Article

Let’s say you have a number of people who collaborated to write one article on your blog. WordPress only allows one author at a time for each article (there are plugins, however, for multiple authors). An easy solution to this problem might be to use Display Name Publicly As, so if you set the nickname to George Eliot and Jane Austen and then choose display as George Eliot and Jane Austen, you can show both these British authors as having written one article.

Use Nickname to Change User Name on RSS Feed

Let’s say you want to get rid of the by Author Name that displays by default on many WordPress themes. You can edit your WordPress theme pages so the author name no longer appears (a simple way might be just to edit style.css so the author section is set to display: none; or you could just delete the author section from your theme pages). However, you then decide you want to edit your RSS feed as well. You could possibly use the functions code on this page of the Codex to edit your RSS feed. If you are happy with having a new nickname show up instead of the name (for example, you could name the nickname after your blog’s name), editing the nickname might be a simpler solution.

Your Turn, Please

Can you think of any uses for the WordPress nickname field? On a past post, we explored how WordPress User Profiles can be edited to include Google+ profile link. Other fields can possibly be added to a user profile. What kind of user information (this information for authors of posts) might you want included?

14 Responses to “The Flexible Nickname in WordPress User Profiles”

1. Steve Hippel says:

   February 6, 2012 at 5:05 am

   Hi Leora.
   This is another great example of how super flexible WordPress is.
   As you know, I’m a huge WordPress fan and recommend it to the majority of my clients. I know that you do too. Have you noticed that more and more big names are using WordPress these days.
   Steve Hippel´s last [type] ..Using WordPress For Your Small Business Website

   Reply
   • Leora Wenger says:

     February 6, 2012 at 7:14 am

     Yes, more companies are discovering the ease of WordPress. I find there are many ways to learn more about WordPress as well, your own blog being one of those great resources.

     Reply
2. Barry Wells says:

   February 7, 2012 at 10:23 am

   Hi Leora,

   I did know about this feature, in fact i was going to play a prank on someone last night with it. I assist on another blog where I take care of the techi side of things (hard to believe after my recent mishap maybe :) ) and last night I was in there changing a few things and did think about adding a nickname of a friend for fun, but decided against it in the end :(

   As I’m a one man show on my blog I don’t have use for nicknames as such there.

   You asked about other uses for a nickname: Off the top of my head, Seasonal blog posts. For example, we have valentines day approaching so we could use a nickname related to romance. At Christmas we could be Santa’s little helper….

   Now that’s got me thinking ;)

   Thanks Leora,
   Barry
   Barry Wells´s last [type] ..Oh Dear I Made A Stupid Boo Boo Last Week Sorry

   Reply
   • Leora Wenger says:

     February 7, 2012 at 10:30 am

     Barry,

     There you go: you could have an alias who posts at times when Barry is too busy celebrating or making products or hassling with Cloud folks… But you would make another username with profile for this.

     - Leora

     Reply
3. Pauline Bennett says:

   February 9, 2012 at 10:56 am

   Hi Leora
   I did not know about this feature so thanks for telling me about it, I said to someone recently that I like to learn one new thing every day so this is mine for today!
   Barry I like your idea about seasonal nicknames I will look out for yours lol

   Have a great day
   Regards
   Pauline
   Pauline Bennett´s last [type] ..Help My Websites Have Been Hacked!!!

   Reply
   • Leora Wenger says:

     February 9, 2012 at 11:03 am

     Thanks, Pauline.

     It’s one of those things you may not have a use for today, but then in a month you may be working on a joint project, and you need a way to fix X…

     Appreciate the comment!

     - Leora

     Reply
4. Adrienne says:

   February 9, 2012 at 11:23 am

   Hi Leora,

   I’m also familiar with this feature and like Barry am a one woman show over at my place. But I am starting to have some guest bloggers and although I don’t have them log-in to share their content, I could set up different authors for this purpose. For now I decided to just include an author box for them instead.

   Like I have learned since being here that even the simplest things we sometimes forget that others aren’t aware of it. So I’m sure some of your readers appreciate you pointing this out. I just love WordPress.

   Thanks Leora and have a wonderful day!

   ~Adrienne
   Adrienne´s last [type] ..How To Get Others To Build Your Links

   Reply
   • Leora Wenger says:

     February 9, 2012 at 1:04 pm

     Adrienne,

     Part of my posting this is just to show how flexible WordPress is…sounds like you are already sold on that one!

     Thanks for the thoughtful comment.

     - Leora

     Reply
5. Bill Dorman says:

   February 9, 2012 at 12:08 pm

   I guess the free WordPress account doesn’t make it happen, huh? I keep saying I will go self-hosted, but with my current platform I really don’t need to other than to have more flexibility.

   I have to justify it to my CFO (the wife) and she thinks I’m online too much as it is……..:)

   Reply
   • Leora Wenger says:

     February 9, 2012 at 12:43 pm

     Bill,

     When you are ready, self-hosted WordPress is there for you! Yes, it offers tons of possibilities (oh, me, oh, my so many plugins, for example). But if your wife thinks you are spending too much time online, maybe you should first carve out some special time for her.

     Best wishes,

     Leora

     Reply
6. Barry Ranns says:

   February 9, 2012 at 12:52 pm

   Hi Leora,

   I had no idea about the flexibility of the nickname field. Now I know not to put in my old school nickname, or old work ones, or even what my wife calls me when I am in trouble :)

   Like Adrienne and Barry Wells, I am a one man show too, but knowing the potential is there is great,

   Barry
   Barry Ranns´s last [type] ..It All Went Wrong!

   Reply
   • Leora Wenger says:

     February 9, 2012 at 1:03 pm

     Barry, since you are so friendly with each other, one never knows when a collaborative blog might be in store in the future.

     I like exploring the “nooks and crannies” of WordPress – it works well for all different projects.

     Reply
7. Hajra says:

   February 9, 2012 at 2:37 pm

   Hey Leora,

   I did see the nickname thing but then I always want to be called by my first name so it really doesn’t have any usage for me.

   I did like Barry’s thoughts on it.

   Also, it might be confusing for the reader at times don’t you think? Given the fact that people like me have tough names in the first place; that might be a tough thing to hang on to…
   Hajra´s last [type] ..Will they call you over for a bloggers party?

   Reply
   • Leora Wenger says:

     February 9, 2012 at 3:15 pm

     Hajra,

     Well, if it’s not useful for you, than no, one shouldn’t use it. I gave two examples where it helped me out a lot – one for multiple authors and one for an RSS feed display.

     It’s more of a “keep in the back of one’s mind” sort of thing. And explore what else one might find, if one has self-hosted WordPress.

     - Leora

     Reply

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