Human Names

Storing/Displaying

You might want to, be asked to, or told to store or display Human names for a piece of software. There are four things you should know before storing or displaying Human names:

1. Names aren't simple, but your field type can be simple (open ended UTF-8 string). Like, they're really not simple.
2. Don't ask for a legal name unless it is legally required. When you are required to ask for a legal name, specify which piece of ID that name correlates to, as many people have multiple legal names in different legal contexts.
3. If you're going to reference a Human name for non-legal purposes (like emails or greetings), use a preferred name field instead.
4. If you're going to show OTHER people a Human name and they don't have access to their legal or preferred name (user forms, profile pages), use a display name.