Requesting real names, but protecting privacy?

My co-admins on one vB forum have requested that I add a field for the user's real name during the registration process, so that if they wish to share it their professional credentials can be established. The problem with just adding a profile field is that it would be displayed pretty much indiscriminately, so I want to give the user the option of not displaying their real name to the other members at all, displaying only the first name, and displaying both first and last. I believe I've seen this done (ArnyVee? Didn't you have that feature?), but so far all I've come up with on vB.org are mods for displaying the real name in postbit and profile page without consideration for privacy.

 

On another admin forum they have a field in which you could add your name and ??? if you don't want it to be known.

 

Maybe make it a private field and use custom code in templates to show it for those who want to?

 

I have mine set up to show in the postbit immediately below the username in parentheses. If the user wants their first name to be known, they enter it in the field, and it shows up in the postbit. If they don't want it to appear, they simply shouldn't fill out the field. If they want just their first name, then they should only enter that. If they want their full name, then they can enter the full name.

I use two conditionals in this situation: one to hide the parentheses if the user hasn't entered their first name, and another to not show the first name if it is identical to the username (for example, in my case, it would be redundant to show my username and first name, as they are the same).

 

We have a field for a users real name, and we explicitly state that providing this information is optional, and should you fill that field out, it will be visible.