When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

Governments essentially avoid this problem, and they have for generations, because they realized that names are intractably hard. This is why they give people numbers instead.

Here's my name written in my passport (US): "MC KENZIE PATRICK JOHNATHAN" The Passport Control Center is the only organization which thinks I have a space in my name.

If you go to Cook County and grab a copy of my birth certificate, it says "Patrick Jonathan McKenzie". I was a poor speller as a kid and thought Johnathan had two Hs until I was a teenager. Whoopsie. Now it does because it's just too much hassle to go get it changed now.

The Illinois DMV thinks I'm Patrick McKenzie. Ogaki City Hall thinks I'm McKenzie Patrick Johnathan in one part of the office, ミッケンジーパトリック in another part, パトリックミッケンジー in another, and ミッケンジーP in a fourth part. The national tax agency said, direct quote, "Sorry about our software being unable to accept your name. On the bright side, we really couldn't care less, as long as you pay your taxes on time."

Well, I know people who IRL insist on being called by made-up names, mostly goths, you know, something like Darkraven Bloodmisery.

I know a lot of people IRL who insist on being called by made-up names. I know Japanese and Chinese people who have "use names", because some white folks think Hideyuki is a mouthful and couldn't guess that he's a man. I know neighborhoods in Chicago where Irish Catholics are so thick on the ground that you'd better come up with a nickname if you're a Patrick or a Mary because otherwise half the class will have a hash collision with you. (I was Patrick Johnathan -- the other Patrick Jonathan beat me at rock paper scissors and claimed the coveted PJ.)

I also know some goths who use made up names, including a Robert who -- cheeky blighter -- insists he is really a Bob.

Also, just a self-preservation tip: don't ever repeat that comment near a liberal arts faculty if you value your sanity. They will be on you like vegetarian tigers/esses/etc on a fresh, juicy bit of fair trade tofu.

Similarly, I religiously give everybody on my IM buddy list their real name. I would go crazy if everyday I only saw pseudonyms and had no idea who was who.

Today I learned that I don't have a real name.

More seriously, though, most people I know IRL insist on not going by the name on their passport. If I had one, my name would be "Christopher", but I insist on "Chris" enough that I will not make my name "Christopher" on Google.

For a less silly example, though, most people I know whose names are not derived from their full legal names are some form of non-cisgendered people who simply don't identify with their given names. And, in the US at least, for most purposes it is simply not necessary to go the court-decreed route (we don't have a strict equivalence of a deed poll form for name changes as far as I know) and bringing court and public record into things can be unnecessary trouble until they fall out of those "most purposes".

Of course, these are only a couple of reasons why one might wish not to use their passport names online, but the main point is: it's rarely as simple as you think.

As long as you have mechanisms, whether social or political, to "default distrust" new users that don't have much "cred" yet (mechanisms like the "green" user rendering that Hacker News uses for this purpose), you are not going to lose the benefits of "anonymous" vs "real names".

In fact, one might even argue that claiming otherwise misses the point of names: even when I am going by just the name "saurik" (seldom, but it happens: like here on this site), I care deeply about what I say as it affects my identity.

As an example near and dear to many people on this site, no one had known who "why the lucky stiff" was (maybe they do now? not keeping up with that much); but, if he had started being an idiot on forums and started "proliferating senseless hacking and child pornography", you can be certain that that would have been quite bad for him.

(In fact, if your real name is not known by anyone, and everyone knows the entity that actually has all of the reputation capital you draw on on a daily basis, then arguably there is no risk in doing something stupid with your real name, and total risk in doing so with your pseudonym.)