Set default display name format for new users

I have three multisite installations that use the same theme.

In one new users get the username as default display_name, but the other do get Firstname Lastname.

So can you set a default display_name format in wp-admin somewhere?

I second this.
Please.

@modifiedcontent – With an approach like that, it’s not surprising no developers have touched this one….jus’ sayin’ – Politeness goes a long way ??

You can use the Gravity Forms “User Registration” addon (paid plugin) – it lets you set your default choice for display name (see screenshot at: https://screencast.com/t/QBkakHBib

or you can try something like this in your functions.php file:

// change default display name format
add_action('user_register', 'registration_save_displayname', 1000);
function registration_save_displayname($user_id) {
    if ( isset( $_POST['first_name']) &&  isset( $_POST['last_name']) ){
		$pretty_name = $_POST['first_name'] . ' '. $_POST['last_name'];
		wp_update_user( array ('ID' => $user_id, 'display_name'=> $pretty_name) ) ;
	}
}

Good Luck with it.

@earthman Web & Media, I am deliberately rude to WordPress insiders, because their responses/solutions are usually useless. I hope to get responses from regular, real-world WP users struggling with the same frustrations. If not, my posts help me keep track of unresolved issues.

I think your solutions also miss the point again – correct me if I’m wrong. In my custom theme Firstname Lastname are already consistently stored, but new blogs and user accounts still sometimes have display name format set to ‘crapusername’.

I am looking for a catch-all solution to make Firstname Lastname the default display name format, across a network, forever and ever. Storing Firstname Lastname from a form is not the problem.

Gravity Forms and various user registration plugins are not solutions to any problem having to do with registration – I even made this point in my original post. As far as I know Gravity Forms is mainly a way to make adding forms to WordPress “easier” for people who don’t know any PHP.

I am especially rude about Firstname Lastname and the entire registration process because WordPress clearly has no intention to fix it, bring it up to current internet standards. I have been asking about these things for years, since at least ’96, initially friendly, by now not so much.

One response I got from an Automattic developer was that WordPress couldn’t do Firstname Lastname, because it was insensitive to certain unnamed cultures that don’t use that name format. WordPress lives in a weird bubble for nerd bloggers that never go anywhere.

I hope to get responses from regular, real-world WP users

and what do you think the people here are? They are all regular, real-world WP users – albeit rather more polite that you appear to be.

One response I got from an Automattic developer was that WordPress couldn’t do Firstname Lastname, because it was insensitive to certain unnamed cultures that don’t use that name format.

That is correct. Chinese names IIRC are a case in point. Also Firstname Lastname solutions create problems where people have the same name. Joe Smith, anyone?

WordPress lives in a weird bubble

No – WordPress developers and most of its users live in the real world and often have real world experience of dealing with such issues. It is your viewpoint that appears to be at odds with reality – especially when it comes down to how to solicit help from a forum staffed by volunteers.