How To? Set default display name to JUST the first name

Go to admin – users and choose “edit” below the user name. Once there, find “Display name publicly as” and choose whatever name you want to be displayed.

I don’t want to change everyone’s name manually. I want to change some internal code so it changes the default setting.

The way my site is set, they enter their first & last name during sign up. If they immediately post a comment, it shows their first and last name. I’d like this to just show their first name. Or even better, show a generic name that I specify (until they actually go in their profile and change it)

Here is code for a plugin that will put a generic name in the display name for ALL new users.

Create a folder like this: wp-content/plugins/substitute_displayname

Create a new file in that folder called substitute_displayname.php

Paste the code below into that file.

Activate the plugin.

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Substitute Displayname
Version: 0.1
Description: Substitutes a default Display name for new registrants.
Author: Mac McDonald
*/
?>
<?php
/* Version check */
global $wp_version;
$exit_msg='Substitute Author requires WordPress 2.5 or newer.  <a href="https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Upgrading_WordPress">Please update!</a>';
if (version_compare($wp_version,"2.5","<")) {
   exit ($exit_msg);
}
function sd_new_login_filter ($login) {
/* Don't do anything to login, just see if already in database.*/
   global $wpdb, $sd_is_new_login;

   $id = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->users WHERE user_login = '$login'");
   $sd_is_new_login = (isset($id)) ? false : true;
   return $login;
}

function sd_substitute_displayname_filter ($display_name) {
   global $sd_is_new_login;

   if ($sd_is_new_login) $display_name = 'New Author';
   return $display_name;
}
add_filter('pre_user_login', 'sd_new_login_filter');
add_filter('pre_user_display_name', 'sd_substitute_displayname_filter');
?>

Plugin worked great, thanks a lot

You are very welcome! Thanks for the feedback.

How can I change text ‘New Author’ in this plugin to any variable from registrations form? For example to $first_name only?

Hi… I want new users by default to be given a public_display name set as their first_name and last_name rather than their username. The plug in above doesn’t quite do that. It set the public display name to “New Author”.

How do I modify it to set the public display name to First & Last name?

@dimmt, @millsd61

This plugin cannot do what you want because the other fields are not available to it. It can only set the display name to a constant value.

For those of you that want to switch the default to “First Name” or “Last Name” or both, add your thoughts to this thread here: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/change-default-display-name-1