More thoughts on SL Names….
Most of what I’ve read of responses to Strawberry’s name meme seems to ignore Display Names. The use seems thin… and mostly pragmatic (as in, correcting typos, removing numbers, adding hypen-spouse names.)
With all the hoo-ha about name conventions according to the Linden-speak, it would seem that 2 years later (it was late 2010 that last names were disintegrated by fiat) Display Names are much ado about nothing.
True Names…. well, that is always important.
I’ve honestly never used the Display Name feature. But that isn’t to say it might not be useful. There are many options I use in my in-world visits, and many Firestorm options that I feel I could barely get by without, but cranking up my name with ASCII text or morphing my text identity every month just isn’t something important.
I think it would be a better feature if you could add content. For instance, when I run the T.E.A.W.R. in May, there could be ‘rally instructions’ floating over my head to help anyone just arriving at the start get oriented. Now I can build a ‘hovertext’ prim and wear that (I may, it sounds like a good idea now that I think on it) and folks won’t have to hear the same spiel six times as folks arrive on station for the rally to start.
Of course, my Role Play time in Caledon has fallen to zero. Maybe I’d use Display Names if I was doing some RP character work, as that would cue folks that I might be NOT who I appear to be. Because really, I often appear in different versions of myself and no one bats an eye at that.
Then again, maybe those who blog are not a good sampling of users to judge SL features by.
Caledon: possessed of character 
I just use the Display Name feature to allow people to know what my preferred nickname is: no sense making everybody type out ‘Nathaniel’ when I know ‘Nath’ is me. ;)