Reply To: Username vs Real Name
these fields are required by the system.
WP ask for username, password and email. When BP is activated, he uses WP’s name option Public Name so he can rely to WP. This field called Name is the only one which is required by BP for that reason.
When you visit dashboard > users > your profile, you have a tabed page with profile options (the original WP user manager) and Extended profile (which belongs to BP) where you can edit your profile. On WP’s tab you see login, first name, last name and public displayed name. On BP’s tab there is only Name, which reflects what is in first and or last name.
In wp_users table, you have user_login, user_nicename and display_name
user_login and user_nicename have the same content
display_name contains first and/or last name (if exist from a previous WP install, before BP installation).
Depending what and where something needs a name to work (avatar, comment, notice, activity, etc), one or the other name option is fired.
If you don’t need/want real names on front end, you can use this plugin:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress-usernames-only/
