When I ran a club website for my university we were asked to implement a policy of having full names recorded for all our members. This was a change from our pr

When I ran a club website for my university we were asked to implement a policy of having full names recorded for all our members. This was a change from our previous practice of only storing handles for everyone. I had to go through and ask everyone to add their name to their profile. One individual did not update, so I contacted them individually. As it turned out, what I had assumed was a silly-sounding "fantasy role-playing" name was in fact her given name! So I ended up feeling silly myself, and learned a lesson about making assumptions. In this case the university directory corroborated the identity of the member, but in the absence of a definitive reference like that, I now just give people the benefit of the doubt.