Should I name the username field in my user table "name" or "username"?

If I name it username then I would have to write user_username wh开发者_运维知识库en referring to my field when I can just write user_name if it's named "name". On the other hand, username sounds more appropriate than name.

Can someone help me make a decision?

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You should call it username.

The field name (or user_name if you are prefixing all fields with the table name) is ambiguous because it might be their real name, which is usually different from their username.

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username, it's more specific and won't get mixed up with proper human names.

Here's a tip: while you're there, it's a good idea to decide on the proper name columns early - first_name and last_name or surname and given_name or whatever. It doesn't really matter, but it's a right pain when tables are inconsistent.

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But you can also try nickname.

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Another possible option is login