Skip to content

[bug]: Display name field does not allow spaces #9112

@rudacs

Description

@rudacs

Is there an existing issue for this?

  • I have searched the existing issues

Current behavior

The Display name field does not allow spaces, even though a display name should support full human-readable names.

Currently, the field only allows:

  • letters
  • numbers
  • periods
  • hyphens
  • underscores

Because of this validation, names like Name Of User, John Doe, Maria Silva cannot be used as display names.

Current behavior

When editing a user profile, the Display name field rejects values containing spaces.

Example value:

NAME OF USER

The UI shows the following validation error:

Display name can only contain letters, numbers, periods, hyphens, and underscores

This makes the Display name behave like a username, slug, or handle instead of a real display name.

Steps to reproduce

The Display name field should allow spaces and common characters used in personal names.

Valid examples should include:

John Doe
Maria Silva
Name Of User

Restrictions such as "no spaces" should apply to fields like username, handle, slug, or mention name, not to display_name.

Why this is a bug

A display name is meant to be shown in the interface as a readable user name.

The current validation makes user names harder to read in professional workspaces, especially when users have first and last names.

Also, the API already treats display_name as a full display value, so the UI validation appears to be inconsistent with the API behavior.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open the user profile settings.
  2. Go to the name/profile section.
  3. Set:
    • First name: NAME
    • Last name: USER
    • Display name: NAME OF USER
  4. Try to save the profile.

Actual result

The form rejects the display name and shows:

Display name can only contain letters, numbers, periods, hyphens, and underscores

Expected result

The profile should accept NAME OF USER as a valid display name.

Suggested fix

Update the frontend validation rule for display_name to allow spaces.

The stricter validation rule should be kept only for username-like fields, such as:

  • username
  • handle
  • slug
  • mention name

The display_name field should be validated as a readable name, not as an identifier.

Additional context

This issue affects the user experience in business workspaces because real names are commonly displayed with spaces.

Example:

Maria Silva

Displaying names without spaces or forcing users to use underscores/hyphens makes the interface look less natural and less professional.

Environment

Production

Browser

None

Variant

Self-hosted

Version

2.6.0

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

planesync issues to Plane🐛bugSomething isn't working

Type

No type
No fields configured for issues without a type.

Projects

No projects

Milestone

No milestone

Relationships

None yet

Development

No branches or pull requests

Issue actions