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In computer science, you should have a username or a user name or a user-name and a password to be able to log into the system.

Which one is the correct spelling?

tchrist
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Saeed Neamati
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    what about log onto the system? – Preet Sangha Sep 28 '11 at 07:46
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    I believe the correct wording for the logging based alternative would be "log into the system". – bernk Oct 11 '12 at 12:00
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    @bernk Since you can both log into a system and onto a system both would be fine. Most sites have you log in, though some systems use log on since you are using the system (on it) not maintaining or modifying the system (in it). I doubt most people would even notice the difference. Sign vs Log is covered at http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2002/logging-in-or-on – Trisped Nov 11 '14 at 23:30
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    Similarly, "file name" vs "filename". – Drew Sep 30 '18 at 03:48

8 Answers8

131

The OED gives ‘username’ and has three citations, from 1971, 1997 and 2007, in support.

Barrie England
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    OED = "Oxford English Dictionary". For those who don't know (I didn't). – Miscreant Jul 13 '16 at 03:25
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    It would be helpful for others if you can provide a link to the same in OED, if possible. IMHO, It would add more value to the answer. – garnet May 21 '19 at 08:53
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    IMHO = "In My Humble Opinion". For those who don't know (I didn't). – Piyush Balapure May 06 '20 at 12:06
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    @garnet Not exactly OED but here is the Oxford Dictionaries (Lexico) link https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/username For the difference between OED and Oxford Dictionaries see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexico#Lexico_vs._Oxford_English_Dictionary – Caltor Nov 18 '21 at 12:55
96

The correct spelling in this case is username.

  • The username is the (usually unique) thing you type in with your password, for example: bobsmith66.

  • The user name is the name of the user, the user's real life name, for example: Bob Smith. User name is sometimes used for username, but occasionally it makes a difference, so be clear and avoid the ambiguity. (Better still, use full name when you want them to enter Bob Smith.)

  • User-name is a variant of username, but this is rarely used if ever.

Hugo
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    Instead of "Full name", many software titles (such as Microsoft Windows and Active Directory) use "Display name", btw. – Dai Mar 06 '23 at 05:02
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Obligatory Google Ngram:

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In case the link breaks again: username is much more common these days; user-name is not used at all.

Mari-Lou A
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Karl Knechtel
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I've seen both "username" and "user name" used widely. Both are acceptable. As far as I know, techies mostly prefer "username". "User-name" just seems awkward.

Mehper C. Palavuzlar
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  • Very often in development I see another variation, UserName. I assume this comes from "User Name" being contracted. It can lead to confusion when both username and userName are found throughout documentation. – Kasaku Sep 27 '11 at 13:19
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    However I'd argue that user name is the user's birth certificate name in real life, rather than the unique string for logging into the system. – Hugo Sep 27 '11 at 14:18
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    @Hugo, As a software developer, I'd argue that "user's name" or "real name" is their real life name. But software developers sometimes forget who's using the software. – Hand-E-Food Sep 28 '11 at 00:41
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    @Hand-E-Food As a software developer, I agree "user's name" or "real name" is their real life name, but in addition to "user name". I recommend to avoid the ambiguity and stick to "username" for the unique login ID (and perhaps "full name" for the real name). – Hugo Sep 28 '11 at 08:11
  • @Konrad Rudolph Coding style guides apply to code and not the English language, and are irrelevant here. – Hugo Sep 28 '11 at 08:12
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    @Hugo Not quite. The style guidelines exist because the “correct” English word is “username”, not “user name”. In particular, this style guide is regardless of the programming language. The programming language dependent part merely specifies whether you’d write the identifier as userName or UserName or user_name (that is, whether to use camelCase, PascalCase or whats_er_name) but several style guides additionally caution that “username” is a single word and should not be written as either of the above. – Konrad Rudolph Sep 28 '11 at 08:18
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    @Hugo, fair call. Until I saw this question's answers, I wasn't even aware "username" was a real word. Or "filename" for that matter. – Hand-E-Food Sep 28 '11 at 11:46
  • @KonradRudolph: Searching the MSDN documentation for 'username' and 'filename' refutes your statement. Most common is UserName and FileName, indicating that the terms the .NET folks consider standard are 'user name' and 'file name'. – Joren Sep 28 '11 at 14:40
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    @JHoren Microsoft has never been known for their consistency. However, I apparently remembered the wrong guideline: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229043.aspx. – Konrad Rudolph Sep 28 '11 at 14:50
  • @Konrad: To be fair the core .NET Framework is pretty consistent. – Joren Sep 28 '11 at 21:17
  • I know this is an old thread but the table at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/design-guidelines/capitalization-conventions?redirectedfrom=MSDN#capitalizing-compound-words-and-common-terms could do with updating, as "username" is now generally considered a closed compound noun so shouldn't have a capital 'N'. Not to mention they have two different spellings of "cancel(l)ed" on the same row... – Caltor Nov 18 '21 at 12:43
  • Forget that! It's already been raised and can't be changed as it is quoting from copyrighted material. https://github.com/dotnet/docs/issues/6523#issue-342191594 – Caltor Nov 18 '21 at 12:48
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Like most things in language, it depends upon context.

If you are writing a journal for a computer science publication, username is acceptable.

If you are writing the user's manual or labeling a field, I would use "user name" since the users may or may not be well versed in computer science, and it just feels less complex.

Andrew Neely
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    No, as @skst mentioned, the correct general term should be "user id". – Mark Hurd Sep 28 '11 at 12:23
  • @Mark, I have no problem with using "User ID" or "User's identification code" when referring the the user's identification. I am, however, very big on consistency. If the development teams uses "UserName" as a field name and variable name inside the code, reference these elements in technical documents, there is a better than even chance that this phraseology will leak through to the end user. In that case, I'd prefer to use the same term they used so there won't be a document referring to the same item by two terms. – Andrew Neely Sep 28 '11 at 13:53
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    @MarkHurd in UNIX, at least, your username and userid are different. John Smith's username might be "smithj" and his userid be 1043. – slim Feb 02 '12 at 12:10
  • @slim: Yes, I was thinking of Windows where there is a concept of a user's name, a user id and, very much behind the scenes, but most similar to the Unix uid, the user's sid. – Mark Hurd Feb 02 '12 at 15:08
  • Users need not be familiar with computer science to be expected to be familiar with end-user oriented general computer terminology, like "username" or "email" or "password", etc. – jinglesthula Jan 14 '20 at 19:21
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In terms of computer science , username is mostly used as a standard. I have always used that.

SP Sandhu
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2

The O.E.D. often defines words merely because they're commonly used, regardless of their correctness. (For example, I don't consider "LOL" or "ginormous" to be words.)

I realize that it is often used to describe "the thing you type in with your password," but that is more correctly called the user ID since it is not the actual name of the user.

In my opinion, it's a compound noun and the correct spelling is "user name" as in "the name of the user." Just because we can delete the space between two words doesn't mean we should, although plenty of compound nouns do. Language evolves, of course, and it's just as likely that we're in the middle of this word's evolution. In a few years, I may change my mind and edit this entry.

skst
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    You may not consider “LOL” a word but that doesn’t make it less one. Remember, English isn’t a prescriptivist language. Words exist because they are used, not the other way round. – Konrad Rudolph Sep 28 '11 at 08:07
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    You're right that a "username" is more correctly called a "user id", but I believe that "fight" is lost already and "user name" is only the correct spelling of "the name of the user". – Mark Hurd Sep 28 '11 at 12:20
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    I'd also point out that "LOL" is an initialism. Again, not a word.

    Yes, words exist because they're used, but how much does a construct have to be used before it's deemed a word? And who's the arbiter doing the deeming? These are subjective requirements, and my point was merely that I don't think the O.E.D.'s bar is high enough.

     – skst Sep 28 '11 at 16:58
  • The OED editors are the arbiters deciding what words go into their dictionary. They require several independent usage examples and evidence it's been in use for a reasonable amount of time. One word may have only a few examples spread over a long period of time, another may gather momentum very quickly, resulting in a wide range of evidence in a shorter space of time. "The idea is that a puzzled reader encountering an unfamiliar word in, say, a 1920s novel, will be able to find the word in the OED even if it has been little used for the past 50 years." – Hugo Oct 29 '11 at 09:19
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    "I'd also point out that "LOL" is an initialism. Again, not a word. " Is lol a word? Is radar a word? What about scuba and laser? Are acronyms really not words? You are correct that the OED records common usage, not "correctness", because there is no official arbiter of "correct" English. – Hugo Oct 29 '11 at 09:30
  • While radar, scuba, and laser all started as acronyms (RADAR, SCUBA, and LASER), they've evolved to be the words that represent those technologies. On the other hand, "LOL" isn't a word because people capitalize every letter when they write it and spell it when they pronounce it; they write "LOL" and say "L-O-L" rather than "lol." – skst Oct 30 '11 at 17:05
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    @skst fwiw, I think people are increasingly saying "lol". Just for the lulz, innit? – slim Feb 02 '12 at 12:11
  • @skst: Documentary that at least two people say "lol" and "roffle" rather than L. O. L. and R. O. F. L. Both are also sometimes written lowercase "lol" and "rofl". – Hugo Feb 02 '12 at 13:55
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    What can I say, @Hugo? People misspell "their," say "There is some groceries," and punctuate "the '50s" incorrectly, too, but it doesn't make them right (nor, hopefully, does it constitute a trend). ;-) – skst Feb 03 '12 at 14:12
  • @slim: If it's just for lulz, it's okay. We all appreciate irony. :-) – skst Feb 03 '12 at 14:13
  • @skst: Indeed, and there's different levels of "correctness", especially for slang, but especially for internet slang. – Hugo Feb 03 '12 at 14:41
0

In computer terminology use the word "username" and/or "filename", always. For variable/class names in computer coding also use "username/Username" and/or "filename/Filename" and never "userName/UserName" and/or "fileName/FileName".

John
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    My answers that I gave here are the most perfect answers you can get on this subject. Read them again and follow the instructions that I have so lovingly offered to you. – John Feb 04 '12 at 13:31
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    @JayElston: If you don't like an answer, by all means downvote. But what does lateness have to do with anything? Not everyone was a member when a question was asked, and I've seen plenty of questions where a late reply did add value to the discussion – for example, this one. – J.R. Apr 07 '12 at 23:07