We have people register and make gifts ALL the time using their preferred or nickname (Michael vs. Mike; Joe vs. Joseph; or in some cases they go by their middle name or initials).  When that data comes in, we have to manually search for Michael or not search for their first name and hope we get a hit with email or address match.

It would be wonderful if that could be included so you are capturing accurate information (formal first, preferred/nickname) when people register for the first time and you are referring to them by their preferred name.

As to donations and such, that would help expedite finding folks, because you can't search in the NetCommunity plugin for aliases :(