I usually use a nickname (e.g. John, and other people know me as John). Lets say I want to inform another person about my real name (the name that is on my ID card), how do I say it?
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My full name is Neram Smith.
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My real name is Neram Smith.
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My legal name is Neram Smith.
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My ID name is Neram Smith.
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My ID card name is Neram Smith.
Are the above correct? Any other better suggestions?
Best Answer
TL/DR: Use "full name" in your case. Here's why:
"Real name" (or "actual name") is a little strange if they know you personally in real life†. Does that mean that you've been letting them call you something that's not your real name? Best not to get into that. The only other exception to this would be if they've only recently been introduced to you by that nickname and you're taking an early opportunity to clarify that that's not your only name, which avoids the potential social awkwardness.
† as opposed to online friendships — no one is surprised when your screen name "Alex001" turns out not to reflect any name you've ever been called offline
"ID name" and "ID card name", while understandable, are a bit unnatural to my ear, although that's more because ID cards aren't usually considered important/canonical enough to use as the touchstone for something as personal as a name. (The grammar is perfectly fine in a technical sense; it's a cultural thing that I suspect holds true for most English-speaking countries.)
"Legal name" works, to get across "yeah, this is what random faceless bureaucracies know me as". So does "the name on my ID card", oddly enough, although that's a little bit stronger a statement that it's not really your preferred name.
"Original name" (per comments) is good if you've informally changed your name in actual usage from what your official ID still says; otherwise it's somewhat ill-fitting. "[Nationality] name" (Chinese name, Indian name, Dutch name, etc) would work in a similar situation, if you use a different name in a different country to avoid having to deal with people there mispronouncing or misremembering your name.
"Full name" is probably the tidiest in general for cases where you're fine with friends calling you by it as well as by your nickname. It carries the idea of expanding the name options they had, but without denigrating the nickname and making them feel a little bad for having used it.