If you need to gather a user’s name (something other than what is provided via another source or their username) it can be as simple as adding a field or two to the user profile. However, another way to approach it is to use the Name Field field API project. 

The name field allows you to create a tokenized name for the user which separates based upon items such as Title, Given/First, Middle, Family/Surname/Last, and Credentials.

The display is customizable as well such that you can display different formats of name in different areas of the system by selecting a format.

Requires using Drupal 7, (for Field API including Field SQL Storage).

Cheers, +A