I believe that a point that patio11 is arguing that all names are made up. Some names are given certain legal uses over others, but this is not universal. Google is an international organization, that is attempting to form a social network application, so it cannot assume, well, anything about its users cultures and how those users use names. This is a huge problem, because the first thing that a social networking application has to do is: "Make people feel welcome". Telling them that the name that everyone uses to identify them isn't a 'real name' doesn't help to do that.
Also, I know a fair number of people, who, for a variety of reasons, have their names in transition. These new names are not yet their official names, and they may change what they ultimately decide on. It's _really_ not the place of Google to effectively say "Make up your damn mind".
I believe that a point that patio11 is arguing that all names are made up.
Well, there's a continuum of "made up", going all the way from Darkbane Bloodlovin' to our idealized gold standard of "Whatever two inexpert people who have known you for less than a few hours decided would be the best thing for the entire world to know you as for the rest of your life."
P.S. Got to love that I'm referred to as "patio11" in that comment. (I don't know where "My friend in middle school was from Puerto Rico and he just couldn't manage -ck most days so 'Patio' it was" fits on the continuum, but it stuck so hard that even my siblings routinely use it now, so I won't complain about it.)
Also, I know a fair number of people, who, for a variety of reasons, have their names in transition. These new names are not yet their official names, and they may change what they ultimately decide on. It's _really_ not the place of Google to effectively say "Make up your damn mind".