Display Names in MSN

The MSN display name (also called the Friendly Name in some versions of the official MSN client) is utilized by some MSN users to be a nickname or alias and by others to indicate their current status. Adium lets you treat the MSN display name in either manner so you can adjust the program to match the way your friends make use of it.

Changing Display Names to Status Messages

By default, a contact's MSN display name is presented as the contact's name. To show the contact's email address as the name and the display name as a status message,

Open the Preferences pane in the Adium menu.
Select the Advanced tab.
Check "Show display names as status messages."

You will need to restart Adium after changing this option for the changes to take full effect.