If one wanted to keep their anonymity for post-camino, it would be a good idea to go by nicknames. In the end, I'm glad to have made some of the lifelong friends I made on the camino, but I can certainly see why someone would want to be able to walk away from the camino world without connections to people. And I can respect that.
Oddly, the camino gave us a chance to be more comfortable WITH real names. We walked with our 14 month old son whose first name is Dylan (for Bob Dylan) and whose middle name is Kepa (a Basque name)......but since birth his middle name has, by chance, become the name that EVERYone calls him. Yet, whenever we met strangers when he was a baby we were loath to say his name was Kepa, because it led to a thousand awkward questions (what's kepa? what's basque?). Suddenly, on the Camino, surrounded by Spaniards and people walking through Spain, it wasn't so difficult to explain the name. It gave us a chance to get used to (and confident in) explaining that his name was Kepa. Now we are never tempted to tell a stranger his name is Dylan. The Camino helped with that. Of course, to a few Spaniards who insisted on trying to Castilianize his name to Pedro (rolls eyes, lol).....