When defining field using CAML: what is the difference between Name and StaticName

Question

When defining a new field using CAML in a feature definition I can define a the Name of the new field and the StaticName. What is difference? Should I define both? And how big is the explosion if those fields don't match?

MSDN states:

StaticName: Optional Text. Contains the internal name of the field.

Name: Required Text. The name of a field. This is the internal name of a field and is guaranteed never to change for the lifetime of the field definition [...]

Answer 1

I just ran across the same situation. I had imported some lists from SharePoint into VS2010 and saw StaticName in the definition. I never used it before. I deployed my custom lists without StaticName (and they always worked correctly), and then imported my list into VS2010, and StaticName was set. It appears SP takes care of it for you.