You can try this:
/**
* Add support for the "display_name" search column in WP_User_Query
*
* @see http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/166369/26350
*/
add_filter( 'user_search_columns', function( $search_columns ) {
$search_columns[] = 'display_name';
return $search_columns;
} );
where we use the user_search_columns
filter to modify the available search columns.
So what fields can we use with this filter? Here’s the list of all the fields in the wp_users
table:
x ID
x user_login
user_pass
x user_nicename
x user_email
x user_url
user_registered
user_activation_key
user_status
display_name
where I’ve marked the default search columns with an x
.