[HoudiniMan]

I've set my nick to nothing with a server side setplayerprop command.. i have a nick changer npc and i tried just entering the command to trigger it followed by nothing. checked profile, nick was blank... also when paused i didn't see the (paused) tag.
You could make a script to remember the players name and then set it again but if they log off while under the bush you may have a problem.

Maybe an npc that hides your nick while the gani is in use, then changes it back if it's not... also default would be to show the nick. use a client.flag or some similar flag that would take the last nick they used offline with them and be there to be restored when they reconnected.