Static front page with page title

static-front-page-wp-title.php

<?php # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
/**
 * Plugin Name: Static front page with page title
 * Description: Uses the page title for the front page if a static page is set.
 * Plugin URI:  http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/q/58073/73
 * Version:     2012.07.10
 * Author:      Thomas Scholz
 * Author URI:  http://toscho.de
 * License:     MIT
 * License URI: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 *
 * Static front page with page title, Copyright (C) 2012 Thomas Scholz
 */

// Hook in very late, let the theme fix it first.
add_filter( 'wp_title', 't5_fill_static_front_page_title', 100 );

/**
 * Fill empty front page title if a static page is set.
 *
 * @wp-hook wp_title
 * @param   string $title Existing title
 * @return  string
 */
function t5_fill_static_front_page_title( $title )
{
	// another filter may have fixed this already.
	if ( '' !== $title or ! is_page() or ! is_front_page() )
	{
		return $title;
	}

	$page_id = get_option( 'page_on_front' );
	$page    = get_page( $page_id );

	if ( ! $page or '' === $page->post_title )
	{
		$title = get_option( 'blogname' );
	}
	else
	{
		$title = $page->post_title;
	}

	// We don’t know if there is any output after the title, so we cannot just
	// add the separator. We use an empty space instead.
	return "$title ";
}