Using private field as ItemsSource of ItemsControl?

Lets have a class:

public partial class MyControl: UserControl{
    private ObservableCollection<string> names = 
            new ObservableCollection<string>();
    ...
}

and then in XAML for the same UserControl that is in XAML for class MyControl:

<UserControl x:Class="MyProject.MyControl" xmlns="..." xmln开发者_如何学Pythons:x="...">
    <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding ???????}" />
</UserControl>

Is it possible to replace ??????? by something that will bind ItemsSource to the names field in code behind? What is the right way to do it if there is a way ? If there is no way does names have to be dependency property instead of just a field ?

---

You just need to make a public getter property for names

public IEnumerable<string> Names
{
     get{return names;}
}

It doesn't need to be a dependency property.

And then your xaml can be

<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Names}" />

Edit: Just re-read your title. If you want to keep names private, you'd have to do the binding int the code behind.

        Binding b = new Binding();
        b.Source = names;
        itemsControl.SetBinding(ItemsControl.ItemsSourceProperty, b);