idly

[resonant]

If you went away and came back under another name*, what name would you choose?

* sockpuppet? flounce? faking your own death? needed someone to argue with? suffering under the demands of excessive fame and fortune? defaulted on one too many challenges? can't bear to be associated with the Sentinel stories you wrote in the twentieth century?

Comments

[malnpudl]

Damn, I need to get icons loaded on my DW account. Context being: The first answer that occurred to me is "Fancrone" perhaps because I've recently acquired a cherished icon with that text.

Fun question.

[slodwick]

I have been informed that I'm not allowed to change my name, but if I was going to, it would be "diamondtaco". Because reasons. (In fact, I did use it for my Tumblr.)

[azurelunatic]

I'm not sure that I actually could. I have more attachment to this name than to the last name I was assigned at birth.

[malnpudl]

I have much the same reaction. I had to think hard about even the possibility of something else.

[rhiannonhero]

Me, too. :) It's a problem for me as I finish up some original writing and need a good pseud for publishing. (Parents do not need to find these books!) I am so attached to this one that I really can't think of another that feels like me.

[azurelunatic]

I suppose that I have the name that I created once upon a time, which is terribly clever but I want to save in case of pen name, so I can't actually share my cleverness where Google can see it. It's frightfully awesome though.

[raine]

Speaking as someone who's renamed herself, you have to do a lot of work to completely distance yourself from your old name (new email, new DW, new AO3 account, etc.), and then there's the question of who among your current friends do you tell, if you tell anyone what your new name is...plus, if you tell no one, and post something, there's the worry that a) no one will read it because the name isn't known b) someone will recognize your writing style.

For the record, I liked your TS fic, and as I used to co-mod the TS fic finders comm, I can honestly say that I've read far worse writing than you've ever posted. That said, do what you feel you need to do; I know how I felt when I decided not to be Alice in Stonyland anymore. ((hugs))

[sara]

...that would be telling.

[dira]

Yes, this.

[out_there]

Hmmm. Probably something annie focused, possibly a little more personal. Maybe "anniebananie".

Mind you, I've had "out_there" as an email address since I was 15 (omg, that's half my life now) and I was out_there on TWOP back when it was still MBTV. I'm a touch attached to it.

[torch]

PinkSparklyPrincess69. Or something along those lines. Except I already get confused when people call me flambeau sometimes, so i doubt it'll happen.

(I won't say don't do it, cause really it's up to you, but it would be reassuring if you stayed yourself! So to speak.)

[yahtzee]

I heart my pseud, but I could switch if I had to. The first thing that came to mind was "freakydeaky." I would also consider "hunkydunky." Or "pugsnotdrugs."

[lizbee]

I actually reserved dawn_chorus back when I was contemplating doing exactly that. Wound up using it for my hopefully-never-to-be-found-by-my-relatives smutfic.

[carolyn_claire]

Lauren Dubois. I told my mother once that that was what I wanted to change my name to. I even knew how to spell it, though why I knew how to spell Dubois in the third grade I have no idea.

I did change my handle once, so long ago I don't really remember why. Creditors? It was easy--Twitter and Tumblr didn't exist yet, maybe not even LJ, I don't remember. I just up and did it when I changed fandoms, after playing the pen name game and liking what I came up with. Unfortunately it was before I wrote those Sentinel stories in the twentieth century, so there's no escaping that. Unless I do finally live the eight-year-old dream and become Lauren Dubois, of course.

[order_of_chaos]

I rather like being order_of_chaos, but I might go for general_direction if I absolutely had to change.

I lurk in your general direction.

[veronamay]

I keep wanting to change my name but I can't be arsed going through all the hassle. If I did, though, I'd call myself "mollydooker" (ie. vintage Australian slang for a left-handed person).

[niqaeli]

I literally cannot imagine changing my name at this point. I did it a fair bit when I first got online, when I bounced around from message board to message board. When I got onto LiveJournal, all of my community activity was possible under the same identity, so the name I picked on a whim for my LJ username stuck finally. Eventually I signed up for everything under it. (Incidentally, the fact that LJ does not capitalise usernames is why my name is properly not ever capitalised. It looks all kinds of wrong when it is.) A decade on, and... I just can't imagine going through the effort of creating a new online identity unless, I dunno, I was in material physical danger.

[venivincere]

I don't know that I could or would ever change; I thought long and hard about this one before I chose it, and it embodies everything I came here to do: to conquer my fears of writing, socializing, all of it -- and get on with putting myself out there and getting used to it.

That said, I have no problem with accreting more identities (I also write original gay smut under the name Graeme Diamond, though not in a fannish space like DW or LJ) but most likely not for the purpose of socking or flouncing or any other reason like that. I have enough honest complications in my life to want to add anything ridiculous or superfluous. :-)

[beachlass]

I use beachpsalms in spaces online where I'm more identifyably clergy. But it feels like a pseudonym, where beachlass feels like my name.

[sanj]

I've had enough trouble going from Justine--> Sandy Justine--> Sanj, and that was a fairly organic process involving my actual legal name and nickname. I'll answer to any of them at this point.

That said, I have an urge once a week or so to make a sockpuppet who could write the id-fic I am somehow too chicken to just up and create. I even have a name picked, but Then I'd Have to Kill You, and all that. ;)

(It would be a Vorkosigan reference about as recognizable as Miles' oh-so-subtle Dendarii Mercenaries. If that makes sense to you.)

[toft]

I'd be called sheppardsgirrrrrl. That way people would automatically assume I'd been around for 9 years or so. Such a name, ironically, would confer legitimacy and respect to my sockpuppet, who I would then use to rec and praise all my fics, attack my enemies, and also initiate witty repartee with myself.

[fullygoldy]

um.

I feel like I do when I almost get the literary injoke in one of those serious lit-ra-ture books.

[toft]

?

Well, I just mean, people would think that I had picked that name in the first flush of SGA fandom, so nobody would suspect that I'd only created the name yesterday! (Unless they looked at the date stamp on the journal). It's the perfect plan!

[fullygoldy]

sorry for the super late reply - I was cleaning out my mailbox and stumbled across this.

I just meant that the original scenario/explanation you described sounded like you were alluding to something that had already happened in your experience (not you), and I'm just not so well-connected that I could go "oh yeah, like that time when 'fill-in-the-blank' got caught doing just that."

[flipbook]

this made me snicker.

[snarkyducky]

i love "Banjo Hayworth"
vidclip at 0:32 http://top10hollywood.com/jude-law/rober-downey-jr-jude-law-on-moviefone-unscripted-about-sherlock-holmes

hee!

[panisdead]

Huh, I don't know. I've considered it for fun before, but nothing really struck me. The idea makes me pretty self-conscious, actually--I just showed up with this name; if I went to rename myself I'd feel like I was showing off my deep, personal, quasi-mystical desire for rebirth to the world. /hyperbolic issues

Uh, I also recall liking your Sentinel stories back in the day.

[cereta]

Oh, lord. If I had to, I would probably go with Rhetorica, which wouldn't be much of a secret identity, would it?

[vickita]

Well, I have a couple of pseuds out there in the wild, one based on the name of the town I was born in, and one based on the name I was born with (I'm an adopted child). Heh. But those are Super Top Sekrit, and I don't expect to use them in a context that people actually associate with *me*. Don't cross the streams, man.

But like azurelunatic said, I am massively attached to this particular name, at least for fannish purposes. It was hung on me 15 years ago by dear friends, one of whom has passed on now, and it's *mine*. I expect that it may very well stick with me to the end of my days. :-)

[akacat]

akacat or aka cat, since that's what I've already changed my name to nearly everywhere.

I used this name for about 25 years, and I thought I would never, ever change it. Then some jackasses on a forum thought it would be really funny to word-filter it to something insulting and ableist, and now I pretty much can't stand it.

(Some day I'll get off my ass and put through a name change here.)

[cluegirl]

I have been thinking that it might be necessary for me to come up with a secondary nom de plume for when I venture into different genres of writing. Publishers are loathe to sell an epic fantasy YA book from an author who's also done adult erotica, don'tchaknow.

So I've been thinking of Rhys (or Rhysa) Ridley. Because Kingsgrave is a derivation of my adopted father's name, but Ridley is my biofather's name.

[likeaduck]

This is already my second journal handle, since I got tired of the first being unpronounceable. I'm quite attached to it, but I do have a sock for things that I don't want connected to my rl or fandom identity...it is Darkwing Duck-related, because that's what happens when a duck needs a secret identity.

[ellen_fremedon]

I don't know that I could. I've been Ellen Fremedon for over eleven years, I answer to it in public-- it's who I am. And Ellen actually is my middle name, so I can't distance myself from it too much.

I have long had a couple of pseuds in mind, in case of need-- one for projects associated with RL me (say, in case I decide to write a food blog) and one for projects associated with Ellen Fremedon (say, if I need to make a fannish journal my family doesn't know about). But in either case, I'd expect to keep being the old identity-- just hanging out in a new place.

[pauraque]

Oh man, I totally thought up another name ages ago, when I was writing something I was too embarrassed to post. I never finished the fic, though, and I can't remember the name! Now this is gonna bother me.

[devon]

I have/had a number of pseuds over the years. I was born *D--*, and when I transitioned to live as a man in RL, I was *Devon*, but it was never my legal name, and I still use it all over the internets because it's gender non-specific. I've been using it since about 1995 when I found usenet. It was my first username on LJ in 2000 until my Dad found my acct, and that's when I switched to *greyhat* over there. (like, neither White Hat hero nor Black Hat villain? I think I found it somewhere in real hacker speak.) On sites of no importance, I use *crankydevon*, because when I was Devon, I was, well, pretty damned cranky most of the time.

Any dating site that I use has its own unique username because I don't want those perverts finding me in the real world! (OKCupid, I mean you!) My legal name is fairly unusual, so there's a higher likelihood of someone getting a successful hit.

[devon]

oops. If I had to come back with a new name, it would totally be Emily Spencer, one of my old roleplaying characters. I just like how it sounds, how it could be innocent and sweet or hard-bitten and snooty.

[starwatcher]

.
As so many have said, I'd find it hard to change; StarWatcher IS my fandom identity. (And I really want to kick LJ and DW for not allowing caps.) I even asked Richard Burgi to autograph his cap to StarWatcher; "Linda" and "fandom" don't go together.

If I had to, maybe Willow_Rowan after my first two horses... but I wouldn't want people to expect I'd been in BtVS fandom. Maybe... Galactic_Observer? That's a lot to type.

I think I'll just keep StarWatcher.
.

[mific]

I'd like to change mine because I suck at choosing cool pseuds. Don't much like my current handle but it's attached to everything so I won't change it. Also won't change it because I suck at choosing cool pseuds so the new one'd probably be even worse. *g*

[mergatrude]

After a moment of panic I spent a couple of years being secret_garden, but it never sat comfortably and I was glad to resume being mergatrude.

[krait]

This is something I've been contemplating fiercely the last two or three weeks, after suffering a fandom-RL breach. *nervous*

I am surprisingly attached to this name, which I actually just sort of made on a whim and then had to jump into when the last breach occurred!

As I've already changed my AO3 name to Serpentine, I would do that here, too, but it's already taken. I think I'd try to keep the reptilian connection, if I could; I'm so used to being a snake now! :D I contemplated "sserpentine" or "szerpentine", or even "serpentinestone"; my old slash-novel-reviewing name, "poisoninthevein", comes to mind, too. Perhaps a combination/alteration, such as "poisonlance" or "venomous"? "Chrysopelea", the genus name for flying snakes, also has some appeal...

Alternatively, I have pondered switching to some other branch of Reptilia, and choosing "glasslizard" (it looks like a snake!) or a name based on a dinosaur I like.

[auctasinistra]

Well ... I have a different LJ for each fandom I'm involved in, so I got to enjoy the making up of fandom-specific names, which I liked a lot. I can't imagine a reason to go and come back, and I don't think I could come up with new names for each LJ, but I do appreciate the desire to toy with one's LJ identity.