Comments on: 'Real' names

By: Hexdoll

Hexdoll — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:23:44 +0000

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet but I’d be less inclined to take a big whiff of a flower named “steaming pile of shit”

By: Loupie

Loupie — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:11:42 +0000

My point was why do people insist on having to know peples legal names outside of formal situations. Surely it doesn’t make a difference what your friends know you as.

As to needing a name to post. I don’t really care what you type in that box it’s just a useful way to identify individual posters.

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:11:59 +0000

Strangely you require a name in order to post comments on this page.

OK, point of fact…
Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii was taken into care at the age of 9 because she was being teased and was embarrassed by her name. She was made a ward of court so she could change her name without the permission of her parents. There is a growing movement by the courts worldwide to not allow parents to give their kids dumb names. Courts have previously blocked the following names: Cinderella Beauty Blossom, Fat Boy, Fish and Chips (twins), Keenan Got Lucy, Sex Fruit, Stallion, Twisty Poi and Yeah Detroit.

You referred to a name as a ‘legal name’ which is kinda the point really. Think of your name as like your car registration number, the thing that helps the authorities differentiate you from others. Nicknames are normally given by friends to their friends while their ‘legal name’ as you put it is reserved for formal use.

The other point of nicknames is that they are normally given to other people; people don’t make up their own nickname. Nicknames are a term of endearment between friends and normally have no place outside of in informal friendly relationship. I have a nickname, well I have several, but they are for my friends to call me and not for strangers, colleagues, policemen or telephone salesmen.

By: Penny...I think

Penny...I think — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:02:06 +0000

All my life I’ve been known as Penny, except internet aliases. People who had known me for years were sometimes surprised to learn that wasn’t what my birth certificate said. Then when I started at CERN I hit a problem – trying to tell any admin people your name isn’t letter for letter what your passport says is like getting blood from a stone. It would have been no harder to use my common internet alias of metalgirl2045. So instead they use my “real” name of Penelope…and nobody can pronounce it (usually comes out Pennylop).