I had one once I realised that a lot of my campaigning work and my locally known reputation might prevent me from opportunities or certainly cause discrimination (both positive and negative) but soon after I started using it someone tried to organise a meeting between the real me and my pseudonym as they thought we’d appreciate the connection. lol.
Because I go on holiday alone a lot, or did anyway, I also sometimes like to give a fake name if I chat to someone new who I know/hope I’ll never see again but this is mainly because I’m quite the fantasist and it appeals to me to play at being someone else a little bit, rather than trying to hide who I really am.
Yes all the time. Perhaps not quite so much IRL however I have had post delivered to my workplace and they had to ask every Caroline in the building because it was a different (fake) surname.
I still stand by my belief that everyone should change their name every birthday (parents get to rename their kids for the first…10 years? Then you can work through the list of names you never got to use, then from 11 up it’s up to you).
love a pseudonym, especially really crap ones that are like anagrams or whatever and obviously fake. only use them online really for different accounts, websites, etc. coz i don’t want like my music stuff getting mixed in with like true crime or gaming chat. whole different kettles of fish.
never tried it IRL really but that sounds like fun on holiday or something, add a little frisson to things! though i do remember once being invited to an awful party and was having a bad time so started introducing myself as ‘daryl’ to everyone for no particular reason and telling them i worked in digital marketing or something.
I did for a while on social media because my job used to make people get quite angry with me and one of the people I was involved with was flagged as having firearms in the house and I got a bit freaked out. I’m one step removed from that kind of work now so back to being me again.
I have one on facebook because of a girl my ex was sleeping with who started stalking me a bit, and general history nerds always trying to add me…but now facebook won’t let me change it back to my real name! They’ve let me put my real name in brackets after it but that’s it. What a load of bs, can legally change my name as many times as I like but zuckerberg won’t allow it.
When i was about 15 or so, a few pals and i got picked up by the police for underage drinking in a park (and shouting pigs and running off), gave the name ‘Carl Simmons’.
Got taken home but luckily my mum and dad was on holiday and my elder brother didnt give a shit.
Whenever I’ve been in a situation where I think someone is a bit sketchy, I’ve told them my name is Alex.
This tends to be people talking to me unwarranted on a Night Bus/tube usually.
oh yeah i’ve had to make peace with people from here just calling me eric forever now. it’s actually far preferable to the nickname a lot of my IRL mates use.
I used to do this but with a White Guy Name (my non-White Guy Name isn’t even remotely hard ffs), which I’m not particularly proud of. Mostly getting a 3am burger at the trailer of life instead of at Starbucks, though.
Wor Lass’s brother shares a first name with a popular character from a Disney but uses his very Scottish middle name in these situations to avoid bullshit conversation or people being unable to hear a foreign name properly.
I use a variety of pseudonyms for writing and music projects because I like being able to make stuff without anyone who I’ve worked with previously or been in scenes that I’ve left finding it (or my mum finding it and making a big song and dance about it). Funnily I actually have two professionally registered pseudonyms because you have to apply to PRS to use them in a professional capacity, so they’re to some extent also legally my names. I also get emails to those names, which means my sense of self is a bit squiffy.