On the use of fan names

[wickedwords]

Everyone in fandom has a fan name. It is the name that most people in fandom use for a particular person’s body of fannish work, be it art, fiction, vids, archives, opinion, twitter feed, or LJ. It can be anything: it may be derived from a favorite fandom, the title of a book, or the closest object when creating a new account. Whatever it is, that fan name is important; it is how we know and identify each other in fandom. The fan name is casually used, and has the individual’s history behind it. Even when someone chooses to use a new fan name, somewhere along the way a translation is made, so that the old history gets associated with the new name.

Occasionally, a fan will choose to use their legal name as their fan name. Conventional wisdom says not to do it, but the use of legal names as fan names is something that goes in and out of fannish fashion. In the early 90s, there was a big push to use legal names as there is nothing inherently nasty or wrong about participating in fandom, but as the community moved on line, the concerns about negative exposure meant that more people chose to use fan names disassociated with their legal (or ‘real life’) names.

So while it does feel weird and awkward, if a fan has chosen to use their real life name as a fan name, it is not an outing situation when another fan uses it as well. The individual using their RL name as a fan name may choose to rethink that choice and migrate to a new fan name, but that’s no different than any fan who decides that their old fan name no longer cuts it. It’s tough, but eventually--usually-- the change is accepted. People with wank-filled histories may find it harder to change their fan names, or a translation matrix may always follow behind them.

Comments

[dorothy1901]

I'm curious as to what prompted this post. (Feel free to tell me to MYOB if you wish.)

[wickedwords]

It's actually something that's been on my mental backlog for awhile. I think the last thing that triggered an 'I should write that' was something cetera said recently--or maybe it was Nestra--about trying to discuss fandom with people who privelaged RL names in a fannish context. AKA--'you are using a fake name online! why should I care what you say?' when in fact the person they are talking to is using the same fan name that they have for a decade.

[ladyvyola]

And occasionally, the person's been using that particular fan name for longer than the other person's been alive.

[wickedwords]

It's amazing, isn't it? How time flies on the internetz.

[kass]

::nod::

It occurs to me that this fits in with a larger conversation about persistent pseudonymity on the internet. We're not the only community where it's common for folks to write under pseudonyms. Other geek communities, kink communities, democracy activists in places where their work is dangerous, women who choose gender-neutral pseuds so they won't be talked-down to or hit-on -- the internet is full of people using pseuds, either because it's cultural custom or because we want to protect ourselves from one thing or another.

To my mind, what matters is that our pseudonymity is persistent. I'm Kass; I've been Kass in online media fandom for more than ten years. (On lj I'm kassrachel because I couldn't get "kass" by itself, but I publish fic as Kass, I used to post to mailing lists as Kass, I hang out in irc as Kass; it's the name everyone knows me by.) It is as much "my name" as is [firstname lastname], at least in this sphere.

I know I've heard Shoshanna talk about how she knows us by our fan names and not our legal names, and for that reason, the fan names are our "real names" for her. It matters that she knows who we are in the matrix of connection and community which is fandom; it doesn't matter so much if she knows what's on our driver's licenses. I totally agree. :-)

[wickedwords]

It matters that she knows who we are in the matrix of connection and community which is fandom; it doesn't matter so much if she knows what's on our driver's licenses.

I think that's a part of why I want to stop using the term pseudonym in these type of discussions, because fan names aren't pseudonyms within Fandom. They represent a persons primary fannish identity, while the fan term sockpuppet is more aligned with the connotation of pseudonym in 'real name' discussions.

[dorothy1901]

Thanks.

Yes, the "real names are the only names that count" argument seems a little silly to me, considering the weight of tradition against it. Or are the people making that argument going to discredit the work of Mark Twain, George Sand, Lewis Carroll, Ellery Queen, etc. because they published under pseudonyms?

As usual, I'm of two minds about this...

[sherrold]

During the original racefail, many of the people participating were using their real names, surrounded by people they work with, or people in their industry.

The rest of the congregation were, well, us -- not sockpuppets by any means, using names we've used for a decade or more (on average), names with history and some level of shit-I-wouldn't-easily-give-this-name-up...sure -- but few if any of us were taking life/workplace risks in the conversation.

And the one person who did make an effort to bring a Real Name(tm) into the conversation was excoriated.

So, Teresa Nielson Hayden, for example, might lose free-lance editing jobs because an author or two no longer wants to work with her because of things she's said.** Most of us, on the other hand, had smaller risks. Lost of people on our flist; possible loss of actual friends...

Hmm, having said all that, I guess I think that there are three levels: real names, persistent (to use Kass's word) but not real names -- ones with accessible history, and people who change their names with their fandoms, or even faster.

**This is a for example -- I haven't read any where that authors are less willing to work with her, or other editors that were involved, since Race Fail.

Re: As usual, I'm of two minds about this...

[wickedwords]

I had a hard time wrapping my mind around what you are saying here, as the two communities have different economies--professional writing is about the money while fandom is gift based--but both are serious about the reputations of their participants. So at that level, participants of both communities had the same risk in reputation and what the fallout from that might mean within their respective communities. So it was a complete culture clash, and a lot of the stress over it was the way the two communities chose as the most important name.

Yes!

[sherrold]

It really was "when worlds collide". And we talked to them as equals, and members of the same community. The first may have been true (like I'm saying -- slightly different risks); the second *definitely* wasn't true...

Complete change of subject

[wickedwords]

Are we vidding this weekend?

[wneleh]

So while it does feel weird and awkward, if a fan has chosen to use their real life name as a fan name, it is not an outing situation when another fan uses it as well. The individual using their RL name as a fan name may choose to rethink that choice and migrate to a new fan name, but that’s no different than any fan who decides that their old fan name no longer cuts it.

I disagree. I'm not going to shout to the high hills OMG I'VE BEEN OUTED if someone slips and uses my IRL name where I'd like them not to, but it's common courtesy to call someone how they'd like to be called, and I don't think I'm being out of line when I ask them to chop off the last three letters of my last name. I do think it's my responsibility to establish the line, since it's not always obvious (I use my full legal name on non-searchable email lists and in private communication).

- Helen

[wickedwords]

So to me, it doesn't sound like you are using your real life name as your fan name. You have made an alternation to it --chopping off the last 3 letter of your last name--so while the two are similar, they are not the same. And when I look at your alias here in DW-land, it looks nothing like a RL name, so the situation doesn't apply.

[wneleh]

Well, it's "Helen W." backwards, so pretty close to my legal name.

I think what I'm running into is, I don't have a single fannish identity. I sign my fanfic "Helen W.", but I've only been writing fanfic since 2002, whereas I've been doing fannish things for decades longer, using my RL name most of the time. And every now and then I ask someone to rephrase something online so as to not tie my RL name to my fanfic (to my fannishness is fine). And usually they do.

[wickedwords]

Ah! So the issue is that you are in transition, and have a bunch of fan work under an old fan name which was also your real life name. Yes, that situation sucks, and it takes several years of consistently using the new identify for it to take root. it sounds like your going about it responsibly though, and not freaking out when people use the old fan name, but instead politely asking them to use the new one. Go, you, for being reasonable and rational here! Transitioning names is tough, and it takes a lot of work, but it sounds like you're making the best of it.

[wneleh]

Actually, I try to be as out fannishly as I can under my RL name, under the theory that fandom will be respectable when respectable people acknowledge their fannishness. Just, I don't want people finding my fanfic when they're looking for my science.

[(Anonymous)]

(here via metafandom)

I find this post really interesting, but there's one thing I'd like to respectfully dispute.

Even when someone chooses to use a new fan name, somewhere along the way a translation is made, so that the old history gets associated with the new name.

I first participated in online fandom about...six or seven years ago? Over that period of time, I've had about five or so different 'identities' (there may have been more that I don't remember.) For me, the whole point of adopting a new fan name is to dissociate oneself from the works and/or wanks of a previous one. When I first joined fandom, I wrote ridiculous ppurple prose script fics, constantly made inane pop-culture references and obsessively fangirled over whatever character had taken my fancy that week. For me, adopting a new fan name is a part of the fannish evolutionary process, a way of saying "None of these ideas/attitudes/fandoms really apply to me any more." Then again, maybe I'm just weird.

Anyway, sorry for the teal deer.

[wickedwords]

You know the way things are in fandom. Everything's okay until the flashpoint is met, and then suddenly, it's really not. Basically, the need of someone to keep track of an author's aliases is proportional to the amount of wank they have participated in, the amount of flouncing they've done, and how good the author's fiction is at hitting a reader's buttons. People do sit around and decode the stylistic ticks of a story, saying 'aha! that's who this person is' when they have a reason to do it. For most people, there's no real driving need to do the translation, but during a wank-fest, it happens.

[thirdblindmouse]

So while it does feel weird and awkward, if a fan has chosen to use their real life name as a fan name, it is not an outing situation when another fan uses it as well.

Doesn't it, though? Feel weird and awkward, I mean. When someone uses [what appears to be] their full real life name as their fannish alias, I find myself hesitating each time I'm about to type it, feeling like I'm posting their home address, or linking to a photo of them naked. It doesn't help the awkwardness that I also feel compelled to use the full name. In offline discussion one usually abbreviates personal names to just the first or last name, but online, there's no guarantee that either of the names alone signifies that person (e.g., you could have a person going by 'John Meyer', but also have a person going by 'Meyer', or someone whose real name is Elizabeth something but who goes by 'Jane King' because they're fans of G.I. Jane and MLK Jr.).

(It's possible I think about names far too much.)

[wickedwords]

I know! I throw people off as my primary fan name could be a real life name, and I go by it in all fannish settings, even the ones in my home town. But really, it's not.

[klangley56]

A rose by any other name and all that.

I have encountered fans who take their knowledge of a popular fan's "real name" and wave it around like it makes them special . . . silly, that.

My only problem with fan writers using multiple pseuds (and this is something that predates the Internet) is how it complicates following (or avoiding) their work.

[wickedwords]

Back pre-internet, I remember being told 'choose one name. doesn't matter what it is, but make it easier for readers to find you'.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

I soooo did not mean to wind up with everything I do online so tightly tied to my real life when I made my college email address in 2000.... but laura47 is forever linked to my real name. And I can't bear to stop using it online. And as I get more into creating things... I am just so torn!

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I've transitioned names three times, I think. My first fan name was Alys, though everyone used my RL name instead. When I moved on-line, I used Rachael Sabotini, and then wickedwords when I migrated to LJ. I didn't think about any of the transitions; they just kind-of happened. I'd say it really took about 5 years before wickedwords was as likely to be a name for me as Rachael "rache" Sabotini.

That said, you can take your RL name and change a spelling on it, add a middle name, or make yourself a nickname. Those seem to be accepted more easily than trying for a completely alternate name, unconnected to what you have been using. Laura47 is nicely generic, and maybe you want to move over to just using that.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

the problem is, googling for laura47 will always show lots of real life stuff and online stuff. My friends in real life call me laura47 more than laura [last name]. i had someone ask me if i prefered laura47 to laura. it's in my high school yearbook, it's my username on *everything*, i started going by laura47 when i was... 15? I'm 27 now.

mostly my concern is if i start writing fic or making vids with "adult" content... i'm working in education, but on the textbook side, and i am more and more convinced i won't ever go back to directly teaching children... but what if i want to? I'm just so *comfortable* in this name... i even have an alternate livejournal for talking about explicit things I don't want associated with my real name (it was a fad with my RL friends), I could move fannish stuff there... All of this has been bouncing around in my head for months now... hence all the ...

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

I work in education and go by my real name all the time - mostly because no one I know of would really care that much about the stuff I do, anyway.

My sense of the textbook industry - especially anything k-12 - is that it is more politicized than schools themselves and more vulnerable to criticism from ultra-conservative crazy people.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

For now, I'm at a crazy startup that doesn't seem to care about anything except trying desperatley to get the work done. I don't actually expect to stay in any kind of job for that long, honestly, my attention span is too short.

Too tired to think thinky thoughts about this now. :-)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Wow, so Laura47 is your nickname, and your RL friends know you by that. You can always do a cleverly disguised name like Laura1047 or or 47Lauras or Lara47 or LauraT47--your RL friends aren't going to go looking for that. And the employers won't know to go looking for any of those either. So you can still keep the name, modified slightly, and the fannish association.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

47Lauras, ha. I'll consider that!

[rhi]

For that matter, in the early '90s, a lot of people were participating in fandom through academia (as students and employees both) and the email they had available frequently included their real names.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

True! It's the issue that Laura47 is facing, that whole 'well, I set it up this way 'cause I didn't think it through. Now I want to change it, so what do I do?'

[watergal.livejournal.com]

So while it does feel weird and awkward, if a fan has chosen to use their real life name as a fan name

I have a much harder time when fans whom I have come to also know by their legal name use a fan name that sounds like a conventional IRL name, but is not theirs. For I am old and nearing senility, and cannot always remember which is which on the spot, and fear an accidental slip of the worst kind.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. I so empathize with that. It's tough sometimes to remember which name to use when.