Name Game

[trickykitty]

I can completely relate with how smokedamage finds it strange always being called "Smokey" as that is not his name nor was it ever a name for him back home.

I have grown accustomed to a couple of individuals upon occasion referring to me predominantly by a nickname, but it was only a very small portion of folks, meaning only 2-3 people at the most. Nikki has in the past always been used as one such nickname, just as I am quite used to my sister calling me Nic. If she calls me anything else it sounds funny. However, Nikki was never a persistent name. I began using it online to denote my "online personality" rather than coming up with something completely different and foreign. It helped put me into a certain mindset which in turn would flavor my online words and actions in a certain manner.

I never really thought much about it until meeting more and more people who began actually knowing me as Nikki. The strangest thing that I have come to notice recently is that due to the use of this name as now my most predominant name, that online personality seems to have taken control of a large portion of my real life actions and thoughts. Introspectively speaking, I don't feel like myself. I know that I am all one person and that both the real life and the online life are all aspects of the same being, but I am just starting to feel like I've been living someone else's life, and it doesn't feel quite like "me". I just find this realization odd.

Comments

[flemco.livejournal.com]

Is it still cool if I refer to you as "Totally bangable cooze?" Because I've thought of you as that for a while.

[trickykitty.livejournal.com]

Honey, your pet names send shivers down my spine.

[tagancalera.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Bill has been my predominant name since at least the age of 10. But, according to several friends (mostly women), I don't really look like a "Bill". Because of the large number of Bills/Wills/Williams and such in my current social circles I have started to go by the name Garrett (my middle name). Its been a little disorienting to be honest.

Who I am deep inside has another name though. But since it isn't in any way tied to my given names it really is an oddity to bring up. And since I associate that name with the darker sides of my personality probably for the best to leave it out of mind.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

So what is your real name? I thought Nikki was your given name, because you never gave any indication to suggest otherwise.

[tagancalera.livejournal.com]

I believe it is Nicole...or Bielzebub...not sure. >:)

[trickykitty.livejournal.com]

Heehee, it's Nicole. As I mentioned, I've become pretty used to everyone who knows me know calling me Nikki. A long time ago, back in junior high, I was really tempted to change it, but one of my best friends (whose given name was Nikkol) went by Nikki all the time. It's because of her given name that we all adopted the "kk" spelling of Nikki, instead of Nicky. Ocassionally people would call us Nikki Squared if we were right there together, but otherwise I was always Nicole and she was always Nikki.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

I met my ex girlfriend online, and let me tell you it was weird weird weird when we met in person and she persistently called me Cass. That's not my name, it's a convenient nickname (and it's shorter than channonyarrow, thank fuck, though people do call me channon which weirds me out a bit) but it is NOT what I had in mind to have someone saying that nickname during sex!

And it was for the reason you say - my online life and my real life had overlapped and not in a particularly positive way.

In conclusion, never pick a nickname that you can't live with hearing said during sex.

[sollitaire.livejournal.com]

LoL - I'd say that was sound advice. :)

[trickykitty.livejournal.com]

...

This leads to TMI.

I'll leave it at that.

;)

[sollitaire.livejournal.com]

I've had this online name for about 8-10 years now. In certain circles I'm known only as Solli (or Sollitaire - funny that my online nic has a nic now) and if anyone one of those people called me by my real name THAT is what would sound weird to me.

So I guess I'm kind of the opposite. When I meet people for the first time depending on the circumstance I usually give both names and it's usually what ever name they've heard of me before as that ends up being the one they go with. I'd say 9 out of 10 times it's Solli.

[trickykitty.livejournal.com]

That's why everyone who knows me now knows me as Nikki. Everyone is a friend I met through other friends who know me as Nikki, etc.

[40hex.livejournal.com]

Smokey will tell you about my collection of nicknames; Steve is my real name (Stephen actually), then I have two online names, 40hex and Leonor Grey, then when I moved to Sydney a few years back the cricket club (probably Al mostly) started to call me Silk.

[trickykitty.livejournal.com]

Yes, he always refers to you as Silk, I think so as not to be confused with 5tephe.