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What's in a Name?
When I lived in New England, I was once told that there are two people who worked the hardest in the world. The first “Hardest worker” was the individual who built all those stone walls that separated farmsteads. These walls are EVERYWHERE! The second individual was the one who came up with all the names for the roads. Case in point; Singing Eagle on a Branch Rd. Try that for a mailing address!
I would like to add one more to this list. I would like to nominate the people who try to come up with an individualistic name for their profile on the lifestyle sites. Have you seen some of these names?
SXY4U2, IN2DEEP, GR8LVR, H0TCPL, 9IN1DER, ALLWAYSWET, BIGLOAD4U, CPL4BIFEM, BIGRLSTR8GUY….The list goes on!!!!!!!!
It has become increasingly difficult to find a name that has not been taken on the lifestyle sites. An individual’s name should be a specific descriptor giving the reader some hint about the person(s). As you can see on virtually every site out there, the individuals are becoming more creative every day. Some of these names look like a “Vowel Free” day on the Wheel of Fortune, ie… BBWLVR, or HRDDCK4GRLS.
From my research, I have discovered that both the lifestyle and acronyms got their start with the military. I am sure some will contest this statement, but let’s just agree for now. When we add the internet and the computer age to the mix, you have a world in which consonants rule and vowels drool.
I am certain that it is out of both necessity and simplicity that many names have been truncated and/or converted to acronyms. How would you like to have to type, MISSISSIPPICOUPLEWHOLIKESBISEXUALWOMENANDBONDAGEARELOOKINGFORALIKEMINDEDCOUPLETOTIEUPANDGANGBANGTILLTHECOWSCOMEHOME for your login? MSCPL4WN2BDSM4U is still long but more manageable.
With the advent of the internet and its chat utilities, people rushed to create names for themselves. Some people made use of creative yet descriptive names while others took a simpler route, JOE123. In its haste to become a communicative power, the internet left one thing out, a naming convention. Oh, sure, there was the 8 and 3 rule of DOS. We even have a 256 character name limit in windows. Some systems even let us use delimiters and/or special characters! OH JOY! Try to remember a screen name that looks more like a curse word in a comic strip. “@&$*&!%”
People hate to follow any real naming scheme or labeling system. I guess it all stems from our desire to be individuals. No one likes to be pigeon holed or stuck with one group and labeled as X. So, the creators of specific sites and chat utilities, in their infinite wisdom, realizing this, left it to the masses to find a way to name themselves. For us type “A” personalities, this is maddening! To the casual user, no biggie!
Moving one step further in this communication conundrum, let us add texting on cell phones. LOL, TTFN, BFF, L8R, JK, WTF, BRB, TTYL, ILY to name a few have turned full conversations into code that would have stumped the Germans or Japanese in WWII! Forget a team of crack decryption experts. Grab a 10 year old with a cell phone and you have a code that could possibly go for years without being cracked. Well, until another 10 year old got their hands on it.
So, to borrow from the Bard with a twist of Asimov, “What matters the string of alphanumeric characters? A sound combination in any other formation would not change its intrinsic qualities.” Keep coming up with those quirky and archaic yet limited screen names. Half the fun is trying to figure out what they are and mean.
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