I figure the French probably have a term for this.

I, personally, never used the term “pen name” because I much prefer the term “nom de plume

I am likewise fond of the term “nom de guerre”, and although not as commonly adopted into English (only 7 hits on Google) I will often choose to use the term “nom d’etage”.

Now, I figure the French must have a similarly cool term for the names we assume for ourselves whilst anonymously harassing each other on the internet (I hope I’m not shattering any illusions here but, E.g. it don’t say bienville on my driver’s license).

I just reread the “question” in my OP and I realized that there isn’t actually a question there! :eek:

My question is this: Is there a common French term and what is it?

I have no idea, but I wish to propose Marionnette de Chaussette

Nom d’utilisateur? (Username) Nom d’abonné? (subscriber name) Nom de toile? (webname).

For that matter, what do you call them in English? :slight_smile:

I don’t know in English, but I nominate nom de toilet, which is not so far off from SavageNarce last one.

Some of us just broaden the meaning of “pen name”.

nom de clavier?

(Keyboard Name)?

LOL.

I’m gonna start using nom de toile toot sweet. :wink:

Nom d’autonatuer?

(Autonateur = poncy french attempt to come up with a non-english word for computer that you have to use in official correspondence with the cockpockets whenever you have the misfortune to deal with them or their government).

Yours,

Temps s’étendant d’hibou - un rosbif. :stuck_out_tongue:

Don’t you mean ‘ordinateur’??

Storey name ?

I think you might be disappointed, but these are generally referred to as “pseudos” in France, shortened from pseudonyme.

“Stage” in English has many meanings, and is rendered by different French words. The theatrical “stage” is not “etage”, though - it’d be rendered by théâtre or, if you mean the literal stage where plays are acted out, scène, or even more physically, les planches. “etage” sounds like a literal, incorrect, Babel-fish like translation to me.

I’d call it a screen name. That term applies more to AIM that to a message board, but I think it’s still valid. What would be a French translation of “screen name”?

nom d’écran.

That would be “ordinateur”. And I would add that, as weird as it may seems to you, we don’t call a vacuum cleaner “vacuum cleaner” but “aspirateur”’, a plane “plane” but “avion”, nor a satellite dish “satellite dish”, but “parabole”. I could cite hundreds of other examples. For some reason we feel the need to use non-english names for nearly everything. Including, big surprise, computers. How weird!
As for the OP, I don’t know of any french word with the meaning he’s searching for. Anyway, most internet-related words are borrowed from english.

Ooops! I misunderstood the OP and believed he was actually refering to a name used specifically to harass people.

A nickname is indeed, as mentionned by a previous poster, a “pseudo” in french.

nom da bomb!

“Nom de morte”.

Surnom.
Don’t thank me, thank Goole. :wink: