# Is a Member allowed to register the name of a famous person as their Member name? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 15, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015 "2019-05-15T18:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/1 "2019-05-15T18:26:58Z")
In a thread I just read ( which I cannot link to because iPad, Safari, etc ), in G.Q. Regarding states and laws, someone mentioned the Doper **Barack Obama**. Maybe I’m crazy. But I thought we were not allowed to pose as someone else who was readily identifiable? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/2 "2019-05-15T19:05:46Z")
It’s pretty clear that the user **Barack Obama** is not pretending to be the real Barack Obama. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/3 "2019-05-15T20:36:54Z")
Okay thank you. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/4 "2019-05-15T20:49:48Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > It’s pretty clear that the user **Barack Obama** is not pretending to be the real Barack Obama. That’s exactly what the real Barack Obama would want you to think. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/5 "2019-05-15T20:56:33Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > It’s pretty clear that the user **Barack Obama** is not pretending to be the real Barack Obama. It still should not be allowed. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/6 "2019-05-15T21:13:12Z")
From the registration agreement: > [@](#): > > We reserve the right to refuse postings from screen names we find objectionable. There’s no bright line rule on what kind of name would trigger this provision. In the past, I think a name something like, ‘fuckthemods’ was disallowed. Similarly for names that were part of some kind of spam or advertising. Based on what criteria should the name in question be disallowed? There is no George Bush (41 or 43), but we also have [Bill Clinton](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php). [Ronald regan](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php), and [Ronald Raygun](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php). No Jimmy Carter, but there is [John Carter of Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) (that’s a stretch). Honorable mention to [Wesley Clark.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) Lots of people pick names or derivations of names of well known figures. That’s not enough to disallow a name. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/7 "2019-05-15T21:17:25Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > From the registration agreement: > > There’s no bright line rule on what kind of name would trigger this provision. In the past, I think a name something like, ‘fuckthemods’ was disallowed. Similarly for names that were part of some kind of spam or advertising. Based on what criteria should the name in question be disallowed? > > There is no George Bush (41 or 43), but we also have [Bill Clinton](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php). [Ronald regan](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php), and [Ronald Raygun](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php). No Jimmy Carter, but there is [John Carter of Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) (that’s a stretch). Honorable mention to [Wesley Clark.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) > > Lots of people pick names or derivations of names of well known figures. That’s not enough to disallow a name. We even had a Curtis LeMay. He’s still here, but has changed a bit over the years. (including his name) ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/8 "2019-05-15T21:50:14Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > That’s exactly what the real Barack Obama would want you to think. Far out, man:cool:😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/9 "2019-05-16T02:06:11Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > It still should not be allowed. I concur. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/10 "2019-05-16T02:52:07Z")
Wait. You mean the former president isn’t a member here? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/11 "2019-05-16T07:05:12Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > It still should not be allowed. Um, why? What on earth is the big deal? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/12 "2019-05-16T08:15:02Z")
Jim Butcher isn’t famous like a president, but he is a well known author who posted under his own name here once upon a time. Seems to me that if someone is the actual “famous person” in question they would be allowed to register as themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/13 "2019-05-16T12:15:32Z")
And the name **Curtis LeMay** changed to is also a famous real person, **Qin Shi Huang**. I think it generally becomes clear fairly quickly whether the person using a name is the actual famous person. The only problem I could foresee would be a famous person trying to register, and discovering that their name was already taken, but that’s a bridge we’ll burn when we get to it. And **Jim Butcher** , if you’re reading this, when can we expect the next Dresden Files book? I’m eager to see more of a certain character, after a certain major change in that character’s life at the end of _Skin Game_. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/14 "2019-05-16T12:29:28Z")
If a famous person was posting here, we’d most likely never know it because it would be very hard to have normal conversations with normal people without his or her fame getting in the way. In “Henry V” by Shakespeare, the king walks among his soldiers disguised as a common soldier himself so that he can hear what they really think and feel without his royal station impeding hearing the truth. KING HENRY - “I think the King is but a man, as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me. The element shows to him as it doth to me. All his senses have but human conditions. His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are. Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/15 "2019-05-16T12:40:04Z")
This’d be problematic, right? Define famous. Give me an example of someone who is not famous and such a username would be allowed. It becomes an enforcement challenge, right? I think it doesn’t matter. Just don’t be objectionable to the mods. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/16 "2019-05-16T13:22:10Z")
Just to clear things up. While Bubbadog is not my real name I am THE famous Bubbadog. If this causes any problem I would be happy to change it to my real name, Bryan Cranston. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/17 "2019-05-16T15:05:54Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Wait. You mean the former president isn’t a member here? He is, but he goes by a different name. We should have a contest to see if anyone can identify him. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/18 "2019-05-16T16:18:13Z")
I just want to clarify that I’m not - repeat _not_ - the infamous cartoon toad. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/19 "2019-05-16T16:43:23Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Um, why? What on earth is the big deal? Because someone could indeed take that post and put in on Faux news claiming it’s a from the real person. And once the claim is out there, the facts dont matter. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-member-allowed-to-register-the-name-of-a-famous-person-as-their-member-name/834015/20 "2019-05-16T18:10:43Z")
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