# Signing posts with RL first names **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 24, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023 "2003-11-24T16:08:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/21 "2003-11-25T04:39:28Z")
I don’t use my real name because I’m a Christian ---
**Author:** ![Chavardz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@Chavardz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chavardz)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/22 "2003-11-25T04:52:11Z")
I’ll post my real name: Salvador del Piero Juan Pedro Graza García Treviño y Rodríguez If that was your name, wouldn’t you avoid signing posts? ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/23 "2003-11-25T05:03:16Z")
There’re probably a crapload of other Rachels on the boards. Hell, I use my net handle in some of my CLASSES now. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/24 "2003-11-25T06:40:44Z")
I don’t sign my posts with my name, but I _have_ been known to address myself by my first name in some of them. -Kev ---
**Author:** ![hyperjes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@hyperjes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyperjes)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/25 "2003-11-25T07:16:25Z")
My real first name is right there in my user name. It’s Jes, short for nothing. I’m with **Ceyln** , too. I’ve had the same username for everything online for at least 8 years or so. It kind of _is_ my name. 🙂 **astro** , I don’t get it. Maybe I didn’t get the memo? ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/26 "2003-11-25T07:35:17Z")
I find signing your own post a little annoying/silly. Plus my first name is fairly unique and I don’t like to give it out easily. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/27 "2003-11-25T11:06:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Celyn \* > \*\*Isn’t is funny that a member with the usernam of **Shrinking Violet** is hapy about the use of real names? I mean, it somehow doesn’t fit.🙂 > > \*\* 😃 Well I am quite reserved really, but for some reason I find it difficult to submit a post without signing it as “the real me” (I’ve tried!! :rolleyes: ) … any more than I could send out unsigned Christmas cards. BTW, I’ve just realised that “Shrinking Violet” is the first user name I’ve ever used on the Net which _isn’t_ a version of my real name. Please note - I am solely talking about FIRST names here, not last names or full names, where security could become an issue. Just a first name is still pretty anonymous, isn’t it? **Darkhold** … I’m genuinely interested to know _why_ you find signing posts “silly”? Is it just a question of what we’re used to on other boards, and does my signing make me seem kinda airheaded to you? Getting the answer to this was my reason for posting. Maybe a clue is the fact that I use the Net to seek social interaction / friendship as well as infotainment - I am housebound and disabled, pretty isolated in fact, and most of the friendships / relationships I’ve acquired in the past few years have been online. Maybe those of us looking for social interaction are more inclined to reveal a little more of ourselves … waddya think peeps? 🙂 Julie ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/28 "2003-11-25T13:27:49Z")
I have always had the habit of signing off with my first name. I guess it goes back to when I joined the boards, it was just after the first troll invasion, so I started signing as Keith from Saskatchewan…and gradually shortened it to Keith. Keith ---
**Author:** ![MissBHaven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missbhaven/32/7170_2.png) [@MissBHaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissBHaven)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/29 "2003-11-25T14:11:55Z")
I think of a post as more of a conversation & it never occured to me to sign it… Stacy (just feels strange… oh well) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/30 "2003-11-25T14:43:18Z")
In real (?) life, I am known as Nott as often as by my given name. The running joke among my friends, the one linking my name to JFK’s speech, preceded my need for a user name. So there it was, ready-made. –Nott, the large ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/31 "2003-11-25T14:55:50Z")
It honestly never occured to me. Of course, I know dozens of dopers in real life, all by first name, so putting my name at the end of every stinking one of my many posts just seemed like a waste of time. Also, I get called different things depending on whom I’m with or speaking to. My older friends call me Nate, most of my newer friends call me J, and some Dopers [coughBiggirlcough] can’t remember names worth a damn and just call me Gorgon or Gorgy. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/32 "2003-11-25T15:19:16Z")
No, not _that_ unpronouncable symbol… mine’s a different one! ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/33 "2003-11-25T16:50:54Z")
Originally, my screen name was my real name. The WLD @ the end is the corporation I work for. After the big crash of 2000-2001, when the boards came back up, even though the server didn’t recognize my name anymore, it wouldn’t let me re-register it. I figure, if: the local, state & federal government, every mortagage lender & oil heat telemarketer, every catalog company in the Western Hemishere, every retailer I’ve ever used my credit card to purchase something with and a whole host of people I neither know nor have met have it, what’s the harm in using it. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/34 "2003-11-25T17:00:26Z")
I enjoy posting without always giving away my gender. It’s been pretty amusing to see how many people associate dung with masculinity. (On the other hand, I suppose that I also assume other posters with ambiguous names are male.) Julia ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/35 "2003-11-25T17:25:32Z")
I would never consider signing a post with my name. I also refuse to use sig lines. Regards, Barry ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/36 "2003-11-25T18:15:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Please note - I am solely talking about FIRST names here, not last names or full names, where security could become an issue. Just a first name is still pretty anonymous, isn’t it? Actually, no – my first name, combined with certain basic information about my academic department which I’ve posted numerous times, is more than sufficient to identify me. Not that I care all that much, since a really determined person would have figured it out already. Cheers, Nora ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/37 "2003-11-25T18:28:16Z")
I don’t sign with name, partly because it’s so common, and partly because I find that when people start referring to each other with their first names instead of screen names, it get very confusing. If you do feel the need to have your name on every post, might I suggest putting it in your sig? -Sarah (me and 5 million others) ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/38 "2003-11-25T19:44:32Z")
I don’t see the logic in it, because it’s not like, say, signing a Christmas card. You have to sign a Christmas card otherwise no one will know who sent it. But here, your username is your identity, and that is always visible. Besides, I rather like the anonymity of this place. It’s nice to to have a place where everyone _doesn’t_ know your name. And I have an additional problem in that the name I use in everyday life is not, in fact, my real name. But in the spirit of the thread: ~Iona ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/39 "2003-11-25T19:47:36Z")
> [@](#): > > **Shrinking Violet** > Darkhold … I’m genuinely interested to know why you find signing posts “silly”? Is it just a question of what we’re used to on other boards, and does my signing make me seem kinda airheaded to you? Getting the answer to this was my reason for posting. Well IMHO having your user name next to your post is like a signature to your post already. It’s not something I’d get worked up about but having your username then sign your real name at the bottom seems like patting yourself on the back. Of course I really haven’t been a player on any other forums but this one so if it’s common I’m just being irrational. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023/40 "2003-11-26T00:54:31Z")
On snopes, when I used to post there, in the spirit of the board, I always signed my name with an internym. Although I loved reading other people’s, it got to where it felt like I _had_ to do that even if it was becoming cumbersome. So again, although I don’t mind other people doing it, I’ve abandoned the practice completely. Except for the purposes of this thread… ~Kemi, hopefooly the only one! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signing-posts-with-rl-first-names/215023.md?page=3)