The aesthetics of names

[firecat]

This is a post by Mike Elgan on G+ titled "The trouble with Google's names policies: Real unconventional names = Bad. Fake 'normal' names = OK."

https://plus.google.com/113117251731252114390/posts/XtkGjGsBA3V

The post itself is not what I want to talk about though. It's a comment in that thread by Robert Scoble, a big Google+ booster who has recently been going back and forth about what he thinks of Google's name policy.

...some people have "non common" names and I do have empathy for those who really have weird names, like M3 (if that's really his legal name).

But that said I am totally groking the AESTHETIC that Google is going for. They are trying to look different than Twitter is and I really really like seeing names that look common here. IE, most everyone I've met in the real world has a first and last name.

I can scarcely put into words the rage I feel about the notion that people's names are an "aesthetic" issue reasonably subject to control. It's racist, sexist, classist, xenophobic, and just about every other -ist and -phobic I can think of.

If Scoble were to say "I want to use my name, and I don't want to feel pressured to come up with a handle," I would understand it. He says he doesn't like Second Life because he wanted to use his name there, and I also don't like Second Life's policy of requiring you to use a name they pick for you (you get to enter your own "first name" but you have to choose from their list of "last names"). But to think that "I really like seeing names that look common" is a good basis for a policy? Or to even think that it's worth uttering in public? I don't get it.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Well, he hasn't met all that many people different from himself, has he? Off the top of my head I can think of at least a dozen people (all Indonesian) who only have and use one name.

[firecat]

I live with one. (Who is not Indonesian.)

[trinker]

I had not realized your name as a couple was (A) and (B lastname) rather than (A and B) Lastname.

Huh.

[firecat]

Well, it's complicated!

When we got outlaw-married, we both took Lastname because we thought we were going to have kids, and we wanted everyone in the family to have the same last name.

But then we decided not to have kids, and we decided we would use Lastname socially, but not enact a legal name change to Lastname, because (A) wanted to be mononymic.

So (A) changed his name legally to (A). And my legal name is still (B Oldlastname).

But we published our book under A Lastname and B Lastname.

So I wonder what Google+ would think my "real name" is.

[trinker]

Wait, what?!

I'm confused as to whether there's an Oldlastname that I never knew, or if there's a new Lastname that I didn't hear about.

I think it's the former.

Anyway, not like I really care what they are, because I'm just as happy with you being
A and B, and B's nom-de-LJ-etc.

[trinker]

p.s. Trinker, legally $randomEuro/$Japanese/$Slavic. I was told my legal name looks fake, but Trinker $Japanese or Trinker $Slavic would look totally plausible.

(Not by anyone at Google.)

@.@

[firecat]

I was told my legal name looks fake

*headdesk*

[trinker]

yeaaaah. Something about the juxtaposition of Japanese and Slavic. Coming from a geeky American Jew, this was bogglesome. I'm pretty sure there are a significant number of Japanese-American/Ashkenazi marriages out there with hyphenated surnames of similar structure.

[firecat]

I'm guessing you don't know either of our Oldlastnames. The social Lastname we took is what I use on Facebook.

[trinker]

Ah. Okay. Yes. That's the Lastname I know. (Egad, how long has it been?!)

[firecat]

13 years!!!!!!!

[oursin]

There are also people who have more than first name/last name
Sir Rupert Iain Kay Moncreiffe of that Ilk (also quondam Unicorn Pursuivant)
Okay, I do not think G+ is aiming at the British Peerage and Baronetage, with its complex naming practices (and let's not go into the even more complex European practices).
But there are, at least here in UK, perfectly real people with hyphenated names on their governmet-issued documentation (did I see that G+ is counting hyphens as a symbol and thus no-no?)
And the not inconsiderable number of people with three names? (including a significant number of authors). What happens to them?
This guy has lived in a really small bubble and doesn't get out much, obviously.

[lilacsigil]

One of our local doctors is in fact a Baron and has several names! My girlfriend has an apostrophe in her surname, which her bank won't accept but Visa will, which caused issues. I wonder what Google+ is planning to do with Spanish-speaking people and their naming traditions?

[oursin]

'von und zu' not allowed!