4 ms·

I support this site as I also use a "pseudonym" (I call it a real name, but I will use pseudonym in this post to avoid confusion) almost everywhere. The only pl

I support this site as I also use a "pseudonym" (I call it a real name, but I will use pseudonym in this post to avoid confusion) almost everywhere. The only place my legal name is found these days is passport, birth certificate, forms related to visas, and the bank. Even my payslips, and the insurance company use my pseudonym. One degree has my legal name on it, but my current degree will have my pseudonym on it. Drivers license has legal on it. Medical insurance has pseudonym. But I gotta say, facebook and google never asked for any proof of name, so I use my pseudonym there. They are probably the two places I have had the least trouble using my chosen name with. Shrug. Maybe people should pick believable ones. I would much rather see people fighting for the right to use their chosen names when interacting with the government and banks etc, than bloody facebook.

stinkytaco 15y ago
I must admit that I'm confused here. Why (and how) use a pseudonym for medical insurance, payslips and degrees but not for passports. I'm not even sure how that would work. If your legal ID has your name on it, how could you use a psuedonym effectively? Why not just change your name?
- MrKurtHaeusler 15y ago
  Well I use my pseudonym wherever I can. I would like to have it on my passport etc, but I cannot without legally changing it. I guess legal ID is less important than most people think, as I am able to use my pseudonym reasonably well. And as far as I am concerned, I have changed my name, that is why I use the term "real" name rather than pseudonym. To me the legal name is actually more "pseudo" than the name I chose. I have contacted those in charge of passports and birth certificates etc, and let them know that I have changed my name, and offered them the chance to correct the mistake in their files, but they have decided not to do so, which is up to them I guess. I may undergo the legal process of "changing my name", making it official, at some stage, but to me that is like me paying to help someone else correct a mistake in their files. Also there isn't really any pressing need to. It may even be advantageous to have my real name, which gets used everywhere, and which I am known by, but the government knows me by a different one. Heh you know I shouldn't even be talking about the government as if it were a single entity. I just checked my tax stuff, and it is all my chosen name there. Not sure how that happened.

stinkytaco 15y ago

I must admit that I'm confused here. Why (and how) use a pseudonym for medical insurance, payslips and degrees but not for passports. I'm not even sure how that would work. If your legal ID has your name on it, how could you use a psuedonym effectively? Why not just change your name?

MrKurtHaeusler 15y ago
Well I use my pseudonym wherever I can. I would like to have it on my passport etc, but I cannot without legally changing it. I guess legal ID is less important than most people think, as I am able to use my pseudonym reasonably well. And as far as I am concerned, I have changed my name, that is why I use the term "real" name rather than pseudonym. To me the legal name is actually more "pseudo" than the name I chose. I have contacted those in charge of passports and birth certificates etc, and let them know that I have changed my name, and offered them the chance to correct the mistake in their files, but they have decided not to do so, which is up to them I guess. I may undergo the legal process of "changing my name", making it official, at some stage, but to me that is like me paying to help someone else correct a mistake in their files. Also there isn't really any pressing need to. It may even be advantageous to have my real name, which gets used everywhere, and which I am known by, but the government knows me by a different one. Heh you know I shouldn't even be talking about the government as if it were a single entity. I just checked my tax stuff, and it is all my chosen name there. Not sure how that happened.