I believe I read it here when the google plus real name policy was debated. Here's an old article mentionning this fake name trend: http://www.guardian.co.uk/s

I believe I read it here when the google plus real name policy was debated. Here's an old article mentionning this fake name trend: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/02/facebook-children-bullying-fake-names http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/02/facebook-child... I am not a teen anymore but I find this surprising because IRC, MSN was all the rage when I was younger and nickname was really the norm. Just like those _xx_daemon_xx_@hotmail.com addresses. I am a supporter of half-anonymous practices and I am surprised it's not more widespread than I believed. Update: And from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-Social-Media-And-Privacy/Summary-of-Findings.aspx http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-Social-Media-A... I can see fake names seem to be marginal, with people managing at least one real/official account.