If you partner, will your last name be changed?

I just partnered with my RL husband here in SL but want to keep my SL last name because I have an established presence here. Someone recently told me that if you partner with someone, the female avatar's last name will be automatically changed to the male avatar's last name. That doesn't bother me in RL, but here I have already established myself and want to keep my SL last name. I have not seen this mentioned in the article about partnering.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Thanks so much,
Grace

Nope, your last name stays yours.

No not by just Partnership

However I seen some thing on Name change the other day, have to search

You can NOT change your avatar's name, even if you want to.

Whoever told you that your name would automatically change was (at best) pulling your leg.

Read this page in the Knowledge Base:

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=3895

"Linden Lab is unable to rename an existing account."

.

When I read the OP's question and the first response I was tempted to post saying that this would have been the shortest thread ever.

Pep (Except by posting I would have proved myself wrong; but now I can say it, because someone else posted redundantly. )

Not even LL is QUITE that antediluvian.

"Unwilling". They did it for Torley, so it's certainly POSSIBLE.

You can both make new alts with the same last name. Or bribe someone over at LL. That's about it.

Pep, the shortest thread has only one post, not two.



I met an avatar named Hell; his partner was Heaven. Same last name.

.

Short of bribing someone at Linden Lab, it is impossible to get your existing avatar's name changed to match some other surname. They refuse to do it, publicly.

They CAN do it, when it suits them. They change people's first names all the time, when someone creates an account with a "Offensive" first name. They changed Torley's account from Torley Torgesson to Torley Linden when he got hired by LL, and as far as we were told, his inventory and all remained intact.

So why do they refuse?

They don't want to do the work? Likely.

They think people would take advantage of things to do some sort of sneaky or illegal stuff, like "Getting Partnered and changing your last name because everyone now knows the old acount name is a scammer or a griefer". Maybe. That is one reason they state as why they can't/won't do it - "to prevent fraud". Right...

It's not a thread then.

Pep (with zero replies, it's an unanswered question. )

Actually, given how craptastic the asset servers are, think about having your surname or even first name changed on a whim. I assume that the objects you create are more associated with your avatar key than name, it might cause a small snowball to become an avalanche cluster-screw if done too often, by having to retrieve the new name as creator or owner when the thing is rezzed.

No, I don't know exactly how it works, but... if I was LL, I'd go along with that as an answer and as a resident, I'd believe it. I mean, snafu is the asset system's normal state, no?

Given the short length of time the average partnership in sl lasts, I would bet it would be a lot of work changing all the names and then changing it to something else when the partnership dissolves.

All your assets are registered to your avatar key, not the text string that is your Human-readable name. Changing the name should be as simple as changing one field in a single database, and at worst reindexing the database one time, since the database is searchable on either the key or the name itself.

There's no such thing as an officially male or female avatar. Your avatar - that is, the visual display corresponding to your account - can switch between male and female shapes as much as you want, as well as using shapes, poses and attachments to become a tiny, realistic quadruped, giant robot, etc.

A shape can be based on either a male or female model, but can be changed in various ways, some of which aren't even realistically human. Rumor has it that some people use the female model for boys shapes. It's certainly possible to stretch and dress a male-based shape to look female or vice-versa.

Thanks for all of your responses. The reason that person told me about the auto name change when partnered is that happened 2 years ago when his RL wife married him here in SL and within a couple of days her last name changed to his.

But, I'm glad to hear that mine will remain the same. I don't like my hubby's SL last name anyway.

Have a great day! Thanks, again, for your help!

It's amazing what you can do using the right skin.

I think I might be physically ill now. *shakes fist at ferret and hisses*

That's the avatar I use when people hassle me about having fur. They don't want to see it, they don't have to see it.

But it *is* using a female shape. Here's a less naked shot.

Other than Torley, and a couple other residents turned Linden, i have NEVER heard of anyone getting a name change, Auto or otherwise. I inquired at LL about changing my name to just *brie* since that's what i go by, and when i created this alt in 05 (she was my 3rd Avie, lol) i didn't think i would be using her as my main 4+ years later. They told me no, period. (and that was in 05 when the grid was 1/2 this size or less).

Garth & Pituca

They created the last name: Fairchang.

A combination of both their original names.

Grace, you can create a new name to share, but your SL name will not be changed to another already existing SL surname.

I used to want this so badly when i came to SL. I wanted to be a Weaver to match my partner.

I am glad that never happened.

Dawsons rock - all 3 active of us.

Exactly.

There was another. LL decided that "Coon" wasn't as good an idea for a surname as they first thought, and changed it to "Raccoon" for everyone who had picked it.

Your right.. I forgot about them, but i think what happened there was they bought X number of sims, and like some corporations do, got rights to that last name. I know there are only 12 fairchangs now... and i am pretty sure they own the rights to that name. I remember reading somewhere a company could *purchase* a last name for exclusive rights.

Good memory

~Brie

I missed that one but again.. that was an LL decision, not someone deciding to change their own names. Just more proof that LL can do ANYTHING they please regardless of what they tell us

~Brie