I have been thinking (like everyone else lately it seems) of making an alt and have been looking at the names list on the page there and there aren't many good ones IMO, but besides that it got me to thinking of the why's and wherefores.
What I would like to see is for a Linden to answer this post with a clear, concise explanation of the naming system. It occurs to me that after more than a year playing the game and endless questions posts and threads about the names (even some started by Lindens themselves), I have yet to see *anywhere* a simple explanation of how the names are chosen and why.
Rumours I have heard:
- "After 30 first names are picked a last name is closed off for good." This is obviously false, there are many names that stay on the list for months and months and have hundreds of in world users.
- "The names are all RL last names but purposely spelt wrong so as to avoid lawsuits." It is certain that the majority of the "real" or well-known last names on the list *are* spelled incorrectly, but then there are quite a few that are spelled the right way like Shatner, Fermi etc. If there is no legal issue with spelling them correctly why are there so many that are well known last names spelled incorrectly??
if one wants to be the famous english Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, why force you to spell it "Neville Chamerberlin?" Is there anyone alive who has or ever had "Chamerberlin" as their name? What is the point? Questions:
- Why do the names disappear at all? Other than the length of the pulldown, why can't we just pick any name that is already established as an SL last name? If I have a friend named "Sally Bakslief" why can't I sign up as "Joanne Bakslief"?? this makes no sense to me at all.
- Why do some names disappear so quickly? For instance I am a Canadian, about 6 months ago a raft of "Canadian" names were added and I didn't get any because at the time you had to have a second credit card to get a name, (also all the insiders that LL let know the names were going to be released ahead of time got the good ones.
). In a very short time, all these names were gone from the list even though only 20 or 30 of each of them can be found in-world. Is this about popularity? If so, why the huge long list of absolutely awful names we have up there now? You can't tell me those names are more popular or would be more popular choices than the names that are no longer on the list. None of this makes any sense.
Since I cannot for the life of me see why this information should be "top secret," how about a Linden answers this thread with a clear explanation of what is going on with the names, how they are chosen, and what the point is of forcing people to use badly spelled weird names instead of just letting them pick their own.
Even if there is a reason to control the last name, I would particularly like an answer on why we cannot choose a name that already exists in the system?
Is it just because we were not fast enough to get them when they came out? Or because LL doesn't think they are "popular?" If so they are dead wrong. Many of the names that are already out there would be preferable to the ones that currently appear on the list.
