First Names and First Impressions.

I have to admit that when it comes to first names, I can be very prejudiced.

If your name is 'barbie', I wonder to myself, "Why haven't you learned that proper nouns are always capitalized and/or why haven't you learned how to use the shift key on your keyboard?"

If your name is 'Barbie117', I wonder to myself. "Couldn't you be a little more creative than that?"

If your name is 'ClothesLuvinBarbie', I wonder to myself, "Why you are so one dimensional?"

So is this just me? Or do others hold the same or similar prejudices when it comes to peoples first name choices.

And I'm not picking on the girls! Insert 'Ken' and I would be thinking the same exact thing.

I don't think I have those same thoughts, but I really like first names that are a play on words with the last name, or are just very creative. I wasn't overly creative in picking my name, but I have found that it seems to fit my avatar, and myself to some extent.

I do agree with you, though, that I think much better of the avatar (to a small extent) if they're name is capitalized. It just seems strange to see a first name with a lower case beginning.

So, tell me, Jethro, what do you think when you see my name?

I must admit to being a little worried.

When i see someone named Barbie or some weird name i think SHIM.

I do love the wordplay names, I miss seeing Landing Normandy post here, but some of them are lame.I think of first names with lower case letters is endemic of text speak, I see it in offline writing too much.

I can just imagine what LittleMe would imply to someone.

The funny thing is that the first thing that comes to my mind when I see Jethro is The Beverly Hillbillies show -- if you in the US and old enough, you'll understand that - but I will immediately discount that and not make any assumptions based on it.


I do make some assumptions if the name is not capitalized because I remember getting a confirmation message when I first typed in my name and missed capitalizing it - so I corrected it. That tells me that if someone's name is not capitalized, then they got that message also and chose to continue anyway.

I think that's human nature Jethro. We all do it in real life too to some extent. How about characterizing guys who go by 2 names and the second name is either "Ray" "Dewayne" or "Earl". I don't know about you, but I imagine some guy on death row. Is that fair? Nope...and apologies to those of you who have those middle names. I live in East Tennessee...so names like that are rather common (but not as common as popular culture will let you assume).

Because of my age perhaps, the first thing I think of when I see the name "Jethro" is "The Beverly Hillbillies", even though I know that name is Old Testament Bible (Moses' father-in-law).

I agree with you.. what's with the non-capitalization stuff anyway? k.d. lang and e.e. cummings did it on purpose, so maybe that's what "barbie" did too. But it's that old first impression you've got to get past.

I've known people create accounts purely to be a submissive, and have written their name in lowercase for that reason. On the same theme, I always think it's odd when people give themselves titles as (or part of) their first names. "Master" or "Lady" whatever. That always puts me off talking to them, despite trying to remain non-judgmental.

Jethro makes me think of the band (Jethro Tull). I always picture Brenda as Brenda Lee. LittleMe Jewel brings to mind what my grandfather used to say about how men should treat women - 'comme des p'tits bijoux'.

Someone mentioned that they thought I was one of 'The Biggest Losers', had to look that one up, lol.

Since you actually pick out your own name here, as apposed to RL, I'd say it does say something about you. Even if not that much. Not using a capital letter in your 1st name is a little strange, but whatever. Just don't be surprised if I avoid you if your name is Mouthbreather.

I have been fooled by names thinking the person is male instead of female.

Lower case and all UPPER case names tell me the person is new to the interactive environment of chat rooms and forums. Names with numbers make me think the person is an ALT. Except for the example listed below.

I very much admire the really creative names that work with the last name, like 3Ring Binder and Sling Trebuchet. Those are awesome creative names. Hope 3Ring and Sling don't mind me using thier names.

"CX"

While I don't think about it too deeply, I do wonder why people don't notice they've not capitalized their first name upon creation....and to follow on the 'Barbie' thoughts - I just wonder if they all like the colour pink?!!

Although I was in entirely too serious a mood when creating my av, I love names that play with each other. I scrolled through the list of surnames recently and came up with the following that is more like what I'd choose if registering now: Lifecan Alter, Laughing Camel, Contentwith Destiny, Fatal Fall, Change Gears, Tipsyon Halfpint etc (no idea if any of these are already taken! )

I feel like a dunce! I used my 1st RL Name & birth date. Picked the last name at random till I found it was from the Anne Rice books I read.

Oh well, makes it easy to spot my name in a heavy chat session!

Funny how LittleMe got shortened to Lil. It's like a nickname with a nickname

I don't really think about it too much but if I see a name like 'HotSXYstud123' or some other highly imaginative name I tend to avoid them like the plague!

hummmmm....

I'm old enough to remember the Beverley Hillbillies (although at that time our family TV was powered by an endless succession of I and my siblings pedalling furiously, so we didn't have it in colour.... - this was the UK in the early sixties after all!) But I now associate Jethro with Agent Jethro Leroy Gibbs of NCIS (which show I happen to lurve) ... so there you go.

I can only admit to a slight amount of creativity (Incanus and Merlin both being wizardly names) - my favourite still remains Pyroclastic Flow ... though I did once have a shopper in my little shopping village called M-nstr--l Flow, which I thought was a little "icky" (the dashes replace the letters so I can't be accused of adversely naming names lol)
Inc

I think it's a natural reaction. I try not to judge people based on the name they choose, but the Barbie's, Bunnies, and SweetiePie Jones' of the world make it hard. L33T11!!11!eleventy!!11 Recreant isn't going to pull in a lot of respect from me, either. It's something to try and avoid though - SL is pretty diverse and you never know what perspective someone else is coming from.

OTOH, I love the creative names. 3Ring and Sling have been mentioned, but Teeny Leviathan is maybe my favorite SL name ever. I've found that people with really creative names like that tend to be really exceptional people.

Teeny Leviathan is also my favorite name!

And I'm partial to "Timeless Prototype", a perfect name for a scripter.

I try not to judge by names, since some people came into SL as their first online community experience, and thought of their name more as an email address than as part of their identity.

My main has a cute name, but this alt was supposed to be really just for conferences and business, so she's stuck with this endlessly boring name

Nika? Even you? I figured you might HAVE an Alt, but you ARE an Alt?

I love some of the names out there. Some people have brilliant imaginations.
Puns and other plays on words are fanstastic.
i didn't have the forethought to consider something like that for my name, I just used my RL first name and picked a second name i thought sounded nice and got it on the first try.
But I have come to really like my name as a whole. It kind of reflects my personality I think.

Some people seem to lack imagination though. I once saw an avatar with the first name of '123456789'. The last name was something really random too. i am sure they were a nice person but i can help but think to myself that they must have been reeeeelly bored. Sometimes I can't help but to judge first based on names. i change my opinion pretty quickly though

I never know what to call people like that.

"Hi 123456789" "So, Onesie McNumberpants, what's shakin'?

/me hits 123456789 with an abacus.

45! The sum of their name. ( /me retrieves his abacus to check the math he just did in his caffiene addled head. )

Well my first and last name were chosen because they DO sound like hillbilly names. And I chose Jethro, because Bubba just sounded dumb! lol

But I forgot that the character in NCIS is named Jethro. Maybe because they always call him Agent Gibbs. But did I really forget it? Stubbs, Gibbs? Maybe my subconsecience was fully aware of it at the time. Hmmmm...

I do like the first names that play on the fun last names that LL creates. They show some creativity.

And wouldn't it be politically incorrect for Barbie to be submissive to Ken? Shouldn't Ken be the submissive one in this day and age? And how submissive can you really appear when you can't make your last name lower case? Why not just call yourself Slaveboy to show everyone how submissive you are?

Oh well, I guess that's the beauty of SL, we can be whomever we choose, even if other's prejudge you on it.

Now I'm going to go create my alt, Slaveboy Freeman.

Putting it bluntly, I think names that people come up with to try to be cute are just plain stupid. For example: sentences used as names like Iwasherebut nowimnot. Or some of the others used with all types of xxx's and ooo's and numbers, different signs and symbols.

Many times you'll encounter someone with a ridiculously long name and or with all different kinds of symbols and I for one won't even try to type up their names to talk to them even if I had to.

Lol, yup. My other alt, the one I used for camping, will be easy to convince to come to the Alt party, but everyone will know who she is, she's interchangeable with me, sigh.

But I can't convince my main to come near the Hangout, so you're pretty safe from meeting ... her or him. S/he/it's in semiretirement anyway.
.

Well since you asked!

I never gave it much thought, other than to wonder if the singer Jewel was a Suni Muslim.

But it wasn't in caps and it wasn't a number.

Although now I'm guesing that Sunny was taken and that Sunni was your second choice. Which is better choice than Sunny1.

I'm actually surprised that I did not know that. You learn something new everyday.

And Earl Stubbs would have been a really good hillbilly sounding name.

My next alt will definitely be named Earl!

I suppose names say something about the owner, not sure what mine says though