Photo credit: karola riegler photography from Flickr
Lately, I’ve been meeting a lot of new faces due to the Halifax Twitter community really putting the emphasis on social when it comes to social media. There’s even an entire wiki dedicated to the events around town, and it keeps growing. From Third Wednesdays to Halifax Chicks, random tweetups and even Pupp-E play dates (that’s right, my dog is a social media geek too), my Google Calendar is kept pretty full.
That brings me to the dilemma of making introductions. You see, I only came out of the anonymous blogging closet earlier this year. Most people I’ve met online know me by my Twitter handle: @Alias Grace.
So, I’m left in social situations with the awkward introduction of, “Hello, I’m Alias Grace a.k.a. Kimberly.”
And, after an appropriate amount of introductory conversation, inevitably I’m asked: why Alias Grace?
Here’s the long and short of it. When you’re blogging anonymously, you want a name that’s easy to remember yet reflects who you are. Or at least I did. The following is a breakdown of my thought process:
- First and foremost, I’m a bookworm;
- I needed an alias;
- My middle name is Grace;
- One of my favourite books is Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (hear me reading an excerpt on Seen Reading).
With the help of points 1 and 4, I was simply able to combine the other points into a name that actually had rhyme and reason. And it stuck. Not only that but I kind of built a brand around it.
Working in the online world, I know that finding information through internet searches is key. Google “Kimberly Alias Grace” and you find me. Try the alternative and you’ll just find a UK pop star who swears she never inhaled.
But here’s the rub: a short while ago, in conjunction with the launch of her upcoming book, the real Margaret Atwood appeared on Twitter (see point 4 above).
ZOMG!
This bit is where Frankenstein’s creature comes into play, right? Particularly since the character of Grace Marks in Atwood’s book is a convicted murderer, based on a real person. However Ms. Atwood, if you’re reading this, yes I would squee like a fangirl about that fact alone, but I can promise you that it’s not in an I’m-your-number-one-fan Misery kind of way. I’m just a geek girl bookworm who has been extolling the virtues of reading and literacy through social media (but in a nice way so as not to upset the villagers).
Me > Frankenstein’s creature.
I promise.
That all being said, it’s a whole other ballgame for CocaCola if my husband Cokebaby ever joined Twitter. You might want to hide your bottles now, polar bears.
Your turn. Do you have a nickname or online handle? If so, what’s the story behind the name?
Kimberly Walsh is a social media and online community manager. You can follow her on Twitter @AliasGrace.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I always assumed you were a big Atwood fan, like me. How cool you can take part of your “real” name and incorporate it into your alias which is, actually “Alias”. How amazing Margaret is on Twitter, I am now an ardent follower too.
I used to use “Bronte” a lot but more and more as the writer in me is emerging, I want to use my real name but still have a food focus, hence, Suzie the Foodie.
Love that pic!
witchypoo came from my family, who consider themselves to be comedians. It’s because of the psychic nature of my work that they decided to christen me after a dope smoking, green faced, wart infested witch (from H&R Pufinstuff) Hah. Hah. Hah. Family. I chose psychicgeek because although I’m psychic, I went to geek school to be well rounded.
I remember H.R. Pufnstuf! I used to watch that show all the time when I was a kid.
My Twitter handle actually comes from a pet name a boyfriend gave me. I enjoyed it so much I kept it even after we broke up! (it helps that we stayed good friends after) The other handle I have is for Flickr, which is EntoChick, entomology chick…yeah I like bugs and I’m a girl, it’s as simple as that.
Great post. I’m a big Atwood fan, and also just assumed that’s where your handle came from. Great that you could pay homage to her with your own personal twist.
As for my handle… I lost my younger brother when he was 25 years old. He was one of those people who truly lived life to the fullest and enjoyed every minute of it. Made me realize how short life can be, and I want the time I have left to be filled with the best possible life. So while wanting to have the ‘time of my life’ is great and all, I try make the most of the ‘life of my time’.
Nice. As one who has also lost family members at a young age, (Mother 45, Brother 43, Sister 49), I have an almost obsessive desire to fit EVERYTHING into this short life we have here on planet earth. I love this phrase, it’s very apropo. I hope you don’t mind if I borrow it now and then!
G
Mine comes from a failed experiment in doing creative work anonymously.
It started back in 2004; I was in one of my depressed moods, and nothing seemed to be clicking, so I said, “To hell with it, let’s do the anonymous thing.” So I tried to come up with something that was kinda like “alter ego” but was actually more “anti-ego”. I originally came up with “falterego” (note the subtle difference in spelling), and I liked the sense of stumbling that it gave. Alas, that handle was taken on Yahoo, which I was using for e-mail at the time.
So, rather than start from scratch, I starting fudging around with it, and eventully came up with “faltarego”, which was available, and magically added another level of meaning: Faltering at the altar of the ego.
I’ve been using it as a handle on websites everywhere ever since. And it’s now my domain name. Yay. But the anonymity thing never really panned out.
Suzie: You’ve got the perfect Twitter handle for what it is that you do. Easy to remember too, although I do have a fondness for Bronte books as well..!
Witchypoo: I think all families think they’re funny when it comes to name-calling..! I prefer Psychicgeek though.
_peanut_: Sometimes the simple truths make for the best handles.
Lifeofmytime: Thanks so much for sharing the story behind your very meaningful name.
Faltarego: I think you get the prize for most complex online handle even if the anonymity thing didn’t work out for you!
Complex works for me. Things are always more complex than I want them to be, and my brain is, alas, a great deal more complicated than I am sometimes able to deal with. And the world is getting more complex every day. So, yeah. I’m down wit’ dat.
Hey! Interesting stories here…
My alias “Porcelain Duck” came about in grade 11 (i think). I had a hotmail address using my name and my inbox eventually got too cluttered with spam to use signing up for all these wonderful free things i could find on this Internet thing…
Anyway, i was sitting around with my friend Kent and said “I need a new email, something that’s cool and won’t make me add 123 or 1983 after ny name each time…” and he said “How about Porcelain Duck”. And i said, yep. So there it is, my name for everything after that was porcelainduck (I’ve even got a letter for Porcelain Duck in the mail, from CIRA too, so double lol).
Well, my Twitter alias AuroraLee came about on a fansite where we did a very informal role play game. My character was given the nickname ‘Aurora’ from another character. The reason it was chosen fit me as well as my character and little did the other player know how much ‘aurora’ is prevalent around here. Not only did I grow up in a place where we got to see the northern lights quite a bit, but here we have a large contingent of Aurora aircraft on the nearby base… so the base newspaper is called The Aurora, many community rooms are called ‘the aurora room’.
Not only that, it’s much prettier than my other ‘net handle ‘Cprav’. So I adopted it for myself as well. Unfortunately “Aurora” is much more common on the net than I thought, so I added Lee which is my middle name. I now use that for twitter, my website and many other personal boards etc.
For fansites I still use ‘cprav’ as that’s how most people know me. I love languages, although I’m no good at learning them. Cprav (which I’ve come to learn should have been spelt Sprav) is short for a very long russian word meaning “Justice” which is basically what my real name is
Fun reading here!
AliceinParis… Alice was my grandmother’s name and she was an amazing business woman who started a small sweet shop in Scotland out of their their basement apartment while her husband was at sea and eventually wound up buying the building ….one candy at a time…. she inspires me. Paris is one of my FAVOURITE cities and I am always dreaming of visiting again. I think my Alice visited once on a bus trip:) I like how it sounds together.
porcelainduck: It was actually our conversation at the last tweetup that partially inspired this post. So great to see the stories behind other people’s names too!
AuroraLee: I think it’s wonderful how your nickname still connects you to a sense of place. Seeing the northern lights is on my to do list..!
shelagh: Thanks for sharing your nickname. I wondered how it came to be. Paris is also one of my favourite cities.
Back in my early stay-at-home Mom days, I was constantly searching for what I wanted to be when I grew up. As a martial artist (3rd Degree Black Belt), I had been approached to do some women’s self defence courses for local organizations. I enjoyed teaching the course so much, I looked for a certification that could help me identify not ony the physical aspects of self-defense, but the mental and legal aspects as well. I found R.A.D. (Rape Agression Defense), a course that would fit the bill perfectly. Unfortunately the one yearly course that would be offered near me, was at a time I was unable to attend. But that didn’t stop me from deciding to start a company – which I called R.A.D. Lady.
Fast forward to today, and I never did take the course. My professional and self-employment interests took me in a completely different direction…but I had so many websites, email and other things that I had signed up for under my first “company” name – I decided to keep it…and I think it still suits who I am, despite how I got there!
Radlady: I think life would be boring if our paths were always straight lines from point A to point B. Thanks for sharing your story about your online name!