Naming Defines Us

I was thinking about the post that I made last week, about searching for myself on Google, and that got me to thinking about names and their power.

Recently, I wrote a critique of the movie Boys Don't Cry for the Women and Gender Studies class that I'm taking. The movie is about the true story of Brandon Teena, a transgendered girl (born Teena Brandon), who was murdered in small-town Nebraska in the early 1990's when his friends found out he was biologically female. In my critique, I discussed the power of names on one's identity. Here's a little excerpt from my critique:

"Brandon is born Teena Brandon, and assumes several fake names through the course of the film. He introduces himself to a girl at the beginning of the film as Billy. His fake ID, shown later in the film, has his name as Charles Brayman. Throughout most of the film, he identifies himself as Brandon Teena. Brandon was already in the habit of lying, telling Candace that he had a child of his own, and that his sister was a model in Hollywood, so assuming fake names was probably not difficult for him. It made me wonder, though, how much someone’s name can affect their personality. When Brandon is addressed as Brandon, his personality is proud, eager to please, and a little reckless. When he is addressed as Teena, he becomes meek, not like the outgoing person he is when everyone sees him as Brandon. He even refuses to acknowledge Teena as himself, saying to a police officer when confronted of a photo of himself as a woman, 'This Teena chick seems pretty messed up.' So how much does a person’s name affect how they appear towards others? When Teena assumes the identity of Brandon, he becomes that person."

Writing that critique, combined with all of my recent posts about identity, got me to thinking about what significance a person's name - or sometimes in the case of online identity, a person's screen name - really has on that person's identity.

Over the years, I've had several different blogs and most of them haven't been associated with my real name. Still, screen names have the ability to create a new identity. While your given name may not reflect very much on your personality, a name you choose may have more symbolic significance. These are names that you cerate for yourself, and because of that, you have the ability to reflect certain aspects of yourself in the name you choose. Hobbies, fandoms, favorite films or songs. A screen name has the ability to immediately give insight to what sorts of things you're interested in.

Because of the separation between identities online, you also have the ability to create several different personas for yourself. Who you are on a message board may differ from who you are as a blog writer, and blogging itself can be as personal as a journal read only by friends and family, or as public as a commentary on entertainment, society, politics, or anything else.