What is your opinion on pseudonyms?

[miseryhunting]

I have always had an issue with sharing my art online under my real name and have minor paranoia one of my friends or colleagues will find it. I am not even drawing anything embarrassing and I like my art, I just don't want them to see it? Is it too weird?
Soo, it is obvious Zoe is not my real name, but what is your opinion on using pseudonyms? Are you yourself using one? What are your reasons?
I'm curious

[J.Lovelace]

I do use one : )
My pseudonym (pen name) is Juta Lovelace, which is not my real name XD
Even though my real last name is kinda cool because it means "wolf".
I just find it comfortable to use a pen name.

[kkitty]

I use Hadria because my real name makes it extremely easy to pinpoint who I am when combined with my race. I got some random people that I know in real life tell me 'oh my god, you're the creator of AP' or 'oh my god, you're __ in real life, right' just because the combination of the two nationalities that I am added with the fact I draw alienates me so harshly.

It's kind of cool, but I just hope nothing uncool happens because of it. And this is all using Hadria and not my real name, so you can imagine why I'd want to avoid using my real name. I'm okay with people I already knew knowing, but I'm not about to let strangers search me on google and stalk me on the internet.

[ConradComics]

I use a pseudonym.

As to why I use one on Tapastic, it's because it's on the interwebs, and most of my internet presence is under the name MxxPwr. So, I felt it would be easier to direct people who know me on the web to this site, if my pen-name and internet name were the same.

As to why I use a pseudonym on the web? My history with the web, I guess. Almost no one used their real name in the 90s. Doing so protected you. Not just if you were a troll, but also protected you from trolls.

I realize expectations are different from people on the web now, and if I were to ever have a Patreon, 'business' Twitter, YouTube channel or the like; I would probably be more forthcoming with my name. But, until then...

Not that it's out of fear, fear. I mean, my real name is Frank, for what it's worth. Just my cautionary experience with the web.

[DeadAccount]

I use a pseudonym to avoid mixing up comic work and my professional 2D work, but it's been getting a bit confusing. Claire isn't my real name, but it sounds like one, so people tend to get confused when I introduce myself differently in real life...and I do tend to go with my real life name out of habit. Didn't used to be a problem until i started doing conventions, but now I feel like i..need to resolve it and use either one name or the other.

[keii4ii]

I didn't choose my "real name." In fact, even my family doesn't actually call me by that. So even though I make no effort to hide my real name (not much concerns for privacy here), I really, really, really do not want people to call me by a name that's so disconnected from who I am. People I'd first met online naturally called me Kei when I met them in person, and I'm 100% fine with that.

Now, there are some pseudonyms that are obviously just usernames...? Like "ArtisticHero2000"? That's a little awkward. Pseudonyms are fine, but definitely consider branding your identity with something that wouldn't make people feel silly calling someone by it IRL. XD

[Sanz]

Mine is just sanz. because my government name has too many letters to me and has no personality. lol its always nice to pick your own name

[Michelle]

I feel like one of the few people who doesn't use a psuedonym :x Mostly because I've never been able to think up a name that fit, and no nicknames ever suited me, so I just go by Michelle. I don't really hide what I do online from my friends so I never felt a need to call myself anything else.

[Chopythes]

I don't use a pseudonym, but I understand the people who wants to!
(As a kid I wanted to be an actor, or a writer and I wanted to change my name to Melanie J. F., I even used it on some short stories I published on LiveJournal, but I quickly erased them as I wasn't comfortable with having a different name than my own).

When I went under the name "NellyOnly" people always thought it stood for something else, a nickname.
So I got all these questions IRL when I attended different cons what my REAL name was and I had to excuse myself that no, Nelly happens to be my real birth given name.
So, now on the internet I just go by my real name, it's easier that way and I kind of enjoy the attention 8)

[shazzbaa]

My given name was "Diana Bennett" and man if you google that name you'll get.... an awful lot of people who aren't me. It's pretty unremarkable!

In highschool I had an art teacher who mentioned that she wasn't opposed to taking her husband's name, but her whole reputation as an artist was tied to her maiden name by the time she got married, so she kept it. I thought that if I ever got married I'd like to be able to have the choice, so that's when I decided I was going to need a pen name, so that no matter what my last name was, people would recognise me. I chose "Shazzbaa." (There's a story behind it.)

It's what I used online, and then I introduced myself as Shazz or Shazzbaa almost exclusively in college, to the point that when I graduated and my name was called, lots of classmates were shocked to learn Shazzbaa wasn't my legal name. My friends and family mostly know me as Shazz, there's just a few grandparents and such who never switched over. My given name feels like a weird baby name I've outgrown.

So I guess I use a nom de plume, technically; but if you ask about my real name, Diana is my legal name, but Shazzbaa is my real name.

[Mharz]

Well for starters I use pseudonym to protect my identity from any malicious internet schemes. (Yeah call me paranoid. Plus I don't want people to write my name on the Death Note or anything like that. LOL) My first name is super common you'll probably find millions of people with similar names. I only use my real name on extremely formal businessy stuffs and my screen name for the interwebs.

"Avi" is actually a name of one of my OCs (the one on the profile picture) then I merged it with a nickname I came up in highschool, "Mharz." So it's "Avimharz" or just "Mharz" I've been using this for years that it became my brand.

[GoldenPlume]

Here is something to consider:

Amazing Comic #123 by InterestingNameXyZ works just fine online, but most readers in a book store are not going to plop down $15 USD for a print book by InterestingNameXyZ. It does not look as professional as John Q. Smith.

If you have print aspirations, and you are going to choose a pseudonym, you may want to put some thought into one that would look just fine on the front of a printed cover.

[Vikiro_Hop]

I like Vikiro Hop because it felt weird just enough to not be like anything, but at the same time it could be a name from somewhere far away. I feel like if people happened upon a name like it they wouldn't really know what to expect from it. As for using a pseudonym it goes a long way for helping me detach myself from the work and produce whatever I want. I like having a barrier between myself as a person, my work, and finally the person who produces that work.

[heterodont]

I've already messed up having a 'unique' pseudonym because my online handle is a anatomical term that means having more than one tooth morphology, I love it so much more though than my actual name because 1. My actual name seems Awkward to pronounce
2. Something about fans referring to me by my actual name seems? strange? a little too close to comfort in a way

ofc if I was ever gonna make something professionally I'd opt out of using my pseudonym, but in mean time it is my 'brand' I'm out to build.

[misterloki]

I use a pseudonym out of necessity. I have a name that is incredibly easy to google because of how unique it is and I focus predominantly on LGBTQ comics with a family that is very against queer content. That said, I think the important thing with using a pseudonym is consistency.

I am Mister Loki on all of my books and Mister Loki is my handle across all comic media and the URL for my website.

I think it's perfectly fine to use a pseudonym. A lot of people do for their own reasons. It's just a matter of how you want to brand yourself!

[joannekwan]

I used to use a pseudonym when I was a teen, which is warranted since the internet's a big scary place. Nowadays I don't care anymore. There are lots of other Joanne Kwan's out there and I'll be laughing all the way if I drag down their reputations with my smut drawings. cackles

[scythe]

I never use them. They're totally lame.

[infectedbloodcomics]

I use a pseudonym, because I am a private person and I want to be left alone IRL. It also didn't help the fact that a couple of times I was nearly physically attacked because of my comics, just because they had violent scenes that really hit a nerve (those scene were nothing gratuitous - all that anger had to do much more with the readers' personal issues than with me or my comics). So, privacy all the way, thanks

[ashriott]

I have thought about using my real name on several occasions, but when it came to it, it was hard to do. I much prefer a pseudonym... Partly for privacy, and just cause? lol

The real issue here is picking the pseudonym you want to potentially stick with for life xD

[Babel116]

I initially used the nom de plume just cause I thought it sounded cool, but with the current outrage climate on the web and being easily identifiable, I feel it's best to keep my actual name out of reach.