Ten Reasons You Might Want to Create a Random Name

Ten Reasons You Might Want to Create a Random Name Youre you, and youre quite happy that way. Why would you want to create a random name for anything or anyone or even for yourself? Its strange but true: you may well find the need to come up with a random name at some time in your life. Theres a good chance you have made your way to this article because youre in search of a random name for some specific reason, and its not because youre about to commit a crime at least, we hope not! The best way to find a random name is through a random name generator. Here are some of the reason you may want to come up with random names: Youre a writer You may have already decided on names for your leading men and leading ladies, but what about your supporting cast of characters? You cant call them all John Doe or Jane Doe. Looking at random names can help you come up with the perfect character name which you may not have ever considered on your own. You need a pen name There are a lot of reasons why writers choose to adopt a nom de plume. You could be writing on a controversial subject and want to avoid getting hate-mail from those who dont agree with you, or you could be writing in several genres and want your readers to associate different author names with each of these. Whatever you reasons, a random name may be just what you need. You need an online persona Participating in online forums and discussions is an innocent activity, but all too many people find they are targeted by trolls or stalked by sickos who make scary threats. Whether they are actually able to deliver on these is questionable, but it can be scary when youre using your real name. They could track you down on social media and find out where you work or even find ways to trace your physical address. Are you scared yet? Use an online name instead. You dont want to give away any personal information So many websites require signup details including your name and email address. Before you know it, youre receiving spam from people wanting to sell you fake pharmaceuticals and goodness knows what else. Although reputable sites do try to keep your details private, that information could be hacked. The results could include identity theft, so its no wonder that many choose fake names for website signups. Testing things out When you need good test data, using your own or someone elses information could result in some very real hassles for you. The solution? A fake identity that you use just to check that everything works as it should. Getting naming ideas for babies or pets Although most of us have ideas about what wed like to name our kids, our partners may not agree. If you need an alternative, random names could present you with some new ideas you hadnt previously considered. As for pets well, any idea is better than no idea, right? Your given name is difficult Have you ever dealt with clients in China? Youll find that theyve all got names like Vicky and Simon. Are they hiding there real names for devious reasons? No, they are being courteous. They understand that you may have trouble pronouncing their names, and have chosen something youll find easier to identify with. A fake name to hide a crummy real name We cant overlook stage names in this list of reasons for adopting or using a random name. If your name is Chris Crummey, it may seem that stardom will forever be beyond you. If you were to achieve fame despite your moniker, the jokes would be intolerable. Thats why Chris Crummey of the rock band Deep Purple chose the stage name Chris Curtis. Its way less crummy (with apologies to Chris). Your names taken Performing arts guilds are all too ready to take up cudgels against those who seek fame under the name of an existing member. Have you ever wondered what the J stands for in the name Michael J. Fox? It stands for nothing. Its just there because another, less famous actor with a guild membership was already named Michael Fox. But what if your name already matches that of a famous person? You might not want to be associated with the singer Michael Jackson just because thats your name. A random name might suit you better. You just like the sound of it Sometimes its just nice to have a name on hand that you use from time to time because you like the sound of it. Your parents ended up naming you, but if you could name yourself, what would that be? Going through a list of random names can help you pick the name you would have chosen for yourself. (Photo courtesy of Jack Dorsey)