name morphing via the web

I’m really glad that David noted how his name gets morphed by the Internet. I have a similar situation. My name does not have capital letters in it, but when people see me lower-casing things on the web, they assume i’m just being lazy or artistic or something. Folks think that they should be more proper when they address me. Yet, when i publish papers, people realize that i went through effort to get my name lower-cased and they recognize this is how my name is spelled. (That’s why there’s an h – it’s all balance.) So, yes, my lower-casing is not an accident.

[Of course, one friend loves to send me emails full of capital letters, to make certain that i have enough for when the apocolypse comes. He sends me D’s and B’s just in case i needed a few extra.]

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5 thoughts on “name morphing via the web

  1. Andy Baio

    Have you had any luck getting the government, IRS, DMV, social security, credit card companies, and so on to use lowercase for you? Also, is it on your birth certificate or did you legally change your name?

  2. zephoria

    I changed my last name legally in 2000; at that point, i reverted to the lowercase that made my mother give me the ‘h’. All of your public records are all caps. The capitalization pattern is dependent on your signature, which i changed when i changed my legal records. For example, my old advisor’s name is Andy van Dam. The last name starts with a lower case based on signature, but his recors all say VAN DAM. Personally, i’m fine with all caps since that’s not something that any of us identify with. All of my diplomas, school records, publications, etc. show the lowercase.

  3. Liz

    I find it fascinating how your request for proper lower-casing of your name (which to me seems perfectly reasonable) is frequently met with negativity (as in the recent comments on m2m).

    Once nice thing about the “morphing” is that it makes it fairly easy for you (and your friends) to quickly differentiate between people who genuinely know you and those who don’t. 🙂

  4. Randy

    Wait … your name is not Zephoria? Well anyone who is minimally interested in what you say should read your bio so that they under stand simple stuff like ‘context’ and ‘point of view’. Some of your posts are considerably more enlightening once you appreciate who wrote them and the shoes / fuzzy white boots you wear.

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