Growing up I was not painfully aware of the banal, generic quality of my name. My dad complained about his name (which was, and I am not making this up – Sam).
But that was before the internet put us all in a global competition for handles. (And let me tell you how shocked I was to get the relatively straightforward domain 6c53d1dfdc.nxcli.net).
I have particularly struggled with my twitter handle. It was logosmith when I created the account in 2007. Over time I grew disenchanted with this handle (which I also had a domain associated with) and switched to askgaryanother. Never fell in love with that one. The bottom line is that I’ve always just wanted – my name, dangit. Not my name plus my job, career, place I live, childhood pet, etc.
After playing with it for an inordinate amount of time today, I found that @garyLNsmith was available. LN represents my middle name, as the USPS would abbreviate it, so it will have to do.