Nicknames and Pseudonyms

In my '30 Days of Funny' challenge I mentioned that I had the nickname 'Dave' in High School which was a mixture of annoyance and pleasure.  To go further than that I have a pseudonym I use online sometimes, I won't share the full name but the first name is Adam - some of you will know the full name others won't and for those that don't, please don't take it as any betrayal of trust.  It's a name I sometimes use for writing etc where I wouldn't want to be personally identified.

In terms of a pseudonym there are many views that can be taken in terms of Psychology.  Some can argue that the name is in effect a Masquerade and therefore brings with it the same liberties being masked, unknown and free of predefined or predetermined expectations.  It can also be seen as a guise and therefore grants the writer freedom to entertain thoughts and feelings that they otherwise wouldn't.  In my case the reason I use it is that it provides a level of privacy and anonymity.

Another use for pseudonyms is that born of the desire to create a faceless individual or a faceless entity.  This can best be illustrated by groups using a single pseudonym as a collective guise such as a team of writers co-writing a book then released under a pseudonym to prevent knowledge of the fact it was not a single writer's work.  Or to take the desire for anonymity to a further point such as the hacktivist group Anonymous whose collective refer to themselves simply as Anonymous or Legion.  Despite Anonymous using Guy Fawkes masks as a symbol of their unity and as a privacy precaution the group remains faceless.  It remains faceless as the character of Guy Fawkes masks the true identity of the individual and the collective.

Another interesting point about Pseudonyms and Nicknames that it is also worth mentioning is the psychology behind our perceptions of names.  That is the impression of "strong" and "weak" names - often defined as names that strongly or weakly imply a native ethnicity of the country in general where they are used.  To give an example I have met a few people who have come to the UK to live, often with names that are not ethnically native to the UK.  I often hear of these people Anglicising their names for a number of reasons, often primarily touted as being "easier to pronounce" but can actually be argued as a sub-conscious desire for respect.

Whatever the reason for a pseudonym or a nickname, every year in the UK thousands of people issue requests to change their names by Deed Poll although their choices are often varied in motivation, there are those who choose to make their nicknames or pseudonyms their formal legal names.

Do you have a nickname or a pseudonym?  Would you ever make it your legal name?