It's heEeeEere ---> yup, you can finally change your account name in SL!!!
...And on 14APR20, I changed my name from ℳαʝɨҟᐺɨӽڠɳ (BlueVioletVixen.Lorefield) to ℳαʝɨҟᐺɨӽڠɳ (MajikVixen.Lorefield)...
This venture now coincides very similarly to the RL experience of changing your name... In the US, before 9/11, you could change your name by association (which would be to just start writing your name the way you wanted it to be, when creating a responsible/adult paper trail), despite whatever was written on your birth certificate. Since then, you now have to go before a judge to change your name (if you are not someone who chooses to have it changed by your marriage). The judge will do this for you as long as you're not doing something shitty like evading the law, you announce it to the world for records (via a newspaper in your county), and pay the court fees. Court fees can be waived if you are considered low income (admirably nice for a system to put the mental health needs of the ppl before money). You will get notarized documentation of your legal name change ... and then you will finally be free of all the ties that bind you and the baggage that weighs you down! ♥
Alright... so when I first made my SL account about 12 years ago, I did not know how "un/real" the experience would be. My normal internet handle has always been "MajikVixen" since the earlier part of this century. I feared repercussions of not being a bit more anonymous, all across the board. I don't want to state the obvious here to give you any ideas, but yes, ppl are fucking shitty sometimes and they warrant you protecting yourself.
After I came back to SL from a 5-year hiatus, in about 2013, I became comfortable enough to want to be recognized as "MajikVixen." However, when I decided to change my name, I was very disappointed to discover that the "name change" was actually only for something called a "display name" ...And the fact that a lot of ppl still kept referring to me as "Blue" (in important group chats or other business relationships) since they didn't acknowledge display names --because, I mean, why would you expect your display name to be taken seriously when one has the option to change it every week? + prolly for that reason, they purposefully opted to only be able to see "legacy names" from their viewer-- it all made me kinda strain my eyes from rolling them so damned much! :pForget creating an alternate account with the name you actually wanted, because everybody and their mother had defaulted into getting the very predictable last name of "Resident." And at that point, the lessor of all evils was for me to stick with the same ol' icky name; at least that way I could show a legacy (guess that's why they, therefore, call it a legacy name)... As genuinely, someone with a legacy name is more likely to have been around the block a few times, therefore less likely to be disrespected (as others think twice as hard before taking advantage of them), plus they get to show/honor their dedication/loyalty to the platform by having a name as proof.
/me shrugs and says, "Okay, Unconverted Darigan Aisha."
That's about the time I decided to say, "fuck it," and use unicode lettering in my display name ...Because, yup, if a lot of ppl aren't going to take it seriously, then there's really no fucking point in caring about it being legible for those who aren't 1337 (more and more things started revealing themselves to me as to why SL can be so very narcissistic too - although, A LOT has changed and we have come very far). ...But this shows me who all the idiots are, too, who don't take the time to read profiles! :p
Now, when I bought/created Zamargad, I created a private group for our home called "Ardours of Zamargad" to which I gave myself the role/title of "Lilith," and ppl started calling me that for either 2 reasons... They respected what I had done and who I am in SL, or they very simply couldn't figure out what I wanted to be called and just wanted to be polite. ...I like to think it's the first reason and ignore any contradiction.
I have so many names, you might as well jump on the bandwagon of everybody saying to me, "Just don't call me late for dinner, right?" ...LOL, fuck.
"Majik," "Maj," "Vixen," "MajikVixen," or, "Lilith," are all acceptable at this point. I'm done with "Blue." I need to be unique/creative, but still comfortably and respectfully recognized. Blue-violet is my favorite color (a purple that's confused for blue, and is sometimes referred to as indigo), but nobody ever seemed to care enough to be that specific/detailed in understanding. ...There's really no wrong way to screw up a painting if you put a little Majik in it, but there is definitely a difference between using Blue or BlueViolet paint (especially if your intention is to reference chakras & auras). "How do you feel today, Blue?" becomes more like, "Feeling Blue?" when I've done everything to not feel sad. Therefore, the name/reminder became an unintentional curse of making me feel uncomfortable and incomplete.Thus, I'm very happy that I've been able to change my SL name wholly and completely, to honor who I actually am. ...So that not only can I start taking myself more seriously (since that is the way others will respectfully address/treat me), but that deductively, ppl of SL will start taking SL more seriously, as well! :) So thank you, LL, for making SL that much more realistic and an extension of [my] RL. ♥
...Oh yeah, and then I had a bit of a minor social crisis... I wondered if I needed to reach out to all my friends and explain to them that I had changed my name ...so that they didn't think I was hiding from them, and that they wouldn't feel "butt-hurt" that their online friend list might be a little jumbled when they possibly couldn't find me, all without seeming full of myself or braggy. But, it's all been working out alright. We've all kinda reached out to the other at this point, said hi, kibitzed, and it was a very casual & light-hearted thing. Seems pretty seamless, TBH. Only "issue" was that one friend wanted to reference what we had talked about before, and that text file is going to be saved under my old name. No big deal. Ppl change their names all the time in SL now, don't you know? ;)
