I get asked about my name quite often by people who read my blog. I have always been asked about my name online, but increasingly so ever since Tololy’s Box was born. Tololy is not the name that is written down in my birth certificate and other official documents, you see.

I also remember that when Tololy’s Box was born, many people asked me why I chose to blog under this name and not under my official one. At that time, the heated debate on anonymous bloggers was popular in the Jordanian blogosphere, and I remember posting some comments on people’s posts which considered blogging anonymously as a form of “cowardice.”

Generally speaking, I am never in favor of extremes in judgment. In ways, anonymous blogging is beneficial to the people who choose it. In other ways, it is not so. The same goes for blogging under one’s real name, it has its pros and cons. To judge someone as cowardly simply because this person did not reveal their overestimated “real name” is simply ridiculous - in fact, anonymous blogging may be a necessity.

This brings us to the core of this post, I really am not anonymous. The guise people imagine that I wear by blogging under the name Tololy (family name: Tutunai) is extremely relative. I have met several of my readers, a number of fellow bloggers, and a group of employers through this blog. I even have a profile picture and another full-figure picture in The Visuals. Let’s say I reveal my real identity when I deem it fit.

But before bothering to criticize anonymous blogging, answer me this: what does a “real name” mean, really? Is it the name that your parents call you when you are born, or is it a name that you call yourself and have people call you and that, after time, becomes more real that the one scribbled in your passport? The flexibility of naming one’s self is simply too powerful to be ignored. Very few people call me anything but Tololy. Even my two-year old nephew calls me Toly (his version of the name).

Recently, I have been having an urge to unveil my “real name.” I am still thinking of the matter, but I must say I think it is a temporary whim and no more. I guess I need some changes around The Box and that then the temptation will be gone, as if they ever do.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Metablog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.