Second Glances with Arabella

In a recent article, I wrote a long feature that covered the history of last names in Second Life, including how they were reintroduced about five years ago. I call these “The Next Generation” because, in addition to being a huge Star Trek: TNG fan, there is a large enough span of years between the original names that SL residents were once offered and the reintroduction of them to consider them a whole new generation.

For those born as a “Resident”, the reintroduction of names was a huge deal for them since they could finally have a real last name of their own if they chose to, and this included me, at least on this account. My original account, created back in 2010 just before they ran out of last names, had the last name of Lowbeam, and even though I only use this account now for work, inventory and photography, it was nice to be able to change that name for the much classier Addams name.

Taking a new last name has advantages, making it a lot easier to get a first name you want and having a unique combination of both. The user name also is what most in-world devices associate with an account, which has technical advantages for some. The downside is that there is a cost involved with doing this, the amount depending on your type of account (free, plus, premium, etc).

Of course, any resident can change their display name to pretty much anything they want it to be, and this costs nothing to do. Flexibility and free are both good benefits but there are few disadvantages to this as well because your display name only is seen if the other person has it enabled on their viewer to see display names. Some choose not to, and will not see anything but your user name, which might be JaneDoe123GamerGirl Resident. Some people I have talked to say they disable display names because some residents choose fonts that are difficult for others to read. These are all things to keep in mind when choosing and using display names.

Since the release of “The Next Generation” of user last names, I’ve endeavored to keep track of the ones that have been issued and the dates they were released. Just for fun (and because I like to track compile useless data), here is a list of all last names issued since 2020, with the currently active ones shown in boldface. Also, for easy reference, I’ve included a link to the list on the main page of my blog, which I will update as new ones are released. Drop me a line if I’ve missed any of the post-2020 name releases and let me know what your favorites are!

~ Arabella