In a year and a half of blogging I’ve realized something….I have broken an unspoken rule of the trade – I have not given those I love clever pseudonyms while writing about them!
The most famous one that comes to mind is Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman – the successful “High Heels to Tractor Wheels” woman who garnered a full feature story in the New Yorker, a book deal, and a spot on Food Network. She calls her husband “Marlboro Man”. Why? I guess he looks like one.
It was somewhat embarrassing to suddenly realize this. To try to correct this situation, I decided to take a look at the creative names other bloggers have chosen. The list is not exhaustive by any means but I’ve chosen some of my favorites.
There’s Renée at Lessons from Teachers and Twits with a son called Tech Support.I love this! It’s clear this child is a partner in her blogging world.
There’s MJ Monaghan who writes about MLB – My Lovely Bride (Presumably this is his wife!)
On to Stacy at Slowing the Racing Mind – she has a couple of names: The Huz (husband) The Girl, and The Boy. Simple but it works well.
Ironic mom has twins – twins that she calls Thing 1 and Thing 2, reminiscent of Dr. Seuss. Ironic Mom also has a famous sense of humour and a book deal (which is amazing and fun and cool all at the same time!)
On we go to Simple Life of a Country Man’s Wife – she keeps to the theme by calling her love “The Country Man”.
And Missindeedy? She has Sweetboy. Littlesundog who blogs at Day by Day the Farm Girl Way goes simple with the initials “FD” and Ann Voskamp, famous from her One Thousand Gifts has “The Farmer”.
These pseudonyms protect those we love; they allow bloggers to write personal content without bringing their families into a place that could be uncomfortable. It is also a clever way to personalize or ‘brand’ your blog,
But the idea brings up a deeper issue:what we choose to share and not share online through the medium of blogging. We know readers connect to personal content — blogging is about a relationship and relationships grow when we feel like we know someone, can relate with them in their conflicts, joys, laughter and tears. Blogging can be as complex as any other relationship. But our real-life flesh and blood is an even more important (and complex) relationship.
The idea that we would hurt someone who shares our dinner table and DNA is not fun and could have long-term ramifications.
In no way have I worked this through….I haven’t even thought up the pseudonyms yet and it’s a little late. But I am beginning the conversation.
What I would love to know is this:
Do you blog and if so what do you call those people in your life who you love, write about, and want to protect? If you don’t blog, what do you think of the names people give their “others”? For both bloggers and non-bloggers – what are, or should be, the rules of writing about those we love?
Related articles
- Burnin’, Burnin’, Burnin’ (thepioneerwoman.com)
- Cookbook Day (thepioneerwoman.com)
- on growing a blog (chookooloonks.com)
Marilyn R. Gardner 
One of my friends refers to her husband as SB (silent Bob) in her blog. I have no idea whether the comedian Jeanne Robertson blogs or not, but in her sketches she calls her husband “Left Brain”.
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Love both of these! Does Silent Bob ever give an opinion on his pseudonym?!
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LOVE this, I find it interesting too!!!
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I love you! Thanks for reading :)
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Ha! We do the same thing in our emails. I was always The Big Sis, my brother closest to my age was always The Bro, and then came The Other Bro (he’s much younger), and then my only sister was always The Sis. Simple, maybe obvious, but it always served to clarify who was writing to the family, but not to anybody else.
I’ve never thought about using different names on my blog, but then I guess I don’t often write about the people closest to me, either. Good thoughts!
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It is interesting how and whether we decide to write about those closest to us. I think all of us, whether we give pseudonyms or not, have a protective view that comes into our words. I Iove that you did this as a family. My question is: What were your parents called?!
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My parents? Oh, we had a bunch of silly pseudonyms … more childish than not. ;) Most often, though, it was simply mom or dad.
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Hah! I can be first! We don’t use pseudonyms in blogging, but some time ago the younger members of our family started signing off emails as follows:
The Eldest.
The Youngest.
The Male.
The Middle.
So inevitably we became either
The Dad, The Mom … or The Parents.
Signed,
YBB
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Love this! Our family needs something like this! We sometimes sign off as “the Parentals” or “the papa” and “the mama” but it hasn’t taken off to the kids yet. And thanks for being first!! :)
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Oh I forgot to sign properly….Signed, YLS
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