There seems to be some confusion that my handle, Ravenwood is my real name. Over at Kim DuToit's, every email I send him he publishes as Steve R, and this week over at Amish Tech Support, I am referred to as Steve Ravenwood (which he later changed to Steve at Ravenwood).

I certainly understand the confusion, because I hardly use my last name. It's not that I hide it, because anyone could simply do a 'whois' query on my domain and figure it out. I'm just in the habit of either going by my first name, Steve, or my handle, Ravenwood. My surname, Carrick, just doesn't seem suited for publication. Throughout my entire life, I've found very few people that could pronounce it right, and even fewer that could spell it. You can probably imagine some of the teasing I went through as a kid. I've just about heard it all.

More to the point, would you visit a web site called "Carrick's Universe"? Probably not. And, had I registered that as a domain, who'd have been able to find it?

Having an uncommon surname also makes you easier to track down. That's all I need is for it to be easier to serve me warrants and restraining orders. Call me paranoid, but growing up our family was one of only three Carrick's in the phone book. On the other hand, I never have trouble purchasing a firearm or getting credit. I guess it helps when they don't have to weed through millions of Smiths or Jones. Perhaps if I had a common last name like Lucas, Simon, or DuToit, I would use it more online. Perhaps not.

Really though, what is in a name? In today's world you are more of a number anyway. The government, my employer, and my creditors all refer to me by number. Even with people, names are going the way of the dodo. Cher, Madonna, and Shaq have already lost one of their names, and MJ and OJ just use their first and last initials. A-Rod uses an abbreviated name, and Prince keeps switching back and forth between his stage name and an unpronounceable symbol. Even Dubya, just uses a single middle initial.

So I say, call me Steve, call me Ravenwood, call me crazy. Just so long as you call me, I don't really care. I just wanted to set the record straight.