So I dug a bit more looking for information on the upcoming and highly anticipated name changes coming back to Second Life.
This is definitely something everyone has been anticipating for years to come here. I don’t know about you but I can NOT wait!
Patch Linden added a bit more information to the recent announcement that Linden Lab was going to allow Second Life users to change their last names. He said, in a thread on the official Second Life user forums, that you would be able to change both first and last names:
It will be complete and total name changes, both first and surname. Just to set expectations on this, it is a later this year item.
When asked if the change would be available to everyone, or just those with the Resident last name, he added:
It will be available to everyone.
And, in answer to yet another question about whether or not you could hide your name:
No hiding of names. First name and surname combos will have to be unique like they are today. A couple of other questions that came up – no re-use of retired names, once a name has been used, it belongs to that account forever. We keep a transnational name change history. Only standard English characters will be permitted.
Just to make it clear, this is an upcoming ability to change to the actual avatar name, not the display name. When asked about how this change will affect the display names of avatars (which can be updated once a week):
This has no affect on display names and largely I do not anticipate we will change how display names work. If anything, it somewhat sunsets the need for them.
So, that makes everything a little clearer! Thanks, Patch! I predict that there will be a land rush on names once this feature is turned on for users. Being able to change both your first AND your last name (as long as somebody else doesn’t already have that combination) is a very nice feature to have!
UPDATE March 23rd: Inara Pey has a very detailed blogpost on this announcement by Linden Lab, with even more details:
The plan is to allow people to change their first and last name whenever they wish.
- As with the “old” system, users will be able to choose whatever first name they like, then select their last name from a pre-set list of available names.
- Once a name combination has been created, it is forever tied to that avatar, it cannot be used by anyone else, even if the “owner” later changes their name, or their account is deactivated.
- Previous names will be retained by the system, so if you can remember someone’s previous name, you can search on that and get their current name.
- As with the “old” system, this list of last names will be routinely changed with different names appearing on it.
- To help keep the available names relatively fresh, the Lab is considering accepting suggestions from users.
- It has not been determined if someone will be able to switch back to using a name they’ve previously used.
- Unicode will not be supported when entering a first name.