Way back in 2005, I wrote about the role of names in online privacy. My focus was on how the trend toward unique baby names left children's lives more traceable. Parents want their kids to stand out, I suggested, not considering the downside of being so identifiable: "No new parent ever dreams of the future and thinks, 'I want to make sure my child will be able to hide his tracks!'"

A lot has changed in the past five years. As social networking makes more and more personal aspects of life searchable, parents are starting to think about covering tracks. It's also becoming clear that we all have plenty to hide -- that "even innocuous aspects of your life can be personal, and over the long run you might not want everyone you meet to be able to learn about them with a single click."

But the role of names in privacy hasn't grabbed much attention, until now. The Wall Street Journal recently reported a startling suggestion from Google CEO Eric Schmidt that one long-term response to privacy concerns may lie in names:



"He predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends' social media sites."



Abandoning our names to prevent privacy violations? What's next, abandoning our possessions to prevent theft?



Yes, our legal system does give some "teflon" status to minors, such as allowing them to void contracts and deleting youth offenses from criminal records. But you don't get a total life do-over at 18. Your youthful grades, for instance, still count. You're still you.



Names and selves are inextricably linked in our history, our language, and our psyches. Your name is synonymous with your reputation and your character, as well as your identity. Think of "clearing your name," or the Biblical proverb that "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches."



Names link us not just to our personal past, but to family and cultural traditions, too. The United Nations even recognizes forced renaming as a human rights abuse. In sum, names aren't throwaways. A name change is a meaningful life event: a shift in our private and public identities, not just a convenient way to avoid ugly prom pictures.



Yet while the suggestion of disposable names may be absurd, at least it shows that people are thinking about the role of names in privacy. Facebook and its kin have turned our real names into user names. That changes the whole landscape of online identity: "defending your good name" is now a very literal objective. Some individuals have taken to obfuscation, trying to disguise their online selves, but that can only go so far. We're all going to need new strategies to protect our good names, not erase them.







