How To Make A Pseudonym (in 2022)

As an author, there are many reasons why you would want to remain semi-anonymous on the internet. I say semi-anonymous because (a) complete anonymity is almost impossible with IP tracking and cookies, and (b) most authors want others to be able to contact them or follow them or their work in some way. Otherwise, why bother? That’s where the pseudonym comes in.

Pseudonyms have longed been used by authors for various reasons. Richard Bachman, Robert Galbraith, Mark Twain, George Orwell, are all pseudonyms used by famous writers (in the case of the first two names), or writers who became famous. Whether you chose to use a pseudonym to avoid embarrassing your family, as a hedge against failure, or simply because you dislike your real name is completely up to you. These five steps will help you accomplish your goal.

Step 1: Choose Your Pseudonym

In many respects, the hardest part is actually choosing the pseudonym. While you might want something catchy and memorable, the fact is that many names have already been taken. Reedsy has a decent pseudonym generator that you can use to get started, or you can just do it the old fashioned way by utilizing a nickname, variation of your name, or coming up with something out of your imagination. But you’ll obviously need to come up with a potential name (or four!). Don’t get your heart set on any one of them, however.

Choosing a pseudonym is similar to naming a child or coming up with a band name. You’ll go through a lot of possibilities, so don’t get frustrated. Also, be sure to both write the name down AND say it out loud. Some combinations of letters don’t work well crammed together. The folks over at Speed of Art and other sites have discovered this AFTER they’ve spent a lot of time and money. Also, I once had some neighbors who named their daughter “Amanda Lynn [insert last name]” and only realized their error when I innocently asked if they named her that because one of them played the mandolin. So, write it down, crunch it up, and say it out loud.

Step 2: Google Your Pseudonym

Like it or not, Google is still what most people use to search the internet. So if you want others to find you, you’d do best by having a name that lets you wind up on at least the front page of Google search results. Few people ever go to page two. Web gurus will call this “SEO” and have all sorts of fancy methods to trick the algorithm to place you. You have better things to do — such as write — so it is just easier to find a unique name

The first thing you should do is run Google searches of your potential pseudonyms with the names in quotes. Putting the name in quotes will eliminate all of the other sites that have the first name and the last name within the same sentence. Doing this will give you a pretty good idea how unpopular — and hence, usable for you, the name is.

For example, when I run “Winston Everlast” through Google I come up with only 909 results. All of them are related to me. Without the quotes, there are 2.3 million+ results. The top two results are Everlast’s Winston Cross Training Shoes from K-Mart and Ebay. These two will likely always be the top returns, but that’s okay. You are trying to get an idea as to how popular the pseudonym is. There is no use in selecting a pseudonym that is a common name. You want something that is as unique as possible.

Step 3: Search for the Domain Name and Gmail

After you’ve narrowed down your list (most likely by eliminating a couple and then going back to create some more), it is helpful to do a domain search and email search to see if they are available. There are many places to do a domain name search on the internet. Personally, I’ve switched to Google Domains as it is the easiest and cheapest way to get a website or blog ($12/year). So run your pseudonym through that and see if “yourpseudonym.com” has already been taken. If it hasn’t, then make a note. If it has, check to see what other domain name exist but, frankly speaking, most people will default to the “.com” address so it is best to find a name that has that free.

As for the email address, yes, there are other places that you can use for email. But checking to see if the gmail address is available is very helpful because (a) everyone is familiar with it, and (b) it ties into the Google empire of connecting everything up as I’ll discuss later. Again, the whole purpose this is to make your pseudonym easy to locate so people can find, follow, and contact you.

Step 4: Search for Social Media Handles

Next, check through the major social media platforms and see if someone has already taken your pseudonym (or “handle.”) While you may or may not be want to use social media, the last thing you want is someone else having the same handle or — even worse — taking it later and pretending to be you. If someone has, not all is lost (see this webpost for some great ideas on how to recover them) but since you are starting from scratch, it is a lot easier to just come up with a different pseudonym.

As for which social media you should check, at a minimum it should be the big four: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Depending up why you are creating the pseudonym, you might want to also check other social media such as Whats App, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc. Ideally, all of the handles will be free. Most likely, some will. And, worst case, they all will be. In that case, start over with a new pseudonym.

Step 5: Pull the Trigger

So, you’ve narrowed down your pseudonym list and have come up with a viable candidate. Great! Now you are ready to pull the proverbial trigger and make the pseudonym your own. But experience has taught me there is a “best way” to go about doing it:

(1) Make your gmail address first. Create pseudonym@gmail.com. That will become the place where you send or connect all other accounts.

(2) Grab the main social media handles and any minor social media handles you need. Either connect them using your new google account (the automatic log in) or make a separate account using the pseudonym@gmail as the email address.

(3) Spend the $12 and grab the domain name from Google Domains. Consider it an investment in yourself. I promise you will kick yourself if you don’t and discover that someone else has grabbed the domain (e.g. cybersquatters) and you can now purchase it from them for $1,000. Google domains comes with free account privacy, so no one will be able to know it is you by running a check through the whois domain register.

Once you have made all of the SM accounts, you aren’t obligated to actually do much with them. It’s just that you have them and no one else can easily get them. But to keep the account considered “active” it isn’t bad to post on it once in a while. Also, if you do make a website or blog then you can always complete the SM profiles and have everything link back to that site. There are a lot of automatic “content pushers” that will link everything up for you. That’s what the SEO Funnel Marketing Web Gurus do. You can do the same, only for different reasons and at a much cheaper cost.

Please leave a comment below if you have any other suggestions on creating or using a pseudonym you’d like to share.