Your username: the first thing you choose about yourself

There is always a story behind it, even when you claim otherwise: a word made up in a hurry, a typo that became a signature, an animal's name, a joke hardly anyone still gets. You picked it at a precise moment, often without thinking, and it outlived everything else - the platforms that shut down, the abandoned accounts, the versions of yourself you would rather forget.

A first name you gave yourself

It may be the only name you carry without having had it imposed on you. Your first name comes from elsewhere, your surname even more so; a username comes out of a decision, however tiny, however silly. That is why it matters more than it looks: changing it feels like moving house, and stumbling on an old username in an old conversation hits like a class photo.

It speaks before you do

A username sets a tone before the first message is even sent. Some sound serious, some announce a joke, others close the door on any familiarity. You notice the day you have to give it somewhere else: on a work placement, in an email to a teacher, on an application. What worked perfectly among friends suddenly becomes a piece of information about you that you had not planned to hand over.

Having several isn't hiding

Nothing says you have to keep just one. Separating the one your friends use, the one you game under, and the one an employer could see is not duplicity: it is the online version of the fact that you don't speak the same way at the dinner table and in class. The only genuinely useful rule is a practical one: avoid slipping your birth date, your address or your school into it, because a username gets copied, gets searched, and stays online far longer than the impulse that made you choose it.