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Is it just me or are some names "more meme-y" than other names? Like, Eliezer Yudkowsky. Very meme-y name. I feel like a name that meme-y is a genuine asset. Leopold Aschenbrenner. Also very meme-y.

Ben Weinstein-Raun? Hard for me to judge, but I'd guess middling meme-y-ness at best. Benjamin Weinstein-Raun seems at least a little meme-y-er. Should I start going by Benjamin in professional / semi-public contexts?

in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

How about B. E. Weinstein-Raun? I guess it all depends on what audience you are trying to reach.

I am doing a workshop tomorrow that was catalyzed by a person named Hunter Manley . . . he happens to be in the military. I think in some circles that is a meme-y name ;-)

in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

in old-school nerd circles maybe you could be something like bwr, and pronounce it "bower" (rhyming with lower, or power if you prefer)
in reply to Ben Millwood

have considered this, though I might aim for "beware" rather than "bower". Local people often pronounce my name "benwr", rhyming with "Ben Hur".
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

This inspires me to ask, how do you pronounce your surname? (I'm particularly unsure about the Raun part, but I guess the other part could be wine-steen or wine-stine). Names are more meme-able if people know how to say them, arguably. But then again, few know how to say Eliezer Yudkowsky when they read it for the first time!

I think my full name of Amber Dawn Ace is very meme-able, to the extent that people assume some part of it was chosen by me, but actually no, the first two were chosen by my mum and the third is the surname she was born with.

in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

Quoting bmcgee.ie/posts/2023/10/numtid…

This year, I met some new members of our federation [...], including what has to be the best example of nominative determinism I’ve ever encountered: Linus Heckemann (a.k.a. LinuxHackerman).