The Nomenclature of Discretion

This is my blog. If I make an arse of myself in it, I am to blame for my own naming and shaming. However, there is a need for sensible obfuscation when it comes to mentioning certain real world people who may feature in this dance of words. I’ve been finding nomenclature of discretion confusing. I know two friends with the initials AC, two with the initials RW. There’s only one Dickon, but if I say Richard, I could be referring to potentially three different people.

To counter this, I’ve devised the following rules of thumb. Friends and associates who have to some degree put themselves in the public domain, such as authors, may be named in full, everyone else gets initials, a single name or nicknames that would require both an in-depth knowledge of my social scene and the application of some logic to make a good guess at who they were in the real world. People who share names and initials will be able to work out who they are from the blog because they will know where they have been. Other readers should be able to tell them apart because the total confusion of something like knowing three Richards will become the potential confusion of Richard, RW and Swiss Tony.

Anyway, today one of the ACs agreed to be given the moniker Surreal Girl (better than another potential name for her - Forthright Aussie), so I might be able at last to post up an entry on Wednesday evening a little later