What's in a name?

I realized that I only kept talking about books and blogging, so I decided to do this a little differently. Today, I'm going to talk about something personal - and what could be more personal than my name?

When I started blogging about books, I decided almost immediately to use a pseudonym. But while thinking of what name to use, I finally settled on my real nickname which almost no one uses to refer to me. It's what my name means, but only my sister and about five other people call me Goldie.

Why did I use a different name? At first, it was because I wanted to separate my personal life from my blogging life. When I started this blog in December 2010, I didn't know that book blogging was already a thing. And I was a little shy for people to know that I geek out online about books. Then I decided to embrace it, especially when my reviews started getting a little appreciation (thank you, first readers and followers!).

Now, some blogger friends and contacts know my real name through some book events and blogger interaction. At first I was hesitant to reveal my name (not because it's ugly, heh, I'm just used to anonymity in the bigger book environment), but now I've embraced it, and I openly call myself a book blogger.

Lastly, my name may be a bit confusing to pronounce and it can get pretty tiring explaining how to say my name, whether I'm not Filipino, or why I have a foreign name.

How about you, bloggers/readers, do you use your real name online in the book blogosphere, or do you also use a different name? :)