... it depends on what sort of image you want to convey?

Shrug. If memory serves me right "Little Katie" somewhat recently switched her user name to "K.T.Leone", publicly posting something here about wanting a more "serious author" sounding name... which is something I can relate to. Smile. I live "stealth", so I certainly do not use my "real name" online. "S.L.Hawke" is an alias that has absolutely nothing to do with my legal name... but I use it here for largely the reason K.T.Leone uses her new moniker. It seems like a "serious", "professional" sort of alias... which is how I prefer to be seen, here.

On the other hand, the "Hawke" part of my alias comes from my former use of "LadyHawke" on another site, a somewhat whimsical user name I chose back then simply because I had seen a re-run of the old movie the night before... and as I wrote too many "serious" articles at that time, I wanted to indicate that I was not just some dried up old woman with no sense of humour. The "S.L." initials, on yet another hand [third, "gripping hand"... depending on what books you have read...], actually have deep meaning for me -- while not my legal initials, I discovered (many years after choosing my current legal name, and hence much too late), that my mother had chosen names with those initials as alternate names for me, "had things been different", before my birth. The source of another frequent alias of mine, on multiple websites...

I have used a great many aliases over the years, at various places around the web... some serious, some almost chosen at random. Which ones I use sort of depend on the mood I am in when I create my account, and what I want others to think of me... as well as if I want what I write there to be "easily linkable" with my writings elsewhere on the web, through a web search using that name...

Names are powerful things. We have little control over what our birth names are -- those are chosen for us, usually before our parents have the faintest idea what sort of person we will become. But names we choose for *ourselves*... *those* tell people something about us. And many online users know that.

Shrug. Would I actually think twice about reading a story by someone with a name like "Sweet-Girl87" or "Magical Kagome"? Truthfully, sometimes yes. Seeing something like "Sweet Girl" as an author name is, to me, another "tag" conveying information about a story before I even click on it. Spelling mistakes in the title or intro paragraph... whimsical user names... tags explicitly stating certain types of content are in a story... there are all sorts of things I subconsciously factor in, before I decide to click on something, or not. It really depends on the mood I am in... and what sort of story I am looking to read, at that moment.

So is "Magical Kagome" a good name? Shrug. Impossible for *me* to say. You are the one who it means something to. Is it a name that makes a statement about you that you really want to make? Does it fit your purposes in being here? Does it have some inner significance for you? If so, then by all means use it. Otherwise, don't.

Only you know who you really are... and just how you want others to see you. Choose wisely... and "to thine own self be true".

Just my two cents worth... which what with inflation and all, is not really worth that much these days...