An Open Letter on Why We’re Removing Usernames, Addressed to the Worst Ones We’ve Ever Seen
Or best, depending on how you look at it—sorry, DoritoprincessXO
What’s in a name?
You see, DaddyzPrincess29*, we all have names. Good, noble names that took weeks, perhaps months to choose— from Hannah to Jordan to Lady Bird. And what we’ve discovered is that those names actually work best—better than usernames—when it comes connecting with people. So listen closely laidback___stu, because this applies to you — even if you are straight chilling right now on a basement futon.
Ahead of the new year, we’re removing OkCupid usernames. It’s starting with a test group and will soon be rolled out to everyone on OkCupid, so all users will need to update their profiles with what they want their dates to call them. We know, this is tough to hear — especially for StayingPawwsitive, Dootdootledootd0 and Britney__Tears. It’s because, like the recent goodbye we said to AIM screen names, it’s time to keep up with the times. We want you, BigDaddyFlash916, to go by who you are, and not be hidden beneath another layer of mystique. Even if that mystique is crucial to you and your dating life, unicorn__jizz.
We understand that, for some, usernames are a great way to show off who you are. But for most, they are a pain to come up with and a pain to remember (or, in cases like unicorn__jizz, difficult to forget). And we hope that you can instead use your profile to give people an insight into your interests.
We’ve also heard from many members of our community that they want to maintain the privacy they enjoy with usernames—with this change, we won’t be collecting full names; instead, we encourage our users to go by the name they’d like their dates to call them on OkCupid.
So to reflect one last time before we go back to names, here are some fun stats we pulled from OkCupid usernames.
CAT VS. DOG PEOPLE
# of usernames with “cats” or “cat” 888,124
# of usernames with “dog” 138,246
DIRTY WORDS
# of usernames with “horny” 16,411
# of usernames with “sexy” 221,229
# of usernames with “lover” 157,553
# of usernames with “ICP” 11,392
# of usernames with “juggalo” 1,845
# of usernames with “juggalette” 405
*All usernames mentioned are real usernames that actually once existed on OkCupid, but we did edit them slightly to protect those DaddyzPrincesses out there.
Written by Kelly Cooper. Graphic design by Dana Davis.
Find someone (with a real name) on OkCupid right now.
