name someone.. someone's name is a real blob of language.. maybe the realest. when someone hears their name, they know the story is about them so they care about the story.. it affects them personally.. so a storyasker needs to learn player names.. and yes, we all have more than one name..

[edit] given names

our family gives us names; first names, middle names, last names.. in korea, almost everyone has like one of four last names: kim, park, sun, ?.. in china, almost everyone gets a unique name.. in some tribes, these are "legal" names and we're stuck with 'em.. in other tribes, people earn unique names that describe their unique, unfolding personas..

[edit] earned names

as we interact with our families, friends and enemies, we get called earned names.. people start to identify us by our character, who we are and what we do.. in storyasking, in a classroom or online, we earn names which can be fun and fanciful or even dark and ghoulish..

• the prince of the pointless story
• La Reina de la Letra
• fool man choo
• Movie Starlet

the questionnaire helps players earn names.. still, earning names can take some time.. earned names can be in any language.. and players can have more than one earned name.. what really matters is that everyone in the group connects these names with the individual player..

[edit] name calling

in english, "name calling" can mean to insult, which is a form of rejection.. name calling is a natural feature of natural language.. depending on intent, name calling can either be mean spirited, (which can be a taboo), or friendly and fun in the spirit of play.. either way, it's hard to argue that name calling is not real, and thus meaningful..

• dummy
• spaz
• fool

being called a name is usually a temporary condition, and one that no one is immune to.. at times, we're all unintelligent, clumbsy or silly.. no need to have a cow.. like they say, it takes one to know one..

[edit] online nick names

online, people use handles or user names to join communities and engage in conversations.. when using handles, people choose their own names.. online, these handles can function as a mask of anonymity, which often lets people feel free to play around and sometimes even speak more truthfully..

so we all have lots of names, from temporary to permanent, which we use to identify ourselves and each other.. whenever we hear "our" name in any kind of story, we're likely to be interested because the story is about us.. if we care about a story, we try to figure it out, no matter what language it's in.. so a good story helps us to learn language..