WordPress, the people behind the software that runs this blog and hundreds of thousands of others, have added yet another cool feature – this time it’s one for readers, not for owners.
To read a random post from this blog (or any other WordPress blog), just type ?random at the end of the URL. For example, https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/?random
I’d forgotten I’d even written some of these!
Last week a discussion on one of my tech writing lists focused on using fictitious names in documentation, such as in Name fields in software and websites that are used in training, demonstrations, and screenshots in the manuals. One thing you don’t want to do is use a set of real names from a real client. In fact, I heard of an instance – it may be an apocryphal tale – where a real person’s name was projected on a large screen, and some in the training session got very upset as that person had died very recently.
So this discussion offered some ideas for ‘dummy’ names that you could use. Now, whether you would actually use any of these is not my call – you’d have to make your own decision based on who you work for and who your audience is!
Here’s a sample of some that were offered:
“Punny” names:
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Fictional and Biblical characters:
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Purely made up:
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If you need ‘real’ names, you can always try some of the many random name generators on the internet. You can get some very weird ones (like Klingon names, fantasy names, etc.), but there are ‘real’ names among all that too. One that I particularly like takes the names from the various US census and mixes them up according to popularity, gender, etc. Try it at: http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm (another one I found when looking for this one was:
http://www.behindthename.com/random/)
(Thanks to the contributors on the STC Lone Writers discussion list)
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 