WhatsApp Usernames of University Students of Ghana

Abstract

Many offline practices, such as naming practices and how names are used to construct identities, have been transported to the online space in the face of technological advancement. Therefore, this study investigated the categories of WhatsApp usernames used by university students at the University of Cape Coast, the factors that influenced the choice of these usernames, and how they used these names as a linguistic resource to construct and display their identities online. The data showed broad categories of the usernames: real name only, nickname only, real name plus nickname, and emoji only. These categories were found to have variants. The data also revealed easy identification, anonymity, and other factors influencing the choice of these usernames. Sport (football) identity, family identity, and religious identity, among others, were the identities constructed and displayed by the students through their usernames on WhatsApp.