You need a unique nickname these days if you want to be found on the internet easily, especially when you‘re using many different platforms to reach out to your followers.

The biggest problem related to this is that most of the ideas you come up with are already in use. This can lead to inconsistency among your pages.

I‘m going to tell you how I found my nickname as a musician, I hope that it helps some people.

1. Define yourself and be creative
   You have to be sure about the effects of your future nickname. What topic should the people associate with your name when they read it? It‘s helpful to write down the things that you love or what defines you.
   I‘ve done this too and I wrote down everything that came up to my mind. What I love. What I hate. What defines me. This step is really important and may take longer, but it‘s worth it. It will help you later.
2. Collect many ideas
   You can now start collecting real nickname ideas. Step 1 helps you finding words that you can use within your new name. You’ll probably come up with nicknames that are already taken, so it‘s helpful to write down all of your ideas before you start checking the availability of them.
   Make a list, maybe you can combine some of your ideas later, it‘s helpful to have something visual in front of you to work with.
3. Search
   This step can be frustrating, but you should look up all the names you‘ve come up with in a search engine to see which of them are already taken.
   You can use pages like NAMECHECK to see if your desired nickname/domain name is already taken on any page. If every name is taken you should repeat step 2.
4. Consistency
   I do not recommend to use different names on different platforms, like @nickname on Instagram and @nickname_1 on Twitter because your desired username was already taken somewhere.
   It‘s better to have the same name everywhere if you want to be found more easily on the internet and to reduce confusion when your future followers try to find you on any page.
5. Be patient
   It can take some time to find the perfect nickname which is available on every platform. But it‘s maybe the first part of your career, so enjoy every part of this process and just be creative.
6. Ask friends
   Let‘s say you‘ve come up with 3 nicknames in the end that are available on every platform, but you can’t decide which one to pick. It‘s helpful to ask friends what they think of these names and which one is best according to them. It‘s the last step before you make your new name official, so it‘s quite helpful to see how other people react.

This is how I found my nickname TEKTULA, which is a combination of the words Techno, Tarantula and my surname. It took me a week to find it and it was hard sometimes, but I‘m still happy with my decision.

There are probably thousands of ways to find a nickname. How did you find yours? Let me know!

TEKTULA