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Formerly Known as… · 26 October 2024


There are reasons for being formerly known as, but I cannot think of one for X.com.


Back in the day, women who got married would have a designation “née” and then their former last name. Like Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (née Bouvier). It was a nice custom used so that people would know what a married person’s name used to be. It kept the ties to the past.


Nowadays people do not necessarily change their names when they get married. Which works for some people and not for others. There are also those who change their names for any number of reasons. Maybe several times. Which got me thinking…


I was never really a Prince fan, but it was interesting when he changed his name from Prince to the The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Prince was always catchy and you knew who people were talking about. Purple Rain. Little Red Corvette. That Prince. So it was a bit comical to me when he changed his name. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince was still all about Purple Rain. And purple in general. He just had a new name. I am not sure that I ever called him The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, but I knew who people were talking about when they used, “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince” in a sentence.


I never really knew why The Artist Formerly Known As Prince changed his name (or whether he changed his name back) nor did I ever really wonder that much. But I do think it curious that X.com, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, changed its name.


I cannot get used to the new name for Twitter. I even still type Twitter into my browser when going there each morning. Of course, my browser changes my T into Twitter right away so that all I do is type the T and away I go to X.com. Just one letter gets me to my destination. And maybe that is why X changed its name. After all, I doubt there are many websites starting with X. Still, even though I type in a T to get to X, it is a tough change to take. In more ways than one.


Think about it. If you post on X, are you Xing? And if you are Xing, does that mean you are crossing. I mean think about all those Ped Xing signs. Or Duck Xing or Deer Xing or Moose Xing signs out there. Does that mean that all those pedestrians and ducks and deer and moose are actually posting on social media? Or are they just crossing the road and you as a driver ought to watch out. So maybe people are not Xing when they post on X.


Or people might be confused about Xing because Xing is also when you delete something. You X something out. Or people might think you are verbing a noun and breaking up with somebody. You are Xing somebody out of your life. Or maybe…



I suppose that if you are not Xing when you post on X, you must still be tweeting? But that does not make much sense either. Why would you tweet on X? X and tweet do not have any letters in common. Xs do not tweet. They might have conflicts with Os, but what does sports have to do with X?


Okay. This is getting more nonsensical by the letter. When will the insanity stop?


I do not know why Twitter changed to X. I do not know if you still tweet on X. I do not know when the insanity of name changing websites will stop. What I do know is that I cannot think of Twitter as X. So maybe I will just refer to X.com as The Social Media Platform Formerly Known As Twitter. That might even make a good domain name. TheSocialMediaPlatformFormerlyKnownAsTwitter.com. In fact, it would be wonderful because I would still be able to just type in a T and get there. At least after a few times.


I suppose there are good reasons for any name change, but I cannot think of one for X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

© 2024 Michael T. Miyoshi

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