When thinking to yourself (talking to yourself in your head) what name do you use to refer to yourself?
Asked by
farmer (
354
)
October 23rd, 2016
For example, you’re running late for work. Do you think:
“Ok, [ your first name,] better get moving.”
Or
“Ok, Self, better get going.”
Or
“Ok, Me, gotta run.”
Or
“Ok, We better hurry up.”
Or
“Ok, You have to leave now.”
Or
“Ok, I need to go.”
Or something else?
I think I usually call myself by my first name, or else I use “you,” almost as if there’s another self in there that I’m talking to. It’s not something I normally think about, but I heard my girlfriend muttering to herself using the “me” to talk about herself (“Ok, me, better go now.”) which I know I never use. I think the only time I use to word I is when I’m communicating to other people, such as right now, but never when I’m talking to myself.
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
20 Answers
Depends on the context. Regular, boring, working me is Alyson. Fun me is Uasal, which is a name I chose for myself in the context of a LARP/historical thingie I do sometimes.
“We”, because I’m a lot of people combined. I prefer the idea of teamwork too.
I always talk to myself in second person (e.g., “you have to leave now”). If I need a name for myself, I usually go with “dummy” or one of its many synonyms.
I skip the naming bit most of the time.
Gotta hustle.
Get that combo right!
Turn left, not right.
Well, that was dumb.
I am like @BellaB , I don’t address myself by name. If anything, at most, it is“I”.
Moron, idiot or just “you”.
I do not talk to a persona. When thinking, I imagine multiple points of views with each “voice” impersonally addressing the group of individual perspectives and each having an equal opportunity to respond. Nouns or pronouns are not referenced.
I use several of your examples, I…You…& my first name Alan.
If i’m angry with myself & feel the need to chastise, i’ll call myself ”cuntwagon”
@ucme, I had not considered the “voice” that chastises me when I have done something stupid. I refer to myself with a number of invectives. While it is always in my voice, I suspect that I am channeling my mother’s reproaches.
@Bill1939 I’m getting Norman Bates’ mother’s voice from that, for your sake, I hope not :(
I refer to myself as “we.” I’m not an “i.”
I’m a conglomerate of an uncountable number of cells.
@ucme, although I may be nuts, fortunately my relationship with my mother was nothing like his. Mother was bipolar (a diagnosis that did not exist then) and could be a wonderful person one moment and and something else the next. Her criticisms were intended to make me a better person, but made me a bitter person during adolescence. Although I have resolved these immature feelings, I continue to foolishly feel that I should be perfect.
@Bill1939 Well, the final line in Some Like it Hot…”nobody’s perfect” should resonate with you
I’m plural. Possibly royal, lol.
“Let’s”, “We”, etc.
Interesting question. I had to actually think about it for a spell.
I don’t talk to myself, as it turns out. I speak to the group, but in my head, for seamless transition.
I call myself idiot in my head. Gotta be fair. Seeing as how I think of most other people as idiots, as well
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
