Firmin, Josiane and the others

We needed an identifier. A number would have done the job technically, and would have killed the app in one second.

So we took a hundred first names from another era. Firmin, Josiane, Ghislaine, Marcel, Odette, Léon, Simone, Gaston, Berthe, Achille, Fernand, Yvette. Grandparent names. Names off doorbell plates and funeral notices.

Why it works

A chosen handle is a statement. You put your irony in it, your niche, your mood. In three characters you've already sorted people.

An assigned name isn't. Nobody chose to be Ghislaine tonight. It puts everyone on the same level and strips away the first layer of posturing. Above all it makes you want to talk: you say "Firmin" with a smile, and you don't say "user 4471" at all.

The name is unique on the bench — two Firmins across ten seats would be chaos. It holds until midnight, including if you close the app and come back. Then it goes back into the bag.