> I made some tentative moves toward changing to my real name, Maryam, a while back, but just about everyone I talked to was against it. Oh well.

If you don't like a nickname, you shouldn't have to keep using it. Changing nicknames discombobulates people sometimes, and it's silly to rotate nicknames every month just because you're bored, but you've had this name for a long time, and if you don't like it, you shouldn't have to use it. Changing to a real name, I think, makes it different, too, because it's symbolic of putting more of your real self into this community instead of the masks that we can all sometimes adopt without even thinking about it.

To heck with anybody else. You're the only one that matters. In a few days, the others will fall in suit when they get used to it.