[name_m]Hi[/name_m]! im fairly new to the forums (only discovered them a few weeks ago), and ive been wondering why some people use special characters when spelling names? for example ch@rl0tte or Wi11i@m. id be grateful if someone could let me know, im so intrigued!
These are “privacy symbols”. 
If you looked up, say, “Mary Smith” on a search engine, Nameberry posts discussing “M@ry Sm1th” would not be displayed, hence why people sometimes use them in order to protect private informations (such as their children’s—or their own—full names).
Welcome, by the way! 
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ahh that makes so much sense! thank you so much for responding, and thank you for the welcome :)))
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I’ve been here years and I didn’t know​
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Certain copy and paste letters, like the ones you’ll see on my posts, are not discoverable in a search on Google either. I prefer them to using @ and other such symbols because it’s easier for me to read as a name than trying to convert random symbols (despite intrinsically knowing what they mean).
ETA: I have to change mine up. Unfortunately, Google’s “lovely” little bots have caught on to standard privacy symbols. The ones I have been using are now showing up in Google searches.
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