The name game. Why dearcharli?

I just couldn’t put my name in my business name (sorry parents, never that impressed with it), but dearcharli has been my online personality for over 15 years now so it is practically the same thing. I am considering changing it to Charli when I get married since I’ll already be doing all that paper work anyways! From my mom, I get this habit of naming my pets after names I’d really like to have myself. And I wanted to be a Charli when I was 15 (and I still do half a life time later). Self-fulfilling goal met! You want to know a secret? When I’m feeling spunky, I give Charli as my name at Starbucks when I order my latte. Lame, I know, but there is something about giving an alias out that’s a little fun. Like a fake phone number or instead your parent’s home number because they have caller id. Again, sorry folks! The dear came from when I sat down to register my first email account in the ancient times of pre-yahoo… I thought what do you write when you start an email? I guess I could have ended up with helloCharli or HowdyCharli instead, but I must have been a more formal teenager than I remember. Maybe I should come up with a better story. Any suggestions?

My real name: Alecia M Cooper
Now you want to know what the M stands for.