Google wants your real name on YouTube

If you try to comment on YouTube, you will be prompted to change your username to your real name.

With the furore caused by Google's insistence on real names on its Google+ network (one that was ultimately solved by a verification program) still fresh in our minds, the internet giant is now trying to get YouTube users to switch over to their real names on its video streaming website.
John Fisher, Software Engineer, said in a Google blog post last month:

One Google-wide identity was something that proved popular with new YouTube users when we began offering it in March, so we are now extending it to existing users.
This will give you more options for how your videos are seen and discovered on YouTube. However, we realise that using your full name isn't for everyone. Maybe people know you by your YouTube username. Perhaps you don't want your name publicly associated with your channel. To continue using your YouTube username, just click "I don't want to use my full name" when you see the prompt. Stay tuned for more ways to use this username in other Google products and services in coming months.

The prompt won't appear until you try to make a comment — so if you're a "silent" YouTube user, it won't affect you at all. Which indicates to us that perhaps this is an attempt to minimise the amount of bullying that occurs on the site — websites on which people are forced to interact under their real names often have a lower rate of trolling.
The prompt will automatically scrape your name from your Google+ account — so, if you're operating on G+ under a pseudonym, you have little to worry about.

 Google's list of possible reasons why you might not want to switch.

However, if you're happy with the current status quo, you're under absolutely no obligation to change your user name — although Google will ask you why you don't want to make the change, offering you six options to choose from (one of which is the always-handy "I don't know").

Will you make the change to your real name?