Soap Opera Fan Names

As someone who has been online for years, my feelings about soap opera couple names are mixed. Below I write about this specific topic.

The first time I saw a couple name used was offline in Soap Opera Digest, where the magazine (around 1991) wrote about Days of Our Lives Shane and Kayla and used the portmanteau Shayla. I didn't think much about it, because other than that one mention no one else was doing it. Then I started online in the mid-90s reading soap forums and saw this being done especially by Guiding Light viewers. (This would be a long story, but suffice it to say most shows had perhaps one or two couples with portmanteau style names, while with GL it was a lot more prevalent.) It wasn't something that was done by every soap fan for every show, but once this naming style was used in the press for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez aka Bennifer it became commonplace for any couple potential or realized in fandom. That being said, I tend to avoid using portmanteaus for real people. Before that, the couple names from some shows were more initials based like L&L2 for Lucky and Liz on General Hospital. Initial names have been around for many years, and it makes sense as people do use initials in real life.

I liked couple names back in the day, when they were used much more sparingly as they had to be earned. When I say "earned", typically the names were only given to couples who were seriously involved for a long time, engaged or married. There were also the anti-couple nicknames, which at times were hilarious if a bit mean. It was a fun thing, and was very helpful when you were dealing with limited amount of space like in a chat room or IM. That's why if someone uses a couple name on twitter now due to the length restrictions I completely understand it. I don't care for it though when people use it for some long running couples. If a couple was in existence in the 90s and they didn't have a portmanteau then I won't use one now. I've seen this with Days of Our Lives, couples that didn't have this style of name now do, (like someone who was into Bo and Hope or John and Marlena in the 80s called either Bope or Jarlena). With other shows like One Life to Live, Todd and Blair are still TnB and never had their name converted, which I think is a good thing.

That being said, there are some couples that I can barely imagine without their nickname. Typically in these cases the names became mainstreamed in a sense as they are familiar to the actors involved and has used for many years. Of course, this can be awkward when talking to others or outside the online universe as it may confound people. Then again, I've said LOL out loud in front of people, so by now I should be used to it.