[munmaek]

> and another site has a user with the same name, it’s easy to assume they are the same person.

No, no it is not. Not at all... You are one of the lucky people who managed to get your chosen handle on those sites.

My preferred handle (givennamesurname) got registered in 2008 on twitter and hasn't done anything since (no tweets, no profile, etc).

On instagram, both (givennamesurname) and (givenname_surname) are taken, so I went with (surname_givenname).

The only real way to get around this is to just list your social media / accounts on your personal website. Then prove that you own it on keybase with gpg or whatever.

> it’s fair to try to protect your reputation by registering an account in that name and not posting,

If you stay on top of / are aware of every new service. I was 12 in 2008 and wasn't concerned about name squatting.