I'm somewhere in-between. I use a nickname (HedgeMage) because it is easy for people to remember, and more commonly available than my very common real name (Susan Stewart). Additionally, since some of my work is under my maiden name, and some under my married name, it simplifies things to tell people "just google for 'HedgeMage'".

Anyone who can operate a search engine will quickly link my nickname to at least one of my names (maiden/married). That's a good thing. However, there are situations where it's worked in my favor that it took a few minutes for $random_irc_person to realize that I'm female.

I happen to work in a field where eccentricity seems expected (web development), so it's never been a negative as far as I know.