You can also use your initials or nicknames instead of your first names, or use numbers to create your unique identity.

What is the difference between .NAME and the other TLDs?
.NAME was started to give personal domain name access to a much larger amount of people. Since no one can register just a last name, your chances of having your firstname.lastname.name combination is much greater.
The biggest and most obvious difference is that you need to register the second level and third level of a domain name (i.e. thirdlevel.secondlevel.toplevel is the structure of a domain name). So in short, you need to check and register two pieces of a domain instead of one.
Another difference is that the .NAME registry also offers (at a fee) an email address used only to forward email built around this structure: thirdlevel@secondlevel.name (i.e. john@smith.name for the john.smith.name registrant).

How do I get the ".NAME email forwarding" email address?
Just select the option for personal email and enter a forwarding email address during the .name registration process.
Your ".NAME email forwarding" email address is set to auto forward all emails to the forwarding email address you choose.
To change that email address, go into the manage area of your .NAME domain and edit your forwarding email address.

What is the difference between the ".NAME email forwarding" email address and the free email forward service offered by TOS?
The difference is in the structure of the email address. With the .NAME email address, the structure would look like this for the john.smith.name registrant: john@smith.name.
With TOS you can have many more email addresses forwarded, but the email address structure would look like this since the full domain name is john.smith.name: email@john.smith.name or john@john.smith.name etc.