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Jul. 5th, 2003 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katallisonI've been really enjoying the comments on my earlier post about names, and find myself moved to follow up by tossing out a few questions for anyone who feels like responding:
1) Your LJ user name--how did you come up with it, where did it come from? And do you have a different pseud for writing/lists/whatever? How do you decide when to use which?
2) Any stories about how your family chose your RL first/middle names? Is there something you were *almost* named until saner heads prevailed?
3) What's the coolest name you've encountered (either real or pseud), one you really wish you had?
Answering for myself: (a) Kat Allison is simply a slight revision of parts of my RL name; it's the only name I've ever used in fandom. (b) My mother once told me that, if my father had had his way, I would have been named "Ariel," which ... well, let's just say I'm very glad he lost that one; it would have been wildly incongruent with both my RL last name and my basic temperament (I'm not remotely ethereal and poetic enough to be an Ariel). And (c) there are two public figures whose names I've always envied: Tai Babilonia (figure skater) and Moon Landrieu (former mayor of New Orleans). Those are just ... *cool.*
1) Your LJ user name--how did you come up with it, where did it come from? And do you have a different pseud for writing/lists/whatever? How do you decide when to use which?
2) Any stories about how your family chose your RL first/middle names? Is there something you were *almost* named until saner heads prevailed?
3) What's the coolest name you've encountered (either real or pseud), one you really wish you had?
Answering for myself: (a) Kat Allison is simply a slight revision of parts of my RL name; it's the only name I've ever used in fandom. (b) My mother once told me that, if my father had had his way, I would have been named "Ariel," which ... well, let's just say I'm very glad he lost that one; it would have been wildly incongruent with both my RL last name and my basic temperament (I'm not remotely ethereal and poetic enough to be an Ariel). And (c) there are two public figures whose names I've always envied: Tai Babilonia (figure skater) and Moon Landrieu (former mayor of New Orleans). Those are just ... *cool.*
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-06 05:50 am (UTC)Answer to #2: My family has a weird history with names. My father's name was changed by his parents six months after he was born. They immediately changed my name when they adopted me (I became one of four "L" names that they had picked out should they have been able to adopt four girls), yet they very nearly left my brother with his original first and middle names - Christopher Robin. Yeah, that would have gone over well in high school :).
My middle name is the ubiquitous, goes-with-everything "Ann". My first name is okay, I guess. Unfortunately, it has multiple spellings so I don't even think about it anymore. Any time I have to give information, I just spell it.
Answer to #3: I liked my original name and wish my parents had somehow left it as part of my adoptive name. I've given some thought on occasion to incorporating it into my current name via a legal name change or just starting to use it in my signature but haven't yet.
I haven't really run across any psueds that made me sit back and say "hmmmm..." (character names from books or fics do that for me). Instead, I find myself fascinated with the icons people choose to represent themselves.