what's in a name?

[peggyelizabeth]

Shakespeare asked, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet " (Romeo & Juliet Act II, i)

So, that begs the question:
How much of your character is your name?
Would your character be as "sweet" if you had another name?

[anne of oaktower]

Excellent question!

My character name is derived from part of my mundane name.  She is me and I am she, so I believe that my character would still be the same although the name might not flow as well.  If you were to meet me on the street in the mundane world, you would find that Anne and I are quite the same...good, bad, or otherwise.

[LadyMeg]

Let's see... Usually I start with a vague idea, a sort of stereotype, then find a name that fits the character and fits me.  The rest of the character stuff falls into place once I figure out a name and then an outfit.  My biggest weakness is behindthename.com and I've found inspiration in just picking a random name and then NEEDING to make a character out of it...  It's a sad, sad addiction that just needs to stop...  LOL!

[Sitara]

I took my name from a character I used when I played D & D.  I had originally thought I made up my name, but apparently it is Sanskrit for Morning Star.  I prefer to think of that as the weapon as I am decidedly not a morning person.

[Anna Iram]

I took my forum name from my real first name and reversed it. After attending my first faire as Lady Anna Iram and realising I didn't really care for the sound of it I've given lot's of thought as to how to keep the name of Anna and ditch the Iram. My solution? As the Anna from my given name was from my French grandmother I decided to adopt her name entirely. Hence I am now Annatoli Noeli Lebon. Much sweeter I think. Now I am thinking I must learn french! I've always wanted to speak it, so why not let faire be the spark?

[peggyelizabeth]

excellent! keep those name stories coming!

I'll add mine:
I really really like my real given name Peggy Elizabeth, which was a convenient way to name myself here. I answer it in real life, so if you call me that at faire, I'll respond.

As a character name, I've debated and debated whether it's better to go with something fun, but maybe slightly silly or something historical, but possibly a little to location specific. I wracked my brain for over a year trying to come up with something that was a happy combo of the two sides of the coin. I read the dictionary to some up with a word that could be a name that sounded good.

Finally, a few weeks ago, the name Chatwell came to me. I sorta liked it. It sounded nice, made sense, I do, in fact, chat well and it wasn't too English or too French or too Scottish, etc.  I tried it out on my mom (who found her faire name, Lady Elizabeth Minglemoor, without even trying, ) She liked it. A LOT.

So, at least for now, I am Mistress Margaret Chatwell.

[AnyuBoo]

I have, so far, two separate personas at Faire.  For the first one, I kept it fairly simple.  I wanted to create a princess character and I'm from Hungary originally, so I simply created a Hungarian princess and use my own Hungarian name: Edit.

My pirate persona's name is a bit of a play on words.  I love the colour purple which, in Hungarian, is "lila", so the pirate's name is Lilla, a created name from "Lila", which name sites say is a Hindi name meaning "play". (Suitable for a pirate, no?)

(For LadyMeg, here's another great name site to fuel your...hobby: http://20000-names.com/)   

[Lady Nicolette]

This was actually brought up in another area here.  My ren-name (Lady Nicolette) was gifted to me by my first husband, although it's derived from my real name.  He wrote a whole series of courtly ballads based around this, it's actually a fairly-sought-after recorded rarity in some circles, we issued this on Cerebella Records in vinyl as "In My Lady's Chamber," back in the ancient days of 1977.  The actual history of my name is thus:

Named after my grandfather, Nikola.  My name means "victorious maiden" in translation.  My birth certificate states my name as "Nickie," but the Catholic church saw it differently and asked my mother for a more feminine name when I was baptised, she chose "Nicolette."  Either is legal.  Family legend has it that after the priest poured the holy water on my forehead, I said, "Let's get the hell out of here!"  (I was much older than usual at a Catholic baptism, due to my mother's illness at the time). 

My second run-in with the church was when I was confirmed.  I wanted to use "Francis," as Francis of Assisi was the one I most resonated with, with his kindness to the birds and the beasts.  Once again, I was ordered to make a choice from the feminine.  So I chose Bernadette, since she had all of those awesome visions and was brave enough to tend to lepers.  So my Catholic name is "Nicolette Bernadette."  

I would have great difficulty being anyone else, I'm blessed with being able to use "Lady Nicolette," authentically (although I did consider using "Nicolette du Jacqueline," before I settled upon "Nickie Harte" when given a chance to change my name after a divorce  (my mother's first name was "Jacqueline," and I'm a bit of a Francophile).  "Harte" was actually my grandmother's maiden name, I didn't want to go back to the original one, "Smith," as it was my despicable father's name.

[Cobaltblu]

Well my name is very important for my character.

My character's name is "Theodore Hief" or "T. Hief", which spells "Thief".  But my character is Theodore Hief, An Honest Man.

My character's name is very important because of the spelling and because of how it sounds.

Regards,

CB

[ladyecho]

     I  don't have a character name and now I'm thinking that I really need one! My screen name 'ladyecho' is because I am a lady (not a man) and I drive an echo. Short, sweet, and to the point. But I would like a faire name to play with. As for characters I've tried a lot of them, I've been french, Italian, English, and fairy! Most people know me as the quite one because I haven't master the accent yet. Any thoughts, ideas, and comments are welcomed!

[Taffy Saltwater]

Taffy Saltwater is my go-to name for wench/pirate/what have you.  Saltwater was taken from two brothers' last names in the book "Pyratica" (sp?).  Taffy because of the sweets and it's associated w/beachy shops, as am I whenever I'm in port.

My Vampyr Huntress' name is La Morte de Draco.  La Morte - death (and because my childhood feminine ideal was Morticia Addams); de Draco - of the Dragon (Dracul/Dracula).  La Morte is currently residing in Victorian times and will make her debut at Halloween at TRF this year.

[Ulrich Kaufman]

My persona's name is a combination of a random German name I found that I liked, and the persona's father's occupation. Kaufman translates to "buy person" (literally) or "merchant". So that is how I got the last name. As for the first name of Ulrich, I was looking at names with my friend and we can across that name and she was like "I like Ulrich" I was like "Yeah, I think I do too." She turned to me and said "Hello Ulrich. You are totally an Ulrich" and so it was chosen.

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

I started off as plan old simple Lady Delaney which is part of my real name. On the CoRF CapnJack refered to me as Lady DeLaney. So I decided to make a change and modify that a little and make it Lady de Laney. I'm of Celtic, Gaelic, and Native decent, but the de Laney is more French. I guess that is OK since Delaney is old French

The boy's and girl's name Delaney \d(e)-la-ney\ is pronounced da-LAY-nee. It is of Irish, Gaelic and Old French origin, and its meaning is "dark challenger or offspring of the challenger; from the elder tree grove". Also possibly (Irish) "angel from heaven".