Do you like your name?

[Legens Legentis]

My parents gave me a very fitting name on account of my Algonquin (and Scottish) ancestry. As for the name Logan itself, it has a nice ring to it, and few people in my area have it. The Gaelic definition means 'hollow' and whether or not fate itself is poking fun at me remains to be seen.

On a side note, 'Legens Legentis' means 'one who reads' in Latin, which seemed fitting for a role-playing website when I first joined. The 'uncle' portion has a meaning to it that is quite personal to me, mostly acting as a painful reminder for a it-shall-not-be-mentioned-here event, but I try to act like family for those who are kind to me, so that's the positive spin I choose to instill. Helpful and distant simultaneously, perhaps.

 

[Chatoyante]

I don't mind my first name. I'm attached to it in the way you can expect to be attached to something you've had for nearing three decades. My biggest complaint is just that it's so girlish, with limited options to change that. Katherine, for example, gives you Kate, Katie, Kat, Kathy, and Katherine. My name...you just kind of get Kay/K or Kayla. I'll admit, though, it could've been worse: had I been a boy, I could've been a Bradley, which was the maiden name of a great grandmother, I believe. No offense to any Bradley's meant, I just can't stop thinking about Brad Majors from RHPS.

Part of the reason I have the name that I do is because it is similar to my mother's middle name (just as my mother's first name is similar to her mother's middle name), but I've also been told it's because there was a popular character named Kayla Brady on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives." According to family, her and another character, Steve 'Patch' Johnson (lol 'cause he has an eyepatch), were kind of a huge "will they/won't they" deal in the 80's. Reading the details about her and this Steve character now, and I'm just laughing. Interesting pair. As for meaning, I honestly have no clue. Some say it's a variant of Katherine, which would mean "pure." Other sources suggest that it is a female form for Kay, the brother of King Arthur, which they then suggest means "keeper of the keys."

My usernames sometimes carry a cat theme, depending on how identifiable I want to be. Chatoyant can describe or be a name for a jewel that has certain optical characteristics that cause the object to shine like a cat's eye. Chantoyante is just the French feminine singular form, because it was less likely to be taken as a username than Chatoyant.

 

[Pahn]

I like my first name, but I always felt like it wasn't very natural to say out loud? I don't know xD

It's from Greek origin and represents the nymph that Apollo turned into a Laurel tree because he was jealous.

My username, Pahn, has inspired many variations though :D I love it. Pandæmonium is the capital of Hell in John Milton's Paradise lost, and it's one of the classics that I love. Pahn just feels so much more like "me" now instead of my real-life name, it's weird.

 

[Weegee]

Only few people on the internet (2 people here on iwaku) know my real name and I dislike it strongly. My mom picked it but, because of the spelling, people pronounce it wrong...that's not why I dislike it though.

My username here is something I came up with randomly if I'm honest and it's what I prefer to be called. If I could change my legal name to Yanna, I would.

 

[Jorick]

My real name is a generational hand-me-down. I'm the fourth person in my family, on my father's side, to have this same first, middle, and last name. I've even got a fancy Roman numeral IV after my name on legal documents to reflect this fact. I'm okay with it. It sounds like a perfect name for an old English butler dude, and I've always been amused by that.

My forum name is solid. Short and simple, easy to fuck around with for puns and jokes, not a regular word of the English language or a commonly used real name in most places. I've been using it for the better part of a decade now, and I don't see myself changing it ever.

 

[Ravenfrost]

I was given a name at birth--which my family never used. Doh. Everyone called me by another first name.

When I was old enough to realize this, I asked why. No one knew. Which was nuts. I mean, it had to come from somewhere, right? You don't start calling your kid Mortimer or Florabelle out of the blue for no reason (my folks were definitely not whimsical creatures).

I don't emotionally identify with either name, and my friends tend to feel they don't suit me either.

I was given a private name (entirely by chance) by a Tibetan Buddhist lama, which is amazing. No one knows it, although I told my besties (but since we don't speak Tibetan they quickly forgot). I don't feel I'm entitled to use it at this time, maybe someday I'll evolve into it.

Other than those, I have a host of fantasy RP names, most not catalogued on this site (though Ravenfrost suits me just fine).

 

[Arlathina]

My real-life name, Isaac Flores, is one that I am very fond of. My first name is Biblical, and means "he who laughs" in Hebrew. When I was younger, I felt that this was much more fitting, since I was a very jovial, humorous child. However, laughing seems a bit too light-hearted to describe my sense of humor now that I'm becoming an adult, which I would describe as much more sardonic and satirical. I guess it was a subtle transition from laughing with people to laughing at people.

Flores is the Spanish word for flowers, which I also think is very significant as it denotes the intensive spiritual connection I've always felt to the natural world. I grew up in the mountains surrounded by nature, so I've always had a deep appreciation for the environment.

Arlathina was a name inspired by Dragon Age lore surrounding Elvhenan, which was the primordial civilization of Elves in the DA universe. When I was playing Dragon Age: Origins in middle school, I was an absolute lore nerd when it came to anything relating to Elves, so I would spend hours hunting for codex after codex in Elvish ruins. Arlathan was the name of its capital, meaning "this place of love". Adding -thina to the end was essentially a way of feminizing the word to make it fit my female (Elf) character. After that, it simply stuck and it was a name that I would reuse for many of my characters across the various games and personas that I inhabited. Looking back, this had to be some sort of sub-conscious, yet deliberate, choice.

Video games were the only place that I allowed myself to express the feminine qualities which I was attempting to suppress in all other aspects of my life. I still hadn't accepted the fact that I was gay, so I spent a large majority of my childhood trying to appear more masculine. As a result, in nearly any video game I played, I almost always chose a female character/alias. Thus, stepping into these fantasy, female personas quickly became a place of self-love, self-acceptance. It acted as a counter-weight to the fact that I was masking my femininity in real life.

If this raises any questions as to my gender identity, I would like to state that I do solidly identify as male. Part of my development was learning to embrace both the masculine and feminine aspects of my being in such a way that both can co-exist. I feel like I've improved significantly in that area.

 

[Artorias]

My real name is John, and my brothers and Father are also named from the Twelve Apostles. That is the reason my dad called me John (and he is Catholic). I'm neutral about my name. It is a name.

My username is Artorias from Dark Souls, which is one of my favorite games. Unlike some people, Dark Souls actually helped me release a lot of stress I had going through school and other shit, and when the DLC came out Artorias was the only one that took me hours to beat, that and I like the name Artorias.

 

[Obsidian Miscreant]

My name is Ariel, and when I was younger I hated it.
The Little Mermaid jokes/teasing were relentless for the longest time, and that wasn't even what I was named after/where my name came from. Considered getting it changed one day.

When I was in highschool, and lived in Israel for a month I was very surprised to learn my name had Hebrew roots.
It means 'Lion of God', I never knew that before then, and so learning that was pretty cool. Now, as an adult I'm fine with it, and neither love nor hate it. It's just my name. I also no longer have any plans to change it.

As for my username obsidian is my favorite type of rock, and Nyx is my favorite Greek goddess.
She came before the Olympians.

 

[Rithas]

My real name is alright, it gets pronounced/spelt wrong quite often. Quite to my amusement. It's not even a complicated name, it's just that everyone thinks it's spelt/pronounced differently.

I like my Username, probably due to the fact that I picked it. Though I wonder how other people pronounce it in their heads.

 

[Kagayours]

Do I wonder how other people pronounce it in their heads.

REE-thas, with the A being pronounced like an 'ah' sound.

 

[Greenie]

REE-thas, with the A being pronounced like an 'ah' sound.

I pronounce it pretty much the same, except the 'Ree' part is more of a 'Reh' lol.

 

[Arlathina]

My name is Ariel, and when I was younger I hated it.
The Little Mermaid jokes/teasing were relentless for the longest time, and that wasn't even what I was named after/where my name came from. Considered getting it changed one day.

When I was in highschool, and lived in Israel for a month I was very surprised to learn my name had Hebrew roots.
It means 'Lion of God', I never knew that before then, and so learning that was pretty cool. Now, as an adult I'm fine with it, and neither love nor hate it. It's just my name. I also no longer have any plans to change it.

As for my username obsidian is my favorite type of rock, and Nyx is my favorite Greek goddess.
She came before the Olympians.

Have you read Ariel by Sylvia Plath? She references the Hebrew meaning of the name when she writes, "God's lioness". In an astronomical sense, Ariel is the fourth largest moon of Uranus. There is also the imprisoned creative spirit featured in Shakespeare's writings. There is such a rich and varied background of Ariels that imbue the name with so much significance. I don't want to tell you how to feel about your own name, but I would wear it like a badge of honor.

 

[Fel of the Eternal Forest]

It's been my name since 2008. Even when I went by Chet Manly and tried a brand change I was called Fel or Papa. So, at this point I've resigned myself to it. I don't like or dislike it. It is my name as much as Pat is my real one.

 

[HerziQuerzi]

I like my real name, Quinn, because it's short and kinda snappy, common enough to not be some weird/obscure thing but uncommon enough that I rarely get mixed up with other people, and it's unisexual. Also I'm biased as fuck.

My username, however, I like even more. Not only is it pretty unique (I've never had problems getting it on sites or being mixed up with other people's usernames), I feel it pretty accurately gives a snapshot of what people can expect from my personality. Laissez-faire and quick to jokes. Bonus: It's also a synopsis of my entire online life, in terms of how it evolved.
First, enters HerzinthTheDark, a middleschool edgelord supreme. They keep the name for awhile before realizing It's Bad, Man, and shortens it to just Herzinth. Most people just use Herzi, except for my brother, who likes to mix people's various names/usernames together into new nicknames. Quinn+Herzi=Querzi. I liked the sound of it, and was on the verge of switching my Herzinth's to Herzi's anyway, so I combined the two. And thus HerziQuerzi was born.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

I never really liked my real name (Paul) very much. Growing up, I always wanted a nickname, but I could never get one to stick. The problem is that my name is super short and sounds very unsatisifying coming out someone's mouth. It was also given to me specifically because it's from the Bible, and, as an atheist, I don't really appreciate that fact. Thankfully, most of my IRL friends are in the habit of calling me by my last name, which is a little weird, but I honestly preferred it. As much as I don't like my name though, I can't really imagine it being anything else at this point.

As for my username, well, of course I like my username; I wouldn't still be using it if I didn't.

 

[Mami Tomoe]

"Julia" is currently my name. My parents did a good job with naming me. Where I come from, the name isn't overly used, and it's not unheard of, either.

However, I'm planning to change it when I get older. I'm not too attached to my name. Additionally, I want to craft my own identity. It's going to be a long process, and I'm not taking it lightly.

My username, Panne, is the name of my favorite Fire Emblem character. That's it.

 

[Turtle of Doom]

My actual first name is "Patricia" it's a common enough name that I don't mind sharing it online. I was named after my aunt, and it's an alright name, I suppose... but it's not me. It is also an "old person" name, I feel. I go by a nickname "Trysh", and that suits me fine. I like it, in fact. My middle name is wholly unique, so I won't be sharing that and I love it. Though most people pronounce is wrong and spell it wrong because they assume it's a different name all together.

My username is nice. I mean, I picked it so I must like it right? :P

 

[Melon]

I've never been fond of my name, Kaylee--it's so generic. There are so many people with my name around here and there's nothing really special about it. Plus I just don't think I look like a Kaylee. I always thought I'd make a good Elizabeth (which is my middle name).

As for my username. It was a nickname given to me by @Xnijmai and it's stuck. I am forever known as Melon 8D

 

[Yun Lee]

My real name is a Gaelic one, that my mom wanted to name me because of a miniseries she was obsessed with at the time. I was this close to being Amanda, but thank God I'm Meghan instead. Though it's annoying to always have my name spelled Megan lol, I love the silent H. Recently I've found myself going by Meg. Idk, that one feels like it fits me more.

My middle name is Rose, for my grandmother. She loved that I was named for her and would call me by my first and middle name a lot. Tbh I love roses (pink roses are my favorite flower), so I'm happy.

My username is a Street Fighter character. I'm one of those people who changes usernames left and right, but I'm matching with my best friend @Yang Lee so I'm more than happy to stay Yun ^^