No, not cuddly-boo or big-john or other pillow names. Not avatar names, or screen names or boasting titles or nicknames.

I'm talking about something even more private than that. Your private name for yourself, that no one else knows.

Do you have one? If so, why? Do any of your characters have one? If not, why not?

Note that I'm not asking you to tell us your private name, although you can if you feel like it.

It is Captain Mad.

I like it. Suits me fine, except I was never an officer, only a lowly enlisted man. But who's complaining. That's "mad" as in crazy, odd, strange, by the way.

There was a brief period in time when I got promoted to Major Mad, but I was quickly demoted when our friends realized I wasn't quite that mad after all.

EDIT: I don't have any other private names for myself. Never thought about it really.

I like the fact that it is more gender neutral. When I was growing up, I didn't really like my name, I didn't feel like a Theresa.

There are times I still don't. That name sounds femanine, and conjurs up an image of a grown-up, nurturing, mother-type. While I hope to fall into that category some day, I don't always feel so nurturing or motherly.

I've always been a tom-boy, but I've never really gone by T.J., or any other nickname (my dad never really liked nicknames, so they were used around the house).

For some reason though, I started to think of myself as T.J. I tried it out as a nickname at camp for a week, and really liked -- it felt more like me. The year before that at camp I had tried out Terri, but it didn't feel right.

T.J. is a little more reckless and adventuresome than Theresa. T.J. is fun, a little wild, likes a bit of mischief and will climb 80-foot fire watch towers just for the view. Theresa likes to sit and crochet.

I would consider this my private name because it has more to do with how I see myself rather than a name that anyone outside of my head would call me.

The idea of a person naming himself is not new. It comes up in alien cultures a great deal of the time and I wouldn't be usprised to find out that some real cultures right here do /have done it.

I recently had a crisis of identity when I got married. Women in this country take their husband's names and I never questioned whether I would do it but it was a little weird. I still publish under my maiden name, partly for that reason and partly because of its significantly nice placement in alphabetical order. My married name is a nicer name, I like it better, but the other one is the one I used my whole life.

But I recently realized something important about my whole maiden/married name bit. I don't think of myself by either one of those names. I think of myself as Christine...the name I use on this and most other writer's forums. In fact, if I ever get to the point where I do a book signing I think I might just use my first name as my signature.

Others have had their own private names for me (not nicknames because they were specific to one person only), mostl not suitable for this forum. Some which are acceptable here include:

Madman Mike
Major Mike
Foghorn
Uncle Grumpy
Munsilman
Mr. Clean
White Lightning

I just thought it might be interesting to get folks thinking about the private musings that could go on inside a character's head. How about a big bad barbarian, who thinks of himself a 'whispersweet'? A little slip of a beggar girl who calls herself 'crotchety'?

There is room for a private life in the heads of our characters, no?

It's interesting that it ISN'T Robyn-Hood, for the reasons you explained in the post on another topic. That was an alter ego you assumed, but not your private name for yourself?

mm

T.J. flits about, while Robyn is more tied to the land.

What I do find interesting is naming characters or places. Some cool names:

She Who Must Be Obeyed (Haggard; later adapted to be barrister Rumpole's secret name for his wife)
Nefernefernefer (The Egyptian; it means, beautiful! beautiful! beautiful!)
Galadriel
Management (Willis's Bellwether -- she never bothered to give him a name, and ended up saying things like, "Management stood in his chair.")

and placenames:

Teach tac Teach, Miraldra, Madling Meadow, Thripsey Shee (Vance)
Mirkwood, Rivendell
Neversummer Mountains (Dunsany I think)

quote:

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“I am the Chief of Ghalas-at,” he said. “My name is Chief Chowig.”

I was surprised that he gave his real name to a stranger. Everyone in our tribe had two names, the real one which was secret and was seldom used, and one which was common, for if people use your secret name it becomes worn out and loses its magic. Thus I was known as Won-a-pa-lei, which means The Girl with the Long Black Hair, though my secret name is Karana. My father’s secret name was Chowig. Why he gave it to a stranger I do not know.

---

quote:

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Can't you distinguish yourself from everyone else without it?

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But which self, Survivor? I have several.

Another thought. To my children, I am Daddy. That's private because no one else in the world can call me that, unless they mean to sound stupid.
Unless it's my wife calling me that, but that's a story for another thread, and I KNOW Kathleen won't let that on this board.

I'm curious, Survivor. Is "Survivor" only a username, or is it a kind of "alter ego" name you picked for yourself?

When I participated on GEnie (a BBS that was one of the few victims of Y2K), I had a username that I chose for my "alter ego." People knew my real name, but most of them called me by my alter ego name. (Damon Knight thought such names were silly and would only call people by their real names. Even if I know someone's real name here on Hatrack, I only call them that in private email. To me, calling you by your username honors the personna you've chosen for Hatrack. <shrug> )

It is rather cool to meet someone who was on GEnie and to tell them my username and to hear them say they remember me from that.

By the way, I have a couple of other special names that have been given to me. One is Edelweiss, in case anyone is interested. And I have a couple of other names that I've chosen for myself. (I am teaching my grandkids to call me "Nanakat.")

Generally, I reserve alter egos for semi-roleplaying type activities. Since I don't want to bother with vetting my comments here to see whether or not they're "in character", there isn't much reason for me to use an alter ego.

I usually put my name at the end of my threads or posts, but IF someone calls me by my username, that's cool with me. But to me a name is a name is a name. You are called by your name since you are born, and eventually you get nicknames (sometimes not the most flattering of things, in my case most definitely) or even teased by being called something you aren't.

If I do meet some of you guys off here, I'd introduce myself as "Monolith from Hatrack" then proceed to give my real name. That's what I've done when meeting people from AOL and that sort of thing.

Ok, that's enough rambling for one day.

Now back to your regularly scheduled forum: