If you could choose any name, who would you be right now?

[Eamar]

I want to ask you an honest, non-judgmental question: Do you, as a human being, genuinely feel more connected to a fictional name that is not human, decidedly not human, than to your actual human name?

Yes I do. My "real human name" has never formed the core of my identity, because there have always been so many other people around me who share it (seriously, we're talking five girls with the same name in a class of 30ish), so the name alone has never been enough to distinguish me from others. Hence the appeal of coming up with a name that was uniquely mine (yes, I was a teenager when I came up with it, and I no longer feel the same desperate need to be "unique"). And it's not about cutting myself off from humanity or my human identity - note how much thought I put into creating a name that's linked to my real name in terms of appearance/sound/meaning. As I said in another post, think of it as me customising or expanding upon my real name.

The other thing to bear in mind is that, in my mind, the name has become much more than just an Elvish name. I guess you could say it's the name of my heroic alter ego, and as such it's linked to all the (human!) qualities I aspire to: justice, strength, selfless loyalty etc. I just don't get that from Emma.

And sure it's fictional, but so are most nicknames so I don't really see why that's an issue.

snippy snip

I completely agree with you about how beautifully Tolkien writes about the human condition. And yeah, I think it just comes down to experiencing the books differently, as I've just never had any difficulty identifying with the Elves myself. Yes, they're different but they're certainly not perfect, though admittedly they can come across that way in LOTR. The Silmarillion and the other History of Middle Earth texts, on the other hand...

Oh, and I could point out that entire human cultures in Tolkien's books use (Sindarin) Elvish names. Numenor for example, and Gondor, including wonderfully human characters like Boromir and Faramir.

Anyway, I think Emma is a beautiful name. It has a nice sound, it's short, you won't have to explain the spelling to anyone, and nobody will ever have any troubles with it, not even abroad.

I'm well aware of those points, I have been living with the name for the last 22 years after all What can I say, personal preferences vary and I just can't get excited about the name myself. I have nothing against normal names by any means, but if I were to choose my own name in the real world (unlikely, though I did seriously consider going by something else when I came to university)I'd probably choose something like Eve/Evie or Karla over Emma. They're just more my cup of tea, for no particular reason.

 

[ForumSafari]

Tali'Zorah.

Nah just kidding, a name's just a name and mine's fairly classical so it'll do.

 

[Eamar]

Tali'Zorah.

Someone was bound to say it eventually

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

Well, my real name is Aron, but pretty much anyone who's known me for more that 5 minutes knows and calls me by my nickname "Ronci" which now takes precedence over Aron, so I'm thinking of legally changing it to that.

 

[McElroy]

Right now I probably wouldn't want to change it. If I changed my last name to McElroy I'd be Samuel L. Jackson from the movie Formula 51 which would be kinda cool.

If I landed on an alien planet with intelligent life, I'd introduce myself as Cândido Mariano Rondon because he was a badass guy with a badass name.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Xin(Zin) - Not sure why, I just like it. Also, I was never very fond of my name, Corey.

I've also used my online name so much over the years that I also answer to Dragmire.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

I like many names. But I probably won't change mine. I'm not overly fond of Herbert, but few, if any, have I met have my name. I tend to go by my middle name, though. I like Steve a lot more.

 

[doggy go 7]

I'd want my own name, and I've never wanted to be called anything else, to the point that when I was younger I tried to stop people from giving me nicknames as much as possible. My name is Samson, which is obviously going to be shortened to Sam by a fair few people, a name I really don't like because plenty of others have it, and it just isn't mine. I'm better about nicknames now (a common one used to be Sampy, because people keep misspelling it Sampson), but the majority of people I know, and nearly all of my friends, call me by my full name, which speaks wonders for my powers of persuasion.

 

[Odd Water]

My own (swear to you) legal full name is 7 words long. And I'm not from a country or racial background where that is common or anything. I am a white male and grew up in the southern states, Mississippi and Alabama mostly. This kind of thing happens when you are born with one name buy the mother has the father wrong, then years later when real one is found and you are adopted you get a legal name change while still a minor, adding to what you already have. All in all though, I like my name, none of the words are anything special or stand out. Every part of it is quite common, its just the length that throw people off.

I'd go with my Pseudname: Corbin Ghaleon

 

[CloudAtlas]

I'm well aware of those points, I have been living with the name for the last 22 years after all What can I say, personal preferences vary and I just can't get excited about the name myself. I have nothing against normal names by any means, but if I were to choose my own name in the real world (unlikely, though I did seriously consider going by something else when I came to university)I'd probably choose something like Eve/Evie or Karla over Emma. They're just more my cup of tea, for no particular reason.

And there's nothing wrong with that, of course. But since there's a chance that other people telling you that they like your name might give yourself a more positive attitude towards it, I found it worth saying.

And the beauty of names in Sindarin/Quenya is that there actually is a language and a meaning behind them, in contrast to fictional names from most other works that are rarely more than a reasonably pleasant yet still rather generic sounding combination of random vowels and consonants.
Just don't name your kids Elrond and Galadriel please.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I have three names and they are all family names. I never cared for this practice however.

I like my names just fine, but the entire concept of being named after someone seems like a stifling of individuality. When I named my daughter, I just picked a name I liked. A name outside of our family line. It became an insanely common name amongst her peers however, so I guess I didn't really do any better.

I'm named after my dad. We are both "Bobby". I don't use that name however. I go by my first middle name; Paul. Paul was my dad's brother. He was a police officer and he died on the job. My second middle name is just my mother's dad's name. A fine Irish name sure, but I have never used it beyond filling out government forms and such.

If I could choose, I'd still use Paul. But, I'd have Paul be my first name instead of my middle name so I wouldn't ALWAYS have to tell the people at various offices that I go by my middle name and would you please call me Paul and not Bobby. Even when doctors write it on the chart, this still happens. sigh.

 

[Scarim Coral]

This is something I had somewhat thought of (if I had to change my identity if I had to go in hiding), What? I'm not weird!

Anyway I figure I would picked the name "Ryan" mainly because I still want my new name to be slightly be similar to my old name despite the only resemblist is that they are both R names. I guess I am still clinging onto my former identity. Sure there are other R names like Rick, Raymond, Raleigh etc but I find Ryan most suiting to me the most.

 

[Eamar]

And there's nothing wrong with that, of course. But since there's a chance that other people telling you that they like your name might give yourself a more positive attitude towards it, I found it worth saying.

And the beauty of names in Sindarin/Quenya is that there actually is a language and a meaning behind them, in contrast to fictional names from most other works that are rarely more than a reasonably pleasant yet still rather generic sounding combination of random vowels and consonants.
Just don't name your kids Elrond and Galadriel please.

I see. In that case, thanks I don't actually hate my name or anything, I just don't feel strongly about it either way.

And yes, I agree about the importance of having an actual language as a base. If nothing else, it's fun to play with. When I actually came up with Eämar, it was as part of a kind of linguistic exercise (I'm really interested in linguistics/philology), taking pairs of Quenya words and seeing how they'd fit together and merge to become a usable name. Eäramar flows much better as Eämar, etc. I used to have great fun coming up with names for my friends in this way. Sorry for rambling, but this thread has reminded me of that

Anyway...

Haha, have no fear. I don't actually plan on having kids myself, but if I did for some reason I imagine maybe including an Elvish middle name would be as far as I'd go. I don't know about the rest of the world, but the embarrassing middle name is a bit of an English institution anyway

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

Why would I want any other name than my own? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas

 

[Palademon]

The amazing gamer president pimp king contortionist playwrite the mighty XxzzLe3TShn1PZZZZssx the Third.

Nah man, but since my name is Jonathan and I enjoy unique names, I probably would end up with something worth a punch.
Part of the problem is what makes names such a humble label is that we don't choose them ourselves. Changing your name is reasonable, but if it's to anything unordinary, even if you absolutely hated your previous name, you look like an ass.

As for a reasonable name, I'd probably legitimately delete my middle name and change my last name, to become John Smith, just to fuck with people.

 

[Hagi]

Wouldn't change my name, quite like it.

I do use another name when travelling abroad though, people who don't speak languages with germanic origins usually can't pronounce it and in the languages that do I'm sometimes the protagonist of older bibles, which I've been told might offend some people and advised to use another name.

So in other countries I go by Hendrik. Here at home though, I am:

Värdes, o HERRE, rädda mig; HERRE, skynda till min hjälp.

Spoiler: Also, Nelly has the hots for me. Even wrote a song about it. He's not really my type though.

 

[Teoes]

Tali'Zorah.

Someone was bound to say it eventually

Yes - and that someone was me on page one!

 

[Eamar]

Tali'Zorah.

Someone was bound to say it eventually

Yes - and that someone was me on page one!

My bad. I hope you're very proud