Using Pen Names

It’s entirely up to you if you want to. There’s reasons for and against it. If you look up “should I use a pen name” into Google it’ll come up with a whole lot of blogs and articles

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This name, P’leimis, which is just the first part, is not my real name. But it is meaningful. And if you could figure out what language it was then you might be able to guess my actual name. (But you’d have to have the second half to do that.) I use my real name for my creative works. Yet a meaningful name is important, even on a site like this. (Not that I expect agreement all round on this.) But names by their essence are meaningful. And when we choose names to be mellifluous or jokey, that certainly tells us something about the one being named. But real names are also important since they loaded with personal history.

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Closest thing to that pen name I’ve seen as another language was plemiski naslov
It is great you have a serious but still cool pen name

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Well should I ever find the inspiration to write one of these things I absolutely should use a “nom de plume” on account of my real life job and not wanting certain colleagues, prosecutors, senior partners etc to read my gay romance drivel. As well as the fact that I may or may not get bitten by the political ambitions at some time in the future.

Sadly it seems Fifi Buttercup is already taken. :disappointed: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Autoplay is usually my pen name. Its Origin story is out of this world!!!
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I was watching youtube, saw the Autoplay button and made it my Pen name and nearly everything.

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I am toying with the idea of creating my own webpage to put my stuff on.
(Art, writing, links to my wips, templates and guides for choicescript maybe?)

Anyway, for that I’ll need to settle on a pen name, and I would like some input on that.

The name should be as gender neutral as possible, and preferably make people think of fairytales, fantasy and gothic horror/romance.
I would have prefered an old norse name (like my real one), but unfortunately those don’t come in gender-neutral.

So, I have settled on something british sounding, and have been all over the scale, from completely mundane, to things like “Briar Eventide”.
The one I’m currently considering is:

Rowan Grey Underhill

But I don’t really know. Is it too much? Too little? Just wrong?

Anyone have input?

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The Lady Luck = Fortune Fairy

:sweat_smile:

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Hahaha, that doesn’t really sound like a name. :laughing:

And if it is, some parents need to rethink their choices.

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I’m not sure how I feel about having all three names–I guess it depends on your target audience, but it feels a little old-fashioned or pretentious, depending on what light you put it under.

I kind of like just “Rowan Grey”, for what it’s worth

So a bit too little then.

I do like roman names, but they tend to be very gendered.

@HomingPidgeon Aaand that’s a vote for too much.
Rowan Grey does sound nice, but I worry if it’s a bit too generic, if it invokes the right associations.

Rowan

Reminds me of Roanoke. Old fashioned. Mysterious. Maybe a bit too far in both directions.

Grey

As in morally ambiguous or dark.

Underhill

As in a loner who lives underneath a hill away from the rest of civilisation.

Together, the name seems to me like “mysterious dark stranger” which is honestly a bit too far on the edgy side. Even barring that, it most certainly has Coolsounding Z. McMadeupname syndrome.

If I were you I’d settle for something that feels less obviously pen-namey.

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A quick Google search says Rowan Grey is a clothing–line, site, not sure, but apparently already in use, but nothing came up for Rowan Underhill? Although admittedly I think “Underhill” is kind of the part of the name I like least–it just feels pretty on the nose. You could probably find a surname that evokes a similar vibe without being quite so literal

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back in the day , when I was drawing . I always signed a pen name . I rarely use my real name for anything really . Even online , I have multi-alias to go by since the z’internet is alot of things…but safe isn’t one of them :sweat_smile:

though when I made them stories of mines , I came up with a trademark like thing and funny enough…it has my name innit .

If you are curious about the old pen name I used for my drawing , it was : Papillon

as for its origin , its the title of a book I read when I was a kid ‘Papillon’ . kinda stay with you .

papillon in english is butterfly . And back then , I found out that one has my real name lol . So there you have it :wink:

I’m pretty sure know one picked “Daktor Mattical Skol”
:joy:

What if a real name has symbols that very likely foreign language speakers are not able to pronounce etc.? For example my name is Ģirts and I haven’t talked IRL with foreigners who could pronounce it properly. ^^’’

This reason would be good enough to us pen name or its meh? :smiley:

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my name has 5 small letters…and peoples have (for years now!) trouble saying it…:unamused: so yeah , it would be a good reason . I definitly would .

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I use a pen name partly for reasons of pronunciation. Lots of professional people do, not just writers.

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Thank you! You and @E_RedMark have reassured me. Now onward to the quest of deciding what to use!

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Do you read Poe? I think Ulalume has some very English-sounding yet slightly ominous Victorian words, like Auber, tarn, and Weir. Actually, my Acting professor’s name was Christopher Weare. I honestly suspect he’s a werewolf of some sort.

Point is: Auber is just a name, but it sounds like Auburn, which is a nice colour. And Weare is like weir, which is some sort of dam, I think.

Auburn Weare. I endorse it.

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I haven’t read much of Poe, saw movie thou.
Auburn Weare sounds really nice, but I would feel bad for using it as you thought of it. ^^’’’

I’m fond of G.B. Redspear. Sounds simple and nice (or its just silly me) and I’m saving my initials. Thou in google search there is company named Redspear and in amazon books it finds author named G.B. Caird. Finding these my heart just takes a stumble :confused: