My Names

[poliphilo]

I've never used a pseudonym before. And I wouldn't have done so here on LJ if it hadn't been the etiquette (so to speak.) I don't mind people knowing who I really am- and if you want to be told I'll tell you, no qualms.

But I like my adopted name. I've started to identify with it. It's more elegant and eloquent than the real thing.

But what's with this "reality" business anyway? Which is more real- the name my parents gave me or the one I have given myself?

My real first name derives from an ancient Roman family, the most famous member of which has a leading role in Shakespeare. It's further identified with the guy who set the early Christian fashion for going out into the Egyptian desert and hallucinating (otherwise known as monasticism.)

Wanna have a guess? No prizes I'm afraid.

And my last name is an odd little monosyllable of uncertain derivation. It might mean "grey" or it might have something to do with milling.

But Poliphilo- he's this Italian Renaissance Alice who scuttles through Wonderland (in search of his girlfriend) oohing and aahing at the architecture and furnishings. I didn't spend a whole lot of time choosing the name, but I find it fits very comfortably. Lover of Many Things is what it means.

I want it on my tombstone.

Comments

[thewayupward.livejournal.com]

First name - Julian? Last name, I have no idea, all I can think of that means "grey" is Floyd? Baffling!

I never liked my own name - it's so insipid. Also, nobody hears it right first try, which embarrasses me. It works with my last name, though - Karen Lee. I'm a walking adverb! Karenly Karen Lee.

I think Chinese names are interesting, though. Traditionally they're chosen with great care - the family name comes first, so in Chinese I'm Lee Wei Sian. After the surname is the generation name (traditionally), so everyone in the same generation as you in your family shares it. Some families have a poem or something which an ancestor wrote, and they run through the words consecutively for each generation (does this make sense?) so for a new generation they use the next word in the sequence. Yeah. Then the last character is the given name.

Anyway, people go to insane lengths to get names that sound cool - there's a lot of stuff that works by having a similar sound to a word with a desirable meaning? So I knew a girl whose surname was 'Ma Li Qian', which when said backwards (Qian Li Ma) sounded like the Chinese phrase that translates as, um, a winged steed. Anyway everyone made such a fuss because it was so auspicious and subtle.

Only thing is, Chinese doesn't really borrow from other languages like English does, so while nobody knows "Peter" derives from - uh, "petros", for 'stone', Chinese names are very obvious when they mean something, and most do carry some kind of ambition your parents had. So if your parents wished for you to be strong and undefeatable and you're a weedy kid who everyone walks all over, well, people know it.

This comment got long for no reason, and it's only tenuously related to what you were saying, but I thought you might find this stuff interesting? also, yo, I'd love to know your real name.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's fascinating about Chinese names. I didn't know any of it before. I particularly love the bit about the family poem.

No, I'm not Julian Floyd. I didn't know Floyd meant grey- so that's another thing I've learned today.

I'll let other people have their guesses and then publish my "real" name in tomorrow morning's posting.

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

*comments at random*

I dated a Chinese guy last year and when I was visiting his family his mother translated my first name 'Bryan' as 'Bu Lai En' (I think), anyway it meant 'Not coming' and Alex's grandma chortled about it for ages, so I decided it wouldn't do and later me and Alex came up with 'Hao Bai Yan', and I think we had the 'Bai Yan' bit meaning 'White Cliff'. We could never agree on which meaning to go with though.

Alex's Chinese name means 'Pride of Australia' and 'Pride of the family' (with two different character possibilities), and he was the first born here in the family ... lots of pressure!

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I told a Chinese girl my name meant 'brave' so I am Guan Yi which I think is cool!