What's in a name?

[frost_light]

A watcher emailed these questions in, and since there are a few FFF members with pen names (and maybe more than I'm aware of), I thought it made for an interesting discussion. So, here are the questions

Comments

[swan_tower]

I use a pen name because my legal name, Bryn Neuenschwander -- well, that's really all I have to say, isn't it? Nobody can spell or pronounce it, and people often mistake "Bryn" for "Bryan" and therefore expect me to be a guy. I've known since I was ten that I would be writing under a pen name.

As for how I chose Marie Brennan -- Marie is my middle name, and "Brennan" came out of Bryn + N. I wanted something that was still "my name," just rearranged.

[rj_anderson]

Oh, but I have to say -- what a beautiful name! Your real one, I mean.

[swan_tower]

But nobody can reproduce it. They recognize it when they see it again, but ask them two weeks later what it was, and all they know is that it was really long. And that it started with an N.

Unless you mean just my first name, in which case, scratch the part about it being long and starting with an N. :-)

(Thanks for the compliment, though.)

[rj_anderson]

Well, I especially like the Bryn part, but the Neueschwander (if I got that anywhere near right, I can proudly say it was by memory; if I got it wrong, I will leave it uncorrected to the proof of your point) has a music of its own.

[rj_anderson]

(And would you believe I actually put in the second "n" of your last name as I was typing it and then second-guessed myself and took it out? So close...)

[swan_tower]

Most impressive!