Nameology
What's in a name anyways? Our parents name us for all sorts of reasons, but does that name mean anything special. Maybe you were named after a relative, or a biblical figure if you're parents are old school. Perhaps it's a famous person they liked, maybe a close friend, or they might have just liked a particular name. They might have poored through a book of names to find one they hoped you might emulate in some fashion. I don't think I'm strong or manly...or God's gracious gift; name books can be disappointing. This is when we're born. We haven't made an identity for ourselves, so it's pretty much Russian Roulette.
Friends give us nicknames for a variety of reasons. But we don't get to choose those either. At best they might describe how they see us, or it's probably an inside joke. Tolstoy has been a favourite of mine for a while. It even got mentioned in "The Book of Romardianism" as one of three wise men, as selected from the Table at the time. But these names don't always stick, either because they no longer apply, or just stopped being fun. Sorry Wiggles, it's still more fun to make a Futurama reference.
Now if we don't like our names we can always change them officially, or by introduction with our prefered name/nickname. I scratched my head when Sven got mail at the Hub, because I didn't always make the distinction at first glance. I had the same problem with Romard, but to a lesser extent since I knew him before we started using his last name to distinguish between the Mikes at the Table.
In Morgan the Black's case,which is where this entry's origins lie, we have someone who has gone so far as to change her name legally from a previously gender neutral name to another one. But since I've known Morgan the Red much longer, it was hard to find a way to refer to each while acknowlegding each claim to the same first name. Sure we could have gotten formal about the whole thing, but it's fun to make it all piratey.
Suffice it to say, we'll get called all sorts of things by different people. But it's not who we are, we can only be our selves.
Friends give us nicknames for a variety of reasons. But we don't get to choose those either. At best they might describe how they see us, or it's probably an inside joke. Tolstoy has been a favourite of mine for a while. It even got mentioned in "The Book of Romardianism" as one of three wise men, as selected from the Table at the time. But these names don't always stick, either because they no longer apply, or just stopped being fun. Sorry Wiggles, it's still more fun to make a Futurama reference.
Now if we don't like our names we can always change them officially, or by introduction with our prefered name/nickname. I scratched my head when Sven got mail at the Hub, because I didn't always make the distinction at first glance. I had the same problem with Romard, but to a lesser extent since I knew him before we started using his last name to distinguish between the Mikes at the Table.
In Morgan the Black's case,which is where this entry's origins lie, we have someone who has gone so far as to change her name legally from a previously gender neutral name to another one. But since I've known Morgan the Red much longer, it was hard to find a way to refer to each while acknowlegding each claim to the same first name. Sure we could have gotten formal about the whole thing, but it's fun to make it all piratey.
Suffice it to say, we'll get called all sorts of things by different people. But it's not who we are, we can only be our selves.