Oh, I get this a *lot.*
Prompt 338: Tell the story behind your name (or nickname).
The first thing I ought to point out is that Q is not my name.
I don't have a name. I don't *need* one. The other Q all know who I am. I am a part of the Continuum overmind, and the idea of the Q giving individual names to the separate parts of the Q is about as ridiculous as the idea of mortals giving individual, personal names to their superego and their id, or maybe the part of them that really likes to collect trains. (Although I have heard that human men, in particular, have been known to give personal names to their reproductive anatomy. But then, humans are obsessed with naming *everything.*)
Mind you, unlike the separate parts of a mortal's mind, we are all individual sentiences and can function on that level as well, so we do sometimes give each other nicknames, because the full "name" of a Q is a description of that entity and their position/role within the overmind, and that can get tedious to repeat a lot even if you have all eternity to do it in. Nicknames I have been given by other Q include "the Q for humans", "the leader of the freedom faction", "the father of the Youngest", "that asshole", and, um, well, "that asshole" is actually pretty popular. Q (who goes by the name Queria when talking to human beings) and Q (who got me kicked out of the Continuum, for a day) both call me "little brother." q calls me "you big lunkhead." (She means it affectionately, though.) Before we broke up, Q (my ex) had a bad habit of calling me "mine" (meaning, hers.) My son calls me Dad.
The youngest Q are more likely to have nicknames that are agreed on by most of the Continuum. Amanda was "the Youngest" until my son was born, and "the Deathchild" during the war (you should see her kill ratio if you want to know why.) And some people (like myself) will actually call her Amanda. My son gets called Junior a lot (not really, but "miniature copy of Q your father" translates best into English as Junior.)
But none of us actually have *names*. We are all just Q.
In English.
This part is the source of much confusion. No, we are not named after the 17th letter of your alphabet. I suppose you might imagine that our name might be phonetic, ie, Kyu or something like that. It's not. We don't use phonemes to communicate unless we're talking to mortals who do. "Q" is a translation of an untranslatable concept, carrying the connotations of questioning, and judging, and being that which cannot be understood by the laws of the matter-based universe. In other languages we are "Rakheledy" (Questioner - El-Aurian), "Yan" (judgement personified -- Metraxan), "Eshto'varras" (the oneness which seeks to know all that is not one -- Kaeloid), "Sit" (? - Sarrin... that doesn't mean I don't know it, I mean literally it's ?). And, obviously, billions of others.
Me, I like Q. It's short, it's to the point, and if occasionally we get some jokes about U following us, well, that's life when you deal with idiotic mortals. But it is not my name, and it's only a vaguely accurate translation of the name of my species.
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG/VOY
The first thing I ought to point out is that Q is not my name.
I don't have a name. I don't *need* one. The other Q all know who I am. I am a part of the Continuum overmind, and the idea of the Q giving individual names to the separate parts of the Q is about as ridiculous as the idea of mortals giving individual, personal names to their superego and their id, or maybe the part of them that really likes to collect trains. (Although I have heard that human men, in particular, have been known to give personal names to their reproductive anatomy. But then, humans are obsessed with naming *everything.*)
Mind you, unlike the separate parts of a mortal's mind, we are all individual sentiences and can function on that level as well, so we do sometimes give each other nicknames, because the full "name" of a Q is a description of that entity and their position/role within the overmind, and that can get tedious to repeat a lot even if you have all eternity to do it in. Nicknames I have been given by other Q include "the Q for humans", "the leader of the freedom faction", "the father of the Youngest", "that asshole", and, um, well, "that asshole" is actually pretty popular. Q (who goes by the name Queria when talking to human beings) and Q (who got me kicked out of the Continuum, for a day) both call me "little brother." q calls me "you big lunkhead." (She means it affectionately, though.) Before we broke up, Q (my ex) had a bad habit of calling me "mine" (meaning, hers.) My son calls me Dad.
The youngest Q are more likely to have nicknames that are agreed on by most of the Continuum. Amanda was "the Youngest" until my son was born, and "the Deathchild" during the war (you should see her kill ratio if you want to know why.) And some people (like myself) will actually call her Amanda. My son gets called Junior a lot (not really, but "miniature copy of Q your father" translates best into English as Junior.)
But none of us actually have *names*. We are all just Q.
In English.
This part is the source of much confusion. No, we are not named after the 17th letter of your alphabet. I suppose you might imagine that our name might be phonetic, ie, Kyu or something like that. It's not. We don't use phonemes to communicate unless we're talking to mortals who do. "Q" is a translation of an untranslatable concept, carrying the connotations of questioning, and judging, and being that which cannot be understood by the laws of the matter-based universe. In other languages we are "Rakheledy" (Questioner - El-Aurian), "Yan" (judgement personified -- Metraxan), "Eshto'varras" (the oneness which seeks to know all that is not one -- Kaeloid), "Sit" (? - Sarrin... that doesn't mean I don't know it, I mean literally it's ?). And, obviously, billions of others.
Me, I like Q. It's short, it's to the point, and if occasionally we get some jokes about U following us, well, that's life when you deal with idiotic mortals. But it is not my name, and it's only a vaguely accurate translation of the name of my species.
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG/VOY