Thursday 11 October 2007

The name game

Some poetry competitions, especially pamphlet comps such as The Poetry Business's, require you to put a pen name on your work, in the interests of anonymity.
I'll be honest - it's fun, thinking of a whole new name for yourself. In the past, I've tended to use names out of the old family Bible, just because most sound appropriately ordinary, although I've yet to use James James, a name that crops up more than once in my family tree. I suspect most judges would be very wary of any wacky, or overly eye-catching names, so that also rules out using the splendid Green Willoughby (my dad's grandfather, or great-grandfather, I can't quite remember). Or Skeffington Liquorish, a real name a friend came across on a tombstone in Leicester (it sounds like it belongs in a Dickens novel).
What about you? Names chosen at random from a phonebook? Family names? Fictional characters? I'd be delighted to know which...

9 comments:

Andrew Shields said...

I like to use Phaedrus, because that was my air name the first term I was a student DJ. (I was a big Robert Pirsig fan at the time.)

I've also used Jonathan Schild. Jonathan is my middle name, and Schild is the German for Shield.

Kirk Wisebeard said...

well.. at various times i've been Kirk Hargrave,(using my Gran's maiden name) Richard Hargrave (middle name,) Richard Kirk (middle name and mum's maiden name (my own name is basically a string of surnames!!)) and, just the once, Stuart Hargrave and Rabledo Castillo.... but there we are.. that was in the days when i thought having a pen name was cool and attractive... interestingly enough, as Rabledo Castillo (under which name I was thankfully never published!) i wrote about a certain "Matteus Marriott... "

LouAnn Muhm said...

I've never known of a contest that asks this. It must be a British thing. :) Here, names are just left off, except on a cover sheet, which presumably is only seen by a clerical worker who opens the mail. Most of the names in my own family history seem to be of the Skeffington Liquorish variety, my favorite of which is Udner Mudgett.

Matt Merritt said...

Udner Mudgett is a great name! I'm not really sure why some contests use the pen name thing, though.

Matt Merritt said...

I like Jonathan Schild, too. It's the sort of name that looks like it would have letters after it.

Andrew Shields said...

Jonathan Schild, Ph. D., Esq., Ltd.

LouAnn Muhm said...

...and Schild is very Beowulfian, too, (Scyld) just to bring the conversation full circle.

Matt Merritt said...

I hadn't thought of that. Very appropriate.

Frances said...

I agree its sometimes difficult to think of a pen name - although surely it shouldn't be. Its just a way of not using real names so the judges aren't swayed if the competition entry happens to be signed Duffy or Paterson! I've used Tiggywinkle a couple of times because of my current obsession with all things Cumbria-ish and Miss Potter-ish