Hello All.
Here I am on the NEW new blogger account. Evidently you figured out what was going on from my email. Thanks for following me here. Today I'm talking about names, and choosing a pen name.
Pen names have advantages and drawbacks. I decided to use a pen name for the sake of privacy. My personal Facebook and Instagram accounts are set to Friends Only. I prefer to interact with my friends without worrying about unpleasant comments from strangers or creepy friend requests. But authors these days are expected to actively promote their books on social media, which of course means author accounts have to be open, so people can find them.
I wasn't completely comfortable with that, so I'm using an author pen name. It will separate my writing life from my personal life, including the social media aspects. From a business point of view the disadvantages of a pen name are minimal, for me at least. If I do manage to get a book publishing contract and adjustments have to be made, I'll deal with it at the time.
Back to names! Most of my life I've been fascinated by names, their meanings and history, how they look on the page, how they sound. To me, the look and sound of a name carries emotion, meaning, and an additional layer showing a person's character. I'm having trouble explaining what I mean, but it's similar to synesthesia, in a way.
In my youth, before the internet, I discovered name dictionaries and baby name books in the library. Some long-time favorites are "New Age Baby Name Book" by Sue Browder; "Character Naming Sourcebook" by Kenyon, Blythe & Sweet; and "What Shall We Name the Baby" by Winthrop Ames. From those I learned the origins and meanings of common names, which incidentally became an entry point for learning their root words in Latin, Greek, German, or whatever language.
I love choosing names for characters in my stories. I want the name to feel *just right*. Sometimes I'd choose a name with symbolic meaning, and sometimes I'd just make up a name that sounded cool and looked good on the page (Eventually I learned those "cool and exotic" names were hard for people to pronounce. I'm trying to do better now. :-)
But having a chance to choose another name for myself? Pretty much irresistible!
It took me a few months to figure out a pen name. I started with online name dictionaries, including The Name Generator, https://www.behindthename.com/random/) and https://babynames.com/. I also found blogs and interviews where writers discussed the do's and don't's of choosing a pen name, and how they chose one.
Some things I learned;
- Choose something with a personal meaning or connection to you. You could be tied to that pen name for a long time. It needs to be something you'll still love years from now.
- Check the nickname and initials of the name for rude or embarrassing meanings.
- Do a search on the name. Partly to make sure it's not already being used by a published author or media personality. And partly to see how common it is. You want to stand out from the crowd.
- Make a short list and live with each name for a while. After a few days it might become irritating or sound stupid. You can cross it off the list and try the next one.
When I had a list of five possibles, I pretended each name was mine for a few days. That helped me narrow down to a first and last name I liked most, Rowan Swynford.
Swinford is one of my ancestral family lines. One of the oldest Swinford ancestors is Payn de Roet, father of Katherine de Roet Swynford who married John of Gaunt. It's unlikely my line of Swinfords in America are directly related to de Roet's line, but the history is interesting.
Unfortunately, an online search for Rowan found it was a very common name for authors. Not ideal. Then I thought of that ancestor, but I mis-remembered the spelling as "Roen". When I looked him up again I saw I'd got the spelling wrong. But by that point I was so attached to Roen I decided to use it anyway. Even with the quirky spelling, both names have a personal connection to me, and are unusual enough that I haven't found anyone else using them.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment.
