[Moo] What do I need to do to shed my mundane name?

[J. Hughes]

My good lady,

I am the herald of Steirbach and would be most happy to assist you in the selection of a name, development of persona, and (when you wish it) the design of your heraldic device. You do not need to register a name to use it. But going for years with a name that can not be registered causes problems.

A name need not be limiting unduly. My registered name is in English. If I need to, I can use the original Gaelic behind the English form. Or if I wish to I can vary it to conform to the conventions of such disparate cultures as Germany and Spain. 

It is useful to get people to use it before that start getting into the habit of using either your modern name or an unfortunate nickname. I had the experience of the former. I was in the Society for 2 1/2 years and nobody, not even the knight I was squired to, called me anything but my modern name. I changed that by refusing to answer to my modern name. It was an effort but it worked. I had an apprentice that had the modern name of Bruce and was being called Bruce the Rat until he worked up Brice le Ratten and successfully had people call him Brice.

Again, I would be happy to assist you.

Baron Charles O'Connor
Steirbach herald




________________________________
From: PHF <pflora at gmail.com>
To: moo at stierbach.org
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:55:35 PM
Subject: [Moo] What do I need to do to shed my mundane name?


Although I like my modern name, I am anxious to have a name for my SCA persona, even though I haven't fleshed out my persona altogether. There is an English name of which I have become enamored, and I've given serious thought to it - including thinking I would be able to answer to it if I were on fire - for long and hard enough that I'm pretty sure this is The Name. I have checked for it on the links from the SCA heraldry pages, and it is a valid and (as far as I can tell) acceptable name that should not require further documentation to get it registered when I'm ready to do that. It seems to have been found from the twelfth century to the late sixteenth, so I will still have some wiggle room to develop my persona in several time periods; therefore, the likelihood of my needing to change my name down the road, after more research, is smaller than it might be with other names confined to a single century. Additionally, looking at the list of the
 population of Stierbach on its website, I do not see anyone with the same name.

What do I need to do to take this name? Do I have to have a one-on-one consult with our herald to have it approved? Do I have to register it before I use it? Or can I begin using it, like, now, since I'm reasonably certain I won't, for heraldic legal purposes or because of my own capricious nature, need to change it later on?

Many thanks in advance for any guidance you may have!

Pamela



      
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