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So, every time I sign up to do a solo, there's a place on the form for my dancer's pseudonym, and every time it makes me think 'should I have a dance name?' and 'if I should, what should it be?
I don't feel happy about just awarding myself an Arabic name, so these are the three choices I've managed to come up with:
Ursula Ogg - after Ursula the octopus villain, and Nanny Ogg the witch. I'll be honest, the main driver for choosing either of these names is that I'm fat. Nanny Ogg is my favorite Discworld witch, but I feel no connection to the idea of witchery in general, and if I was to choose a favorite villain, Ursula wouldn't be on that list at all. So basically I just chose this because they were two cool people who were also fat.
AElfgifu - means 'Elf-gift' and is my favourite Anglo-Saxon name. I am Anglo-Saxon myself so this would be a safe cultural bet.
Athalia - means 'God is exalted' and is a Biblical name. I would like for my name to exalt God, and there's a long tradition among Christians to grab names out of the Bible, so if it's cultural appropriation, it's a long standing one.
Now I've put them all down I think Ursula is off the table and I just need some help choosing between AElfgifu and Athalia.
I feel more of a personal connection to AElfgifu through my years of Anglo-Saxon re-enactment, but I might need to give pronunciation tips with it, which would be a faff. (It's pronounced 'Alfg-aye-vuh')
On the other hand Athalia would be a new start, it doesn't require an Old English primer to pronounce, and of all the names it's the only one that made my heart leap a little.
What do you think? Athalia? Something else entirely?
(There's a lady I follow on Tumblr who is of a similar build to me and her dance name is Ursa Major, which I think is fantastic.)
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Date: 2026-02-04 09:41 am (UTC)From:Just my opinion, but whatever you decide, make sure it's easy to announce. A complex name will turn out to be pronounced incorrectly, which is pointless. I like the last one.
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Date: 2026-02-04 07:34 pm (UTC)From:Thank you! Mutual high five :)
Yes, I've been turning over methods of spelling AElfgifu to make sure it's pronounced as I want it to be pronounced. The closest I can get is Elfgyva, which is weird but might do.
I've unfortunately just looked up 'Athalia belly dancer' on Google and discovered that there is a reasonably well known Athallia in NYC who charges $250 per performance, and now I'm like hmmm... If I wanted to avoid confusion I'd probably need to add a surname to that, and that sends me back to the lists to pick something else to add to it. And I don't think I can support two names. I'm just not that good!