Dance name

[galadhir]

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.)

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Athalia would certainly require less in terms of pronunciation coaching... but I think you should go for the one that you connect with best. If people find it difficult to say, that's their problem. I like both names! I think I maybe have a slight preference for AElfgifu (though I did the pronunciation help, ha.)

[galadhir]

I feel like Elfgyva is a more flamboyant name than Atalya, and I'm not good enough to live up to flamboyant (yet?) I possibly need something a bit more retiring (that only I know is the name of a queen who murdered most of her family so she could rule alone.) So I think I've narrowed it down to Atalya now, but it was a struggle :)

[mistressofmuses]

That is a fair point: I agree that Elfgyva would be much more flamboyant. Atalya is a bit more mellow, while still having flair to it. (Even if it does have a bit of secret drama behind it, haha.) I'm glad you like it!

[galadhir]

Thank you!