Re: Arms and Awards (fwd)

[clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)]

Poster: clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)

Brenna:

> Actually, I'm not sure that is true.  A friend of mine was gifted by his very
> Irish parents with a very period name.  He was told by several heralds that it
> was a shame that he wanted to change it, as it would most certainly pass as it
> was.

I think you're mistaking full name with given (or Christian, or
first) name. The present Laurel policy is, in fact, that it is
possible for one to use one's mundane given name as part of one's
SCA name. For example:

A person with the mundane name of Louis Brewer (I know nobody by
this name, so if there is a real Louis Brewer out there, chill!)
shows up at a Storvik meeting and comes to me for help, since I'm
the herald there. He isn't willing to come up with another given
name for his persona, for one reason or another. It's not
entirely my job to make him to, so I don't. We do have to come up
with a byname (surname, last name) other than Brewer. So I ask
him what he likes to do in the SCA. Fortunately, while he is
interested in brewing, what he really likes is woodworking. Since
his name has more or less French roots, I ask him if he'd like a
French byname, and he likes the idea. I suggest that he go with
an occupational byname-le Charpentier, the carpenter, and he
likes the sound of it. Money changes hands, a form is filled out
and properly sent along, and some time later, he is informed that
his name has passed.

Personally, I figured that one of the cool things about the SCA
was that you got to choose your own identity, not Mom, not Dad,
not anyone but yourself. But that's my personal opinion. Speaking
professionally, if you want to use your mundane first name, fine
by me, as log as it's not something odd like "Legend," "Dweezil,"
or "Hopscotch."

In Service,

Dom Pedro de Alcazar
Barony of Storvik, Atlantia
Storvik Pursuivant
Argent, a tower purpure between 3 bunches of grapes proper
-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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