Friday, July 6, 2012

What's My Name?

A while ago, our reader Fesse_Meurtrie made the suggestion that it would be nice to know more about the history of our commenters' nicknames. I think this is an interesting question and so I've decided to talk about kinky nicknames today.

Ludwig had different nicknames during his time in the kinky online community. After having been asked regularly whether he was French, though, because his nickname had been lent by a French philosopher, he decided to find a nickname which was closer to home. And so Ludwig was born, named after King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Ludwig already explained his choice in detail in his first-ever post on this blog. The interesting thing about Ludwig II: He is not only closely connected with Bavaria's history and its beautiful castles, he was also known for being interested in art, having a vivid imagination and being a bit eccentric. So, Mad King Ludwig sounded like a well-suited and at the same time slightly tongue-in-cheek nickname, which was why Ludwig decided to adopt it.

I had to face the issue of having to chose a nickname when I decided to write a comment on this blog for the very first time. Being a self-admitted geek and Trekkie, I chose a name that would carry my geekdom and give fellow geeks a hint that I was one of them. Having a kinky and general preference for warriors, I decided that using a Klingon name would be perfect. I didn't want to name myself after one of the major Star Trek characters, though, and so I chose the name K'Ehleyr relating to Worf's mate, a half-human and half-Klingon ambassador who appeared twice in Star Trek - The Next Generation and was finally killed in the episode Reunion. A half-human and half-Klingon character seemed to suit me even better because, while I have a crush on warriors, I am only human in the end, and most of the time I am actually quite okay with that.

Funnily, Ludwig, who is not such a big Star Trek fan (but has of course been introduced to the series by me in the meantime), had no clue where the name K'Ehleyr might come from. Which led to some funny associations he described in his post Where No Man Has Spanked Before:

It all started on another auspicious day in the history of my blog, the Global Day of Delurk […]. I remember being intrigued by a comment from someone by the name of K'Ehleyr: "Your invitation has just motivated me to write my first-ever comment on someone's blog. I'm about your age and live in the Rhine Main Area. I've just recently started to explore the internet concerning the topic spanking and have been lurking for some weeks." That was a cool thing to get - the first comment not just on my blog, but anywhere. And from a German reader, close to home. What a weird name, though, "K'Ehleyr"! I mused about the pronunciation. Kayelair? Kay-eh-LAIR, or maybe kay-EH-lair? No idea.

When you only know someone over the phone or through email, your mind still conjures up these vague, blurry, dream-like images. It's the same with bloggers and blog readers. With most people who leave a comment, you have no idea what they look like, or even whether they're male or female. "K'Ehleyr" sounded gender-neutral to me, but I decided it was probably a guy. The name seemed to have a Muslim ring to it. I pictured a dark-haired young man, probably of Turkish-German descent, reading my blog. It was a reader demographic I had never encountered before, so I was pleased with that. 

Well, of course, Ludwig found out only a short time later that his association had been a little bit off mark, and the rest is history.

When Ludwig officially introduced me as his mate in the aforementioned post and I became his co-author for the blog, we decided to change the spelling of my name in order to not violate any trademark rights owned by Paramount Pictures. After all, commenting on blogs with a fan nickname is one thing, writing a blog under such a name is a different matter. At first, we thought that I had to find myself a completely new nickname, which made me very sad because I loved the old one. But then Ludwig found out that K'Ehleyr was most probably based on an actual human name that occurs in different spellings, such as Kaylah, Caila or Kaelah. I liked the last variant best and so K'Ehleyr became Kaelah. My heart remains (half) Klingon, though.

What about you? Was choosing a nickname for your kinky persona a big issue for you? Have you (had) several different nicknames? And why did you chose your nickname(s), what does it / do they mean to you? Last but not least, have other people's nicknames ever brought up an association in your mind that turned out to be completely off mark? You are very welcome to share your stories and experiences in the comment section!

11 comments:

Katya Tolstaya said...

Lovely post!
Choosing my nickname was definitely a big deal for me. Just like you, I wanted a name that said something about me and my interests and that meant something to me.
I had other nicknames in the past, and recently I settled for Katerina (or Katya) Tolstaya. I love telling the story behind it.
When I was living in the Ukraine, people found it difficult to pronounce my real name, so I started going by Katya (which sounds a bit like it), and many started addressing me the complete version of the name instead (which has nothing to do with my real name). Tolstaya is a tongue-in-cheek translation of my real surname.
I like this nickname because it shows my love for Russian literature, even though I ended up calling myself like an author I actually don't like (my forte is Bulgakov).
As for "off mark associations", obviously people tend to think that I am Russian, and once someone asked me if I chose this name because of the painter (I actually completely ignored the existence of said painter, luckily her name is spelt differently).

Anonymous said...

I had no idea where the name Kaelah had come from. You learn something new every day here.

My own kinky nickname, Fred Bloggs, comes from a common name used in the UK for a random person, like A N Other and John Doe. It appealed to me because it ties in with blogging, Fred Bloggs' Blog and "The Blog of Fred"

Previously I had not really used a name on line but I think it gives a personal touch to have a name, and it's nice to be able to choose your own name, rather than having one imposed upon yourself as an infant.

Donpascual said...

Interesting, how much creativity and thought has been invested by you all.
I tried a few things over time, but stayed with Donpascual because it has - to my recollection - only been rejected once by a pay site or another, less problematic site.
But I am constantly being asked whether I am a big opera fan. I really like opera, but my nick is not Donpasquale and has nothing to do with Donizetti.
For many years, our red house wine was a Spaniard by the name of Donpascual with a veritable Don on the label. I found this very fitting for me as a top.
So, now you know that I love red wine.

Spankingfreunde.DE said...

most time I use RainerSF my firstname and my website. Germany and the Impressum you know?

Bonnie said...

Bonnie is the name on my birth certificate. Way back in the dawn of the Internet, no one told me not to use my real first name. By the time I figured it out, I already had lots of friends who knew me by this name. So Bonnie I remain.

Kaelah said...

@ Katya Tolstaya:
Thanks a lot for sharing the story behind your nickname! :-) I guess if a nickname has a certain national origin, people are always likely to believe that this is where a person comes from.

@ Fred Bloggs:
I wasn't aware of the story behind your nickname, either! Getting to choose one's own name is indeed cool. :-)

@ Donpascual:
That's a nice origin for a nickname. I wouldn't have thought that you have taken your name from your favourite red wine. But the don fits of course very well indeed.

@ Spankingfreunde / Rainer:
You are of course absolutely right, in your case choosing a nickname really doesn't make any sense!

@ Bonnie:
Thanks a lot for stopping by! I guess using your real first name isn't so critical, especially because Bonnie isn't such an unusual name. And it makes some things easier – for example there is no risk of using the wrong name in a vanilla or a kinky email!

Bobbie Jo said...

Years ago, (we are talking about 30 something here) I wrote a story with eight chapters about a couple of kids. One of them was named Roberta Joanne Daniels with a nick name of Bobbie Jo. So when it came time to choose a name, I went with Bobbie Jo. Some do know my real first name, well, close to it. :-)

Ursus Lewis said...

I first had to choose a name when I joined a local group in summer 2009. I never really had use for my middle name until then and I though this might be a good idea to try it. But it's rather short (three letters only) so I decided to go for the latin version. Ursus was taken though for that website, so I just added an 0 in the middle and urs0us was "born".

With time and learning about my toppy self, I realized I needed a last name too. I wanted to choose a common English name and it had to start with the same letter as my real last name does. A kinky friend brought Lewis up and I instantly liked it.

A nice side effect, I like the topping style of a spanking movie performer with the same scene last name.

Kaelah said...

@ Bobbie Jo:
Wow, naming oneself after a self-created and self-developed fictional character is really cool! I wrote several short stories when I was younger but the longer science fiction story that I intended to write as well sadly never got finished.

@ Ursus Lewis:
I remember when we talked about your nickname and its origin in some e-mails more than two years ago! I've just taken a short look at those old e-mails. We exchanged them just around the time when you chose Lewis as your last name for your toppy self. :-)

Ursus Lewis said...

Ha, I hope they say about the same, I said now... ;)

Kaelah said...

@ Ursus Lewis:
Yes, they do! :-)