Writer's Pen Name

How did you decide on a Pen Name?

Mines easy - and not very inspired - panic!

I need a pen name?  duh? ....My character Haff has no given name until HH tells him the initials on the silver he wears round his neck are CAL....ofcourse he thinks thats a name....Sea -ay-elle....Tah Dah!

I wish I could tell you there was some deep and meaningful reason I thought of those initials....but Haff turned up in my life when I was about twelve....if there was a reason its long forgotten....

Would I change it?

No ...I'm glad I plucked that one out of my AS&J imaginings ...and I'm glad I finally started putting some of Haff on record... I was a bit worried when I posted "Beans" that readers would think ...Oh look Cal's named that character after herself... truth is I'm named after Haff!

Now a question for Penski

Why Penski?

I was trying to think of an outlaw name and mine just popped into my head. It worked for me on two levels--I prefer the outlaw days as I'm sure most of you already know and was amused by the in/out contradiction. I'm more of an outdoor person than an indoor person.

Nope, I wouldn't change it. Too attached to it now.

I thought that a pen-name was a kind of 'alias' and I thought it would be nice to copy the Boys and be 'Alias . . Something'. Then I thought Alice sounded just right with Alias. It sounds almost the same!

So that's how this writer found her name!

What about you?

My pen name comes from my favourite beach here in Devon.
When I started writing some years ago the bunnies hopped while I was at the beach.
Lannacombe became Lana Coombe.

Penski,  I thought the 'pen' part of your name must be because you're a writer!  I'm surprised to find out that you never intended to be one.  It seems such an appropriate name now that I'm surprised you want to change it - though I suppose I can see why you'd want to be Ms Smith or Ms Heyes ( like HannaHeyes?  Is that right, Hanna?) And SJSmith?

I'm intrigued too about how people chose their pen-names.  Hope nm131 tells us why.  And why is WitchitaRed red?  
Sister Grace I think I can guess. But why is Maz called Maz?Is Calico so-called because that's the fabric pioneer ladies might have used for their dresses?  No wait - it's really Calico Cat isn't it?  So why Calico Cat, I wonder.
Cal and Inside Outlaw have told us about themselves.  But why is FrankieAsj Lana Coombe? MoulinP?

Hope everyone else also lets us know.

I'm MoulinP because, although I live and work in England, I do have a house in France called Moulin de la Pouge - don't ask me what it means! When I was trying to think of something to call myself - my real name didn't offer any suggestions - we had just come back from two weeks in France so it was still fresh in my mind! Nothing ASJ related I'm afraid.

Great idea to talk about this again, since many new members have joined our group recently.

My pen name, Grace R. Williams, is a mixture of several different things. The "R" in the middle and the "Williams" at the end are in honor of two significant people in my life.

The first name, Grace, is an acronym for -- God's Riches At Christ's Expense. I heard that once and just plain liked it a lot.

As for the "Sister" part in the front, yes, there was that character named Sister Grace in the series, but being very honest, I really don't remember how that word "Sister" got stuck onto the front of my name. Does anyone here remember? I have a feeling it may have been one of those things where the forum required more letters in a screen name and Sister just popped into my head.

Time to come clean with the newbies--
There is another screen name I sometimes use out there in the world of the internet. It's coyote. The coyote doesn't usually write, but she has been known to set her paws to the keys a time or two. I chose that name right after a trip to Arizona.

Would I change my pen name? Who knows?

I'm glad to know the reason behind many of your pen names too!

I think my alias is probably pretty self explanatory. I've loved Hannibal Heyes ever since I was little. When my friends and I would play pretend, that's who I'd be.

As I was thinking up a pen name, somehow my mind got on the subject of how some things I had done over the years reminded me of the HH character. I always talked my friends into playing what I wanted. I once had a girl believing that those bunnies with the ears that hang down actually lived in trees and used their ears to fly, ( I'm dead serious. I had to convince her I had only been kidding around). In college, I went a whole semester without going to one class because I'd forgotten I'd enrolled in it, so I talked the instructor into letting me do one special extra credit assignment to make up for it. I passed with an A. I  got us an HD receiver for our satellite for free. Plus, I once took a necklace off of my best friend's neck while she sat in front of me in class without her catching me (I did give it back at the end of the day. She never noticed it being gone.). And I pointed out to friends and family that in the Monopoly game, nowhere in the rules does it say you can't rob the bank.

I will also admit that I have ran and hid from the cops twice (it was excessive speeding though, not robbery).

I'm sorry. I probably wrote too much. I got carried away in memories. Anyway, I thought the alias HannaHeyes was kind of fitting.

I have been called Maz by several people for a long time so that seemed a good name when choosing a pen-name..but what surname to use?
I looked along my bookshelves and tried out several names but they did not seem to fit. Then my eyes fell upon a Star Trek novel...oh let's see Maz Kirk, Maz Spock, Maz McCoy! Got it...and Doctor McCoy was always my favourite character, and McCoy sure is a western name so..here I am. :)

Ah, the delightful days of pen name chosing

Back in the day when I wrote my first story

a) My current cat was a tortie - aka, to youse across the pond - a calico [She is much missed]
b) What else would a proper ASJ Mary Sue be dressed in but - calico
c) And - though this was a bonus - its a ghost town in the West too...

Purrrsssss...


All you new folk - I have been remiss in my welcomes, but my furry paw pats you all in greeting, claws fully retracted.
Have a cat nip or maybe a cat nap

Everyone had such imaginative ways of conjuring up a pen name Mine is really uninteresting - it's just an anagram of my real name, with two extra letters added to make it work. I never planned to end up posting any stories on line, so I didn't give it too much thought. If I had, I probably would have come up with something completely different and far more original

Well...

How about hardtack - it figured pretty important to the boys when they were out on the trail.  Here's a link... (three dots...) about hardtack:

https://youtu.be/Ga5JrN9DrVI

and here's another with some visuals:

https://www.rt.com/viral/348925-man-military-crackers-1863/

or... (three more dots...)

how about 'old mothballs' or 'old library paper' for a pen name

'hmm...it really does have an industrial flavor...'

another pen name idea: this has got to be the wierdest thing I've ever done in my life...

Such great names here. And I love reading why people chose their name.

I wish I could have come up with something creative, Western-related. But alas, inspiration refused to strike. In the end, I chose to seek refuge in a different language.

Gan Ainm (pronounced Gan Anim) is Gaelic and the two words combined mean Anonymous. Literally it is more like "Without name" or "No name".

I chose Gaelic because I was sort of adopted (not legally) by an Irish family many years ago. And now, living in Scotland, it also fits.

I have posted as Alias Gan Ainm on fanfiction, but thought it was understood that all names here are an alias, so left off the first bit.

Elsewhere I have also been known as Stepha3nie. With a silent 3.
If you never heard of a "silent 3", search for Tom Lehrer and Hen3ry. Need I say I am a great fan of the man?

My pen name is totally unoriginal. It is my actual name and my birth date. I have used it since the late 90s. I think I would choose differently now, probably use my cat's name or something.