[Ansteorra] Take a moment to look it up (was Pronunciation)

[Jane Sitton]

Being civilized, mature adults, I think we all are going to have to agree to
disagree on this subject, and go on from there, hopefully to a new topic.  I
felt the question of "why do you want this name" to be entirely valid.  Many
people, as you pointed out, don't know the history of the name, nor
understand that it is a title of sorts.  One website
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03126c.htm) calls it a name change, though
it functions as an augmentation in my mind.

Nevertheless, most people, when hearing the name, will: 1. immediately think
of the explorer, a historic person (which makes me think that though the
name has passed before, it might not now), and 2. make the translation in
their mind, if they have even a smattering of Spanish.  I would hope that if
I suddenly decided to call myself "Derriere de Cochon" or some such, that
someone would point out to me the literal meaning, despite any perceived
nobility.

To my thinking, this begs the question about what blazon to go with the
name, and again, the question of "why" comes to mind.  I seem to recall
reading a remark by a herald who noted that a certain design on a device
inferred illegitimacy, if so-and-so wanted to call himself a bastard, then
who was the herald to question it?

Be that as it may, I think the #1 point being missed is this:  name &
pronunciation questions should ideally be submitted to heralds.  They even
have their own lists, which can be accessed at:
http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html  I believe there is also a newsgroup
at: news:rec.heraldry  For more info, just go to http://www.sca.org and
click on the heraldry link.

I admit, I did, at first, take offense at the remark you made in response to
various comments, and thus deleted it so that I wouldn't make any dumb reply
before thinking about it a while.  I can only hope that this response
doesn't come across as offensive in any way.  If so, please understand that
that is not my intent.

The nature of the medium in which we are discussing this is such that an
interesting topic (and even many un-interesting ones) starts other threads.
I fear you are fighting a losing battle in attempting to dissuade people
from this behavior.  My personal pet peeve is all the "me, too" responses
and people who fail to edit the mailing list info from the bottom, so that
posts which have been responded to numerous times end up with 16 copes of
"Ansteorra mailing list     Ansteorra at ansteorra.org
http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/ansteorra" at the bottom.  But
that is my cross to bear, I suppose.

Thank you for your considered remarks.  I will endeavor not to hit "send"
without first doing a bit of research myself, for I, too, have in the past
sent out blanket requests.

Amicalement,
Madelina de Lyndesaye