[ANSTHRLD] Name Change Question

Tim McDaniel tmcd at panix.com
Tue Feb 12 14:57:51 PST 2008


On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, Cerise Jennings <calibrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote:
> >    On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, Cerise Jennings wrote:
> >> I know that "one element of a submitter's mundane name may be
> >> used as a name element of their SCA name, provided proof of name
> >> (DL/birth cert) is included in the submission. "
> >
> > It's best not to use quotation marks around something that's not a
> > quotation (except for "sneer quotes", definitional quotes, and
> > such).
>
> I'm sorry if I mistakenly indicated I was sneering. I wasn't.

No need for an apology: it didn't look like any sneering.  I was just
giving examples of cases where quotation marks enclose things that
aren't quotations.

For a use of "sneer quotes", consider a sentence like

     Her "perfume" could drop a healthy elephant at 100 paces upwind.

The second word is enclosed in "sneer quotes" or "scare quotes"
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneer_quotes> In this case, it's "to
bring attention to a word or phrase as questionable or at least
atypical in some way": the sentence imples that the so-called perfume
is anything but perfume.

> I do appreciate your time. In answer to your response,I used quotes
> because I utilized a direct quote from Alden off a link from the
> Ansteorran Heraldry resources page.

OK.  In the future, when quoting something, you should give the
source.  For a Web page, a URL is convenient.  I've tried Googling for
parts of that quotation, but I can't find it, but your clue leads me
to
<http://heraldry.ansteorra.org/docs/Submissions_and_the_Local_Herald.pdf>,
which
- apparently hasn't been indexed by Google
- is PDF

Alden is being incomplete there.  For example, the resulting name
might be returned for any number of reasons, including conflict,
obtrusive modernity (the daughter of Frank Zappa cannot register Moon
Unit of Stargate), et cetera.  I wonder whether it's possible to
register multiple real-name elements.  Most people now prefer "real"
or "real-world" or (to use the language of the actual rule) "legal
name" to "mundane".  And, as I noted before, the name element has to
be used in the same way in the submission as its origin in reality.

> The submitter's name in question was Aerin for a female gaelic
> persona (she's not decisive on years). Her current legal name is
> [given1] [given2] [surname1]. She wants to change it to [given1]
> [given2] Aerin [surname2], and wants to use Aerin of Adlersrue as
> her SCA name.

I redacted the name parts to "given1" and the like because of
recently-expressed concerns and SCA policy about not allowing
correlation of SCA name to real name in SCA electronic publications.
My apologies for not mentioning that issue before.  I don't know
whether the policy applies to this mailing list, but it's certainly
best to avoid the issue.

"given" and "surname" are based on their function, as being or looking
like given names versus surnames, respectively.  ... which Joe Average
Pursuivant may not get accurate, so really that policy puts a crimp in
mailing-list consulting, come to think of it.


So "Aerin" is intended as an alternate spelling of "Erin"?
<http://www.sca.org/heraldry/loar/1997/01/lar.html> has

     Erin O Buaghelly. Name and device. Per pale vert and sable, a
     rabbit sejant and on a chief embattled argent, three shamrocks
     vert. Erin is the submitter's mundane name. Submitted as ...

I don't see any other recent use in cursory Googling of
     erin site:sca.org inurl:loar
(Well, 1997 is not really recent in name terms, but at least it's well
into the post-1990 "New Rules".)  [Those are quotation marks used to
set off a technical term, as in
     This high-speed hot dry wind from the west is called by
     meteorologists "Moria".
]

Unless someone sees a problem with Aerin that isn't there with Erin, I
suspect it would go thru, but a name expert would have to opine to get
a decent assurance.

Dannet de Lyncoln
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com


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