having legal names treated by authorities as "real" names has convinced so many people that its bizarre to have more than one name throughout one's life, when the opposite is true.
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names are gifts. we receive many throughout our lives. we don't always give ourselves this gift, letting others do all the naming. but still we share that gift, even if ill-fitting, with others.
a name has power given the social world that carries it. remember this every time youre given a name, every time you gift others a name, and every time you share the gift of your name with others.
I've literally known many cis people who prefer to be referred to by a nickname over their birth name just for simplicity or liking the sound of it more
I fuck with this energy.
We should return to the human ideal of taking off your cloak and listing your many names, titles and heroic deeds to a stunned crowd of villagers.
I have had so many friends forced to change their name on social media to something that NOBODY EVER CALLS THEM. I have to keep looking at their pictures to figure out who they are.
For real
I've always had at least several names: some gifted, some claimed, most based on the context of the friend group or social situation. It's never felt weird for me, ever since I was little.
It's funny cause so many cultures and traditions talk about gifting names and a lot of folklore talks about the power of true names over public names (think rumplestilskin, for example)
i have two names :3 not as an alter, not as an alias, not even as a nickname, just, two, purely regular names. somehow it confuses a lot of people, just, the idea of having two names. they expect "a reason" other than...*fun*, i have two names because i *enjoy* two names.
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(And that was my mother on Saturday)
We should return to the human ideal of taking off your cloak and listing your many names, titles and heroic deeds to a stunned crowd of villagers.
I've always had at least several names: some gifted, some claimed, most based on the context of the friend group or social situation. It's never felt weird for me, ever since I was little.
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