Should I choose a new name?

Are you an author and trying to get something published? In that case I see what you mean, but is she well known? I mean there are lots of people with the same name out there after all.

Funny: Hilary Hilarity
Classy: Clarissa Waverly
Bad girl: Sha’wanza (no last name)

Why are women never so-and-so, the third or junior?

There’s a young man in Australia with the same name as me, and evidently a similar email account. I get his email a lot.

You would get a new name when bitten.

Tara McClosoff.

Oh no, I thought we got away from the vampires!

Mastema will be the one naming you, sweets…

@nerdy girl, speak for yourself, young lady. I’m a fan!

This published author has a few books out there, but they are not on big demand. Her genre is quite different. She was known for other work first. I don’t think she has anything current.

How about taking a name from somebody that changed their real name to a pseudonym (because they didn’t like the sound of it, or thought it would not match their profession)?
Dylan – Zimmerman
Cary Grant – Archibald Leach

Or, Fannys O’Kay

@Patty_Melt What I meant was unless you’re writing detective novels and your real name is, like, Agatha Christie I don’t think it would be a problem. Oh, and I don’t mind the vampires :)

@rebbel, there’s a cool twist.

@Mastema2 I didn’t know. Since we are already started here, let’s see what these wise guys com up with.

Funny, Loli.

I considered Rita Ma Book.
Too pushy?

Pushy would be Byama Book.

@ragingloli Funny, I would totally use that, especially for a ‘bodice ripper’ type novel.

@Patty_Melt You could do what Anne Rice did and just use a nom de guerre for each style.

If you like fantasy, you should check out her Anne Rocquelaure, Sleeping Beauty series.
Hot hot hot, I liked them and I bet you would, too.

@UnholyThirst Wait, what, you get a new name from @Mastema once you’re bitten? That’s a new twist I haven’t heard.

@Patty Here’s some fun ones I found….

(Source: New Routes No. 43)

“A Great Plenty” by E. Nuff

“How to Cut Grass” by Lon Moore

“Breaking the Law” by Kermit A. Krime

“Chest Pain” by I. Koffalott

“Housework” by Dustin Cook

“I Love Mathematics” by Adam Up

“Armed Heists” by Robin Banks

“Allegiance to the King” by Neil Downe

“Get Moving” by Sheik Alegg

“Girl on a Budget” by Penny Pincher

“Is O.J. Guilty” by Howard I. Know

“A Stitch in Time” by Justin Case
https://www.proz.com/forum/lighter_side_of_trans_interp/190165-funny_book_titles_and_authors_names.html

Mary Hinge

I don’t do romance novels. They have never impressed me.

My writing is whimsy.
Mostly I like to take what science tells us, and spackle with colors and lights, and if the science doesn’t fit well as I go, I rip off pieces and throw them out.
I hate that pictures show dinosaurs as all being the color of one or another moss type. The book I’m working currently dresses up some of them.
I have a handful of shorts focused on the first North Americans. I’m still chiseling details on those.
I have two out of three done for a time travel trilogy, but I wrote them years ago. They need editing, but they also need to be typed. They are entirely in longhand. I still can’t face putting so many hours into them, and then again.

@ucme, thanks a heap, buddy.

@Patty_Melt You have to do it though! I mean if you spent the time making the stories, typing them is easy even if it’s time consuming and boring.

So, am I correct that you are only talking about a possible pen name?

If you’re not very inclined to create a pen name can you just add a middle initial to distinguish yourself from the other writer? Or, a first initial like J. Leslie Lastname.

@Patty You could dictate it to a typist, js.

@nerdgirl578 Do you not yet realize that you NEVER get away from them???

@Patty_Melt I have a girl with my same name who is very active on social sites. I’ve done a lot of checking. I was 45 when she was born. She’s cute as a button. She earns under $20K/yr but has a net worth of ¼–½ million. She’s single with no children. Main problem is she’s a registered republcan where I’m a registered independent. I’ve come to the conclusion that I was me first and if it bothers her that SHE should be the one to change her name.

Unless you plan on publishing, I say leave things well enough alone & IF you become famous, you can always deal with it then. Who knows, yours might pass away before you need to worry about it!!!

I do plan on publishing. If it will cause me problems, starting out is when the problem would hit. I wrote all about it about three or four inches up from you.
Lots of people have same names, but like I said, ours is quite uncommon.
Her life doesn’t interest me a bit.
With writers name recognition is vital, and can be professionally fatal.
But thanks for the little stalker story.

Name yourself Patty Melt. It fits the tone of your story :P

Your new name would have to be utterly ridiculous and difficult to pronounce. And with all of the weird and wacky names people are naming their children, that choice is probably already taken.

But not by another writer.
I am not trying to come up with an utterly unique name, only one not currently being used by any other writers.
Or, a name half a dozen women are using, so people know to expect multiples.

Whimsy
as
W.H.M. C

I like it!
I could crawl in next to it and snuggle.

@Patty_Melt
Yeah its whimsical..lol a pun

Why not just publish using a pseudonym, or is that what you are talking about?

I’m considering all possibilities. If I went with Rita Ma Book, for instance, I would not make that my legal name.
Choose humor or elegance, all options are welcome.
:-)

Any decent writer has a pen name. As a matter of fact Joanne Rowling has 2 pen names. It doesn’t mean that you have to legally change your real name. Any decent writer also has an open mind & doesn’t use tunnel vision.The story you labeled as a “stalking story” was far from stalking. It’s a story of “self preservation”. I worked for a man who had his identity stolen & it took us 12 years to get his good name back. So, I frequently research my own name to see what information is floating around that is false. In doing my search on myself, I found a lot of misinformation out there on myself & I started researching from where this information was coming. I didn’t need to stalk her as ALL the info I listed is freely put out there in her profiles by the young lady herself. I had to collect as much info as possible to provide the offending websites to clear up the data that was being listed as “my life” when, in fact, it had NOTHING to do with “my life”!!!

I think that IF you’re serious about publishing your own work, you would do better to go with a more elegant pen name that indicates that you’re taking your work seriously!!!

Well, your situation doesn’t pertain to me in the slightest, do I don’t know why yuou are trying to force it at me. Twice now you have gone at length to describe a situation which I said is not helpful in the least. Research your own name forever, okay, I’m not fighting you from it so I don’t know why you needed to bring it up again.

And for everyone who still doesn’t get it, my concern isn’t that someone had the same name I do. The problem is that the name is really unusual.
If my name were Sally Smith I would expect that people would probably check to see if two books written by Sally Smith were written by the same Sally Smith. It is a two reason issue. One is that with entertainment, be it writing, acting, comedy or whatever, you need a name that people will associate with the right person.
Honestly, I never thought asking this question would cause so much confusion.
I just wanted some suggestions I could toss around a bit.

My family moved a lot when I was a kid, so I really didn’t have friends who knew me by my maiden name. When I divorced I kept my married name because that was what I was known by. Now that ex husband is dead, my kids are grown, and I have less reason to hang on to my name than to change it.
All of that means nothing, but for some reason some of you are treating a simple question like the crime of the month. Maybe I will change my name, maybe I won’t. I just wanted ideas to consider if I do.

Were you thinking of just using your maiden name then? I might have missed that. That seems like a logical fix. I feel like I’m both of my names, maiden and married. I dropped my maiden name, but I use it whenever talking to people who knew me with my maiden name, or if they know me through my parents. I don’t think it’s a big deal.

I always thought if I published a book I would use a pen name. A friend of mine publishes under both her real name and a pen name.