How'd you choose your username?

[Ryles]

Most English-speaking people drop the umlaut- they write it as, say, "Schrodinger" instead of "Schrödinger".

That's a standard thing to do when adopting foreign words. The umlaut doesn't exist in english. People name their kids Renée, too, but spell it Renee, because the accents just don't exist in english.

It may be standard- but it's still technically incorrect.

[RilianXI]

Most English-speaking people drop the umlaut- they write it as, say, "Schrodinger" instead of "Schrödinger".

That's a standard thing to do when adopting foreign words. The umlaut doesn't exist in english. People name their kids Renée, too, but spell it Renee, because the accents just don't exist in english.

It may be standard- but it's still technically incorrect.

No, it's not. It's correct english.

Like, for example, naive is a french word. In french naive can only describe feminine nouns. In english it goes with any gender, and naif isn't even a word (in english). And in french it's spelled naïve. But umlauts don't exist in modern english, so when the word was assimilated into english, the umlaut left.

[Simon]

Hey, Kitten is back. :D

\o/

[Ryles]

Like, for example, naive is a french word. In french naive can only describe feminine nouns. In english it goes with any gender, and naif isn't even a word (in english). And in french it's spelled naïve. But umlauts don't exist in modern english, so when the word was assimilated into english, the umlaut left.

First: Schroedinger isn't an english word- it's a name.

Second: café and piñata, when used in english still have the accent. Same with fiancé. We don't have ´or ˜in english, either, and yet we still use those accents.

Third: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/naive 'naïve' is correct in english even if 'naive' is more common.

[RilianXI]

Like, for example, naive is a french word. In french naive can only describe feminine nouns. In english it goes with any gender, and naif isn't even a word (in english). And in french it's spelled naïve. But umlauts don't exist in modern english, so when the word was assimilated into english, the umlaut left.

First: Schroedinger isn't an english word- it's a name.

Fine.

Second: café and piñata, when used in english still have the accent. Same with fiancé. We don't have ´or ˜in english, either, and yet we still use those accents.

Third: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/naive 'naïve' is correct in english even if 'naive' is more common.

With all of those, you are only showing that the accents are optional, not required.

IMO, when a person writes "café", they are writing a spanish word, not an english word.

[UncertainKitten]

Hey, Kitten is back.

Nobody posts anything relevant to me around here. What do you expect ^-^;?

[KayleeSaeihr]

Hey, Kitten is back.

Nobody posts anything relevant to me around here. What do you expect ^-^;?

Yes. We need more relevancy!

[Simon]

Yeah, let's all talk about teh kitten when she's not around. :P

[shiofra]

rerailing abit.
Siofra, I found it doing research for a story about sidhe. It's technically gender-neutral and the character I was planning on using it for is male but it sounds very femmine(if my research is accurate sio is pronounced she) which felt right. Also I’m no more than a quarter Irish, but part of my full name IRL is Irish and I think Ireland’s cool so I wanted to keep that.

[Ryles]

rerailing abit.
Siofra, I found it doing research for a story about sidhe. It's technically gender-neutral and the character I was planning on using it for is male but it sounds very femmine(if my research is accurate sio is pronounced she) which felt right. Also I’m no more than a quarter Irish, but part of my full name IRL is Irish and I think Ireland’s cool so I wanted to keep that.

That's awesome.

[derailing your derailment] It really annoys me how people who speak [language] assign gender to non-[language] words/names based on how they sound. My understanding (asked my partner who knows Japanese) of Japanese is that it doesn't gender nouns, but someone still talked about the significance of 'katana' because it's a "female word" meaning a weapon.

It also sucks that it limits what you can name characters.

[omelu]

I explained in my intro but I'll explain again since it means something to me.

I like to listen to audiobooks of books I've read, one series I listen to a lot is Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel which is a series about prehistoric (talking paleolithic here) times, it was begun in the '80s so a lot of the research is out of date compared to what we know (or think we do) now, but annnyway, the main characters are on a journey in The Plains of Passage and they come across a group of people, and long story short, there's a burial of some young people, one of which is not easily identifiable as a man or a woman. This is Omel. Omel's parents concealed Omel's gender for unknown reasons and for that culture Omel was a gender neutral name. No one ever knew.

Omel lived and died without gender.

There was another genderqueer character who could pass a straight man, gay man, straight woman, or lesbian woman. Its never revealed what this characters birth gender is either, though the pronouns used where masculine (sort of by default). This character didn't have a personal name though because the shamans in this series give up their birth names an use the name of their position or their people, but also this character was much older. Omel was fairly young, young enough that even the people who were on the look out for something to indicate gender still couldn't tell. Part of my gender issues are also age issues (puberty was a cosmic mistake for me). But, from an American stand point Omel sounds kind of masculine (or at least I think it does) so I tacked a 'u' on the end. Not sure if it helps make it more neutral, but it also makes it just mine.

[omelu]

rerailing abit.
Siofra, I found it doing research for a story about sidhe. It's technically gender-neutral and the character I was planning on using it for is male but it sounds very femmine(if my research is accurate sio is pronounced she) which felt right. Also I’m no more than a quarter Irish, but part of my full name IRL is Irish and I think Ireland’s cool so I wanted to keep that.

if I remember correctly the original spelling of Shannon was Sionan. I'm a quarterish Irish as well, though my full name makes everyone assume I'm 100%.

[not_quite_pie]

I explained in my intro but I'll explain again since it means something to me.

I like to listen to audiobooks of books I've read, one series I listen to a lot is Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel which is a series about prehistoric (talking paleolithic here) times, it was begun in the '80s so a lot of the research is out of date compared to what we know (or think we do) now, but annnyway, the main characters are on a journey in The Plains of Passage and they come across a group of people, and long story short, there's a burial of some young people, one of which is not easily identifiable as a man or a woman. This is Omel. Omel's parents concealed Omel's gender for unknown reasons and for that culture Omel was a gender neutral name. No one ever knew.

Omel lived and died without gender.

There was another genderqueer character who could pass a straight man, gay man, straight woman, or lesbian woman. Its never revealed what this characters birth gender is either, though the pronouns used where masculine (sort of by default). This character didn't have a personal name though because the shamans in this series give up their birth names an use the name of their position or their people, but also this character was much older. Omel was fairly young, young enough that even the people who were on the look out for something to indicate gender still couldn't tell. Part of my gender issues are also age issues (puberty was a cosmic mistake for me). But, from an American stand point Omel sounds kind of masculine (or at least I think it does) so I tacked a 'u' on the end. Not sure if it helps make it more neutral, but it also makes it just mine.

Ack, I hated that series. The first book was pretty good, but some of the science was terrible, it's softcore porn from book 2 onwards, and the main characters are total Mary Sues (I mean, as soon as they meet any new group that group's entire lives change to focus on the characters, and they invent flint-starting fire, domestication of animals, horseriding... this it two people. Oh, and of course they're both devastatingly beautiful, and just about every female character is attracted to the male lead to a ridiculous degree.

[Ji Tusk]

Re-railing again.

I tend to go for usernames which are two distinct stand alone items, and put them together. This entire username, however, is a result of my love and obsession for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (the series that, ultimately, made me feel the most comfortable about non-binary and non-typical presentation and played a large part in my gender and sexuality journey).

"Ji" is, if the internets haven't lied to me, technically a gender neutral name in Korean and Chinese (although Korean names typically follow a certain precise formula). Either way though, what's more important is that I believe the character for "Jo" in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" can technically be transliterated to "Jiyo" (it's not accurate however).

"Tusk" is, among many things, the stand of my favourite character in the whole series. This character also tends to be one I identify quite heavily with, and stands in the series are meant to be "metaphysical representations of one's spirit." I'm not spiritual, but it's a neat little connection I like having. Tusk is also a good song by Fleetwood Mac, and is where my favourite character's stand got the name from.

So I put them together and became "Ji Tusk."

[UncertainKitten]

Yeah, let's all talk about teh kitten when she's not around.

I'm always around. Everywhere and nowhere

Also, to the post above me, Jojo's is amazing .

[omelu]

Ack, I hated that series. The first book was pretty good, but some of the science was terrible, it's softcore porn from book 2 onwards, and the main characters are total Mary Sues (I mean, as soon as they meet any new group that group's entire lives change to focus on the characters, and they invent flint-starting fire, domestication of animals, horseriding... this it two people. Oh, and of course they're both devastatingly beautiful, and just about every female character is attracted to the male lead to a ridiculous degree.

haha, tis true. Ayla can do EVERYTHING except sing. I have my audio version edited for the sex because it gets old REALLY fast. And really most of the innovation is Ayla. Jondalar only invents the spear thrower, other than that he is supposedly the handsomest man to ever live (and yet not a vampire) and he's a good flint knapper, but it's Ayla who does pretty much everything. I still like the different cultures, even with the whole mother goddess venus statue thing, and the story is vaguely interesting to me. Much of the science is out of date, but even that is interesting to me, how things have changed and all.

[Kladeos]

I love Greek names, so back when I role-played I'd give them all Greek names. Kladeos was one of them - he was a river god. Other names I've adopted and dropped include Aetos, Aeolus, and others. The name I planned on taking - Jace - is also Greek, a variant of Jason (healer). I never did start using it in real life, though. I do love the name. I'm just not good at changing my name... I don't even identify with what I use now.

[Catechin]

I drink green tea every day, am a thorough tea nut, and also am a caffeine fiend. Catechins are the best known antioxidants in tea, and they keep you healthy, happy and cancer free (at least they are supposed to). I drink more catechins than most people, and a friend called me that as a nickname once.

A google provided catechin blurb - "Research aimed at finding the active compounds in green tea revealed that its protective effects are due chiefly to catechins. Tea contains four main catechin substances: EC, ECg, EGC and EGCg, all of which are inclusively called catechin. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the most powerful of these catechins. EGCG as an antioxidant is about 25-100 times more potent than vitamins C and E. One cup of green tea provides 10-40 mg of polyphenols and has antioxidant effects greater than a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots, or strawberries. The high antioxidant activity of green tea makes it beneficial for protecting the body from oxidative damage due to free radicals."

[smischmal]

Back in ninth grade, I played a game called Egg's Ultima Online. I wanted to make an evil wizard type character and so just brainstormed for names for a bit (that is why my name containes the root 'mal' for bad). I don't think it really worked as a villianous name but it did work as a totally unique name that can specifically refer to me anywhere in the internets. Anywhere that I have ever wandered, the name has been free to be taken. So I like it for that. It doesn't have any real meaning, but I like that too because then the only meaning it has is what I make it have.

[Bré]

I chose Bré since it was a combination of my female and male names..that's all there is to it, haha.