Pen Names

For many people, pen names are a little thought of idea that twinkles in the back of their mind before dancing of into the realm we call "never happening." But for others, it's a pretty darn good idea. I like pen names for several reasons. The first being I love onomatology, which is the study of names, but this being said, I come up with some pretty weird ones that I like (for instance Brooklyn, Niagara, Alexandrina....) I also like pen names because if you want to write in two genres, you can have two different names, so it's sort of practical. But my main reason for having a pen name is that if I ever publish something, I want the people who know me through the internet to be able to read it, without knowing my name.

After a great deal of thought, blood, sweat and heartbreaking decisions, I finally came up with one. (I'm exaggerating, it took about two days to think of one). For me, I decided to use and name that I probably wouldn't use in my writing, but still sounded nice to me. I've read when a person uses a pen name that is odd, with unusual names that are hard to pronounce, their books don't sell as well. So I chose something not too rare, but not too common. Sienna. It took a while to come up with it, but I do believe that it's the perfect name. It's an Italian name, and I'm half Italian, so it shows so heritage stuff. It's kind of peppy and pretty, but also somewhat sophisticated, like my real name.

Then I had to decide that last name, and that actually came easier then the first name. I love dancing (no, I'm not digressing), I love it so much and have been doing it for so long that I can't imagine life without it. I like a lot of types of dancing, which is how I got my pen last name. No, it is not 'Dancer'. I chose an anagram for dancer (an anagram is when you rearrange the letters of a word to spell something else). These are some of the things I can up with:
Carden

Nardec

Darcen

And so on, I picked Carden, it's not hard to pronounce, but it's not common, like Miller or something. So I have my pen name. It's kind of a weird adjustment though, because I love my name, and I'm used to it, and having something written by me that says, "by Sienna Carden" is mega a little weird.

Though, picking a pen name for yourself can be different. I simply wrote down some names that I liked, about twenty I think. Then I narrowed it down, thinking of which ones fit with the last name that I had chosen, so I crossed out about five. Then I crossed out the names that I wasn't a huge fan of, and slowly I was down to three. Then I looked up the names to see what they meant, I didn't want my name to mean 'seedling' or something like that. Sienna means 'reddish brown-orange', okay, so it's nothing like "brave" or "Justice" or even "Good Looking" but I'll take it.

I strongly advise looking at what your name means before you use it, it might me something weird like "Goddess," I wouldn't like being affiliated with a goddess. You could you a family name, or a name that you've always liked, or your middle name.

For last names, you could do anything. You could use an anagram, or a word in a different language, or something simple, like Park or Jenkins.

Remember, you're picking your pen name for you, so if "Helga Grakin" float your boat, then fly with it. It would stink to have a pen name that you hated. But I advise that if you are trying to get published, you should pick something a bit simpler.


I hope this helps!

iGirl