I have always disliked my birth name – it smacks of posh gel writing with a quill at a private school, wearing a neat and tidy uniform and having a craving to be a milk monitor. The shortened version of my birth name, the name I go by in everyday life, is even less attractive and smells of ferrets. Perhaps this is why I enjoy giving people nicknames, or name variations, because it is me who desires a change of moniker.
For blogging purposes I changed my name to Ms Scarlet. I thought it was a pretty name, colourful, playful even, with a hint of revolver laying abandoned in a conservatory attached to a stately home. Unfortunately, Mrs Pouncer, a blogger of yore, started referring to me as Scarls. Grrrr. To my ear this sounded like a hybrid of Scowls and Snarls. And then more bloggers started calling me Scarls. I let it go because…. it’s nice to be worthy of a nickname? Because I adored Mrs Pouncer, and she could do no wrong? Because what??? Anyhow, I was back where I started – with a name I didn’t really want.
Back to my loathsome real name – I sometimes wonder if it has undermined my sense of self, such is my dislike of it, and perhaps if I’d been given a more likeable name I would have more of a liking for me. How would I have felt if I had gone through life as a Scarlet? Or as Georgina, or Karen? Would having a different name have changed who I am, and how I see myself?
Anyhow, this rambling post is an apology to Melanie, who I have been calling ‘Mels’, and ‘Mels’ has bad associations for her. Maybe I am just jealous because Melanie is a lovely name, and I wouldn’t have minded it for myself! I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone else to whom I’ve given an unwanted name tag – though this doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing it! After all, it’s fun making them up, and it probably means I like you.
A tune…. I wonder what Mr Lax would have thought of this?
Wonky Words 
I am now going through the gamut of posh “Malory Towers” names trying to figure it out… Hermione, perhaps? Persephone, Felicity, Gwendoline, Violet, Daphne, Clarissa… The possibilities are endless! Jx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jon – It is indeed 3 syllables, though despite this remains flat and vanilla, although a couple of celebs have made it work for them. The shortened version is completely beige – and like a pair of comfortable elastic waisted slacks.
Sx
LikeLike
And I was sure it must be Araminta (Minty for short).
I think I’ve been watching too many re-runs of Miranda (now there’s a thought…. such fun!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mr Auty – I have also been watching reruns of Miranda – usually on a Sunday afternoon – I love her!! I am also drawn to the name Araminta [Minty for short]!! That really would have worked really well. Is it too late to change?
Sx
LikeLike
Another fan of Miranda Hart, here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can feel a “Miranda” rewatch coming on, too!
LikeLike
At least you’re not a Cressida … are you? Shortened, that would sound like a very disappointing salad sandwich.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mr Batarde – Hahaha – I like it! Even shortened it’s better than my real name! Cress is a long syllable, whilst mine is short and barely there.
Sx
LikeLike
You will always be Scarlet to me, sweetpea! xoxo
Hold on, I thought you were using Blogspot now. Did I miss something? xoxox
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Savvy! Well, I was going back to Blogger, BUT…. I missed this place, with all its baggage, wallpaper, and sharper photographs. I find Blogger tricky for uploading photos, so I crept back here.
Sx
LikeLike
Off the top of my head I know of two characters with the same name as you – one from a film (and it’s novelisation), and the other from a novel (which was later made into a film) – and it is difficult to picture either as a milk monitor (what with all the hospital break-ins, face slapping, and psychic powers). Although, who knows how corruptive the power that a milk monitor wields can be?
Anyway, yes, it is fun making up and bestowing nicknames upon people – I certainly wouldn’t go to all that effort for someone I didn’t like – but if they don’t like it (for whatever reason), then it’s not really fun anymore.
I like your blog nickname for me though, a) because it sounds like something I’m not, and b) which makes it funny!
Funnily enough, recently I have been contemplating changing my real surname for much the same reasons that you don’t like your birth name (amongst other reasons). I don’t know if I’ll go ahead with it though, as it seems like a lot of hassle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mr Devine – I know there are authors with my name, but it’s rare to find a main protagonist sporting it! I think my name is one to fall asleep to, so it’s nice to know that a couple of characters have had some fun with it! And have not been milk monitors. I was rarely made milk monitor at school, although it was a constant aspiration.
I’ve also looked into officially changing my name, and I’ve dallied with using my middle name – but that doesn’t suit me either. Could you find someone to marry who has a decent surname? I know, probably even more hassle. My original surname was unusual – so I’m pleased I now have a really common one that makes it almost impossible to find me on the internet – not that I’m there under my real name in any case.
Anyhow, I like your surname, but we all have our reasons and strong feelings about the name we are saddled with. Change it if it’d make you happier. Change it to Devine! That’d work well.
Sx
LikeLike
Marriage? Now there’s an idea! Hmmm… Mr & Mr Ben Willbond? Constable & Mr Carrot Ironfoundersson? Captain & Mr Christopher Pike? Ah, I have it: Mr & Mr Chris Hemsworth!
LikeLiked by 1 person
There you go, Mr Devine-Hemsworth – problem solved!! Now all we have to do is organise a big party for the occasion, and I will find a delectable hat!
I have consulted Mr Blue on my name conundrum – and he seems to think I should have been a Katrina – Kat for short. The only Kat I know is Kat Slater from Eastenders so I’m not sure what he means by this!!!??
Sx
LikeLike
I too got lucky on marrying a surname that is much easier for people to remember and spell as well. My maiden name got spit out of an Anglo-Saxon bog in Cumbria some six hundred years ago.
IDV, shouldn’t you marry a Pendragon, or a Galbraith, or something? Something magical and mysterious.
LikeLike
Ooh, Devine-Hemsworth! Yes, that definitely works!!
Let me know which name you settle on, Ms Scarlet, and I’ll get the wedding invitation out asap. Not Katrina, I hope (I can only think of gobby East End tarts, too) – unless you go for Trina (but that sounds like someone from Acorn Antiques – which isn’t a bad thing, per se)?
LikeLike
Oh, I forgot to reply to Melanie while I was down there! I like Weatherwax – although I don’t think I could marry one, so maybe not (and definitely not an Ogg!). Medford, perhaps? No, I haven’t got the cheekbones. Harkness? Sanderson? Poppins?!?
LikeLike
I have just returned from whirlwind get-togethers with various “oldies”* and must say that nick-names can be, in later life, somewhat awkward, but on-line I rather like the anonymity they impose.
But now…it’s been a long day on a bus so I’ll quit before I fall asleep on the keyboard…
*I use that advisedly since some of us are still quite chirpy and chipper)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dinah – I’m very grateful to my self in 2008 that I saw fit to choose an online name and I didn’t go by my real name! I don’t think I foresaw how popular social media would be, and how crowded the internet would become. I am very pleased that I have a little cover. Though the postman could look me up as I have mail addressed to Ms Scarlet Blue!!!
‘Oldies’ – Apparently that’s anyone over 29!
Sx
LikeLike
A 4 year old told me the other day that “old people are just like us, but when they get to 100 they die.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dinah – From the mouths of babes… though I’d feel lucky to live into my 80s!
Sx
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve been calling you “Miss Scarlet” rather than “Ms. Scarlet” for an eternity. I think it was because Mr. Beast and Mutley the Dog tended to call all the ladies “Miss (insert name here)” and I simply copied their style.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ms Mistress – Crikey yes, when I first started blogging I felt it only polite to give everyone a title. It might be a British thing to do? And it also felt wrong not to sign off any comment I made with an ‘Sx’! Considering how the internet has turned out, with all the trolling etc, I’m pleased I stuck to these niceties. Old fashioned, perhaps, but it has a sort of other worldliness about it that is comical and endearing.
I don’t mind ‘Miss’. I didn’t like Ms when it was first introduced, but I found myself embracing it more and more. Who needs to know my marital status? I realised that Ms is a statement of individualism!
Sx
LikeLike
Your nom de plume (maybe that should change for bloggers?) of Ms Scarlet is catchy. It makes me think of either Gone With The Wind or the game clue. The clue game wiki (if I had the time I should create my own wiki) says:
Miss Scarlett is a socialite and undercover investigative journalist. Writing under the nom de plume of ‘Cyan’, she has landed mobsters in jail and taken down hometown heroes. No one is safe from her pen because no one knows who she is.
Allowing us to create our own online nickname is one of the better features of the internet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bill – My reply to your comment has ended up further below than it ought to have done – apologies!
Sx
LikeLike
Yes, I like Scarlet too — the hint of rustling silk and stolen glances, possibly across a forbidden class divide.
There was a bit of a stir in Lancaster donkey’s years ago when a Miss Rainbird married a Mr Longbottom — and adopted his name!
LikeLike
Looby – If I was Miss Rainbird I would have clung on to my maiden name! Though Rainbird-Longbottom sounds like it could have been fun.
Anyhow – Miss Scarlet, in the ballroom with the lead piping, having a fumble with Freddie the footman?
Sx
LikeLike
Bill – I like it! My nom de plumes seem to be a lot more accomplished than the real me!
Agreed, Blogger and WordPress are very generous in allowing us to choose new names – Facebook and Instagram are not so keen on this practice, and will delete accounts if you use a nickname to sign up. I quit Facebook because I found it so limiting, and there are too many shouty, angry people on there spouting tosh.
Sx
LikeLiked by 2 people
You will always be MsScarlet to me !
It started as a forgotten Leerschlag / blank, and stayed this way.
Your “real” name – be happy it is not Persephone, Percy or Perphy for short. Or Cassandra, I told you so. If I had fathered a son, I would have tried to have him named Hyacinth, because the flowers smell real nice. A daughter would have been Alexandra Katharina or somesuch : It must roll, and end with an “a”. Of course she would have no chance to escape becoming Empress of Russia then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Mr Mags!
Perhaps I should try adding an ‘a’ to the end of my name – it would certainly make it more exotic – and, actually that’s exactly what my old boss used to do. Blimey, that would work. But I don’t want to be a Russian Empress either!
Sx
LikeLike
No problems I found your reply.
Giving names to your children can be difficult, hence all the books and web sites about names. My oldest was named April because of the attractive spy, April Dancer, on “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”
Good thing I didn’t choose a Bond girl name.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bill – Oh! This is a revelation as I didn’t know that there was a Girl from U.N.C.L.E!! I know the Man, but not the Girl. And Stephanie Powers in the role – fabulous! April is a pretty name – ageless. I would have liked to have been named after a month. Though knowing my mum and dad they would have probably chosen October!
Sx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ms Scarlet sounds exactly the way you wanted it to and I agree that being nick-name-able is a worthy thing. People call me “Kyles” which I think is silly but it’s a nick name so I let it be. There was an in joke with a couple of bloggers who called me Carly and I still get Carly from one of them. That’s ok.
I wonder if you would have been a different person if you’d had a different name? It’s so interesting
LikeLike
My given name is biblical. How utterly pedestrian! Nevertheless, I’m glad I avoided my sister-in-law’s unfortunate fate of being named after a yeast infection.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mr Kinky – Is her name Candice? No I wouldn’t be thrilled with that name either! I think that at the age of 10 we should be asked if we want to stick with the name we have or whether we want to try some new ones.
Sx
LikeLike
Funny story, I’ve known my pets’ veterinarian for many years and we get along really well. A few years back she got married and her new surname was “Dr. Veal.” When she told me I said, “Oh my god, Veal? That’s terrible! You must really love this guy!” She said, “I know right?!?!? Hahaha
LikeLiked by 1 person
Melanie – Meaty!! It could have been worse, and that’s the thing with names – it can always be worse!
Sx
LikeLiked by 1 person
You look like an Abigail to me, Abigail Farquhar. I used to work with a posh woman (when I say posh, she used to pronounce her aitches) who had a council house name, Pat Craggs, she used to answer to Craggsy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mitzi – Most of my aitches are missing in action, though I do try to pick them up.
Yeah, I think I could get away with Abigail.
Sx
LikeLike
Ha ha ! found you. I haven’t seen any links to your posts for ages. I don’t really understand WordPress but will try to keep up.
Oh, I would love you to be an Hermione. Perhaps we will never know but.
A rose is a rose by any other name, you are lovely no matter what your Mum and Dad named you.
I don’t like my name either. My name was a compromise. Nobody actually wanted it, not even me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Madam A – I think my name might have been a compromise too, and thank you, I guess I am what I am!
I meant to hop over to Blogger, but I find WordPress easier. I am on a break at the moment and hope to restart regular blogging again in the New Year, though I might slap something up for Christmas.
Sxx
LikeLike
You can always change your name to Scarlet Blue, legally, if you like! But I understand the anonymity you get using a moniker on social media. On Facebook I use my real name. I happen to like both my given name, and my surname. It reflects my Icelandic heritage. Never changed it when I was married either. I’m a rebel like that 😉 I still occasionally stick a post up on blogger, but most of my social stuff is on FB. I have lots of family and friends on there who live all over the place, so it is easy to keep in touch. If you keep thinking on it, I am sure you can come up with a name that pleases you. xoxo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello, Ponita – I’m fed up with Scarlet Blue as well! I made it up on a whim and didn’t think I’d still be using it 15 years later!!
I never really got on with Facebook – I completely lost the plot with it when it stopped being chronological. I deleted my FB account earlier this year as I was contributing nothing to it and felt like a spy whenever I visited. I don’t have many family members left – none that I regularly interact with in any case.
I am still pondering a new name!
Sx
LikeLike
I too dislike my given name, I tried to use an alternative in real life for a while but it wouldn’t stick. I hope your Christmas is being lovely. Hugs and Love Sweet Scarlet love Lulu xxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lulu – Your name is in the same bracket as mine – they have the same vibe, so I feel your pain. I too wanted to use an alternative, but like you, it didn’t stick.
Happy New Year, Sweetie!!
Sx
LikeLike
I was given my 2 first names and some family and friends call me either Dinah or Di .The “Dinahmow” is a bit of a joke. Someone in the family thought my name should be/is/was Diana.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dinah, Dinah, Dinah!!!!! Huge excitement!!!! Has WordPress given you an AI assistant???? It is the funniest thing ever!!! And it seems to know more about Mogwash than I do!
The AI assistant can write complete posts!!!
Anyhow – you are a Dynamo!!!
Sxxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me with an AI? Some days I struggle with real intelligence so I’d be in all kinds of trouble with AI. I can’t even use a mobile ‘phone!
LikeLike
Rumplestiltskin?
There I said it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mitzi – About time, too! But alas, I am more of a glitter strewn fairy than a gnome like creature.
Sx
LikeLike
Have you given up the ghost like MJ? I hope not and I hope I didn’t spook you by guessing your correct name, I noticed when you were flogging your pictures on etsy? It gave the sellers name and it was the same name as a character in Coronation Street, Blanche is a lovely name and is nothing to be ashamed about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mitzi – I quite like the name Blanche! Very Streetcar Named Desire.
As for Blogging – I will be back, I intend to be back. I’ve had a rough Winter. I think I have seasonal adjustment disorder, and I didn’t even bother with Christmas decorations this Winter, so it must have been bad. A bit of Spring and a bit of sun and I’ll probably bounce back.
Sx
LikeLike
Where are you ? It’s Tuesday in the new year. Is this an abandoned place now ? Where the shadow of the White Lady peeps down from the gallery ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ack, sorry Mr Mags, I have been delayed. I am still down in the dumps, and not getting enough sleep. I have so much to do, but no energy, or motivation. Hopefully I will improve.
Sx
LikeLike
Dumpster diving … sic transit gloria mundi … yeah, it’s hard to find enough sleep in a damp tent in Devon’s field. Maybe I can send you a boddle o’ hooch …
Of course you will improve MsScarlet. There’s a Silver Lining, I’m sure !
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Yeah, I will improve. Send the hooch!
Sx
LikeLike
I’m thinking about my online moniker. Just the other day there was a headline worded with “Lisle Man” about an arrested deviant in the town. I wish they would change the wording.
So I wondered would Duke Lisle work. Browsing through Wikipedia, I found Baron Lisle and Viscount Lisle. Would one those be better than Lisleman?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Slick ? What about “LilleMan” ? Lillois ?
Sorry, this just bubbled up in my cranium, it’S the hooch !
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mr Mags – I think you could be on to something!
Sx
LikeLike
Bill – Definitely Duke Lisle! ManLisle might work as well?
Sx
LikeLike
… hoochie coochie … ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why not, it’s Sunday! Cheers!
Sx
LikeLike