Wednesday, October 26, 2005

What's in a name?

I happened to find a discussion about why I am concerned with how my name is spelled, over at Dr. Joolz' snapshotz on life. When I now read my own attempt at a self-ironic tone of voice, I flinch, and I am doubly certain that I need to watch the voice in which I speak online. Irony - even self-irony - is complicated.

But why do I think names are so important?

First, it's my journalist training. Typos in names is unforgivable. You make sure you and the person you talk to agree on how the name is spelled, which names they use, and which title is the correct one. In Norway you can get away without the title, but never, ever, with a typo in the name.

Second, it's googlability :) I know the most common typos for my name, but how can I cover them all?

Third, it is the name I have grown up with and lived with and kept. My father argued with the priest over that precise spelling, to the point of not having me baptised in that church if he could not have the name JUST like that. It is one of those stories I grew up with. To my parents, that was wild defiance. It means something to me.

The post also addresses my recent lack of comments.

I never felt comfortable about comments in the first place. I put them in, and no, did not experience any of the things I feared (at least not much once I put the different barriers in). Comments are good. But I think it did things to my writing, or perhaps more so, to my reading. I become too self-centered, more taken with what people write on my blog than what they write on their own sites, and this is not something I like about myself. So I try to alter it, through different disciplines - such as removing the comments.

And so I read other people's writing, and of course, notice and write about when they write about me. Still self-conscious, indeed.

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