How I named My Persona

NOTICE - This article was submitted by the author for inclusion in the Arts and Science Archives of the Barony of Dragon's Laire. Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author. While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file. ----Thank you, Rycheza z Polska, webminster

How I Named My Persona by Arontius of Bygelswade

               I’d like to relate the history of my name, Arontius of Bygelswade. It is a history of great discoveries and frustrating dead ends. It will also give you a good indication of how NOT to choose and document the name for which you will be forever known in the SCA.
The naming of your ‘persona’ in the SCA is probably the most important decision you can make within the context of our game. Just as your mundane name is how you are known in the modern world, your persona name tells your SCA friends what kind of person you are; your country of origin; what time period you play; and many other aspects that you may not even be aware.
Because of the importance of your name, you should choose with some wisdom and as early as possible in your career. Once a name takes root and becomes established as ‘YOUR’ name, it is somewhat difficult to shake it off later if you should decide (or find out) that this name is not ‘YOUR’ name.
                I started playing seriously in the SCA in 1991. Before that I had gone to scattered events here and there since 1987 and had always introduced myself as simply ‘Aaron’, the name by which I was known to all of my friends and family. But by 1991, I knew that I was hooked for good and needed a Nom de Plume that was acceptable to those around me who took the game seriously.
                At the time, my other real passion in life was fantasy role-playing gaming. In these games I had always named my character creations in what I thought were perfectly acceptable ‘medieval’ names. So with little other thought then the fact it sounded cool, I chose the name ‘Aaronius Beeblescrab’ to be my SCA name. It was my favorite magic-wielding fighting type character. And with that name in hand I spent several blissful years in utter ignorance of the ‘un-medievalness’ of that name.
                By the tourney season of 1993, I had seen enough of heraldry and the pageantry associated with it that I wanted to fly my own banner. Many of the fighters had devices, or aspects of their devices, on their shields. Many camps around me flew pennants and flags that bore dragons and griffons and lions and all manner of beasts that stirred the heart’s fancy. All manner of designs ran through my head, so I decided to have a decent artist put my imagination to paper.
                When I showed up for my very first Shire heraldry meeting, Lord Iain, our herald, wasted no time in telling me that before I could submit my request for a device, I had to register an acceptable name. I certainly didn’t think that would be a problem, ‘Aaronius Beeblescrab’ was medieval enough as far as I was concerned. I asked Iain for the proper paperwork and decided that I would drop it in the mail that evening.
                As I scanned the Name Submission Form, I hesitated for a moment. The form asked from what language my name originated and its intended meaning. ‘Aaronius’ sounded Roman to me and ‘Beeblescrab’ had originated from a show produced by the BBC, so it must be British in origin. I wrote this all down and handed in my form for Lord Iain’s signature. He read my form and gave me a puzzled look.
                “What’s the source for this name?” Iain asked.
                I thought he meant the origin and started explaining my thoughts. After listening to me for a while he realized that I had no coherent idea of whether my name would have appeared within the SCA time period of 600-1600 AD or not. Lord Iain explained this fact and told me we would have to do some research in order to document my chosen name.
                This was a real disappointment and frustration to me. I didn’t care at that moment what I was called. I just wanted to fly a banner on my encampment. I asked to look over Lord Iain’s heraldry book collection to see if I could find something that I could quickly document and send in for approval. He did not have anything within his collection that even resembled ‘Aaronius Beeblescrab’ and we decided that I should make a trip to the library and look over their collection of naming books.
                At the library I was soon overwhelmed by the choices available to me. I hadn’t stopped to think about location, time period, vocation, station in society or any of the things that mattered. All of these things and more were a factor in what my persona would have carried as his name.
I thought about what was important to me in my SCA life and what I wanted in a name. I knew that I was always drawn to England. But this still only helped to a degree. Within England are many different cultures within our period. All with their own naming rules and practices.
                I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to be English and I wanted to be somewhere in the 14th to 15th century. This narrowed my choices even more. I also knew that I wanted something similar to the name with which I started, ‘Aaronius Beeblescrab’.
                In my reading of English history I came across the name of a village to the north and west of London in Bedfordshire. The name was Biggleswade. I immediately liked it and it seemed a pretty good substitute to my original Beeblescrab. It became my surname or how I differentiated myself from any other ‘Arontius’ with whom I might have interacted in period.
                In my reading of naming practices of England, I read an interesting passage pertaining to the use of Roman names. That basically being the addition of Roman suffixes to local common names. I decided that this would work for me and after some thought, ‘Aaronious’ was born.
                So I had a name, ‘Aaronious of Biggleswade’. I made copies of the sources I used and submitted my name. Six months later it came back to me with a very nice apologetic letter from Lion’s Blood (the Kingdom herald in charge of submissions). I was told that there was no evidence of the use of Roman suffixes with names of essentially Hebrew or biblical origins as ‘Aaron’ was, so ‘Aaronious’ could not be passed. I was also told that Biggleswade was a modern spelling for the village name I had found. In period, the little village of ‘Biggleswade’ was known as ‘Bikeleswade’. If I wanted to keep this as a surname, or place name, I would have to live with ‘Bikelswade’.
                It was back to the books. I was definitely frustrated by this time, so I abandoned my initial attempts and took a slightly different path. By this time (around early 1995) I had discovered the wonders of the Unabridged Oxford English Dictionary. It is a fantastic source of word histories that is incredibly detailed in its description of word history sources and their uses in that period of time. My role-playing character at one time had the nickname of ‘Erroneous’, so out of curiosity I read the Oxford entry for erroneous and found the period spelling of ‘Arronius’ for this word. I immediately thought that this would be a good way to name my persona.
                I was also playing the part of a constable at many events and started looking up vocation names along the lines of a constable to see if there was something with which I could live. I ran across the vocation of ‘bedel’. In period a bedel was often the town crier and the assistant to the local sheriff. I was playing with the word one day and came up with the combination of ‘Bedel’ and ‘Scribe’, or ‘Bedelsscribe’.
                I now had a new name, ‘Arronius the Bedelsscribe’. I again made copies of the sources in which I found the components of my name and submitted my creation. And again, six months later I received a nicely worded apology from Lion’s Blood informing me that my name was again not registerable. This time I was told that there was no evidence to support the use of the word ‘Arronius’ as a given name. Now, I was ready to fight this based on the fact that other people have passed names along the lines of ‘the fast’, ‘the bold’, ‘Slow’, etc. It was soon explained to me that ‘Arronius’ was a rather obscure word in and of itself. All of the other examples of adjectives as names that I used had proof of their use in period. Laurel Sovereign of Arms (the Society herald in charge of submissions) had come down with a precedence just a few years earlier stating obscure adjectives, such as what I proposed, could not be used as names.
                ‘Bedelsscribe’ also would not fly as far as the heralds were concerned. It was argued that bedels were themselves basically scribes since they worked as assistants to sheriffs and as there was no evidence of the use of ‘Bedelsscribe’ in period, the heralds had to turn down my request for that name.
                It was now early in 1996 and I was getting a little tired of the whole process. I really wanted something, anything, and I was starting to get less choosy. I gravitated back towards my original submission. I kept the corrected spelling of ‘of Bikelswade’ as my surname but couldn’t seem to get past some version of ‘Aaron’ for my given name. What I had really attached myself to was the name of ‘Aaronious’. I had been using some variation of this name for years now and I wanted something close. Since I knew that the word ‘Arronious’ was a period word, as an adjective, I decided that maybe I could still use it in my name, but use it as it was, as an adjective, in my name. I looked at the Latin root of ‘Aaronious’ and decided that I needed something more Roman or Latin in nature. I started looking through the naming manuals again and came across the name ‘Aurelius’ and decided that fit.
                My new submission for 1996 was therefore ‘Arronious Aurelius of Bikelswade’. I copied my source material and submitted. And, in six months, instead of an apologetic letter, I received a telephone call. It was from the Lion’s Blood Herald herself, Dame Zenobia. She told me that no form of ‘erroneous’ would ever pass in a name, no matter what the use or location within that name. The word was just too obscure to be used in a name or even as an epithet. It had to go. I was hurt, but I asked Dame Zenobia for her advice. She had prepared for just this request before phoning. She had done a little research and gave me a suggestion. She had found the name of a Saint who’s name sounded pretty close to ‘erroneous’. It was a Saint by the name of ‘Irenaeus’ who lived during the third century. Dame Zenobia told me that if I took that name and added the surname of Bikelswade it would pass through the college of heralds. It sounded like what I wanted and no one really had to see the spelling. I reluctantly agreed to her argument. I wasn’t happy with this, but I was to the point where anything would work as long as I could get started on my device.
                Dame Zenobia actually filled out the paperwork and submitted it to Laurel. In a little more then three months I received a letter from her stating that ‘Irenaeus of Bikelswade’ was now recorded in the official rolls as my name.
I didn’t like using this name so I kept using the name Aaronaeus in all my SCA writings and as 1997 started, my dislike for the name finally sent me researching again. I was intrigued by Dame Zenobia’s use of a Saint’s name, so I started doing a little research on Saints, starting with Irenaeus. In my research I happened to stumble across the name of ‘Arontius’. He was an obscure saint without even his own entry in the book I was reading. He was martyred with a group of others in Northern Africa in the fourth century. I immediately liked the name ‘Arontius’ and decided that this was my name. I made out the paperwork, copied my sources and turned in my name change, from ‘Irenaeus’ to ‘Arontius’.
                It was 1998 I was doing more research on my chosen birthplace in England, the village of Biggleswade. I again stumbled across an obscure reference to the name of ‘Bygelswade’. This name was used for a short time during the fifteenth century. I liked this spelling much better then ‘Bikeleswade’ and again made a copy of my source and submitted for the name change.
                In January of 1999I received a letter from The Honourable Lady Maryn Grey, Lion’s Blood Herald, informing me that ‘Arontius of Bygelswade’ had been officially registered with Laurel Sovereign of Arms and that it was truly mine. My persona was truly born.

                There are several lessons to be learned from my experiences in the world of persona naming. Probably the most important one would be to work with a herald. Had I gone to a herald up front for help, I could have been told immediately whether my name choices were good or bad, or more importantly, whether my naming logic was actually logical. Instead of submitting items and waiting for months at a time before being told ‘No’, I could have been told immediately to go back to my research books. I estimate that I spent almost four years simply waiting for my name to be rejected.
                Second, don’t give up or simply ‘live’ with a choice forced upon you by the College of Heralds. Do the research and don’t stop until you find the proof and something with which you can live. Heralds make mistakes and new research is constantly being published to give you more and more choices in what you name your persona.
                Third, the research is worth the effort. Your knowledge of your chosen time and location will grow exponentially. When you ‘know’ your persona, your enjoyment of the game that we play will grow tremendously because you will be more truly ‘living’ in the medieval world instead of ‘pretending’ that you are some possible character from it.

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