On Names, Identities, and Soulbonding.

[our-haven.livejournal.com]

So there's an interesting subject I've been tossing around in my mind for a while, and that's the names and physical charactaristics of the people in our house. It seems to me that while some of us have had sort-of 'innate' names, many have actually chosen their name when they first show-up 'publicly'. They've always been the same person, from before emergence to present day, but it just seems like most of them they didn't need conventional characteristics (such as names and physical appearance) until they were in the 'context' of this life and world. It also seems to me that, when choosing a name, everyone has a 'concept' or 'tone' related to their personality that they try to express. You know how certain types of names just fit certain people?

Some examples from our own system:

-Ana showed up without provocation and without any notice-- or warning, more appropriately. She started 'pushing' different ideas on us non-verbally, then started whispering, then started fully ordering us around. She just is, and has always been, her.
-Raijna was a walk-in (a rain fae) and had no concept of names or most things relating to our form of life. Jeremey chose a name for her, after getting inspiration from the fae herself, and when he ran it by her she seemed happy with the choice so we kept it.
-Jessa 'latched onto' a couple different people, including Raijna and myself, when she first showed up. She's always been the same girl, but she started out by co-fronting with us, following us around, and trying to act like us. Generally acting like a kid. It was damn cute, really. After she gave up "Raijy" and "Jemmy", I helped her choose her own name; "Jessamine".
-January and I are the result of the split of Genevieve. I fell back on our old nick-name, Jem, and January chose hers because of how close "Genevieve" is in pronounciation to the French word for january, "janvier". She said it suited her emotions and life, dead and cold like the winter (her attitude's not so goth anymore, thank god.)
-Vivian only recently emerged 'publicly', the first times she fronted I got a couple hints of her personality and the 'feel' of a 'v-name.' She confirmed my first impression of her by choosing "Vanessa" her third time out, but just today changing her name to "Vivian" because it is, in her opinion, a stronger name (meaning 'alive' or 'living') than "Vanessa" (meaning 'butterfly'.)

I really got to thinking about this because of reading about soulbonding. It seems, from what I've read recently, many people's soulbonds represent themselves with the character/person they do because it is similar to their personality and how they wanted to present/express themselves. I guess I see a similarity there, though perhaps on a different scale. Maybe soulbonds present themselves how they do because they didn't always have the 'context' of this life and world to fit into? How similar to or different from multiplicity like mine is this, aside from how soulbonds take on pre-existing fictional characters or already-living people? Are soulbonds actually constructs instead of pre-existing entities?

Food for thought.

~Jem of Haven
(btw, I tried to lj-cut this and it went funky and refused to work. sorry about the length)

Comments

On Names.

[nansvision.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing about your name choices.
We have given much thought to our own selected names.
Here are some:

Crystal, age 13, is our historian biographer.
Crystal stands for crystal clear. And, sometimes, she can abruptly stop the tears,
it means, Cry/Stall.

Mary Little, age two, only speaks in rhymes as a code.
Her name came from Mary, Mary,
Quite Contrary.

Lois, age 14, is a loner.
L. O. is for lonely; I. S. is for isolated.

Satana, age 9, changed her name, because it wasn't her choice, but given to her
by abusive people.
After watching Bewitched on TV, she wanted to be Samantha, instead.

Sheila, whose strength is the will to live, says her name means, She Lives.

Patrick, age four, who was tricked by mother, chose his name because
it ends with trick.

A few examples.shContraycam

Re: On Names.

[our-haven.livejournal.com]

*smiles* that's really cool!
I think you're all very clever for coming up with those. :)

~Jem

[poacu.livejournal.com]

I think this also has to do with the extent at which your innerworld (if it is existant) is set-in-stone.

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

I like your Lo icon ^_^

[poacu.livejournal.com]

Thank you, your icon is nice as well. :)

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[poacu.livejournal.com]

Aw, flowers. :)

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

*smiles* :)

[poacu.livejournal.com]

♥ Because I'm done with icons after this one since I'm not a paid account. Haha ;)

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

love all your icons ^_^

[poacu.livejournal.com]

And all of yours that I've seen. Particularly this one and the first one. :)

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Those 2 are actually the ones I've made. Didn't make the other 2.

kasiya_icons (shameless plug) *blush*

[poacu.livejournal.com]

*Friends that journal*
Mind if I friend you as well? :)

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

*happy grin* sure!!

[poacu.livejournal.com]

New friends. :)

[our-haven.livejournal.com]

I suppose that makes sense. We haven't had a tangible world to exist in while back until very recently (and it's still small and separated,) so we haven't had much of an "environmental context" (hee! I like that term!) to define ourselves in except The Real World{tm)

[changelyng14.livejournal.com]

yo! we havent figured out exactly what soulbonding is yet so dunno if we have any, but we all got names! woo!

people here have a thing with native american naming conventions, how its done, and its meaning etc, so nicknames we've had all follow this, even if they dont sound like traditional native names (sitting bear, or twirling peacock, etc). when we started naming ourselfs, everyone got 'named' until such a time as that they chose their own name.

goodboy/frog. goodboy lived 6-12 years old and was 'the goodboy'. now hes frog, because his self image is this smooshed up lumpy thing that looks kinda like a toad, which became frog, etc.

angryboy/loco (our first splits were all blah-boys) loco = crazy, and he wanted to be in a gang and have loco be his 'gang name'. it stuck, he likes it, we laugh.

mike - our folks told us they picked between 3 names, the name we got, mike, and dave. mike wished we was this 'mike' that he got denied being. (mike doesn't make alotta sense sometimes) aka the mask, tank (the operator from matrix), the pervert behind the big curtain.

synch - "a state of perfect harmony with ones surroundings" (synch's a high speed problem solver protector type)

lovecry - wordplay. alot of people take alot of meanings from the word, but what he had in mind was 'as a battle cry is what you do to give yourself the strength to battle... a lovecry is preparation to loving unconditionally'

'the indian' - a title, were still waiting on a name from him. hes 'the indian' because hes the indian.

tyler - lived in a fundamentalist bible cult. hes a tad massochistic. someone suggested 'tyler derden' (fight club if u actually dont know) (cult leader) he decided to take it because it made him laugh.

drugless - lived our 12-step days (narcotics anonymous) everyone that called us, called us that. it was a no brainer.

mania (named manic at first) named after what synch used to call his state which turns out to be them corunning (his manic mode) he chose mania.

quiet boy - a title, cuz he doesnt talk nor actively engage in thought.

tia - i have no clue where she got that from, but i think she just likes the sound of it. she goes by 'T' when she doesnt wanna comeout with the misgendered thing.

a.j. - short for adrenaline junkie, (our resident sand-hippy) triggered by any adrenaline rush reaction.

the spirit - i have no clue. we watch his thinking process, but we dont get it. but he's some sort of spirit of some sort of animal or something, and might be a walkin reincarnation somethingy.

candy apple red- my given name, but i like it. i go by 'Red' irl now, (for the non-gender thing) but i still sign candy on the net cuzz i don't care here.

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

I would be considered a Soul Bond. The universe I originally resided in is a form of entertainment here. Though I am not an existing character from this media, I am from that universe. I arrived at Tei Ekullas through a doorway or portal I activated while studying an artifact I had found planetside. While here, when I first heard that what I considered to be fact and reality was considered to be tales of fiction, I was unnerved. Now I no longer think of it. I know where I am from. The other Soul Bonds I know have differing thoughts on where they came from and what is fiction or reality. In answer to your question, I existed elsewhere before arriving here. I have my own memories and history like yourself or others. -bows-

*Romei*

[our-haven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for responding. I'm glad you have such strong knowledge of your past and sense of yourself. I think that's really awesome... I actually completely lack a past, so that's something I rather-- for lack of a better word-- admire. Confidence in yourself is really what counts, though, eh?

*Smiles* Welcome to our universe. ^^

[kasiya-system.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

We've got several people who appropriated their names from other sources. Often it happened when they couldn't give a name for themselves and so we tagged them with a name based on a superficial resemblance (in personality or looks) to someone we knew, just as something to tag them with. I admit it does get a little embarassing at times when we're misapprehended-- "oh, so you have so-and-so from X show/book/game in there?" "Uh, no, he's just got the same name...."

[effrenata.livejournal.com]

It also seems to me that, when choosing a name, everyone has a 'concept' or 'tone' related to their personality that they try to express. You know how certain types of names just fit certain people?

This is similar to how I generate thoughtforms. They start out as inchoate "qualities", "concepts" or "vibrations". Once they have names, they begin to coalesce, like raindrops forming in a cloud. The name is the "core" around which the thoughtform-energy organizes itself. The name seems to fit the new entity's essence, and serves to gather other characteristics.

How similar to or different from multiplicity like mine is this, aside from how soulbonds take on pre-existing fictional characters or already-living people? Are soulbonds actually constructs instead of pre-existing entities?

My thoughtforms are constructs, but I do not think that makes them less real or significant. It takes an engineer and a team of construction workers to build a bridge, but that does not make the bridge unreal. Most of my/these thoughtforms are insourced, although many of us are modeled on mythic archetypes, and one is a parallel-reality counterpart of an Earth historical figure. Yet, even those of us with archetypal or outsourced lineage are personalized, unique. We have taken the collective image and made of it something original, customized to ourselves. I think this is similar to what Soulbonders do when they appropriate an outsourced Bond, albeit in most cases less consciously. There is an archetypal or fictive template from which many copies can be made, & information is altered in the process of replication. Thus an outsourced being is both a copy and an unique individual.

[our-haven.livejournal.com]

I like that word, "thoughtform". Contructs are a really fascinating subject to me, so thanks for posting about them! A couple weeks ago, we were kicking around the idea of trying to build a construct... It'd sure be interesting. We got inspired by a friend's story of a "clockwork girl" :)

[crystalhellion.livejournal.com]

We have no soulbonds that we know of. Names, however, we do have. Of the people currently in this system, the origins are as such:

I came with my name, as it was my name in my past life.
Rini's is short for "Irene", her real name. I named her that. She's my daughter, after all, so it's my prerogative (sp?) on what to name her.
Melissa got hers from a piece of fiction, a story in which a middle-aged male was turned into someone more approximating a teenage girl.
Ty got hir original name, Tyler, from a comic book reality. S/he shortened it to "Ty" to pay homage to a friend, and at the same time, to choose a more non-gendered name, in hir opinion, anyway.
Raven will not say how she got her name.
Tara, originally being a merge of Ty and Raven, took her name as a combination of the two. She also took the surname of her girlfriend. We as a system use it as a surname now.
Zoe got her name after being referred to by that name while the body was in a psych hospital.
Nina named herself after the character of the same name from the "Breath of Fire" video game series.
I have no idea how Celeste was named. She's more machine than celestial being. Maybe it's an acronym.

[our-haven.livejournal.com]

Extra points for using GNPs (Gender Neutral Pronouns!) ^_^

We've got a Raven, too... She's a quiet teenager, who talks about her pretty deep past sometimes and seems to have had her name for a long, long time. I think she moved from her last life into this body. Her mother(?) also shows up sometimes to do energy healing or to pray, maybe as a channel.

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

Luwana was my name in a dream. Feanor however, is a 'fictional' name, from Tolkien's books. I chose it as a 'surname' because it felt right, because it fit, somehow.

Selene on the otherhand, chose nothing. She was Selene for a long time before I knew her name. There was no chosing involved. It simply was. Selene is who she is, inside and out. She's considering a name change to try and get away from her fictional heritage, but 'Selene' is her past. She may have chosen or been given the name when she was younger, recently turned, but that was long before here.


The whole 'moon goddess' thing is very ironic, I think.


~Luwana