Nov 07 2007
I’ve Been Brillig’ed
Brillig has engulfed me.
Quite unexpected, really. I’d seen other bloggers use fun names, and I knew that I needed one. I decided very spur-of-the-moment-ly to start a new blog and on a whim I thought of “Brillig.”
It was very sudden, and not thought-through at all.
But now, this Brillig person has taken over my life. When I go to introduce myself in the real world, I’m more likely to call myself “Brillig” first. In fact, when I went to vote yesterday, I honestly scanned the roster for “Brillig” before I looked for that real name of mine. When the woman-voting-official-person asked my name, I bumbled and stammered, as though she’d just asked me a very complicated question (it was seriously so embarrassing—I then blurted out my maiden name, and then took it back and said, “no, that’s not it either.” When I finally came up with my actual name she was trying not to die laughing at me. She was like, “are you sure that’s your name?” “Yes,” I replied. “That’s really my name.” She then told me that I didn’t need to be nervous— the voting process was really straight-forward. Hahahaha. You KNOW that if she has a blog, she TOTALLY wrote about me yesterday).
I think of myself as Brillig. That’s all there is to it.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I used to have another blog. A very sad, boring, empty, and totally un-designed blog under my real name. I was very careful about what I said, which meant that I really had nothing to say. I met no one, and the only person who ever commented was Kate, and she only commented because as my BFF, she’s required to.
It wasn’t until I assumed the name of Brillig that I really found my voice. It’s amazing— this Brillig chick has unleashed the inner me!
Who would have guessed that I’d find the “real me” by creating a fake name?
oh I am sure you made a really good impression in the voting office :p. I blog onder “Goofball”, but I don’t quite have the problem yet that it starts overtaking my real name. On the contrary, I have to watch that I don’t sign comments with my real name.
Hahahaha! Awh. I had trouble finding my name too yesterday, because the lady had the roster upside-down and couldn’t read it very well! That’s what happens when they put the fireman’s auxiliary in charge, I suppose.
THEN I had trouble getting my vote card to stick into the machine. It didn’t the first three times, and when another lady came over to help me, it finally did. I wonder if she had a blog now… hahaah.
Good for you!
You know we’re all dying to know what your name really is
Annie isn’t my given name either. It’s a shortened version, or a nickname, of my full name - but one that is used more and more often to the point that it’s really only in doctor’s offices or other such official places where it gets used and so I totally understand the ’stumbling’ thing.
I signed a release form for Baby J after his last hearing test - and I used my maiden name - so that’s probably just old age hitting you lol!
When I’m telling P one of your latest exploits, I’ll say, “[Your real name] did so-and-so today.”
He inevitably responds, “Who?”
I inevitably reply, “You know, BRILLIG!”
“Oh, right, right,” he says.
Oh, I can relate. At first, I was disconcerted with people addressing me in comments as “Patois.” But now I am. Now, excuse me while I go find a blog post about people not knowing their own name at the polling place.
Yeah, I think it’s funny that even though I know you’re real first name, it never crosses my mind to call you by that name. When I talk about my family to people - even other people in my family - I have to stop myself from calling the kids “Ninja Boy” and “Sunshine” and I do tend to call the mister “The Man” - especially when I’m writing about him.
I like Brillig. I think she’s pretty cool. And she gives your other “personality” a break. That girl has got to be so darn tired anyway.
I just thought of another question for NaBloMoFo…Do you plan on taking your kids to the places your parents took you while you were growing up?
(Oh, Ps - Ha. Larity. I’m going to start volunteering at the voting booths.)
You certainly have found your voice. I didn’t have a clue about blogging when I started so it never occured to me that I shouldn’t share my real name and now I’m in it up to my eyeballs so I’ll be keeping it. It protects you and is fun and mysterious too.
I probably should have tried to be mysterious when I put my second, most recent blog up. I decided not to because my blog is more of a journal than anything and I want to be able to print it off later and have it make sense. Maybe someday I’ll go the “Brillig” route. It’d be fun to talk about things so that no one in my family or my friends could recognize me. I’d love to be scandalous. Heaven knows I’ve got enough material!
I must admit I’m a bit jealous of your anonymity. While I realize that I probably admit too much under my real name, just think what I’d admit under an alias!
I love you Brilly, with your real name or your blog name!
lol I don’t use my real name of course either…and yesterday I told my dear daughter that if she EVER told our family what my blog was called I WOULD kill her and feed her to the wolves…I don’t wanna censor myself..lol
Isn’t “Brillig” from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass/Alice in Wonderland? Something like that? I think it’s a brilliant choice, no matter how you got to it.
Wholly Burble rather “came to me” too. My son said something, which triggered another word, which led to . . . well, you get the picture–it rather evolved over the course of a few minutes, and when it was right there in front of me, the British side of my heritage said “Ah yes, just the ticket!”
I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks, so it’s not taken me over yet. A name I’ve worked under and given lectures under for years was just not going to work–I’m changing, my direction is changing, so needed a new identity.
Meisha, isn’t my real name, but I wish I had been a bit more creative with it, because “Meisha” doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a name that’s not my own. Like you, I just dove into it without much thought. I think it turned out pretty well for you, though.
I adore that last line! Not to mention the title of the post as well. You’re brilliant.
I’m so glad that “Brillig” unleashed the real you! I’m almost jealous of all the fun things you get to talk about with a fake name.
I started my blog very suddenly and without the belabored thought that can normally hold me back. I think the essence of posting to blogs severs that overcautious trait - otherwise, no posts would ever get out there!
LOL on your conversation with the voting woman!
Lovin’ your blog! It’s so funny how the blogginess starts to carry over into the real world. My in-real-life friends now refer to my boyz as Eldest, Middle and Baby instead of their real names! And sometimes even Hubby does it:
Him to me: “Uhh..you may want to talk to your Eldest. I just watched him pick his nose and eat it.”
Yeah, if I ever got around to starting another blog it would be anonymous. But since I can hardly keep up with the one I have … then again, I’d have way more to post about if I didn’t have to worry about censoring myself since the ENTIRE fam-damily (grandparents included) read my blog looking for baby pictures.
And since that’s the reason I started it I never thought to use an alias…
Oh well!
To tell you the truth…Alice isn’t my real name either. I’ve had a similar experience finding my “inner voice”. Thats the wonder of the Internet.
I’m not as loopy as my pseudonym would indicate - but I’m sure as hell idealistic! I like having an alter ego - oddly normal today and not at all a reason to have electro-shock therapy.
Now that I know your real name I have a hard time trying not to call you Brillig when I email.
Clearly WM isn’t my real name but it’s such a ridiculous pseudonym that I want to quickly shed it when I meet someone in person…
I need to have thought of something cooler…but now it too late to change and I guess it’s grown on me.
Great story, Brillig.
RocketMom comes from “Rocket Scientist” which is how my darling husband referred to me on his blog, since he went bloggy way before me. Of course, my profession (loosely related to rocket science) is only a part of who I am, so when I got on gmail I opted for rocket mom. The strange part is that I don’t find myself so much drawn to my profession anymore, but I guess a rocket is a good tool to explore new worlds, and expresses (to me anyway) a fiery energy which I most days only aspire to. Maybe it will stick.
I am slowly starting to understand what you mean. I have been writing on Inarticulate Fumblings more and more, and have started to gain much more readership, all of whom have started calling me IF. How bizarre to have these relationships with people that you don’t really know, except what they choose to reveal on their blogs.
I’m not really sure why I chose the name that I did… but I have a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with three other ones before it being used by someone else.
I’m glad I stumbled onto your site. I’ll be back.
It’s my first time here, and WhollyBurble brought me here…and the trip is worth it.
Your name is intriguing and I’m sure to frequent here to learn more about Twa Brillig…
It definitely helps to release the inner you when you can write without fear of ID.
The funny thing is… I know your name… and I still think of you as Brillig… or, more accurately: “Brill”
Although my Nom de internet is Gunfighter, and that is highly descriptive of what I do… when I think of that particular name, I tend to refer to myself in the third person.
Not that I’m weird or anything.
I can’t think of anything better except maybe eating peppermint icecream and hanging from gutters while screaming at passerbys about the process of voting and how it is democracy that rules the world…amen
When I first was reading this, I thought you were talking about the blog right before this one and I was like “I used to comment on her blog all the time!” Anyway, I guess you and your alter ego are slowly morphing into one.
BTW, I wanted to tell you that I’m not mormon (I’m catholic) but I had a huge crush on a Mormon guy that was in my Law class in college. He also happened to be USC’s starting quarterback at the time (Brad Otton). I now have a new Mormon guy crush…Ryan Gosling! He’s hawt!!!! Especially in The Notebook.
how liberating! I’m envious. One google by a preschool classmate mom and I’m toast!
I’ll let you in to a secret. Jo is my real name, Beaufoix is a variation of my real name. It just makes me feel that little bit more secure with having kids etc.
I do call my kids Miss M and Miss E sometimes, and if I order stuff online I sometimes use beaufoix. Fun.
On facebook I’m beaufoix too.
x
I think it’s pretty cool that you found the real you! I would have been totally mortified at not remembering my name, hahaha!
It’s awesome how that whole pseudonym thing works for people…
Piper of Love can relate!!
This moniker has now seeped into my persona in big and sometimes amazing ways. It’s so bizarre though! It never occurred to me that my name would become what it has…to me.
I even forget what my normal email address is now! I’m forever filling out things with Piper of Love…again, I can so relate!
It’s great! It’s harrowing, but great!! Piper of Love can’t become Piper of Bitter Exchange, or even Piper of Caddy Banter…it would require to much editing! ~lol~
Fascinating post! Hmmm…deep thoughts…
You know, since all the Buzz-love started, I realized that I tend to visit people’s profiles and not their blogs. NO MORE! So I’m coming over to catch up.
catherine
Hmm… Maybe I need a name. Although I have been referring to myself as Miss Sue Burbia a lot lately…
I just sent an email out to my playgroup referring to my husband the way I do on my blog. I’ve also had to stop myself from calling my kids by their blog initials. Then again, lately I’ve had to stop and think about how old I am and really I am 31 in real life and blog life.
I can only echo what’s been said here and add my two cents for loving your “identity”. If ever we meet, it will indeed be hard for me to call you anything other than Brillig, or as Gunfighter says, Brill, because that’s just you to me.
I can hardly think of you and relate it to that real name of yours.
Sometimes I wish I had been hip to the whole pseudonym thing before I opened my blog, but also like others, I am idenitfiable, because the first point of writing a blog for me was to keep in touch with the folks we left behind. I had NO IDEA I was going too gain a crowd to hang with of strangers and new friends. Go figure. Still, all in all, I like my identity now, and truly even though my real name is available, it’s still a little tricky to identify me outright since I am one of THOUSANDS with that name! (I even joined a NaBloPoMo group called “circle of jens–and we chat about the joys and pain of being a Jennifer in a world of Jennifers)
Now that I’ve waxed poetic and posted a post in your comment section, (will this count for NaBloPoMo?) I can’t remember what else I wanted to say…
Oh, yes! @Meisha– your name DOES mean something. If you take it phonetically and just change the spelling, MEIJSE, it is DUTCH and means “girl”. So I read that and see a complete identity. You are “girlfriend”! I think that’s a grand name.
Brill, do tell, if you were picking a pseudonym for me, what would it be?
It’s so funny, because my blog name is my college nickname, “Sprite.” When my editor at work found that out, he started calling me “Sprite.”
I can’t get away from it! I can definitely feel your identity crisis.