Names (Me)

So I occasionally get the questions about names. How did I learn the names of each of the people in my head? Did I name them, or did they come to me with those names? And being individuals, there are different answers for each of us. My name, of course, the name we all go by as a group and I use as an individual, is the name my parents gave me. No surprise there. I've thought about going by my middle name to indicate just me within the group, but that's really not my name. So we all answer to my name, including me.

For a long time, I've played various role-play games. And I've always liked names that started with a K for my female characters. Just before I started exploring being multiple, I had a few named Kara, Kera, Ki'ira and Kiara, and the like. I don't know how I picked those names, but when creating the characters, I heard those sounds very insistently in my head. So when I was trying to come up with a scene name to use in the BDSM world, I chose Kiara. And when I started acknowledging the people inside my head, one of them took on that name as her own. Maybe it was always her name.

Two more names that I heard very loudly during character creation were Jarett and Rubi. Actually, I was gettting RubI'q for a character, but that translated quite smoothly into Rubi when I started checking out these folks in my head, and Jarett as much as told me that the character got the name because it was his - spelling and all. So as it turns out, my gaming may have been a coping mechanism for the unacknowledged folks hanging around in my mind.

The other three took on, or were given, names that fit their roles. SAM is an acronym in the kink world for Smart-Assed Masochist. And she's certainly a sammie, so she accepted the name Sam as her handle. Counselor is a label, one that Counselor chooses to go by. She has said that she would go by my middle name if forced to use a name at all, but she's content to use her role as her identification. And Silent One is a label I've given that dark frightened part that doesn't communicate to the rest of us.

So there, several ways to name an alter. Use a birth name, a middle name, the name of a story or game character, or use a label that describes the alter's role, or just listen to the alter and let them tell you what their name is.

(Update - As of August 2011, Counselor will be using the name Lynn instead.)