How did you choose your forum name?

[AFS1970]

For many years I had been using a screen name that tied to a previous part of my life. A couple of years ago I needed to find a new one and settled on AFS1970, it is my initials and the year of my birth. It just happened that this was about the time I joined XMTS. With one exception, I use this on just about any forum I join. Although, I have found this name in use by someone else on a couple of sites, generally it is me.

[LANCER1562]

As I have an interest in things Templar (Knights of the Temple of Solomon or Knights Templar), when I first joined this forum I used the screen name Demolay1310 for Jaque Demolay a Templar Grand Master who was arrested for heresy in 1307 and torture until he confessed to crimes against the Church. In 1310 he recanted his confessions and was burned at the stake as heretic in 1314. Unfortunately, this screen name caused too much confusion among other forum members, so I had it changed to LANCER1562 because the character I portray at Renaisance faires is a lancer or foot soldier in the service of Mary, Queen of Scots in the year 1562.

I am aware of the fact that lancers were on horseback and the foot soldiers were called pikemen. Our lances or spears measure 9ft.-08in. and therefore would be concidered half pikes. When I asked the Captain why we were called lancers instead of pikemen, I was told it was because the Guild Master didn't want us to be called pikers.

[O'Callaghan]

Too many replies here to read them all. Mine is my clan (not my actual surname). Nobody else got there first, so I got to use it.

Yes, the Irish had clans too, and don't let anyone tell you different. Some pedants refer to Irish clans as septs (which in the context of Scots clans would instead mean a part of a clan having a different surname allied to the main name), but there are also plenty of people who call them clans. I think it is more logical to refer to the same thing by the same name whenever possible, and don't let anyone tell you they were not the same.

Irish clans had chiefs and clan lands like Scots clans, and had the same system of succession, called tanistry. This is because they inherited the Brehon system of law from the Irish gaelic tribes that split into clans as surnames began to come into use. Even before they formed clans (or septs if you really must) the five tribes split into regional branches where the name of the tribe was followed by the name of their home base.

So for example, the name Callaghan (Ceallachain in gaelic) began with Callaghan of Cashel (Ceallachain of Caisil) who was a member of the Eugenians of Cashel (Eoganacht of Caisil), the Cashel branch of the tribe descended from Eugene (Eogan), Cashel now being in County Kerry, and the Calllaghan clan were established near Mallow in County Cork by a grandson of Callaghan of Cashel who used Callaghan as both his first name and as his surname, not that he only had one name, but both his first and last names were the same.

Where the Scots clans fit into this is that they are all branches of just one other of the five Irish gaelic tribes, the Scotii (Dal Riada), who had a kingdom that covered both part of Northern Ireland and the highlands of Scotland, and who came to Scotland from Ireland, not vicea versa. This of course does not mean that their lineage in the Scottish highlands was 100% Irish gaelic. Even that of the Irish wasn't and isn't. But it does mean that the Scots clans operated in the same way as the Irish clans, because the source of the rules of how they were organised was the same.

There's always one wag who says 'but the Irish clans were different", but they seldom know what they are talking about. </RANT>

[MacSpadger]

Where the Scots clans fit into this is that they are all branches of just one other of the five Irish gaelic tribes, the Scotii (Dal Riada), who had a kingdom that covered both part of Northern Ireland and the highlands of Scotland, and who came to Scotland from Ireland, not vicea versa. This of course does not mean that their lineage in the Scottish highlands was 100% Irish gaelic. Even that of the Irish wasn't and isn't. But it does mean that the Scots clans operated in the same way as the Irish clans, because the source of the rules of how they were organised was the same.

Again this states Bede's myth/legend as historical fact, when, quite simply, it isn't. Bede was himself extrapolating from entries in the Annals of Tighernach and Senchus Fer nAlban, but we know that these entries were added 500 years after the events to back up some royal genealogical claims. The Scotti were supposedly led by Fergus mac Erc, but Bede states quite clearly that the person they were led by was called Reudai, no mention of Fergus at this point. At this time there were only two peoples in Britain, Britons and Picts, and Reudai won lands from the Picts which he called Dalreudini. Fergus, Angus, and Lorne crossed the Irish sea later and conquered all of Scotland, not just the Highlands. The Stewart family used this lineage as the basis of their claim to the throne, which is why it achieved such prominence. (Sadly it was also used by others as a justification to cross over the sea and take land in Ireland). They did not mention the wizards, wrestling dragons or Kings being struck down by bolts of lightning that also occur in the tale, nor do they mention that Fergus only defeated the Picts with the help of King Arthur. Other tales call the leader of the Irish invaders Historeth, son of Istorin, no mention of Fergus or Reudai. Adomnan said the Scotti were not Irish but descendents of Scythians, (from Egypt or present day Iran), who ruled the real Irish, the Hibernians. Other tales from the same period say that the Scotti were survivors from the Sack of Troy or one of the five lost tribes of Israel. Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum Historia uses the name Fergus as king of the Scotti and more or less follows Bede but he says that the Scotti came from Scandanavia.

Even as far back as 1845 historians such as J. M. Lappenberg were publishing books saying it was all nonsense and not much wonder. It was a topic of great debate in the latter half of the 1800's, but usually only between people who had never been to Scotland or Ireland in their live's but preferred to squabble about it from the comfort of the leather wing-back chairs in their Gentlemen's Clubs in London.

It's been discussed to death on this thread as well as other places. A neat summary of how Scots/Irish history is being explored and taught today can be found here. No five Irish gaelic tribes, no Irish settlers, just a group of different peoples living in the extreme North West of Europe but with similar languages, customs and cultures.

Back to the OP, it's what I was called when I was a boy. My own Father put it on me when I was 2 or 3 years old. When I reached my teens I was embarrased by it and it was put away. Now I am older I think I am beyond the point of being embarrased by what people think of me, or what I am called. My Dad no longer plods above the sod, but his legacy lives on.

[Cedric the Bagpiper]

Cedric the Saxon! That's a pretty cool back-story on how you were named.

You should thank him for not naming you after Wamba the Jester.

Indeed!

[Jack Daw]

"Jack Daw" is a play on the jackdaw bird, which is featured in a fable by Aesop. It's a reminder to me.

Stolen from a website:

THE JACKDAW AND THE PEACOCKS

(Aesop offers us this instructive story so that we will refrain from strutting about in other people's stuff, and instead live our lives in the clothes that suit us.)

A jackdaw, puffed up with foolish pride, found some peacock feathers that had fallen on the ground. He picked up the feathers and, putting them on, he tried to join the lovely peacock flock, scorning his fellow jackdaws. The peacocks, however, tore the feathers off that presumptuous bird and pecked at him until he went away. After having been badly mauled by the peacocks, the jackdaw then sadly returned to his own folk, but he was cast out once again and suffered the pain of public humiliation. One of the jackdaws whom he had originally scorned said to him, 'If you had been content to dwell among us, satisfied with what Nature had bestowed on you, then you would not have been humiliated by the peacocks, nor would your disgrace have met with our rebuff.'

[Tartan Tess]

I like that story

[CMcG]

My name is Colin McGuire and my forum name is an abbreviation thereof. I picked it because people sometimes call me CMcG in the real world or perhaps CPMcG, if they include my middle initial. It is also easy for people to type on a forum

I have been tempted lately to change my forum name to Ronin E-Ville, which is the nom de plume I use as an electronic music producer. Some marketing people suggest that it is best to only use one internet alias for the purpose of establishing a stronger web-presence... I don't do much DJing or live PA these days, but if I did, I would love to have a custom-made modern kilt as stage clothing.

I already use the Ronin E-Ville logo as my avatar and the LINK to my homepage is also in my forum info. Maybe I should just put an "aka Ronin E-Ville" in my signature because the Rabble already knows me as CMcG and, as I already mentioned, it is more simple

[Ryan Ross]

That would make a good nickname for one of my martial art students.

Does Crom beat on him frequently?

[Mikilt]

I shortened "Michael's Kilt" to "Mikilt"