Finally

What is in a name? They are proper nouns; historically used to describe or define a specific unique object. Names can do that too, and also historically do. Take the name Victor, which is a literal word meaning to conquer, originating from vincere from Latin. Or Aléxandros, which is nothing more than a compound word in Greek ["defender of man"] that became angelicised to become Alexander. There's also names such as Hope, Angel, Amber, Genesis, and so on. Names aren't random syllables without origin that happen to sound pretty. If we name objects, pets, places, and virtually everything we interact with for their actual function, purpose, origin, or timbre, there's no reason human names should be any different.

After a number of events, I had a unique opportunity to move away from my birth name. There's a few functional reasons that I chose these names, and it took a few years of consideration to arrive at this point. It can also make it easy for me to instinctively differentiate a person's relation to me based off of what they call me.

My first name is Kenneth, but this is rarely used. In certain environments, I prefer to be associated with this name as it was originally what I went by for much of my life. I also use it with closer friends. This name is leveraged as the first name to present as a more formal and traditional name for impression's sake, like in professional environments. However, it remains my least-used public facing name.

North is a middle name and an online handle. It is intended to be unisex and easy to spell and convey as it's a generic, one-syllable word. It carries a positive connotation to "continue forwards". Though, I suppose something like Sky or Skyler would have also worked equally as well. This concept also allows me to self-reference myself when stylising my last name as ha1vorsen, where the "L" is exchanged for a northwards facing arrow. Using "ha1vorsen" also helps if the name "Halvorsen" is taken as a username for online accounts.

Halvorsen is my surname, and it is also an online handle. It was inspired by my family dog's name, so as to imply that I am the parent of my dog.

Solo is generally my online handle. It represents the value I place in solitude, and the acknowledgement of me being the only person who can push myself forward.

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There are a few miscellaneous reasons I chose these names as well.

Truncating parts of the name spells out Kensen, Norsen, but more notably, HALKEN, which happens to be the same name as the original development company of Super Smash Bros. and Kirby. I've capitalised on this by launching my first personal website using that company name. In addition, Kenneth and Halvorsen both use similar amounts of characters, allowing the name to appear balanced in terms of character length.

My initials spell out two prominent symbols for me, being KH (Kingdom Hearts) and NH (Nintendo Homebrew).

I can self-reference anything denoting myself as Northern.

Flexibility is one of my most favored traits regarding any topic.

North

There are other reasons as well for the name.

It doesn't come with presumptions about character, like something like Karen or Kyle would in the modern day - unless you would like to believe I am a child of Kim Kardashian.

I did underestimate the fact that people could misinterpret the name as Morris, Marth, or Mark over the phone. I've seen people without the capacity for original jokes attempt to achieve humor by referring to me as South, and some people bring up North West.

But it's simple, it's to the point, and it works. It can even seen as an immutable reminder to continue looking ahead, or looking up, to the north. After all, I usually style my hair upwards to convey this exact concept.

At first, I wanted something that would transliterate into a Japanese word. An equivalent for North would be 北 (Kita). I don't mind Kita, given that Keaton is a name I considered at one point, so I am already pleased with the phonetics.

I've also considered Tidus (tee-duss), Ventus, (vehn-tuss), Xi (shi), and some variation of K (kei/kay/k). I'm still not against them and may consider replacing North at some point in the future.

But in the end, it was important that this middle name I use as my spoken name was malleable, flexible, easy to convey, gender-neutral, and short.

Halvorsen

This was based off of my family's pet name. My dog's name was inspired by the Hilton Hotels franchise, so I thought it to be fitting to have my surname inspired from my dog as well. Conrad Hilton's father was named Augustus Halvorsen Hilton, and so I merely took that middle name and made it my surname. Being strongly European in origin, Halvorsen also tends to look more exotic and desirable at first glance than other common surnames in America, so it helps avoid negative prejudice.

At first, I intended to pair this surname with a European-esque middle name, Tidus (Tee-dus). While Tidus Halvorsen has a cool ring to it, I wanted the other benefits listed of the names that I decided on, as listed above.