Finally

Finally, I've begun the legal process for changing my name. I'm still having second thoughts about the middle one. Before I considered Fódlan, I considered having the middle or first name as Lea. This introduces the same problems as Fódlan, though, in that its pronunciation isn't immediately obvious. While Fódlan can be correctly pronounced as both Fōdlan in the native Irish style (as in boat) and Fodlan in English (as in rod).

However, Lea would only be correctly pronounced as Lee, instead of Leá/Lay-uh/Lee-uh.

Lea, would have served as a gender-neutral name, unlike Kenneth. Even though I have already begun the process, the name hasn't been finalised yet. I plan to use Fódlan as a unofficial stand-in for my first, once it is changed. That is to say, I plan to retain my current first name legally, to maintain professionality, as well as to limit any amount of first-impression xenophobia caused by exotic or unusual names. I will instead go by my middle name in every other situation aside from professional and legal.

Fódlan is phonetically pleasing in comparison to Lea, regarding my full name. There are cases of assonance at the end of my given name as the start of Fódlan, and the case of Fódlan semi-rhyming with Halvorsen.

I still don't know.

I'd have to get used to someone referring to me as Fódlan in person.

But I see someone referring to me as Lea as much more realistic, and easier for them to digest. It's a single syllable.

I've also considered Tidus (Tee-duss), Ventus, (Ven-tuhs), Xi (Shi), some variation of K (Kei/Kay/etc). I'm still not against them.

But in the end, it was important that the name was malleable, flexible, easy to convey, gender-neutral, and short.

North

Where do names originate? Words. Words from languages past, normally, but words nonetheless. Where is the requirement that said name must have roots in an archaic language?

• Alexander. It's a compound Greek word of ἀλέξειν/alexein [to defend], and andἀνδρός/andrós [man] which originally was spelled as Aléxandros.
• Vincent. It stems from Latin's vincere which means to conquer. The name Victor should also ring a bell... It then became Vincentius in Rome before being truncated to its current form.
• Jordan. It was originally ירדן‎, or Yarden, a normally word meaning "to descend" in Hebrew.
• John. Yo- appearing at the beginning on names indicates God, or "Yahweh/YHWH" as known by Jewish people. This prefix is often transcribed and pronounced with a J as well as a Y interchangebly. For example, the term hallelujah is a biblical term[1] which means "Praise 'Jah'", yet is pronounced as "yah" phonetically. Originally scribed as יְהוֹחָנָן‎, it is transcribed to Yehochanan [Yahweh is gracious]. Over time, it has been truncated to Johannes, and finally John. In other languages, it has become Giovanni, Jean, Juan, Jan, and even Hans. The alternate form, Jonathan, stems from the suffix -hanan, meaning "given", meaning that it is a different name based on the same root. Jonathan means "God has given".

This is to say, names have always had origins in local languages.

In the same vein of single syllable names, and creating flexible companies that are easily malleable, I've came across the name North.

Gasp. A generic English word used as a name? Any surprise at something like this is merely surprise at breaking out of a formality that never had an original basis. There is no reason that names have to be based on archaic spellings of modern words; English words used as names should be nothing out of the ordinary.

It's painstakingly simple to convey and doesn't come with character presumptions, like something like Karen would in the modern day. It's also unisex, particularly short, and can be incorporated into my last name.

ha1vorsen is stylised in lowercase to bring attention to the northward arrow in the form of the number one.

I also like how it's flexible in the sense that I can describe anything denoting myself as Northern.

I don't anticipate many regrets stemming from the name, aside from the generic "east, south, west" jokes or people paralleling the name to Kanye West's child, North West, who I have... nothing to do with. 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 even style my hair upwards to convey this exact concept.

I originally wanted something that would transliterate into a Japanese word, and that's too bad that I never ended up getting a name like that, but oh well. An equivalent for North would be 北, or Kita. I don't mind that either, given that Keaton is a name I considered at one point, so the mere "sound" of the word is fine by me. What if I stylised my name as something like 北alvorsen ...?

Halvorsen

This was based off of my dog's 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 the middle name directly and made it my surname. It's as simple as that. The fact that it is a strongly European name also tends to look more exotic and desirable at first glance than common surnames in America.

Using the first three letters of both my given and surname, I could now stylise my name as Halken. HALKEN is the former company name of HAL Laboratory, former developer of franchises such as Super Smash Bros. and Kirby. It was also fun to see that my initials were KH, which resembled Kingdom Hearts, a game franchise that brought fame to Utada's vocal work overseas.

It can also combine with the middle name to form Norsen, offering flexibility in that sense as well.

I intended to pair this surname with a European-esque middle name, Tidus (Tee-dus). Based off of a Final Fantasy character, I generally think it goes along with the general theme of my last name. Tidus Halvorsen has a cool ring to it. In the end, I went with North for the reasons mentioned in the relevant paragraph.