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Saturday, June 4, 2016

My Name (it sounds like a name that someone might have)


Day 4 - The meaning behind your Tumblr name

I'm guessing this challenge was originally made for tumblr, but I will talk about my blogger name of Arda.

So from 2010-2014 there was this super awesome online game called Clone Wars Adventures, where you were a Jedi in the Clone Wars era of Star Wars, running around the Jedi Temple and playing games with different Jedi Masters. It was even voiced by the TCW voice actors, so you could literally hear Obi-Wan talk to you about lightsaber training and it was the best thing.

I believe you needed a fake first and last name to sign up - you could probably get a random one or add one yourself. Before this, I had usually gone by Rosie Cotton (from LotR) on the interwebz, and this time still wanted something LotRish but a little more...sophisticated maybe?

My brother and I put together Arda Ancalima, basically because both words were from LotR and it sounded good. Arda is the earth Middle-Earth exists on, and Ancalima is part of Frodo's invocation of the Light of Earendil (the phial) in Return of the King: "Aiya EƤrendil Elenion Ancalima!"

Both words are from the Quenya form of Elvish, and very very roughly translate to most "brightest realm." I have no idea if this is the correct order of the words, or if one needs to be conjugated, and that sometimes makes me worry that I come across as a fake fan (rather than a lazy, ignorant, ooh pretty words one).

In 2011 I joined The Lakehouse Forum for female Star Wars fans, and kept the same name because it was cool and already connected to the Star Wars fandom in a way. Several members already had blogs and inspired me to make my own, so when I signed up on blogger I just used Arda, as I was already used to being called.

And that is the very long version of how I now go by Arda so much you could call that on the street and I would probably think it was me.

12 comments:

  1. I think your name is very melodic and beautiful--and I love how you incorporate LOTR in it, of course!

    "Arda" does mean literally "the realm" according to the index of The Silmarillion and "ancalima" means "most bright, brightest".

    The literal translation would be "the realm most bright" which does sound rather poetic. It appears that literally it should be written "ancalima Arda" (since the adjective goes first) but I think the literal translation is just as beautiful. Sorry for my language geek moment--I just love Elvish :D

    (BTW, I don't think your name makes you a weak fan at all--in fact, I think creating an Elvish name is pretty impressive!)

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    1. Thank you very much! Aha, switching them around sounds right. Thank you for sharing your Elvish knowledge, that's very interesting! :D

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  2. Oh that is so cool! I always wonder what made people choose their names XD

    So they don't have that online game anymore?! That's sad... :'(

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    1. Thanks! Speaking of, how did you choose yours?

      Yeah, it was already kind of going downhill because more was going behind a paywall, but it was pretty sad it ended.

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    2. Well, I wanted to have "Belle" or "Bella" in my name in honor of Bilbo's mom Belladonna. Dawnabelle was one of the options. I was going to spell my name Faunabelle as in Fauna and Flora. Fauna being related to animals...
      And I think a deer would be my spirit animal. I also think Bambi is the cutest baby Disney character so I knewi had to add something related to my love of deer. I then remembered that a baby deer is called a fawn. So I just combined then all together! I had dozens of other combinations but I think this was the best. It took a lot of time but it was SO worth it. And here's the coolest part! Now I have the same initials as Frodo Baggins :D

      Aww, that stinks... I would have liked to play it :'(

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    3. That's really cool! Neat that you put a lot of thought into it and found something that captures a lot about you and your interests. :)

      Yeah :(

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  3. Glad to hear how and why you chose the name. I remember looking it up when I first saw it- wondering what it was- and I remembered what Arda meant but I had forgotten the Ancalima part- thanks for the reminder :)
    It's a good name and it definitely fits you. And you shouldn't worry about being a fake fan, you know the most about Middle Earth out of everyone I know.
    And I definitely get being used to being referred to by an online name. I am used to being called by my various ones as well.

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    1. Thanks, cool I didn't know that. :)
      Aww thank you! <3
      Definitely! And it's been for such a long time it's just ingrained in who we are now, feels like.

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  4. THAT. IS. SO. NEAAAAT. I didn't know that!! And no! You seem like a very dedicated fan to put that together! <3 No worries! I loved this post.

    Misty Kasumi*

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    1. Thank youuu! :D <3 You're very kind. :)
      So I know where Misty and Kasumi come from, why did you add the asterisk?

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  5. <3 <3 <3
    Oh, I just thought it looked pretty.... ^^' Kinda like a star.

    Misty Kasumi*

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    1. That's cool, it's always looked like a nice touch :)

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