Who is Valentine Payne?

[vakkotaur]

Nobody, really. I use the name Valentine Payne for some faire related things, however.

A few years ago I was asked what my "faire name" was by a few people. This is the character played at a faire, even if one isn't working. Not everyone bothers. Honestly, most of the time and for most people it just isn't important. Only an actual performer seems to really need a faire name. But I didn't realize that then and so set out to select a suitable, or at least passable, name.

I have a walking staff. It has a very nicely carved horse's head at the top end. (I did not carve it myself, but many have asked if I did. I disappoint them with the truth.) The staff also has the letter 'V' carved into it, rather lower. I hadn't really planned it for faire. I had thought that if I wore hoof-boots at a (furry) con sometime I'd need it to help steady myself. That's why instead of any of my real initials, I wanted a 'V' when asked what to customize it with. V for Vakko(taur).

That rather limited things. I didn't want to go around with this thing with a 'V' on it (which, it seems, nobody notices, so I needn't have been concerned) and have to find some way to explain it. The only name that seemed to work at all was Valentine. So Valentine it was, and is.

The last name was a bit easier. I wanted it simple, and I didn't want it to limit me to being someone's son or by profession, or such. A little looking around and Payne looked promising. It's nice and simple with only the one syllable. It doesn't say "I do this thing" or "Someone in my family once did this thing." It turns out that the name Payne is evolved from "pagan" which means, when stripped of religious overtones it has acquired through time, that someone is from the countryside. That was very appealing.

The name Valentine Payne also helped out with the backstory, another thing it turns out I simply never needed. Valentine is a bit of an unusual name. So I came up with the story that I was named for the saint (and reading up on how Valentine's Day really came about is interesting. It's not the sweetness and light, but another calculated taking over of an older celebration which is rather more interesting, to put it mildly) as I was born on Saturday, the 14th of February - a day late. And then added the inevitable puns on "Payne." They would happen anyway, so I may as well have fun with them preemptively. Some bit about how there were great expectations as I was the always called a great Payne, and suchlike.

I've used the name on a couple faire-related web boards, but that's about it. I do get called by my faire name at times at some faires, but more often it's abbreviated to the initials, VP, which I hadn't expected the first time I heard it. Someone thought I was ignoring them. The initials simply hadn't registered as applying to me yet.

And that's the story of a faire name. I've been a Payne to some, and I can be a Payne to you too. *grin*

Comments

Wowsers

[jugularjaguar.livejournal.com]

That seens like a lot more work to put into a name than what JJ took out time for, for his name. But a back story and detail is always good.