I have noticed that the use of special or religious names is pretty common among Neopagans. I am honestly curious as to why someone needs to call themself “Moonferret Starshine” or something Welsh or whatever instead of just using their real name. I’m not talking about internet handles or nicknames–those are a part of a pretty well-established internet tradition of anonymity. I’m talking about new religious or spiritual names that people use in real life in spiritual contexts.
I realize that Neopagans aren’t the only ones to do this: converts to Islam often take an Arabic name, and I think Hare Krishnas take new names, too. I believe Zen priests have a special Zen name, and I know for a fact that Mormons get a secret new name in the temple endowment ceremony that seems to serve no understandable function outside of the endowment ceremony itself. I have also known converts to Christianity from Islam who took a Western “Christian” name.
So maybe I am being unfair to Neopagans, since they’re just doing what everyone else does. But sometimes it just seems silly. Like LARPing. But I am willing to extend the question to other religious traditions who do this, as well. Why new names? What’s wrong with the old one?
Sailing to Byzantium 
If I’m right (which happens all to rarely, more’s the pity), Christianity has its own new-name tradition. Christians christen their babies and give them a new “Christian” name, albeit the first name of their life.
I imagine that the new name functions differently for different people. For some who come to Paganism because they have fun playing the part and because they like flouting religious conventions, the new name may be just a persona that they play. For others, they may use it as a symbol of the new life that they have chosen rather than the life they were born into.
In any case, if anything seems silly to you, I think you should skip it. Maybe you’ll feel a need for it later. Maybe not. I’m still in favor of eclecticism, and AODA seems set up to accommodate that.
I enjoy that—now that I’ve left Mormonism—I no longer allow anyone to tell me what to believe or do so that I can join their club. If they try, they know what they can do with their club.
I decided to do (minimal) research, and the Catholic Encyclopedia confirms my impression that giving names to the newly baptized (not just infants) is thought to go back to Early Christianity.
Think of a woman changing her name at marriage. She’s not LARPing or being silly or rejecting the old name – she takes the new name in order to tell the world that she has a new family identity and to comply with tradition. The decision to take a new name when converting to a new religion usually has pretty much the same motivations.
If I met a Moonferret, I would assume that person had some special connection to the moon and ferrets and wanted the world to know that. I wouldn’t think much more about it. Of course, I was raised by a pack of hippies and grew up around people with names like Evenstar and Hootowl, so that sort of thing feels more like normal to me. I think that’s also a big part of it – if it’s normal in your social circle to take a name like that, it doesn’t feel false or uncomfortable or silly. I doubt Moonferret feels bad about his name. He probably likes it and doesn’t care very much that you don’t.*
(*and now I’m thinking, well, that’s a larger issue – the judgement that ensues when engaging in non-normative behavior and not being apologetic about it – it’s usually something along the lines of “Moonferret doesn’t know that the world thinks his name and his belief systems and probably his entire existence is silly and alienating, Moonferret must be an idiot!” when in fact the Moonferrets of the world know this perfectly well and while they might in fact be idiots, it’s not because they don’t understand that their values are rejected by the dominant culture. And I could write a whole lot about it but WILL NOT DO SO NOW. arrgh, this must be what quitting smoking is like.)
The idea of a person having one fixed legally recognized name which is bestowed at birth and remains the same until death is a very Western notion and a very recent one. Christian monastics used to receive new names at profession, when they made permanent commitment to monastic life. In both Zen and Tibetan Buddhist tradition, one who takes refuge receives a Dharma name. Many tribal cultures give children temporary public names inspired by their behavior, or the circumstances of their birth; their official names don’t come until they are recognized as adults, and may be self-chosen.
You have several times recently mentioned that a Neopagan custom or practice seems like LARPing to you. I have never been a gamer, but I *have* been both an amateur actress and a chorister in Episcopal churches. LARPing seems to me to be closely allied to theatre, and the historic origins of theatre are, after all, in religious ritual.
Sometimes people use them for protection.
My friend, an engineer and published Tarot author, just got turned down for a really important job because the company googled him and found his works. They “are a family company,” you see. He is the nicest old man I have ever met…
Mystical experiences and alternative spiritualities are highly suspicious to many Americans. Thus the names.
Exceptions: some Pagan 101 books tell teenagers they must have a name like Moonferret Starshine. That’s just wrong.
Also, I sometimes find it weird when people address their gods with their Pagany name. That’s a more case-by-case judgement though.
I wonder if your friend has a Civil Rights claim on his hands.
I realize of course that it’s a whole lot easier to avoid problems by using a pseudonym than to try to enforce your rights in court. But I’m saying we’re supposed to be protected without needing to use pseudonyms.
Anyway, pseudonyms for anonymity are still not really what I am talking about–they’re more akin to internet handles, in my opinion. There’s a difference between a pseudonym and a religious name.
The tradition of the magickal name goes back, I think, to the adoption of “magickal mottoes” as identifiers by initiates of the old orders like the Golden Dawn and its offshoots. In British Traditional Witchcraft (from which modern neopaganism descends), the witch was given a new name by which they were known in the circle and to others of the craft, ostensibly so that should a witch be taken up and tortured, they couldn’t reveal the names of their fellow witches because they knew them only by their pseudonyms. Most of the old-timers of the Gardnerian craft took on rather simple witch names, like “Ameth” or “Robert.” The whole “Lady Moonbeam Featherflower” and “Lord Firedrake Wolfstorm” phenomenon is newer, and seems to have been fueled by the 1990s’ onslaught of wicca books published by folks with similar names. 😉