Welcome to Gaia! ::

Requirement? Nah.

Although within some circles there was a semi-private one taken during initiation for just the coven or just the gods. Also, there is a practice of parents giving their kids a secret name used just between the parent and the gods.

These are all preferences. In the pagan community a lot of folks have other names that they use with other pagans.

I tend to just use my own name.

I am so laughing right now. Alot.

Personally, my given name has never, ever fit me and I didn't feel I'd be dishonoring my parents by doing so, I would have it legally changed. I've always had other names for myself and when I discovered Neopaganism, I can't say I adopted any new ones specifically for magical practice. I've made a few more aliases for the Pagan forums I participate in, but that's about it.

Damn straight. I could've tried manass, but manbooty is much more fun to say.

I understand the need to change birth names though. I hated my middle name a lot so I ended up getting it changed legally. The old one pops up now and again but what are you going to do, eh?

I have a name that I use as everything, and that's Blue Jewel. I use it in real life, and online. Blue Jewel has become my name. I even have it copyrighted for my photography. Blue Jewel Photography.

However, as an author, I have learned the ability to carry many names. I have many names, and when one name fails, I create another. Lets say I sent two or three stories to a publisher under the name of Mark Twillis, and he rejected them or published them, but they failed. The next one I sent in, would need to be under a different name as he already knows the other one, and thinks that person isn't a great author or has lost him money. Then, let's say I get a story that he likes or makes him a lot of money. The next one I sent in, he would have that story as a higher consideration as he already made money off the previous one. Make sense?

As for what Andiela mentioned about parents giving thier children a secret name, my mother did that. Only my mother, grandmother, sister and fiance know the full name.

Hiding your true name is understandable. More people do that than someone would think. It's giving yourself an uber pretentious name that annoys the hell out of me.

Hey, I like pretentiousness. But use other languages so people don't know. Ritter, my last name on here? It's a german noble title meaning Knight. I use cool stuff in latin like Lux Imperator and Fiat Umbra to be pretentious but have it cool sounding as well.