Aptly Named (by Pneuman)

My writer once wrote (under my careful guidance, of course) that a Dragon names himself. This statement is true.

Names are of extreme importance to my human as they are to all Dragons. A name is more than just something that one is called--it's kind of like a being's meaning. What a person, or Dragon, is named is what a person, or Dragon, is. For instance, my human's full name means "Beautiful, gracious friend with a crooked mouth," which tends to fit her rather well. In my experience, writers tend to be extremely sensitive, passionate people. My writer's sensitivity provides her with a compassionate nature (as well as several unpleasant side effects which I must deal with on a daily basis--DRAMA!). She is far from perfect (believe me--she's FAR from perfect), but it seems that the Maker of all things has gifted her with the tendency to want to reach out to those who are hurting. He has gifted her with a fierce loyalty to her friends. He's also gifted her--if you choose to see it as a gift--with the inability to be dishonest. She has her moments, of course, but more often than not, she's going to tell you what she thinks, even if it hurts you. She's a lot like Bion in that way. Speaking the truth is not difficult for her, but speaking the truth IN LOVE often proves to be a challenge. It's not that she's calloused; it's just that the truth of what she thinks often slips out before she has the chance to temper it. She's a gracious friend, but she does have a crooked mouth (and she would laughingly quote Ecclesiastes here and say "who can straighten what God has made crooked?"). Though humans are named by their parents instead of themselves, my human's name fits her well.

My name, Pneuman, is one I chose for myself. I breathe my fiery inspirations into my human's ear. "Pneuman" is derived from the greek word "pneuma"--breath or inspiration. It also has to do with the idea of the Holy Spirit's work, of which I am, in a way, a physical manifestation when it comes to my human's writing. "Newman," the English name, basically just means what it sounds like: "new man." I'm not a man, but I like to think that my inspiration is new and fresh. My last name, "Excelsior," is something I chose as kind of a weird inside joke with myself and my human. King Arthur was the son of Uther Pendragon. I thought it would be funny to play on this a little, but it didn't work out as I had hoped. I toyed with a few ideas for my last name--Penhuman, Penarthur, etc. These were ridiculous--Jerry liked them, but that's Jerry for you. I eventually chose "Excalibur" because, of course, it was the name of Arthur's sword. But I didn't like the meaning, so I chose something similar--Excelsior. "Excelsior" means "ever higher." I think that's an excellent meaning. I want my inspiration and my human's work to be ever higher, ever reaching towards perfection. It's a good name; I have chosen well.

Jerry's name is mostly just silliness, which suits Jerry. He made it up out of pure ridiculousness and his love for playing with words. His full name is Jerund M Frazier. The M doesn't stand for anything; it just means M. There's no real reason for this; Jerry just wanted a random letter between his first and last name and he likes the way the letter M looks. He told me he thought it looked like a headless, tailess camel with pointy humps. Hmm. The rest of his name is a play on words. Jerund, of course, refers to a gerund--a noun ending in -ing. Frazier is a play on the word phrase. Gerund Phrase. Sigh...Musing for Miss Campbell is Jerry's favorite activity. Acting like a silly Dragon is what Jerry does best. Stealing Bion's tail cap makes Jerry laugh. Jerry likes Jerunds...I mean gerunds.

Bion's name is an interesting conglomeration of terms. He chose it carefully, which is one of the reasons he didn't desire a last name. Bion is a name that comes from the greek word "bios," which means "life." Because Bion is an Eastern Dragon, he wanted to include elements from Eastern languages into his name, too. "Bian" is the pronunciation of a chinese word that means "weaver" and can also be translated into "fabricator" or "writer." "Chongbai" is also the pronunciation of a chinese phrase that means "worship." Bion took all of this into consideration into choosing his name. He connects the idea of writing being like weaving worship into life. I like that a lot, and I think it fits Bion. He is an editor, constantly working to make things better. Those who don't know Bion well might think he's stuck up and uptight for no particular reason. But Bion is a complicated Dragon. He works very hard and is very serious about his work. To him, work and worship are inseparable. It is completely coincidental, I think, that Madeleine L'Engle, one of my human's favorite authors, named her son Bion. Completely coincidental. I think.

Now Tai, the newest Dragon to our Muse team, also used a lot of different languages to come up with his name. Please don't tell him that I told you, for he is VERY embarassed about this, but Tai is actually short for Tairone (pronounced just like Tyrone). Yeah--he named himself without really thinking that one through. Actually, he probably wouldn't care if you made fun of him for it, because Tai doesn't let things get to him very easily.

Anyway, please try to keep up, for there are several reasons that Tai(rone) chose his name. First of all, Tai was discovered by two of my human's friends (Sara and Stefanie--both very nice humans, even if Stefanie does like to dance to 90's boy band music). My human's friends described to her how the Dragon they had found was lost upon multiple occasions, left in a plastic bag inside a car for days on end (in the heat of summer, mind you--while Dragons like heat, the inside of a car in the summertime is a bit TOO stuffy for our liking), and jostled around in the inside of a large purse (the insides of those things are SCARY, let me tell you--female humans carry around a lot of strange things--my human is the WORST about that) before they were able to deliver him to my human. It was miraculous that he had survived.

Tai only laughed about this because he is used to getting out of difficult situations. He considers himself a very forunate, happy Dragon. The first meaning from which Tai derives his name comes from the greek goddess of fortune, "Tyche." The English name "Tyrone" may have been influenced by the name Eugene, which means "well born"--with the prefix "eu" meaning "good" or "well" (also Greek). Now, "Tai" is a word that means "talent" in Vietnamese and "great" or "big" in Chinese. Tai chose this particular spelling for his name because he is, like Bion, an Eastern Dragon. But despite the spelling, he chose his name incorporating all the various meanings into it. Tai named himself fortunate, good, great, talented and a help to talents--his gifts are unique. He comes alongside people (or Dragons) in their talents and helps to complete the areas where they are incomplete. He's the Support Dragon. His last name Makarios, is an interesting Greek term that means "blessed"--but it's more of in the sense of happiness or joy. He considers himself blessed (happy and well) because he is able to help others. He considers this his good fortune. It's really hard to upset Tai because he just goes with the flow and helps ease others in their difficult times. I really like having him around--even if his name is Tairone. Tairone Makarios. Yeah...just call him Tai.

I may expound upon the idea of names later on--or maybe my human will. She's obsessed with names. For now, Pneuman Excelsior, the Dragon Muse who seeks to breathe ever higher, is signing off.