What do you guys think of the pen name “Ari Collins”? It has my (secret) first name in it, a name that was given me, not coincidentally, because of my grandmother’s maiden name, Collins. It keeps (though reverses) the Irish/Jewish mix to my birth name (something that the Anglo “Carl Jeffries” is entirely missing). And because Irish/Jewish is a rare combination, sites like aricollins.com and [myoriginalname].com are still available. By Google, I got 34 results for “ari collins”, 57 for my original name, and over 2,000 for “carl jeffries” (putting each in quotes). I think having a rare name is better, so long as it’s not rare because it’s patently absurd. (The first example of which that popped into my head was Ezekial Hezbollah. Unsurprisingly, Google returned 0 hits on that one.)
So, whaddaya think? Ari Collins?
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I know this would be the third name to grace 55aday, but it wouldn’t really be that hard to change at this point, and while I’m fond of Carl Jeffries, the guy is just way too anglo. I mean, I came up with it mostly because it’s what people actually hear my name as for some reason sometimes. I don’t wanna get stuck with it. And once I come up with a new name, I’ll stick with it. Promise.