Names, representation and presentation

[Thebes]

What's in a name?

Thebes is not only my "forum handle", its the name almost everyone knows me as. Just Thebes... not many other people use that as a name and so I've never really used a last with it. Its what I've went by for most of my life, though its not my legal name so some bank tellers might call me Michael Thebo. Thebes is a corruption of the last name, obviously, though I have never been called Michael Thebes, nor am I aware of any other Thebo's who've been called Thebes.

Now it looks like I might have credit for a commissioned piece, part of my wife's fiber work, in a book.

I've been thinking about the presentation of me name for some time, but learning this a few minutes ago means I may need to decide very soon. How to I present myself- Thebes. Thebes (Michael Thebo), Thebes Thebo just sounds daft and Michael "Thebes" Thebo sounds trashy...

My wife has similarly been using the name Twilight for about a dozen years, taking it while living at a commune. She has shown as and seems will be published as Twilight Kallisti. We are Pagan clergy and she (and to a lesser extent me and the church) are Discordians, so this is why she decided upon that as a last name.

Would Thebes Kallisti be better? That seems a bit odd, I am not Greek and don't even pronounce Thebes properly if I were (or so I've been told). I have no problems representing myself as an Erisian and Pagan or even with the name becoming a cult like church thing (a local Sikh sect does this sort of thing). I would have a huge problem just going as Michael Thebo.

I don't know that I will ever bother with legal procedings to "officially" change my name. And in actuality I can legally use the name which others call me, ie Thebes. My wife has cashed checks to Twilight. I guess if I had a problem in business with checks made out wrong, etc, I might one day file for a legal name change for banking, drivers license, etc, but its inconvenient and I really don't care about that world enough to bother.



What I want to know, is could I just present myself as Thebes? Ie, no last name? Weegee, Nadar and several others seem to be similar. But would this cause a problem every time I applied to be in a show, submitted my work someplace for publication, etc? Would it lower my chances of one day having my work in the collections of the George Eastman House?

What do you think? What problems will this cause me in business?

[Gem Singer]

Whatever name is on your birth certificate, driver's license, and social security card is your legal name..

Government records only know you by your given name, Michael Thebo.

For example: what name do you use when signing your income tax form? How would you cash a paycheck or tax refund check made out to Michael Thebo if people only knew you by the name Thebes?

You can call yourself by any name you want, but sooner, or later you'll need to recognize the name your parents gave you.

(Of course, you can always go through the hassle and expense of changing your name legally).

[cdholden]

or open a dba (doing business as) account
i.e. Open a bank account under the title "Michael Thebo dba Thebes".

[Thebes]

I am more concerned about things like entry forms for shows and the like than I am about cashing checks, I can probably have those made out as I wish anyway and could come up with a way to cash them if they weren't (ie dba)

My understanding in NM is that a dba is a business license, ie that might work for a gallery called Thebes Fine Art, but legally its a separate entity (has its own tax id number), but maybe useful if cashing checks was a problem. Again though, my concern is about presentation, and what I would be called when my work is displayed and published. I don't know, but I'm not sure that Nadar or Weegee ever legally changed their names to those... sometimes you do see their legal or perhaps given name in parentheses following them.

Gem, I don't know about what really matters to you in life, but to me those that matter to me call me Thebes. I find little meaning in banks and credit card companies and id cards though I do deal with them. My wife calls me Thebes, that matters some and should my work ever end up in a museum I sure as hell care more about what she calls me than what the government keeps me as in its plethora of databases. As for it being the name my father gave me I am not on speaking terms with him. I probably deal with someone saying my full legal name to me less than one time in a month, normally a telemarketer or the like, whereas people call me Thebes several times each day.

Of course I could legally change it, but that is not my concern here.... a bank or a form submitting my work to some show will have a place for a first name and a last name- so if I spent a grand or so for a lawyer and court costs that doesn't do a thing for my problem here... ie what would I do about a first and last name, Thebes is one word.

So, does it seem like I should use Thebes Kallisti since that is what my wife is using? Or can I just use Thebes and naught else for representation of my work in a publication?

[Nathan Potter]

Sounds like you're obsessing. Damn, I wish my name was all I had to worry about. :rolleyes:

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Thebes]

Sounds like you're obsessing. Damn, I wish my name was all I had to worry about. :rolleyes:

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

Obsessing? I'm asking here because its become suddenly relevant. My wife asked me earlier today what I would like to be called if I am to get credit for a commissioned piece that is a part of her work which is to be published She's been crediting me on her blog and such. So, I am just trying to see what people, especially those with galleries or who have judged submissions for shows, etc think about just the name Thebes vs it and some last name which would likely be Kallisti since thats what my wife is using. Kind of a practical matter and one I wanted timely and helpful advice on.

[Kevin Thomas]

If you decide on Thebes you will not be the first photographer to use a pseudonym. For example Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) and Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky).

Also if you think about many artists are known by their last name such as Whistler - or in Rembrandt's case how many people know his surname?

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I don't think it a problem at all, think about many writers use and used pseudonyms. So long as you keep it consistent, and always use Thebes, you are Thebes. There might be some financial and legal issues regarding payment, but a DBA account (eg; Thebes Photography) might take care of that.

And for what it is worth, the New Yorker uses a photographer named Platon (http://www.platonphoto.com/).

[falth j]

Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names.

The word is Greek: ὀνοματολογία (from ὄνομα (ónoma) "name").

Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of onomastics.

Antrhoponomastics is the study of personal names.

For most if not all cultures, only one name is needed to indicate certain important or well-known persons without ambiguity.

In others, a single personal name may be insufficient, requiring alteration to a hypocoristic/diminutive nickname, or addition of a byname based on a specific individual's traits, family, home, occupation, or other.

In most of the world, individually-based bynames have become hereditary family names, perhaps retaining little descriptive resemblance to the ancestral namesake's original byname.


So, names matter… as in what’s in a name, a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet?

How would we ever recognize the people listed below, if they didn’t use their name, or the name they were given by someone else, most examples of name calling is a result of something they’ve done, famously, or infamously…

Here are some examples:

babyface, bono, Caesar, capucine., Charlemagne, charo, cher, Cicero, Cleopatra, Cochise, dante, dion, Donovan, elvis, enya, evita, Fabian, fidel, Galileo, Geraldo, Hildegard, hitler, Homer, Houdini, Ike, kool, lead belly, lenin, ludicrous, lulu, Madonna, magic, Marilyn, melanie, Michelangelo, Montezuma, napoleon, Nebuchadnezzar, Nefertiti, nero, Oprah, ovid, prince, Rembrandt, Roseanne, ruPaul, Sabrina, Sacagawea, satchmo, scarface, Shaq, sonny, Sophocles, Vangelis, vergil, weegee, whoopi, yanni.


It would certainly behoove a person to establish a circumstance of notoriety to use a personal single name that would remain identifiable with that person, his works, or his deeds…

Perhaps a further study of onomastics would be illuminating… or could someone mistake you for an ancient city?

Zerox has already been copyrighted…

[Drew Bedo]

However you want to present yourself, first do a web search using the name(s) you choose as search words . . .and see what pops up. You may not want people to be confusing you with some thing/someone else.

I chose to present myself with the name my family knows me by—Drew, a shortening of my given name Andrew, and the family last name, Bedo. However searches sometimes bring up a blues club in Toronto!

[Brian Ellis]

Thebes is a whole lot easier to figure out than Ctein. If he can do it why not you? Go for it.

[Valerie]

so if I spent a grand or so for a lawyer and court costs that doesn't do a thing for my problem here...

I changed my name in court, no lawyers needed... just wrote up the document myself (I think you can find the templates online now) and paid the court cost (maybe $50). Done in about an hour. Easy. As far as the forms go, why not just fill in one of the spaces with "Thebes" and leave the other blank...?

[Jack Dahlgren]

I'd go with just plain "Thebes" - why not?

I met a person who changed his name to 3