Condolences Jilli. Take time for yourself now.

There's a great interview with Peter Dinklage in Vanity Fair. He's a kick.

My name is what happens when you let a kindergartener name her baby sister, which is to say, I was named after my sister's best friend in kindergarten, whom she never saw after that.

My middle name, Sumiko, (and why I got so excited to meet sumi!) is more interesting and is my paternal grandmother's name, who I never met, but am told would have loved. It's the classic English first name, Japanese middle name thing that all of my cousins have, and that any putative kids of mine would, too. My sister's daughter's middle name is my mom's Japanese name and her son's middle name is my dad's Japanese name. We always called them by their American names, but their siblings (well, my dad's; he was one of ten, my mom was an only) always called them by their Japanese names.

Of course, then I got married, so my first and last names now sound completely American. Years of distant coworkers never knew I was Asian. So my premise was, if I performed, I was going to perform under my middle and maiden names, which would be completely Japanese!

My actual pseudonym that I was reserving for politics, that Victor published me under, is Ella Sprink, which was a backwards expansion of my email address lsprink, and of course, a nod to Ella Fitzgerald because she brings it.

Jilli, as you already know, I'm deeply sorry. I'll miss her, but mostly, I'll miss you having her. That makes sense in my head. I promise.

How did your parents pick your name? Were you named after anybody?

My Dad is evil, and my sister is his accomplice. Legend says it was negotiated because he wanted a telescope and Mother wanted more kids. Legend is amusing, but probably inaccurate, given that during the almost 14 years between my sister's birth and my own, there were many failed attempts at giving her a sibling.

My middle name is Mora, after a friend of the family.

Things that are tiny [link] or as I like to call it Things You Can Squee Over.

I was named after Jessica Atreides (Dune) and my sister Megan was named after a character in The Thorn Birds, which just happened to be the books my mom was reading in her respective third trimesters. My other two sibs have family names. My middle name is my paternal grandmother's maiden name, which coincidentally turned out to be the branch of the family I most resemble.

My kids are Dylan Zaphod (Dylan by parental consensus, Zaphod after the President of the Galaxy) and Aeryn Sylvia (Farscape, DH's grandmother).

Oh Jilli, I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm so sorry, Jilly.

When you named Aeryn, I was thinking to myself that you use fannish names like I use Japanese names.

So do my other friends, you guys might remember Jacob Treebeard. And there's Amelia Eowyn. And others, that I'm not thinking of right now, but I know I have lots of fannish names in my circle.

My brother was named after a sports reporter writing for the Sun-Times back in 1961, just because Mom and her first husband really liked the name "Kip." They thought to make it longer, so they fleshed it out to "Kipley." His middle name was after the husband's favorite uncle Hans, but after Mom divorced him and remarried Dad, when Dad adopted him it was Anglocized to "John."

ETA: About 25 years later, my sister was in a wedding for one of her best high school friends, and the ringbearer's name was also Kip. Turns out, the kid's father had gone to high school at the same time as my brother, and even though they weren't close friends, the guy just really liked my brother's name and decided to name his son after him!