Selecting a nickname. Beautiful nicknames "nicknames"

Representatives of literary circles and professions associated with public activities often use a fictitious name instead of their real name - a pseudonym, which becomes a kind of calling card of a creative person. This is usually not due to the desire to hide individual data recorded in official documents. For many, a pseudonym is a way of presenting information about themselves and creating a certain image necessary to achieve professional goals.

A person who is wondering how to choose a pseudonym has good reason for this. Psychologists identify two main motives that encourage people to replace their own name with a fictitious one. The first of them is the desire to protect personal information space from external interference. Guided by this motive, as a rule, they choose a discreet pseudonym that would not raise the question: who is this Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov? However, the opposite often happens: a person assigns a bright and unusual name, which is so expressive that it does not arouse even a shadow of suspicion that behind it is hiding a novice, not very self-confident writer or actor with modest abilities. An example is the literary pseudonym Cherubina de Gabriak, under which the Russian poet E. I. Dmitrieva published at the beginning of the 20th century.

The second motive is the individual’s desire to draw attention to his personal qualities, hidden from others, but constituting, in his opinion, the deep essence of the author’s creativity. In this case, the pseudonym reflects the concept of personality, the voiced and promulgated internal attitude towards the nature of actions and the type of social behavior.

G. Sh. Chkhartishvili chose as a pseudonym the name of the Russian anarchist M. Bakunin, whose beliefs appealed to the writer and did not contradict his own worldview. The shocking pseudonym of E. V. Savenko Eduard Limonov fully justified itself as an annoying symbol, which found a projection in his literary works, which have the same annoying effect on readers.

If you need to position yourself in a similar vein, you can continue this series by choosing an accurate and sonorous name, as M. Gorky, D. Bedny, E. Bagritsky, L. Utesov did in their time. Their identities are more often identified with a pseudonym than with a real name, since his choice turned out to be a clear bull's eye.

Nickname: meaning of sound combinations

A pseudonym always contains an emotional message, which, both semantically and sonically, has a specific effect on the audience. The pseudonym Kisly will definitely cause a negative reaction, the name Peretz will most likely react with laughter, and the vague Shubshlumshanov will be remembered by few people.

Psycholinguists note that even unfamiliar names in which the first letters of the alphabet predominate are easier to learn and arouse interest. They are conventionally classified as indicating positive, aggressive and neutral sounds. The first group includes vowels [a], consonants [b], [d], [k]; to the second – [y], [o], [g], [r]; sounds [i], [s] are considered neutral.

This feature was intuitively, but very subtly and accurately felt by A. Gorenko, who chose her grandmother’s surname as a pseudonym. The name Anna Akhmatova is remembered immediately. In addition to the fact that it is associated with a beautiful legend about its origin from the ancient khan family, it contains five vowels [a]. This evokes a range of associations, from shouting "Ahhh..." to sighing "Ahh!", which can express a wide range of emotions.

When choosing a pseudonym, you must pay attention to the euphony of the new name. This is one of the conditions for his success. The principle on which the pseudonym is composed also plays a role.

Brief classification of methods for composing pseudonyms

The most common methods are the following:

Abbreviation of one's own surname or combination of its fragment with a fragment of the first name. The most successful pseudonym of this type is V. G. Yan, derived from the surname Yanchevetsky.
Using an adjective as a pseudonym indicating a significant sign of creativity or a character trait of the author - A. Bely, M. Svetlov.
Replacing a too long name with a short one consisting of a maximum of two syllables - Pele, D. Harms, O. Roy.
Borrowing the names of literary heroes, famous cultural figures or historical figures - Rostov, Scriabin, V. Kaverin, L. Kravchuk, Vera Brezhneva.
Choosing a pseudonym-troponym directly related to the place of birth or some geographical object.

For example, I. Severyanin is the pseudonym of I.V. Lotarev, who lived in St. Petersburg and was kind to northern Russia. The pseudonyms Cherkasov, Gorny, Moskvityanin, Minsky can also be examples.

Tracing, or translation of a real name into another language, as well as its pronunciation according to the rules of another language.

The pseudonym B. Polevoy is based on the real name of the writer B. N. Kampov. I. Andronikov is a Russified version of the Georgian surname Andronikashvili.

Creating a pseudonym with a comic effect that can evoke associations with a popular political figure, representative of science, culture or an odious personality - Klip-Fasovsky, Chernomordin, Zherebkovsky.
It is not customary to include nicknames and nicknames as pseudonyms, but they can be a successful find for the emergence of a new name.

For example, Sasha Mokry - Alex Mok, Kostyl - Kostylevsky, Aborigine - Gennady Bora.

Nick as a type of pseudonym

The need to use pseudonyms also arises among users of Internet resources. When registering on numerous sites, you have to specify nicknames that form part of the password to access certain information. It is not forbidden to register under your own name, but it is still more convenient to create a symbol for personal data. Here nothing limits the author's imagination.

However, when choosing a pseudonym for the Internet, one must remember that there are ethical requirements according to which the aggressive content of nicknames and the use of profanity in their meaning is unacceptable.

The nickname is perceived visually, so it is not so much the sound that is important in it, but the content and graphic image. Nicknames are created as an abbreviation with expressive connotations or a complex word consisting of lexically combinable fragments. For example: ARENA, dobr-man.

A common technique for creating nicknames as a type of pseudonym is contamination - mixing fragments of two words in one word with graphical highlighting of any part: terraKOT, hichkOk.

Writing your nickname in Latin simplifies the search if users communicate not only in Russian.

Hi, friend! It’s cool that you are engaged in creativity and are going to let it into the masses =) I know this, because otherwise you wouldn’t have wondered how to come up with a pseudonym.

In this article, I will tell you about the typical mistakes that people make when choosing a nickname, what exactly I think makes a nickname cool and memorable, I will give a bonus and give examples.

But first, it would be nice to tell who I am and why I am writing an article on a similar topic. The fact is that I myself am not far from creativity, and just like you I was faced with the problem that I could not decide what to call myself. I tried about 5 nicknames over several years, and settled, in my opinion, on the best. I’ll tell you why I decided this at the end of this article.

3 common mistakes when choosing a nickname

The first thing I would like to talk about is that you should not choose a nickname as a nickname. I mean ordinary nicknames that everyone had in the yard or at school, which may have carried over into adult life, and then you decide that since everyone already calls you Vantuz, then even in the creative community you will be known by by this name. Possible for YouTube (if you run your own channel) This will only be a suitable nickname if you're covering some internet crap or something worse. I don't see any other options here.

The next point is simply called “shit and eat.” I think that from the title of this paragraph it should be clear what I mean. This kind of crap is very common among gamers, but they have their own specifics... At the same time, someone calls themselves that in VKontakte, uses a similar pseudonym for rap and for YouTube. I have one question for such people - what kind of patience and desire to find out who the author of this “wonderful creation” should a person have in order to read (correctly!), remember, recommend you to someone, and so that he can then easily find you in Internet. For some reason no one thinks about this. No need to force people to tense up!

The next typical mistake is that in an attempt to come up with a super-cool and unique, memorable nickname, people completely forget about adequacy. Here are some examples of real people: homeless person, homo in the village, Vodavrot and these are not the most frostbitten =) When I see such names, it immediately becomes clear that the person is doing something frivolous at the level of an amateur... there is no point in watching or listening to him desires. And it's not worth it.

These are the key mistakes that I was able to highlight from the crowd. I strongly recommend not to repeat them. Why? It seems so clear.

Now to the main question

How to choose a good nickname

There are quite a lot of options. I don’t know which one will be more useful to you, so read on and choose what you like.

The first and most obvious is a pseudonym from a name. I don’t know why many people avoid this option. Just look at your first and last name. Perhaps it reads and looks very cool and there is no need to change anything. You can try to write in English if you are going to make yourself known abroad. This would be a great solution for an artist or musician... or designer. Denis Simachev is an example.

It won't suit everyone, but it's an option. Again, play with your name. Perhaps by combining part of the first and last names, you can get a good nickname. For example, not to go far, the author of this blog is also known as Deep.

The following options are more complicated. Think about what mood your creativity conveys, what topics it is about and where it is directed. Based on this, sketch out on a piece of paper all the associations that come to your mind. Then either choose from what is available, or you can continue the chain, but this is unlikely. Out of 3 questions, you can easily write 30 options. You can choose something from this. Perhaps slightly adjusted for better sound.

The next option requires time and experience in what you do. As I promised at the beginning, now I’ll tell you how I chose my last stage name. My environment helped me with this, even without my participation. According to my friend, in the conversation they started talking about me... word for word, and a new nickname was ready, sonorous and which is meaningfully connected with me. I didn’t approach anyone at all with the words “help me come up with a cool nickname”, it somehow all happened on its own. But again, it will most likely take a lot of time.

Mistakes when coming up with a nickname (pseudonym)

There are few of them, but they exist. And for success in your endeavor, I advise you to use these points.

The name should not be long. If you have more than 10 letters in one word, then you should think about a different nickname.

The next point is related to the first, but I decided to separate them. There is no need to make your nickname more than 4-5 words. It’s very inconvenient to read and write, and it’s unlikely that anyone will remember it the first time. But there is an exception. I remember once watching a Comedy Battle program and there were guys who called themselves “Just a fellow traveler and you know about it.” In my opinion, it’s a great name for comedians. I can’t say exactly why it sounds great and is memorable, perhaps it has something to do with the song =)

Should be easy to read. I wrote about this in errors and will repeat it again. Make your name as simple and clear as possible - it will be easier for people to remember you.

There is no dissonance between what you do and your name. It would be very strange to be called a “little pony” when you are a 35-year-old man with a mohawk who performs growling hard metal... well, I think the example is clear.

How to choose a creative nickname for a girl? Try these same tips. It seems to me that there should be no differences.

Generators of nicknames, names and pseudonyms - a bonus for the lazy

And now the promised bonus for those who got scammed. Now there are quite a lot of services on the Internet that allow you to generate a nickname or name for yourself. As a bonus to today’s material, I’ll list some of them so that you have plenty to choose from. These generators are made for lazy people who don't want to think for themselves. As a rule, they all work in the same way (set the required number of characters and words, press a button and get a standard and uninteresting nickname).

http://nick-name.ru/generate/
https://sfztn.com/names-generator
Storm Tower

That's all. Subscribe to the blog and stay tuned for updates.

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Representatives of creative professions often use pseudonyms, the reasons for this can be very different, I have always wondered why people take a different name for themselves, and in general it can be surprising to find out that the name of the writer you are used to is not real. I decided to compile a selection of famous writers who used a pseudonym.

1. Boris Akunin, aka Anatoly Brusnikin and Anna Borisova - pseudonyms of Grigory Chkhartishvili

Initially, he published his works as B. Akunin. The Japanese word “akunin” (Japanese 悪人), according to one of the heroes of the novel “The Diamond Chariot,” is translated as “scoundrel, villain,” but of gigantic proportions, in other words, an outstanding personality standing on the side of evil. And it was precisely these villains that Erast Fandorin encountered throughout his career. The decoding of “B” as “Boris” appeared a few years later, when the writer began to be frequently interviewed.

He publishes critical and documentary works under his real name.

2. Georges Sand - real name Amandine Aurora Lucille Dupin, married - Baroness Dudevant.

At the beginning of her writing career, Aurora wrote together with Jules Sandot (French fiction writer): the novels “The Commissioner” (1830), “Rose and Blanche” (1831), which had great success among readers, were published under his signature, since the stepmother of Casimir Dudevant ( husband Aurora) did not want to see her last name on the covers of books. Already on her own, Aurora began new work on the novel “Indiana,” the theme of which was the contrast of a woman seeking ideal love with a sensual and vain man. Sando approved the novel, but refused to sign someone else's text. Aurora chose a male pseudonym: this became for her a symbol of deliverance from the slavish position to which modern society doomed women. Keeping the surname Sand, she added the name Georges.

3. Richard Bachman - the pseudonym under which Stephen King published the books “Rage”, “The Long Walk”, “Road Work”, “The Running Man”, and “Thinner”

There are two versions about the reasons that prompted King to take a pseudonym. The first is to see if his alter ego can achieve the same success as himself. The second explanation is that the publishing standards of the time allowed only one book per year. The surname Bachman was not taken by chance; he is a fan of the musical group “Bachman-Turner Overdrive”.

4. Joe Hill Real name: Joseph Hillstrom King, son of Stephen King.

Wanting to achieve literary success on his own, without using the fame of his father's name, he took the pseudonym "Joe Hill". It was both an abbreviation of his real name Joseph and his middle name Hillstrom, and alluded to the person in whose honor Joseph Hillstrom was named - the famous American labor activist of the early 20th century and songwriter Joe Hill, who was unfairly accused of murder and executed in an American prison in 1915.

5. Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of JK Rowling, used for the detective series about Cormoran Strike.

According to Rowling herself, publishing a book under a pseudonym freed her from the pressure to meet readers' expectations and live up to a fixed level of quality, and, conversely, gave her the opportunity to hear criticism of work that does not have her name on it. She told the Sunday Times magazine that she hoped that her involvement in writing the novel would not be revealed soon.

The publisher's website claimed that Robert Galbraith was the pseudonym of a former member of the Royal Military Police Special Investigations Unit who left in 2003 and went into private security business.

6. George Elliott's real name is Mary Ann Evans.

Like many other writers of the 19th century (George Sand, Marco Vovchok, the Brontë sisters - “Carrer, Ellis and Acton Bell”, Krestovsky-Khvoshchinskaya) - Mary Evans used a male pseudonym in order to arouse in the public a serious attitude towards her writings and caring for the integrity of your personal life. (In the 19th century, her works were translated into Russian without disclosing her pseudonym, which was inflected like a man’s first and last name: “a novel by George Eliot”).

7. Kir Bulychev real name Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheiko

He published science fiction works exclusively under a pseudonym. The first work of fiction, the story “The Debt of Hospitality,” was published as “a translation of a story by the Burmese writer Maung Sein Ji.” Bulychev subsequently used this name several more times, but most of his science fiction works were published under the pseudonym “Kirill Bulychev” - the pseudonym was combined from the name of his wife, Kira, and the maiden name of the writer’s mother. Subsequently, the name “Kirill” on the covers of books began to be written in abbreviation - “Kir.”, and then the “abbreviated” period was used, and this is how the now famous “Kir Bulychev” turned out. The combination Kirill Vsevolodovich Bulychev also occurred. The writer kept his real name a secret until 1982, because he believed that the leadership of the Institute of Oriental Studies would not consider science fiction a serious activity, and was afraid that after revealing his pseudonym he would be fired.

8. Arkady Gaidar, real name Golikov

Vladimir Soloukhin in the artistic and journalistic book “Salt Lake” gives a story according to which the pseudonym “Gaidar” is associated with the activities of A.P. Golikov as the head of the 2nd combat region of the ChON of the Achinsk district of the Yenisei province (now the Republic of Khakassia) in 1922-1924 years:

“Gaidar,” Misha said slowly, as usual, “the word is purely Khakassian.” Only the correct sound is not “Gaidar”, but “Haidar”; and it does not mean “going forward” and not “forward-looking”, but simply “where”. And this word stuck to him because he asked everyone: “Haidar?” That is, where to go? He didn’t know any other Khakass words.

The name “Gaidar” reminded the writer of his school years, bearing in mind that the “G” in this name meant “Golikov”, the “ai” meant “Arkady”, and the “gift”, as if echoing the hero of Alexandre Dumas, D’Artagnan, “in the French manner” meant “from Arzamas.” Thus, the name “Gaidar” stands for “Golikov Arkady from Arzamas.”

The third version of the origin of the pseudonym and surname: from Ukrainian “gaidar” is a sheep shepherd. Arkady Golikov’s childhood is connected with the Gaidars, as he spent several summer months with them for several years in a row. He liked these places and his childhood memories so much that he chose the pseudonym Arkady Gaidar.

9. Teffi Real name Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lokhvitskaya

For the first time, the name Teffi (without initials) appears in the 51st issue of the Theater and Art magazine, in December 1901 (this is the second publication of the writer). Perhaps Teffi took a pseudonym because long before the start of her literary activity, her older sister, the poetess Mirra Lokhvitskaya, whom critics nicknamed the “Russian Sappho,” gained fame. (By the beginning of her literary career, Teffi had already separated from her first husband, after whom she bore the surname Buchinskaya). According to researchers of Teffi’s creativity E.M. Trubilova and D.D. Nikolaev, the pseudonym for Nadezhda Alexandrovna, who loved hoaxes and jokes, and was also the author of literary parodies and feuilletons, became part of a literary game aimed at creating an appropriate image of the author.

The version of the origin of the pseudonym is set out by the writer herself in the story “Pseudonym”. She did not want to sign her texts with a man’s name, as contemporary writers often did: “I didn’t want to hide behind a male pseudonym. Cowardly and cowardly. It’s better to choose something incomprehensible, neither this nor that. But what? We need a name that would bring happiness. The best name is the name of some fool - fools are always happy.” She “remembered one fool, truly excellent and, in addition, one who was lucky, which means that fate itself recognized him as an ideal fool. His name was Stepan, and his family called him Steffy. Having dropped the first letter out of delicacy (so that the fool would not become arrogant),” the writer “decided to sign her play “Taffy””. After the successful premiere of this play, in an interview with a journalist, when asked about the pseudonym, Teffi replied that “it’s... the name of one fool..., that is, such a surname.” The journalist noted that he was “told it was from Kipling.” Taffy, who remembered Kipling’s name, as well as the song “Taffy was a walesman / Taffy was a thief...” from Trilby, agreed with this version.

10. Mark Twain Real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Clemens claimed that the pseudonym Mark Twain was taken by him in his youth from river navigation terms. Then he was an assistant pilot on the Mississippi, and the cry of “mark twain” (literally “mark two”) meant that, according to the mark on the lotline, the minimum depth suitable for the passage of river vessels had been reached - 2 fathoms (≈ 3 .7 m).

However, there is a version about the literary origin of this pseudonym: in 1861, Vanity Fair magazine published a humorous story by Artemus Ward (real name Charles Brown) “North Star” about three sailors, one of whom was named Mark Twain. Samuel was very fond of the humorous section of this magazine and read Ward's works in his first appearances.

In addition to “Mark Twain,” Clemens once signed himself in 1896 as “Sieur Louis de Conte” (French: Sieur Louis de Conte) - under this name he published his novel “Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc of Sir Louis de Conte, her page and secretary."

11. Max Fry is the literary pseudonym of two authors - Svetlana Martynchik and Igor Stepin

The book series was written by Svetlana Martynchik in collaboration with Igor Stepin and published under the pseudonym “Max Frei”. The authors maintained some anonymity, not disclosing their pseudonyms and not appearing in public specifically as the authors of novels (they were known as artists). On the website “Physionomy of the Russian Internet”, under the name Max Fry, there was a portrait of an unknown black man. Coupled with jokes from the Azbuka publishing house that Max Fry was a blue-eyed black man, this fueled rumors that “literary blacks” were writing under a pseudonym.

My pseudonym was chosen precisely because of my hero. I wanted the name of the author and the name of the character from whom the story is told to match. Svetlana Martynchik

Maria Zakharova notes that the language game characteristic of Max Frei’s texts is also manifested in the choice of pseudonym: “for example, Max Frei - max frei (German) - “maximum freely”” and “it is important to note that both Max Frei and Holm Van Zaichik - fictitious, “game”, pseudonyms of Russian-speaking authors"""

12. O. Henry real name William Sidney Porter

In prison, Porter worked in the infirmary as a pharmacist (a rare profession in prison) and wrote stories, looking for a pseudonym. In the end, he chose the version of O. Henry (often incorrectly spelled like the Irish surname O'Henry - O'Henry). Its origin is not entirely clear. The writer himself claimed in an interview that the name Henry was taken from the society news column in the newspaper, and the initial O. was chosen as the simplest letter. He told one of the newspapers that O. stands for Olivier (the French name Olivier), and indeed, he published several stories there under the name Olivier Henry.

According to other sources, this is the name of the famous French pharmacist Etienne Ocean Henry, whose medical reference book was popular at that time.

Another hypothesis was put forward by writer and scientist Guy Davenport: “Oh. Henry" is nothing more than an abbreviation of the name of the prison where the author was imprisoned - Ohio Penitentiary (Ohio State Penitentiary). Also known as the Arena District, which burned to the ground on April 21, 1930.

Al Jennings, who was in prison with Porter and became famous as the author of the book "Through the Dark with O. Henry" (there is an option to translate the title "With O. Henry at the Bottom"), in his book says that the pseudonym was taken from a famous cowboy song , where there are the following lines: “My beloved returned at 12 o’clock. Tell me, O Henry, what is the sentence?” .

There is an opinion that “The famous American writer W. Porter took the pseudonym O. Henry in honor of the physicist J. Henry, whose name was constantly uttered with admiration by the school teacher: “Oh! Henry! It was he who discovered that the discharge of a capacitor through a coil is oscillatory in nature!’” He wrote his first story under this pseudonym, “Dick the Whistler’s Christmas Gift,” published in 1899 in McClure’s Magazine, in prison.

13. George Orwell. Real name Eric Arthur Blair

Starting with the story “Pounds of Dashing in Paris and London” (1933), based on autobiographical material, he was published under the pseudonym “George Orwell”.

14. Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov

Ilya Ilf - Ilya Arnoldovich Fainzilberg The pseudonym is formed from part of the first name and the first letter of the surname: ILYA Fainzilberg. Evgeny Petrov - Evgeny Petrovich Kataev The younger brother of the writer Valentin Kataev did not want to take advantage of his literary fame, and therefore came up with a pseudonym derived from his father's name.

15. Alexander Green real name is Grinevsky

The writer's pseudonym became the childhood nickname Green - this is how the long surname Grinevsky was shortened at school.

16. Fannie Flagg Real name Patricia Neal

At the beginning of her acting career, she had to change her name, because despite the sonority, it was the same name of the Oscar winner.

17. Lazar Lagin Real name Ginzburg

The pseudonym Lagin is an abbreviation for Lazar Ginzburg, the writer’s first and last name.

18. Boris Polevoy Real name Kampov

The pseudonym Polevoy came about as a result of one of the editors’ proposal to “translate the surname Kampov from Latin” (campus - field) into Russian. One of the few pseudonyms invented not by the bearer, but by other persons.

19. Daniil Kharms Real name Yuvachev

Around 1921-1922, Daniil Yuvachev chose the pseudonym “Kharms”. Researchers have put forward several versions of its origin, finding sources in English, German, French, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. It should be noted that in the writer’s manuscripts there are about forty pseudonyms (Kharms, Haarms, Dandan, Charms, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling and others). When submitting an application to join the All-Russian Union of Poets on October 9, 1925, Kharms answered the questionnaire questions as follows:

1. Last name, first name, patronymic: "Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev-Kharms"

2. Literary pseudonym: “No, I’m writing Kharms”

20. Maxim Gorky real name - Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov

The pseudonym M. Gorky first appeared on September 12, 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus” in the caption to the story “Makar Chudra”. Subsequently, the author said: “I shouldn’t write in literature - Peshkov...”

21. Lewis Carroll real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

This pseudonym was invented on the advice of publisher and writer Yates. It is formed from the author's real names "Charles Lutwidge", which are equivalents of the names "Charles" (Latin: Carolus) and "Louis" (Latin: Ludovicus). Dodgson chose other English equivalents of the same names and swapped them.

22. Veniamin Kaverin real name is Zilber

The pseudonym “Kaverin” was taken by him in honor of the hussar P. P. Kaverin, a friend of the young Pushkin, whom he introduced under his own name in the first chapter of “Eugene Onegin”

23. Voltaire's real name is Francois-Marie Arouet

Voltaire - anagram of "Arouet le j(eune)" - "Arouet the younger" (Latin spelling - AROVETLI

24. Kozma Prutkov

The literary mask under which the poets Aleksey Tolstoy (the largest contribution in quantitative terms), the brothers Aleksey, Vladimir and Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov (in fact, the collective pseudonym of all four)

25. Stendhal's real name is Marie-Henri Beyle

As a pseudonym he took the name of Winckelmann’s hometown, whose laurels he claimed. Why Frederick is often added to the pseudonym Stendhal is a mystery.

26. Alberto Moravia

His real surname was Pinkerle, and the pseudonym Moravia, taken later, was the surname of his Jewish paternal grandmother.

27. Alexandra Marinina real name - Marina Anatolyevna Alekseeva

In 1991, Marina Alekseeva, together with her colleague Alexander Gorkin, wrote the detective story “The Six-Winged Seraphim,” which was published in the magazine “Police” in the fall of 1992. The story was signed with the pseudonym “Alexandra Marinina,” made up of the authors’ names.

28. Andrey Platonov - real name Andrey Platonovich Klimentov

In the 1920s, he changed his last name from Klimentov to Platonov (the pseudonym was formed on behalf of the writer’s father).

29. Eduard Limonov real name is Savenko

The pseudonym “Limonov” was invented by cartoonist Vagrich Bakhchanyan

30. Joseph Kell - the novel “Inside Mr. Enderby” by Anthony Burgess was published under this pseudonym

Fun fact - the editor of the newspaper where Burgess worked did not know that he was the author of the novel “Inside Mr. Enderby,” so he assigned Burgess to write a review - thus, the author wrote a review of his own book.

31. Toni Morrison Real name: Chloe Ardelia Wofford

While studying at Harvard, she acquired the pseudonym “Tony” - a derivative of her middle name Anthony, which, according to her, was given to her when converting to Catholicism at the age of 12

32. Vernon Sullivan

Alias Boris Vian, who has used 24 aliases, Vernon Sullivan is the most famous of them.

33. Andre Maurois Real name - Emil Erzog

Subsequently, the pseudonym became his official name.

34. Mary Westmacott (Westmacott)- the pseudonym of the English writer, master of detective stories, Agatha Christie, under which she published 6 psychological novels: “The Bread of Giants”, “An Unfinished Portrait”, “Separated in the Spring” (“Lost in the Spring”), “The Rose and the Yew”, “A Daughter is a Daughter” ", "Nosha" ("Burden of Love").

35. Moliere's real name is Jean-Baptiste Poquelin

36. Yuz Aleshkovsky real name Iosif Efimovich Aleshkovsky

37. Sirin V. - pseudonym of Vladimir Nabokov

38. Pamela Travers real name Helen Lyndon Goff

39. Daria Dontsova - real name - Agrippina

40. Knut Hamsun real name Knud Pedersen

41. Anatole France real name - Francois Anatole Thibault

42. Daniel Defoe - real name Foe

43. Ayn Rand née Alisa Zinovievna Rosenbaum

44. Irving Stone's real name is Tennenbaum

A hoax is an attempt to mislead someone (readers, the public, etc.) by presenting a non-existent phenomenon or fact as real.

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Literary hoaxes are considered to be works whose authorship is attributed to another person (real or fictitious) or folk art.

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The custom of encrypting your last name or replacing it with another dates back to time immemorial. A literary work does not always bear the true name of its creator. For various reasons, authorship is often disguised. We invite you to learn more about the most striking literary hoaxes of the 20th century and the pseudonyms of writers.

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Alias Max Fry

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Russian writer and artist Svetlana Martynchik (b. 1965)

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Since 1996, the St. Petersburg publishing house "Azbuka" began publishing books by the writer Max Frei. Genre: fantasy with elements of parody. The novels gradually gained popularity, and by 2001 Max Fry had become one of the most published Russian science fiction writers. Eventually, the author's popularity grew to such an extent that it became necessary to present it to the public: Fry became a real star.

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Exposure

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Max Fry is not listed among foreign authors; for Russia such a first and last name is atypical - that means it is a pseudonym, everyone decided. The publisher joked that Max Fry was a blue-eyed black man. This continued until the fall of 2001, when on Dmitry Dibrov’s television program the host introduced Svetlana Martynchik to the audience as the real author of Max Frei’s books.

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And then a scandal broke out: Martynchik accused ABC of trying to register “Max Fry” as a trademark and get literary blacks to write for her.

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“After the story of the attempt to register the name Max Fry as a trademark was revealed, they [Azbuka publishing house] quickly suggested to me: let’s put the guys in prison, and they will write books—candidates of philological sciences, no less! So, they will write a book per quarter, and for this they will pay me one hundred thousand rubles, also per quarter” (from an interview with Svetlana Martynchik).

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Pseudonym Boris Akunin

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Japanese translator and writer (b. 1956)

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Hoax

0:1387

In 1998, the detective novel “Azazel” was published about the adventures of the young St. Petersburg detective Erast Fandorin. The author is listed on the cover - Boris Akunin. The genre - “intelligent historical detective story” - turned out to be in demand, although not immediately. At the beginning of the 2000s, Akunin's books became bestsellers, and conversations began about film adaptations, which meant much more money for the author than just royalties for novels.

0:2174 0:11

Exposure

0:46

As Akunin's books became more popular and their audience wider, a variety of assumptions were put forward, including that the author was actually Vladimir Zhirinovsky or Tatyana Tolstaya. However, already in 2000 it became known that under this pseudonym was hiding a Japanese translator, deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine “Foreign Literature” Grigory Chkhartishvili. He himself admitted this, giving several interviews and beginning to appear in public not only as Chkhartishvili, but also as Akunin.

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"Aku-nin" means "evil genius" in Japanese. According to another version, this pseudonym was chosen in honor of the famous Russian anarchist Bakunin. Well, maybe.

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“I needed a pseudonym because this type of writing is very different from all my other activities. When Akunin sits down at the computer and starts pounding on the keyboard, his thoughts don’t work the same way as Chkhartishvili’s, writing an article or essay. We are so different. Akunin is significantly kinder than me. This is the first thing. Secondly, he, unlike me, is an idealist. And thirdly, he firmly knows that God exists, for which I envy him” (from an interview with Grigory Chkhartishvili).

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Nicknames Anatoly Brusnikin, Anna Borisova

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Hoax

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In the fall of 2007, all of Moscow was covered with advertisements for the novel “The Ninth Savior.” The author is an unknown Anatoly Brusnikin. According to rumors, the AST publishing house invested up to a million dollars in the advertising campaign - colossal money even for the pre-crisis book market. It is unlikely that a little-known writer could qualify for such an investment. To the usual reviews in decent publications, suspiciously laudatory texts in the yellow press are added, and the writer Elena Chudinova claims that the plot of the book was stolen from her. In addition to “The Ninth Savior,” “Hero of Another Time” and “Bellona” were also released.

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Exposure

0:1463

Suspicion quickly falls on Grigory Chkhartishvili: the action of the novel takes place at the end of the seventeenth century, and the book is written in the language of the nineteenth century, like the novels of Boris Akunin. Well, the pseudonym is painfully similar: both here and there “A. B." The search for the true author takes place mainly in the tabloids and is fueled by the publishing house itself: some facts are periodically leaked to the press, for example, an indistinct photograph of Brusnikin, where he either looks like Chkhartishvili, or doesn’t look like him.

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Meanwhile, at the beginning of 2008, the Atticus publishing group, which has much less financial resources, published the novel “There” by another unknown author, Anna Borisova (and also “The Creative” and “Vremena Goda”).

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Finally, in mid-January 2012, writer Grigory Chkhartishvili officially announced on his blog that Anatoly Brusnikin and Anna Borisova are him.

0:748

By inventing Borisova and Brusnikin, Chkhartishvili set up an experiment - on himself and the publishing market. Can publishers promote an unknown writer from scratch and will readers accept this writer? How much money do you need for this? Which genres is the market ready to accept and which ones is not? In fact, the hoax turned into an entire marketing research.

0:1384 0:1394

Alexandra Marinina

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Alekseeva Marina Anatolyevna (born 1957)

0:77

Author of numerous detective novels. In 1991, together with her colleague Alexander Gorkin, she wrote the detective story "Six-Winged Seraphim", which was published in the magazine "Police" in the fall of 1992. The story was signed by the pseudonym of Alexander Marinin, compiled from the names of the authors.

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Arkady Arkanov

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1:1197 1:1207

Steinbock Arkady Mikhailovich (born 1933)

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Russian satirist writer. In the early 1960s, Arkady Steinbock began to engage in literary activities, but not everyone liked his last name - it was too Jewish. As a child, Arkady's name was simply Arkan - hence the pseudonym.

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Anna Akhmatova

1:46 1:56

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Gorenko Anna Andreevna (1889-1966). Russian poet.

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For her pseudonym, Anna Gorenko chose the surname of her great-grandmother, who descended from the Tatar Khan Akhmat. Later she said: “Only a seventeen-year-old crazy girl could choose a Tatar surname for a Russian poetess... That’s why it occurred to me to take a pseudonym for myself because my dad, having learned about my poems, said: “Don’t disgrace my name.” - “And I don’t need yours.” name!" - I said..." (L. Chukovskaya “Notes about Anna Akhmatova”).

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Eduard Bagritsky

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Dzyubin Eduard Georgievich (1895-1934)

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Russian and Soviet poet, translator. He had a phenomenal memory and could recite poems by almost any poet by heart. It is unknown where the pseudonym comes from, but times were “crimson” then. He was also published in Odessa newspapers and humor magazines under the pseudonyms “Someone Vasya”, “Nina Voskresenskaya”, “Rabkor Gortsev”.

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Demyan Bedny

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Pridvorov Efim Alekseevich (1883-1945).

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Russian and Soviet poet. Efim Alekseevich’s surname is in no way suitable for a proletarian writer. The pseudonym Demyan Bedny is the village nickname of his uncle, a people's fighter for justice.

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3:9

Andrey Bely

3:42 3:52

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Bugaev Boris Nikolaevich (1880-1934)

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Russian poet, prose writer, critic, publicist, memoirist, leading theorist of symbolism. His teacher and mentor S.M. Soloviev suggested that he take the pseudonym Andrei Bely (white color - “complete synthesis of all mental abilities”).

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Kir Bulychev

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Mozheiko Igor Vsevolodovich (1934-2003)

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Russian science fiction writer, film scriptwriter, historian-orientalist (PhD in Historical Sciences). Author of scientific works on the history of Southeast Asia (signed with his real surname), numerous science fiction stories, short stories (often combined into cycles), and the collection “Some Poems” (2000).

4:1737

4:9

The pseudonym is composed of the name of his wife (Kira) and the maiden name of the writer’s mother. As the writer admitted, the idea of a pseudonym arose a long time ago, when he was still a graduate student at the Institute of Oriental Studies and wrote his first science fiction story. He was afraid of criticism and ridicule: “I skipped the vegetable depot! He didn’t show up to the trade union meeting... And he also indulges in fantastic stories.”

4:695

Subsequently, the name “Kirill” on the covers of books began to be written in abbreviation - “Kir.”, and then the period was shortened, and this is how the now famous “Kir Bulychev” turned out.

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Arkady Gaidar

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Golikov Arkady Petrovich (1904-1941)

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Soviet writer, grandfather of Yegor Gaidar, one of the founders of modern children's literature. His most famous works are “The Fate of the Drummer” and “Timur and His Team”. There are two versions of the origin of the pseudonym Gaidar. The first, which has become widespread, is “gaidar” - in Mongolian “a horseman galloping in front”. According to another version, Arkady Golikov could take the name Gaidar as his own: in Bashkiria and Khakassia, where he visited, the names Gaidar (Geidar, Haydar, etc.) are found very often. This version was supported by the writer himself.

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4:9

Alexander Herzen

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Yakovlev Alexander Ivanovich (1812-1870)

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Russian writer, philosopher, revolutionary. Author of the novel "Who is to Blame?" and the essay "The Past and Thoughts." Herzen is the illegitimate son of a Russian writer, philosopher, revolutionary. The author of the novel by landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev and German Henrietta-Wilhelmina Louise Haag. The surname Herzen - “child of the heart” (from German Herz - heart) was invented by his father.

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Grigory Gorin

5:1320 5:1330

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Ofshtein Grigory Izrailevich (1940-2000)

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Russian satirist writer, as well as the author of feuilletons, plays, and monologues. When asked about the reason for choosing such a pseudonym, Grigory Izrailevich answered that it was just an abbreviation: “Grisha Ofshtein Decided to Change Nationality.”

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Maksim Gorky

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Peshkov Alexey Maksimovich (1868-1936)

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Russian writer, public figure, literary critic, publicist, first Chairman of the Board of the Union of Writers of the USSR. The first story was published in 1892 under the pseudonym Gorky, which characterized the difficult life of the writer, and this pseudonym was used in the future. At the very beginning of his literary activity, he also wrote feuilletons in the Samara Newspaper under the pseudonym Yehudiel Khlamida. M. Gorky himself emphasized that the correct pronunciation of his last name is Peshkov, although almost everyone pronounces it as Peshkov.

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6:9

Alexander Green

6:46 6:56

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Grinevsky Alexander Stefanovich (1880-1932)

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Ilya Ilf

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Fainzilberg Ilya Arnoldovich (1897-1937)

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Veniamin Kaverin

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Zilber Veniamin Alexandrovich (1902-1988)

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Soviet writer, his most famous work is the novel “Two Captains.” The pseudonym “Kaverin” was taken from a hussar, a friend of the young Pushkin (introduced by him under his own name in “Eugene Onegin”).

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Lewis Carroll

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9:9

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898)

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English mathematician and theologian, as well as a writer, author of the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland". Magazine publisher and writer Edmund Yates advised Dodgson to come up with a pseudonym. The choice fell on Lewis Carroll. Since then, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson signed all his “serious” mathematical and logical works with his real name, and all his literary works with a pseudonym.

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Evgeniy Petrov

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Evgeny Petrovich Kataev (1901-1942)

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Russian and Soviet writer, brother of the writer Valentin Kataev, co-author (together with I. Ilf) of the famous novels “The Golden Calf”, “12 Chairs”, etc. The pseudonym Petrov is a surname derived from the patronymic, since one Kataev, i.e. his brother Valentin was already a famous writer.

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Kozma Prutkov

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Alexey Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers - Alexey, Alexander and Vladimir.

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Prutkov is a fictional writer, a one-of-a-kind literary phenomenon. Two talented poets, Count A.K. Tolstoy and Alexey Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov, together with Vladimir Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov and with some participation of Zhemchuzhnikov’s third brother, Alexander Mikhailovich, created a type of important complacency and self-confidence of the St. Petersburg official (director of the assay office), who, out of vanity, practiced various types of literature.

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Famous quotes: “If you want to be happy, be happy,” “Look at the root!”, “Do not cut everything that grows!”, “It is more useful to walk the path of life than the entire universe,” “An egoist is like someone who has been sitting in a well for a long time,” “Genius is like a hill rising on a plain”, “Death is placed at the end of life in order to more conveniently prepare for it”, “Do not take anything to the extreme: a person who wants to eat too late risks eating the next day in the morning”, “Do not I completely understand why many people call fate a turkey, and not some other bird that is more similar to fate?”

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10:9

George Sand

10:36 10:46

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Aurore Dupin (1804-1876)

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French writer. Since it was almost impossible for a woman to get published at that time, Aurora Dupin took a male pseudonym.

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Igor Severyanin

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Lotarev Igor Vladimirovich (1887-1941)

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Poet of the "Silver Age". The pseudonym Northerner emphasizes the poet’s “northern” origin (he was born in the Vologda province). According to another version, in his youth he went with his father on a trip to the Far East (1904). This trip inspired the poet - hence the pseudonym Northerner. For most of his literary activity, the author preferred to write Igor-Severyanin. He perceived the pseudonym as a middle name, not a surname.

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Nadezhda TEFFI

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Lokhvitskaya Nadezhda Alexandrovna (1872-1952)

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Russian writer, poetess, author of satirical poems and feuilletons. She was called the first Russian humorist of the early 20th century, the “queen of Russian humor,” but she was never a supporter of pure humor, always combining it with sadness and witty observations of the life around her.

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She explained the origin of her pseudonym as follows: she knew a certain stupid man named Stefan, whom the servant called Steffy. Believing that stupid people are usually happy, she took this nickname for herself as a pseudonym, shortening it “for the sake of delicacy” to “Taffy.”

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Another variant of the origin of the pseudonym suggest researchers of Teffi's creativity, according to whom the pseudonym for Nadezhda Alexandrovna, who loved hoaxes and jokes, and was also the author of literary parodies and feuilletons, became part of a literary game aimed at creating an appropriate image of the author.

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There is also a version that Teffi took her pseudonym because her sister, the poetess Mirra Lokhvitskaya, who was called the “Russian Sappho,” was published under her real name.

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Daniil Kharms

13:52 13:62

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Yuvachev Daniil Ivanovich (1905-1942)

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Russian writer and poet. Yuvachev had many pseudonyms, and he playfully changed them: Kharms, Haarms, Dandan, Charms, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling, etc. The pseudonym "Kharms" (a combination of the French "charme" - "charm, charm" and the English "harm" - "harm" "most accurately reflected the essence of the writer's attitude to life and creativity.
And finally, I wish you to plunge into the wonderful world of Tefi and Akunin, I. Severyanin and D. Kharms, remember the immortal works of Ilf and Petrov.

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Enjoy reading!

Sirin and Alkonost. Bird of Joy and Bird of Sorrow. Painting by Viktor Vasnetsov. 1896 Wikimedia Commons

I. Nicknames “with meaning”

***
Perhaps the most important pseudonym for Russia of the 20th century - Maksim Gorky. It belonged to Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov (1868-1936), a writer and playwright who came from the very bottom of society. The Soviet government loved Gorky not so much for his talent as for his background and life experience: a gifted self-taught man from Nizhny Novgorod spent his youth wandering around Russia and participated in several underground Marxist circles. In 1892, 24-year-old Peshkov published his first story “Makar Chudra” in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus” and signed it “M. Bitter". Subsequently, the letter "M." became the name "Maxim", probably in honor of the writer's father.

The meaning of the fictitious surname “Gorky” is clear to any reader of the young author’s first collection of stories and essays (1898): he wrote about thieves and drunkards, sailors and workers, about what he later called “the wild music of labor” and “the leaden abominations of wild Russian life.” " The success of Gorky's stories was stunning: according to the biographical dictionary "Russian Writers", in just eight years - from 1896 to 1904 - more than 1,860 materials were published about the writer. And he had a long life and colossal glory ahead of him. In particular, his native Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky in 1932, that is, during the author’s lifetime. And the huge city bore the name of the writer, or rather, his pseudonym until 1990.

It should be noted that Alexey Maksimovich did not use a pseudonym for long in his youth Yehudiel Chlamida. Under this name, he wrote several satirical feuilletons on local topics in Samara Gazeta in 1895.

***
The first novels of Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) were published under a pseudonym V. Sirin. In 1920, the future writer came with his parents to Berlin. Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov (1869-1922) was a major political figure, one of the founders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and in post-revolutionary emigration he continued to be involved in politics, in particular, he published the newspaper “Rul” in Berlin. It is not surprising that Nabokov Jr. began publishing under an assumed name, otherwise the reading public would have been completely bewildered by the abundance of V. Nabokov in periodicals. Under the pseudonym Sirin, “Mashenka”, “Luzhin’s Defense”, “King, Queen, Jack”, a magazine version of “The Gift” and several other works were published. The meaning of the word “Sirin” was beyond doubt among readers: a sad, beautiful-voiced bird of paradise.

***
Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev (1880-1934) abandoned his own name and surname, entering the annals of Russian poetry, prose (and poetry) as Andrey Bely. A symbolist pseudonym for the young Bugaev was invented by Mikhail Sergeevich Solovyov, brother of the famous philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. It is believed that the name Andrei was supposed to remind of the first of the called apostles of Christ, and Bely - of the white color, in which all the colors of the spectrum are dissolved.

***
In the 1910s, Efim Pridvorov (1883-1945), a native of the Kherson province, began publishing poems under the name Demyan Bedny. The success of his works was so great that in honor of this “Bolshevik of the poetic weapon” (as Leon Trotsky spoke of him), the old city of Spassk in the Penza province was renamed Bednodemyanovsk in 1925, and under this name, which long outlived the glory of the proletarian poet, the city existed until 2005.

***
Writer Nikolai Kochkurov (1899-1938) chose a self-explanatory pseudonym with a sarcastic undertone: under the name Artem Vesely in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he published several popular books about the revolution and the Civil War in those decades (the novel “Russia, Washed in Blood”, the story “Rivers of Fire”, the play “We”).

***
A student of Maxim Gorky, Alexey Silych Novikov (1877-1944), who served in the Russo-Japanese War as a sailor, added one thematic word to his own surname and became known as a marine painter. Novikov-Priboy. He wrote the novel “Tsushima” (1932), one of the most popular military-historical novels in the USSR, and a number of short stories and novellas. It is noteworthy that Novikov-Priboi made his debut as the author of two essays about the Battle of Tsushima, published under the pseudonym A. Worn out.

II. Exotic aliases and hoaxes

Elizaveta Ivanovna Dmitrieva. 1912 Wikimedia Commons

One of the most famous literary hoaxes of the early 20th century was Cherubina de Gabriac. Under this name, in 1909, Elizaveta Ivanovna (Lilya) Dmitrieva (married Vasilyeva, 1887-1928) published her poems in the symbolist magazine Apollo. She was patronized by Maximilian Voloshin (whose, by the way, real name is Kireenko-Voloshin). Together they managed to create a charming and mysterious literary mask, and Apollo, led by Sergei Makovsky, published two cycles of poems by the young and noble Spanish recluse Cherubina. Soon the hoax was revealed, one of the unexpected consequences of this exposure was a duel between Nikolai Gumilyov, who had previously courted Vasilyeva, and Maximilian Voloshin on the Black River (of all places in St. Petersburg!). Fortunately for Russian poetry, this fight ended bloodlessly. It is interesting that Vyacheslav Ivanov, in the “Tower” where Dmitrieva herself visited, according to Voloshin’s memoirs, said: “I really appreciate Cherubina’s poems. They are talented. But if this is a hoax, then it’s brilliant.”

***
In the mid-1910s, Moscow publications regularly published poems, feuilletons and parodies of caustic Don Aminado. This exotic name was chosen for himself by Aminad Petrovich Shpolyansky (1888-1957), lawyer and writer, memoirist. His parodies of famous poets of the beginning of the century, including Balmont and Akhmatova, enjoyed great success. After the revolution, Shpolyansky emigrated. His aphorisms, popular among readers of emigrant Russian-language periodicals, were included in the collection “Neskuchny Sad” as a single cycle entitled “New Kozma Prutkov”.

***
The pseudonym of Alexander Stepanovich Grinevsky (1880-1932) should go into the exotic category: the author of the timeless romantic stories “Scarlet Sails” and “Running on the Waves”, the creator of the sonorous fictional cities of Zurbagan and Liss signed his books with a short foreign surname Green.

***
The name of Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Buchinskaya, née Lokhvitskaya (1872-1952) says little to the modern reader, but her pseudonym is Teffi— is known much better. Teffi is one of the most caustic authors in Russian literature, the author of the inimitable “Demonic Woman” and a long-term employee of “Satyricon”, the main humorous magazine of pre-revolutionary Russia. In the story “Pseudonym,” Teffi explained the origin of this name from “one fool,” because “fools are always happy.” In addition, by choosing a strange, meaningless, but sonorous and memorable word, the writer bypassed the traditional situation when female writers hide behind male pseudonyms.

***
Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev (1905-1942) used dozens of pseudonyms, but the most famous of them is Kharms. The questionnaire that the poet filled out in 1925 has been preserved. He gave his last name as Yuvachev-Kharms, and when asked if he had a pseudonym, he replied: “No, I’m writing Kharms.” Researchers have linked this short, memorable word to English harm(“harm”), French charme(“charm”), Sanskrit dharma(“religious duty, cosmic law and order”) and even Sherlock Holmes.

***
You just have to get into the exotic nicknames section Grivadiy Gorpozhaks. Unfortunately, this author penned only one work - a parody of a spy novel called “Gene Green - Untouchable” (1972). Three authors were hiding behind the impossible Grivadiy: poet and screenwriter Grigory Pozhenyan (1922-2005), military intelligence officer and writer Ovid Gorchakov (1924-2000) and none other than Vasily Aksenov himself (1932-2009). Perhaps, after Kozma Prutkov, this is the most striking collective literary pseudonym.

III. Translated surnames, or anagrams

I. Repin and K. Chukovsky. Mayakovsky's cartoon from the album "Chukokkala". 1915 feb-web.ru

Almost certainly the most popular author of the 20th century who wrote in Russian is Korney Chukovsky: in Russia it is difficult to grow up without Aibolit and Telefon, Mukha-Tsokotukha and Moidodyr. The author of these immortal children's fairy tales was named Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov (1882-1969) at birth. In his youth, he created a fictitious first and last name from his last name, and a few years later he added the patronymic Ivanovich to them. The children of this remarkable poet, translator, critic and memoirist received the middle names Korneevichi and the surname Chukovsky: such a “deep” use of a pseudonym is not often encountered.

***
Making up pseudonyms by rearranging the letters of your own name is an old literary game. For example, the famous fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769-1844) several times used the wild but cute signature Navi Volyrk. In the 20th century, Mark Aleksandrovich Landau (1886-1957), better known as Mark Aldanov, author of the tetralogy “The Thinker” about the French Revolution, a trilogy about the Russian Revolution (“The Key”, “The Flight”, “The Cave”) and several other large and small works.

***
Alias value Gaidar, taken by Arkady Petrovich Golikov (1904-1941), a classic of Soviet children's literature, still raises questions. According to Timur Arkadyevich, the writer’s son, the answer is this: ““G” is the first letter of the Golikov surname; “ay” - the first and last letters of the name; “d” - in French “from”; “ar” are the first letters of the name of the hometown. G-AY-D-AR: Golikov Arkady from Arzamas.”

IV. Pseudonyms for journalism

Illustration from the book “Key to the upper Devonian of southern New York: designed for teachers and students in secondary schools.” 1899 A chisel is a tool for working metal or stone. Internet Archive Digital Library

Publishing under a pseudonym as a literary critic is a long-standing magazine tradition, even by modest (chronologically, not qualitatively) Russian standards. And the sun of Russian poetry did not disdain to sign with a fictitious name (Feofilakt Kosichkin). So by the beginning of the 20th century, pseudonyms for publicists had just become optional. For example, Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev (1886-1921), publishing in his own magazine “Sirius”, used the pseudonym Anatoly Grant. And Yuri Karlovich Olesha (1899-1960), collaborating in the famous satirical department of the Gudok newspaper, signed as Chisel.

***
The journalistic pseudonym had to be catchy, otherwise readers might not pay attention to it. Thus, the poetess and writer Zinaida Gippius (1869-1945) signed critical articles in the magazines “Scales” and “Russian Thought” as Anton Krainy. Among the guises of Valery Bryusov (1873-1924) were Aurelius, And Harmody, And Pentaur. And the author of popular stories for young people at the beginning of the 20th century, book historian and memoirist Sigismund Feliksovich Librovich (1855-1918) was published in the “Bulletin of Literature”, signing Lucian the Strong.

V. Pseudonyms “according to circumstances”

Ivan III tears up the Khan's letter. Painting by Alexey Kivshenko. 1879 Wikimedia Commons

Seventeen-year-old Anna Andreevna Gorenko (1889-1966) did not risk publishing her first poems under her own name and took her great-grandmother’s surname as a pseudonym - Akhmatova. Under the Tatar name she remained in literature. In her autobiographical essay “Budka,” written in 1964, she focused on the importance of this name for history: “My ancestor Khan Akhmat was killed at night in his tent by a bribed Russian killer, and with this, as Karamzin narrates, the Mongol yoke ended in Rus'.”

***
Both authors of The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf wrote under pseudonyms. Evgenia Petrova(1902-1942) was actually named Evgeny Petrovich Kataev, he was the younger brother of Valentin Kataev (1897-1986) and chose to become famous under a fictitious (semi-fictitious in his case) name. Ilya Ilf(1897-1937) at birth received the name Ilya Arnoldovich Fainzilberg, but shortened it almost to the initials - Il-f.

***
A separate chapter in the story about pseudonyms should be written by writers who changed their German, Polish, Jewish surnames to Russian ones. Thus, the author of “The Naked Year” and “The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon” Boris Pilnyak(1894-1938) at birth bore the surname Vogau, but changed it for the publication of his first youthful works and subsequently published only under a fictitious surname, meaning a resident of a village where wood was cut.

***
Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev(1867-1945), author of the timeless "Notes of a Doctor", came from the old noble family of Smidovich; a major figure in the Bolshevik movement and party leader in Soviet times, Pyotr Smidovich, is the writer’s second cousin.

***
The traveler Vasily Yanchevetsky (1874-1954), having taken up historical fiction and succeeded in this field, shortened his surname to Jan. Readers of “Lights on the Mounds,” “Genghis Khan,” and “Batu” know him by this name.

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Author of "Two Captains" Veniamin Aleksandrovich Kaverin(1902-1989) was born into the Zilber family, but, having entered the literary field, he borrowed the name from a friend of A.S. Pushkin, the daring hussar and rake Pyotr Kaverin. It is remarkable that Zilber defended his dissertation at Leningrad University on Osip Senkovsky, the most popular writer in the mid-19th century, who became famous under the pseudonym Baron Brambeus. And Osip Ivanovich was a master of pseudonyms: he signed himself, among other things, as “Ivan Ivanov, son of Khokhotenko-Khlopotunov-Pustyakovsky, retired second lieutenant, landowner of various provinces and cavalier of integrity” and “Dr. Karl von Bitterwasser.”