What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.

[FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]~William Shakespeare

Yes, but would you be as willing to talk about a rose if you had to call it a "Triantafyllo" or "[/FONT]Rosa Berberifolia?"

Which brings me to the purpose of this thread. It's time for me to consider the possibility of a Pseudonym. I don't like the idea for my current situation and purposes, but then again I don't have a name that "rolls off the American tongue." I do, however, have a name that is easily shortened and "translated" to appear as a common enough name (without being too common or invisible). My actual name has been called a "train wreck" by some because they cannot pronounce or spell it to save their life. To give you an example:
Petros Kanerogianakopoulos (the name of an old friend of mine) shares some common elements with my real name. That name could be shortened to Peter Kane. Easy to pronounce, remember, and spell.

I have asked for, and received, plenty of advice with regards to this matter, but all of it has been biased. What I'm asking you is as an unbiased reader would a name similar to Petros Kanerogianakopoulos be of any hindrance for you to speak of (recommending his book to a friend), or write (google searching the name to find the book etc), or anything else? Would you be more comfortable with Peter Kane instead? Or would that be less memorable?
I have never shied away from discussing works by long complicated names, but I find the average Joe does. Students frequently would refer to Dostoevsky as "that dude who sounds like dust . . . oh what's his name." I'm glad they were at least able to remember that much but he's a literary gem not a new, never-heard-of author trying to make his mark.
On the other hand a translated and scaled down version could be more forgettable for it's commonality.
You might say: "if the writing is good enough they'll remember the name no matter what it is" but that somehow doesn't always ring true for everyone. And remembering it only half the battle. If they feel ridiculous trying to pronounce it they might be less inclined to recommend it. So for the sake of this argument let's assume I've not written the next masterpiece of this century, rather a decent, enjoyable read that will entertain but not be a life-altering work.
Thoughts? Opinions?

A few more quotes on names to ponder:
[FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
[/FONT][FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers. ~Marshall McLuhan[/FONT]
[FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]
[/FONT][FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]I have fallen in love with American names, the sharp, gaunt names that never get fat. ~Stephen Vincent Benet
[/FONT][FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]And we were angry and poor and happy,
And proud of seeing our names in print.
~G.K. Chesterton[/FONT]

No need to be sorry, that's exactly what I was looking for.

This is why I needed an unbiased opinion. Everyone else points me to tongue twister named celebrities as proof why I shouldn't change it. Then again they do have a point when thinking of M.Night Shyamalan . . . or maybe not as it is for the screen.

The name I used as an example is actually quite longer than mine which only has 4 syllables. It worked for my father in the 50's as a pickup line. When they asked him to repeat his last name he said "Kinda like a Kiss." I guess in the 50s that worked.
Anyway, while actually shorter than the example I gave it still is a twister. Not as long, but equally as hard.

kaitie said:

I did read an interesting thing about job searching the other day, though, and I'm wondering what people think about it applying to query letters. It said that job recruiters are less likely to respond to someone with an unpronounceable name because they're afraid of saying it wrong and embarrassing themselves.

Click to expand...

I read a similar article that brought to light a worse problem. HR departments were rejecting resumes with names that sounded too "Black." Apparently people named "Jamal," "Lakisha," "Ebony," etc had the lowest rate of scheduled interviews than any other even though the resumes sent (faked for the study) were identical to others with names sounding "white."
Possibly irrelevant to this topic, but if you're thinking of a pen name you might want to reconsider that "black sounding" name (or not if that's what you're going for).