A rose by any other name: choosing your pseudonym

It’s a matter of personal choice, but many people don’t write erotica under their real names. If you’re looking for a pseudonym, how do you find it?

The standard method I’ve always heard used is to take the name of your first ever pet and your mother’s maiden name, and there you have it. While this might work for some – my friend’s worked out to be Midnight Lee, which would certainly make an interesting name – for others it’s just silly. Like my friend who would have been Spotty Thomas.

What you’re looking for is a name that makes you feel sexy. That other people might also associate with sexiness. Names like Dave, Sue, Richard and Heather might be really lovely names, but none of them exactly conjure up a steamy seduction scene. None of them make your groin squirm. Similarly surnames like Thomson or September are pleasant, but not evocative of bedroom scenes.

So what is? Certain letters like K, Z and Y lend themselves to erotica. Kristina, for example, looks sexier than Christina, Suzanne sexier than Susan and Justyn sexier than Justin. Strange, but true.

For example, Karlita Diamond – I chose the Diamond because diamonds are a girl’s best friend, glamorous, edgy, and generally stand out from the crowd. Karlita has lots of strong consonants, including the aforementioned K.

And then of course, there might be personal reasons. Sometimes names just speak to us on an individual level. Maybe you want to take on the surname of that boy or girl you fantasised about for your entire matric year? Perhaps your sexy first name is just a version of your own name. Rick rather than Richard, for example.

Perhaps you want to write very feminine, romantic erotica, and you’d like to have a name along these lines – Genevieve Lemoult perhaps? Or maybe you’re going in for s&m and you want something simple like Rob Strong.

Or maybe, just maybe, you might want to be yourself!

A professional voyeur and international woman of mystery, Karlita is a crusader for passion, and promotes (safe) sex wherever she goes. She seeks to inspire joy and happiness, and a sense of curiosity. She will do anything for the perfect Mojito, and frequently has.

Click here to learn more about Karlita’s Writing Erotic Fiction Course or you can read one of Karlita’s short stories here.