What’s in a (blog) name?

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

by any other name would smell as sweet

-William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” (II, ii, 1-2)

Bonjour! My name is Emily! And my blog is called Rose Read! (My name is not Rose and my blog is not called Rose Reads.)

I’m gonna go ahead and assume that a lot of people who read my blog don’t know what my blog name actually is or why it is. I’ve had several people talk to me about my blog and nearly everyone pronounces it wrong. So, repeat after me:

Rose.

Red.

Aha! It’s a pun! What d’ya know!?

I changed my header image a few months ago to reflect this and make it absolutely clear how to say my blog name, but I’m still not sure if people know. But now you do! If you have ever referred to me incorrectly on tags or awards or whatnot (it happens often), don’t feel bad; that’s not what this post it about. What it is about is the origin of my blog name. I realized today that I’ve never explained why I call myself what I call myself on the internet, so I thought I’d write about it!

What made me realize this on today of all days? Well, this came out today:

YAS. I proudly admit I teared up watching this. And now I think you know where this post is going.

First thing’s first: my middle name is actually Rose. Yes, I realize this makes me Emily Rose, which was the name of that girl from that movie who has the devil inside her, but we’re just gonna forget about that forever.

Belle is my favorite Disney princess, and Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie. And being a major Disney buff, that pretty much makes it one of my favorite movies of all time. Additionally, I’m just a big fan of fantasy in general. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, fairy tales, etc., etc., etc. So way back when, in the days of AOL, I made my username enchntdrose (pronounced “enchanted rose” but written in shorthand because enchantedrose was taken). I’m proud to say that this is still my handle on all my social media outlets; I know most people have abandoned their old AOL or MSN handles, which resembled things like JustinTimberlake4eva. But I remain enchntdrose. This is of course a reference to Beauty and the Beast, but it is also a reference to my middle name and my love of fantasy. It also happens to be a great match with the Shakespeare quote from Romeo & Juliet I used as an epigraph for this post! Everything is coming together, guys!

Obviously, books play a big part in Beauty and the Beast. So when I decided to start this book blog, I wanted to use my enchntdrose handle as inspiration for my blog name. Boy was I pleased with myself when I thought up “Rose Read.” (I’m so punny, guys; like, my originality and brilliance have to be totally amazing you right now.)

And there you have it! How we choose our blog names and usernames is important and fascinating to me. It tells you a lot about the person before even reading any of their content. I’m always curious to know what the origin of people’s usernames or site names are, so please let me know your story in the comments – or write a post about it and link to me so I can read it!

Imma watch that trailer like 12 more times now.

Cheers!