Pen Name Permutations

As I mentioned, I had a bit of fun with pen name permutations. It all started when began trying to categorize all the different sets of stories on my hard drive. A couple categories, a couple pen names, right? After all the difference between Sarah and Jason and Rachael and Michael are huge. The former are a couple whose true love carries them through the adversity they face. The later are not really a couple, because Rachael is a nymphomaniac, though there is love in there, it’s just a very lopsided.

But suddenly things exploded and I’m looking for a pen name for just about everything, because while similar, they all have differing themes and strengths of love (yes I’m a romantic, but I’m not sappy!.. okay closet sappy). *Ahem* sorry about that back to pen names. Finally I settled on three; Fantasy, Science Fiction and YA/Children (the third presumes I get Rainbow Island going again). Okay four, I might as well include Romance, since I do right short stories in the genre. See what I mean about exploding? *grin*

All right, I need to think up four names and pair them up with my genres. It wouldn’t be too hard just to use variations of my name. Cathryn can be shortened to Cathy, or my nickname Cayla. Leigh can be changed to Lee, if I want to add it to the mix. I’ve got my maiden name Adams and my married name Mullen. Or I can go for something completely different; use an anagram like Dr. Seuss.

Okay so let’s have some fun with permutations shall we? I’ll stick with a simple first name / last name scenario

First Name Choices:  Cathryn, Cathy, Cayla, Leigh, Lee

Last Name Choices:  Cathryn, Leigh, Mullen, Adams, Baker*

That gives me 25 possibilities** to choose from. I did it by looking at first name grouping with the last names and seeing which combinations I liked best. On an interesting note I found I have an aversion to using Cathy as my name; a remainder of my parents aversion to it form my youth. Then I looked to see which ones of my genres I liked for each name I picked. This is what I ended up with:

Cathryn Leigh – Fantasy

I’ve got my heart set on this choice, especially for my Phoenixes

Cayla Adams – YA/Children
I like this one because it's the name I went by back when I was the age I'd be writing for
Leigh Cathryn – Science Fiction
There's just something about using the reverse of my Fantasy name
Lee Baker – Romance
Mostly because it’s completely different from the above names and I get to use the Baker last name.

*That’s my mom’s maiden name. Her Family is pretty proud of me, so I don’t think they’d mind if I used it. :}

**Here’s the table that outlines all of the possibilities, with my italicizes possibilities, bolded choices and the strike though not even considering. I’m glad I didn’t add a middle initial or name in there, it would have taken me a whole day!! *giggles*

Cathryn Mullen Cathryn Adams Cathryn Baker Cathryn Leigh

Cathy Mullen Cathy Adams Cathy Baker Cathy Leigh

Cayla Mullen Cayla Adams Cayla Baker Cayla Leigh

Leigh Cathryn Leigh Mullen Leigh Adams Leigh Baker

Lee Cathryn Lee Mullen Lee Adams Lee Baker