In the grand scheme of things on Gaia, this change is a mere drop in the ocean, but those with whom I come most often into contact will be wondering why I changed the second word of my username. For a while now, the latter has been "Lunaire" - hence some people and/or characters have taken the liberty of adressing me / the Sera character as "Lunaire", with or without honorifics (yes, including "Miss" or "Ms" wink .
So, now, why "Holodore", when it's less aesthetically pleasing than "Lunaire"?
To cut a long story short, it's simply based on etymology and connotations.
If that satisfies you, or if religion and references thereto make you uncomfortable, then DO NOT click the spoiler tag.
Should such things be no object to you, read on, by all means.
(One more thing to note: transcriptions within forward slashes are IPA transcriptions, and IPA letters do not necessarily correspond to the English graphemes they resemble. Looking up what the IPA transcription corresponds to is highly encouraged.)
When I first came up with the "Seraphine Lunaire" username a few years ago, I did mean for it to last as long as I remained on Gaia. It must be acknowledged that, at the time, I had been inspired by many things that blended the notion of angels with that of elements and elemental powers, and many of the aliases that I took on back then (and even earlier besides!) reflected this (you'll find, for instance, that even though my Neopets username isn't "seraphine_lunaire", my profile there lists my name as the "Moon Weaver Seraphine" or some such).
I've always liked the name "Seraphina" and its variants. Several sources trace the origin of this name back to the Hebrew שָׂרַף saraph (pronounced /sa.ʁaf/ - with the guttural French R - according to Modern Hebrew phonology), meaning "to burn"; hence seraphim were the "burning ones", or, as stated by the first baby name site I ever consulted (I wish I had the URL, sorry), "ardently burning one". Burning with zeal - and especially for God - isn't intrinsically bad (discussion of this is welcome, but for me to do so here would be veering off topic). Plus, according to "Christian" angelogy (which, with hindsight, I advise one and all against exploring in detail), they were apparently ranked just below God (and I'm not sure that is biblical at all), and having grown up in the country I'd grown up in (yeah, very helpful, I know), I tended (and still do) to pursue a high rank ("first in class? Wow, you're good" wink . And so, with so much going for it, I went for it.
Lunaire, as one might guess, is a form of the adjective "lunar" (the French one, in fact - and, were one to stay true to the French, it would be pronounced /ly.nɛʁ/), and reflects the "angels and elements" concept that I'd bought into at the time. To be honest, at that age, I was fairly impressionable, possibly to the point of being credulously naïve, so the concept seemed fairly reasonable to me, but nowadays I find that calling myself, even if on a website, a "Moon Seraph" - whether in the sense of "seraph from the moon" or "seraph with moon powers" - completely ridiculous; furthermore, as per certain things I've read, it might be occultic (hence not for me).
Holodore is an entirely new coinage, from the (Ancient) Greek roots ὅλος holos ("whole" wink and δῶρον doron ("gift" wink . The holos element occurs in a wide variety of contexts, one of which has negative connotations (and I'd prefer, much like the Jews, to speak of the Shoah where that incident is concerned; the original "holocausts" were sacrifices that are now called "whole burnt offerings" in some Bible translations); the doron element occurs, as far as I can name them off the top of my head, in the names Theodore and Dorothy (which both contain the same two elements, but their order in the name Dorothy is reversed compared to that of Theodore). Hence, at least as I meant it to be, "Holodore" means "whole gift" or "wholly given" (wholly given to God, in this case).
The substitution of "Holodore" for "Lunaire" in my username reflects, therefore, a desire to break away from the ridiculousness and possible occultism that is the angel-and-element association and to give myself entirely to God, which echoes this post that I made not too long ago (but is already at page 30 in my post history - what on earth?). "Seraphine" stays not only because it's the designation of the character I play, but because of its etymology and because it reflects my desire for closeness with God (otherwise, why an angelic rank that, according to some sources - even if said sources are potentially heretic - is directly below God's own; and why an angelic rank whose members praise God in His throne room [Isaiah 6:2]?).
When I first came up with the "Seraphine Lunaire" username a few years ago, I did mean for it to last as long as I remained on Gaia. It must be acknowledged that, at the time, I had been inspired by many things that blended the notion of angels with that of elements and elemental powers, and many of the aliases that I took on back then (and even earlier besides!) reflected this (you'll find, for instance, that even though my Neopets username isn't "seraphine_lunaire", my profile there lists my name as the "Moon Weaver Seraphine" or some such).
I've always liked the name "Seraphina" and its variants. Several sources trace the origin of this name back to the Hebrew שָׂרַף saraph (pronounced /sa.ʁaf/ - with the guttural French R - according to Modern Hebrew phonology), meaning "to burn"; hence seraphim were the "burning ones", or, as stated by the first baby name site I ever consulted (I wish I had the URL, sorry), "ardently burning one". Burning with zeal - and especially for God - isn't intrinsically bad (discussion of this is welcome, but for me to do so here would be veering off topic). Plus, according to "Christian" angelogy (which, with hindsight, I advise one and all against exploring in detail), they were apparently ranked just below God (and I'm not sure that is biblical at all), and having grown up in the country I'd grown up in (yeah, very helpful, I know), I tended (and still do) to pursue a high rank ("first in class? Wow, you're good" wink . And so, with so much going for it, I went for it.
Lunaire, as one might guess, is a form of the adjective "lunar" (the French one, in fact - and, were one to stay true to the French, it would be pronounced /ly.nɛʁ/), and reflects the "angels and elements" concept that I'd bought into at the time. To be honest, at that age, I was fairly impressionable, possibly to the point of being credulously naïve, so the concept seemed fairly reasonable to me, but nowadays I find that calling myself, even if on a website, a "Moon Seraph" - whether in the sense of "seraph from the moon" or "seraph with moon powers" - completely ridiculous; furthermore, as per certain things I've read, it might be occultic (hence not for me).
Holodore is an entirely new coinage, from the (Ancient) Greek roots ὅλος holos ("whole" wink and δῶρον doron ("gift" wink . The holos element occurs in a wide variety of contexts, one of which has negative connotations (and I'd prefer, much like the Jews, to speak of the Shoah where that incident is concerned; the original "holocausts" were sacrifices that are now called "whole burnt offerings" in some Bible translations); the doron element occurs, as far as I can name them off the top of my head, in the names Theodore and Dorothy (which both contain the same two elements, but their order in the name Dorothy is reversed compared to that of Theodore). Hence, at least as I meant it to be, "Holodore" means "whole gift" or "wholly given" (wholly given to God, in this case).
The substitution of "Holodore" for "Lunaire" in my username reflects, therefore, a desire to break away from the ridiculousness and possible occultism that is the angel-and-element association and to give myself entirely to God, which echoes this post that I made not too long ago (but is already at page 30 in my post history - what on earth?). "Seraphine" stays not only because it's the designation of the character I play, but because of its etymology and because it reflects my desire for closeness with God (otherwise, why an angelic rank that, according to some sources - even if said sources are potentially heretic - is directly below God's own; and why an angelic rank whose members praise God in His throne room [Isaiah 6:2]?).
So what does all that imply for you? A few changes in reference:
+ My character (aka the "Sera character" wink answers either to Sera or to Seraphine, as she always has, and no longer to Lunaire. Should you feel the need to use honorifics when addressing my character, I beseech you to use them in combination with either of the first two names;
+ I - not my character - will answer to either Holodore or Seraphine Holodore, though I will still use "OOC" to indicate when I'm speaking;
+ using "(Seraphine) Holodore" to refer to Sera will earn you a (relatively) unexpected reaction; the avatar above you / AAY is Sera, not me personally.
Thank you for the time you took to read this.
God bless,
Seraphine Holodore
