I realize my name is rather unique. Many people recognize it, but many people have questions about it. In the past I have enjoyed some of the mysticism that surrounded it. However, this is a time of great change in my life. After reading outoftheway_peck’s post I feel like it is finally appropriate to answer some of the questions that have arisen over the years.
Development
Back in 2011 I was entranced by Doctor Who. Matt Smith’s episodes were still actively coming out and I religiously watched new episodes and also poured over old lore.
One of the things I was intrigued by was the fact that the Doctor supposedly had a name. This name was allegedly supposed to be so alien that humanity wouldn’t even be able to pronounce the first syllable if they read it.
I thought having a name no one could pronounce was a sort of funny idea. At the time I also didn’t have a username that was consistently used. I came up with the idea to create a username that would essentially be unpronounceable and also guarantee that it wouldn’t be taken on various platforms.
I sat down at my keyboard and thought about what I wanted. I decided to start with a the consonant “G”, and then realized I needed a vowel and went with “I”, and then another consonant, and so on and so forth until I eventually ended up with Gileriodekel. What funny is when doing research on Doctor Who’s name to write this article I found that this method of designing alien sounding names is common enough to be a trope, and “Gileriodekel” is actually rather formulaic.
Before the development of Sherman’s Circular Gallifreyan I intended this symbol to be “Gileriodekel” in Gallifreyan. Again, I don’t think people realize just how much I like Doctor Who 😉
Meaning
At the time I created my name I intended it to be my “Gallifreyan name” and intended it to mean “The Dreamer”. Over the years this meaning has largely been lost for me though.
“Gileriodekel” is a name which many friends and acquaintances exclusively know me by. It is a personal name, since I completely crafted it from scratch. It is genuinely one of my names now, just as much as my legal or married names are. To ask what the meaning of it is is to ask what my name means to me. It simply is… well… me.
Pronunciation
At the time I didn’t realize how many different ways people would end up trying to pronounce my name!
Some people struggle with pronouncing it, and just abbreviate it to “Gil” or just end up recognizing it and associating it with who I am. Others come up with pronunciations which are close, but not exact. Others come up with wildly incorrect pronunciations. Over the years I have seen maybe 5 people pronounce it right on the first attempt. When someone gets it right I tend to make a bigger deal out of it than the pronouncer is expecting hahaha
I have seen dozens of different ways that people have pronounced it. Back in 2017 I made a YouTube playlist to poke fun at some of the pronunciations I had seen (but I haven’t updated that list in years).
Some people have tried to say that since I made up my name it doesn’t actually have a proper pronunciation. I remind them that I am the person who created my name and I, indeed, did create it with a proper pronunciation.
Honestly, I have refrained from giving proper pronunciations over the years because I have enjoyed it being a bit of a mystery to people and I enjoy hearing how people think its pronounced. Perhaps once or twice a year I write out its pronunciation for someone who asks, and perhaps a dozen times per year I tell someone in person.
As I mentioned, this is a period of change in my life. I think its time that everyone know how to pronounce my name. Here is you pronounce my name:
Yes, this is in written in the Deseret Alphabet. You didn’t think I’d make the last hurrah that easy, did you? 😉