Why Artemis?

As a puppy, I've often encountered this question, especially during first meetings when we're curiously checking out each other's dog tags. It's by far the most common question I have received so far, and also my go-to when meeting a puppy for the first time.

Here’s the tl;dr: I liked it. If you feel like you have found a name that fits you, don’t stress over its significance or adherence to gender stereotypes.

If I want to sound clever, I might reference Artemis Fowl, where the name Artemis is given to a warrior of great skill, regardless of gender. Although I haven’t read the series and don’t see myself as a warrior per se, I do appreciate the idea of my name reflecting strength through overcoming hardship. However, that wasn’t my initial thought when I fell in love with the name.

Given my field of study, I have spent a lot of time exploring names from Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. Icarus seemed like a good choice initially, but its widespread use and connotations of modesty didn’t resonate with someone just beginning their journey of self-discovery. I've also considered other names that are of lower deities, servants or human heroes, which has led me to Ganymede - the only male lover of Zeus and his personal wine taster, but even though I liked the story, the name just didn't ring quite right.

The name Artemis, however, lingered in my subconscious. And it started feeling more and more appropriate the more I explored other options for a name. I liked Artemis way before before fully embracing my identity as a puppy, as it's the title of NASA’s Mars (and now lunar, thanks to a delusional orange man) program, which I've always felt fond of. I’ve read many Mars-related books (yes, there are more than just "The Martian", which I love). Eventually, it hit me: Artemis was a perfect choice.

To understand what I mean by that, let me give you some background:

I have both German and Canadian heritage. My parents were looking for a name that would "work" in both German and English but chose poorly. They decided to bestow a common German first name and a common English middle name upon me. Although my first name is also commonly used in English, it's commonly considered a female name (stemming from an entirely different origin in German than in English). My second name, while being somewhat common in Germany, suffers from what I call "Alexa-Syndrome". As it's also the name of a character from a widely known animated kids series, my German friends will absolutely pronounce it "the English way", to tease me for sharing a name with a famously low-IQ starfish.

Since I’ve started to make connections with people all over the world, I have noticed my (first) name being difficult to pronounce (a workaround is if the other person knows French) more often - and have also been reminded that it’s uncommon for a good boy to have that name. I also didn’t get myfirstname.mylastnameatmaildotcom because of my name's popularity in North America, since a lovely elderly woman from Canada holds that mail address. However, with her being Canadian, she now kindly forwards any mails intended for me that were sent to her account erroneously.

On another level, I appreciate highlighting the apparent contradictions that I think define me: I'm a blend of ancient mythology and having my head stuck in the future. I love tinkering with electronics of any era, but also try and make my living space resemble a jungle. I'm a self-proclaimed minimalist who needs to have every one of his numerous possessions on display in order not to forget them. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Being both ADHD and possibly on the spectrum (I've been told to not bother with a diagnosis by other autists, apparently, it's obvious), I crave routine and will absolutely die of boredom if I ever achieved to get into one. Even my name serves some ambivalence - neither being easy to pronounce in any language, nor being perfectly indicative of my gender.

Here's me in a picture i need to recreate as Artemis - a planty techy boi indeed.

In summary, choosing a name that’s easy to pronounce in all the languages I speak and isn’t associated with any ridiculed characters is a significant improvement over my original name. Thus, I decided to become Artemis.

I like that I’ve found a name reflecting my human experience. Since fully adopting Artemis (pronounced ARtemis), I’ve learned that there’s a Greek way of pronunciation which would indicate a male gender connotation (arTEmis). However, I’ve chosen to stick with ARtemis, even if it's not the most helpful decision to make.

(I have sinced received several attributes to my name, so I'm officially "good dumb horny bitch pup boy Artemis" now.)