Becoming Moonfire
I wasn't born with the last name of Moonfire. Actually, I can't even claim that my mother married into someone with the last name of Moonfire. Instead, my last name comes from both my love of my wife and something that I've always wanted to do.
I was born Dylan R. Evans. You can look it up and get all those personal details. Trust me, they aren't that exciting. In 2000, when I went to married my lovely wife, we actually had a discussion on names. She wasn't into taking on a husband's name, which was fine because I didn't want her to take my name. Call it for various reasons, I just didn't care for the idea.
I also didn't want to take her name. It sounded wrong. And hyphenation was right out. I watched my mother suffer with a hyphenated name for far too long and didn't want mine to have the same problem.
We came up with the idea: make a new one. It took us a few months to come up with something, and we went through a lot of names. Then, “Moonfire” came up and we both fell in love with it. A few months later, we still were in love with it, so I started the process of getting my name legally changed to Dylan R. E. Moonfire (the “E.” is Evans, if you can't guess). Then, when I did get married, she took on the name we picked for ourselves.
I'm proud of my name. It fits my personality, but it is also a sign of my love. And, you really can't assign a worth to that.
... even if my mother says it sounds too hippy.
... and my brother calls me “Moonshine” on occasion.