While the full name of my main fursona is actually Silver "Zen" Bluemane, I prefer to use the moniker of Zen both online and at real life furry events. I do know about  zen the Tiger, the very famous artist, and while the name Zen is more often associated with him, I still prefer to use it as well.

But why? Why keep putting myself through the hassle? Because I am cantankerous and attached to the name as well.

I put thought behind my handles, often a little too much though, and find something that I think reflects a part of me or has some sort of relation to myself that I want to keep up front and impersonal. Zen was probably the fastest nick I ever picked, next to my first when I first ventured onto IRC. However, it comes from a set of nicks I have held for a decade or so: Verlitzen and Kleinzen. Those two are nicks that I have held on 18+ IRC networks for many years, starting with Verlitzen. Kleinzen, or Little-Verlitzen, was a secondary nickname to put names to the ying and yang of my personality.

When it came to choosing a handle for the furry fandom sites, I didn't want to use my "clean" handle I use that my coworkers, family and friends all know of. But I didn't want to use Verlitzen at the same time because of the purely 18+ nature I associate the name with. But, the common factor between Verlitzen and Kleinzen was the Zen portion, which is where the handle came from. I also liked it because the concept of Zen, from Buddhism, is far from what I am. (If anything, I am closer to Mu than Zen, but that is a longer discussion.) Thus, I found Zen an amusing and self-reflective nick, and one I liked.

However, most sites refuse 3-letter names, or the nick was already taken. So, I added Silver because it reflects my fursona's fur colouring, and it sounds better than GrayZen. I didn't realize until after registering here on FA, and a few other forums, that another Zen already existed, and that he is a fairly well known name. However, I wasn't just going to give up a name I liked. Thus, I decided to just live with the "issue" of explaining that I am Zen the wolfsky and not Zen the Tiger (and famous artist, etc)

The actual name of Silver "Zen" Bluemane came out of some private roleplay in which Zen was more formalized as a character. The choice to make "Zen" a nickname rather than his actual name came as a reflection of this RL issue of registering, and the other Zen, but this wasn't really a major part of the RP. But, I liked the whole nicknamed moniker, so it stuck.

Thus, Zen is my fursona's name for many reasons, and I will not be renaming myself in the foreseeable future, or perhaps never. I will never profess to be  zen under any circumstances, and I will use this journal to explain exactly why I chose to keep this moniker rather than go through the hassle of renaming myself and re-registering to a bunch of sites.