This forum is so cool! I just spent about an hour reading everyone's story! Now it's my turn. My pen name has progressed, and the last name was just added when I joined this site.

About five years ago I took a French class in college. On the first day of class our professor invited us to choose a French name we would like to be known as for the semester. To help us decide, she passed a paper around with suggestions of names based on our birth date that we could choose from if we wanted to.

I am American but apparently many countries have specific names assigned to each day of the year.

Well for July 27, my birthday, one of the names assigned is Nathalie. I have always loved the name Natalie, so this was the name I chose. For the entire 16 week semester I was called Nathalie by my classmates. I got used to it and I liked it a lot better than my given name Mary Ellen (shhhhhhh...it's my best kept secret). I stopped using the name Nathalie after the semester ended but soon after my brother named his new daughter Natalie, not knowing I had ever liked or used the name.

The name Natalie has stayed with me, in my heart I guess, and when presented with the opportunity to create a new name for myself, I naturally chose this one (but dropped the h). Like many of you, knowing my name would be on the World Wide Web, I thought it best to use a name other than one that anyone could Google and locate me with.

The last name Erickson was a suggestion by a friend of mine, and I thought they went well together. If / when I ever publish anything, I will publish under the pen name, Natalie Erickson. And that's my story.

Peace and blessings,