#my mother Hates™ when people's legal name is a diminutive e.g. Sam and not Samuel

[obstinatecondolement]

In happier news, Art as a name in and of itself, as opposed to being short for Arthur, is apparently a thing! And better yet:

Art meant the ‘bear’ in Celtic languages. The name derives from Proto-Celtic *artos (“bear”) (compare Cornish arth, Welsh arth, Breton arzh), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”). With bears the local apex predator, Art figuratively referred to a ‘champion’ and two Legendary High Kings of Ireland had the name, Art mac Cuinn and Art mac Lugdach.

#it turns out I was a bear the whole time #🐻🧔🏳️‍🌈 #this is obviously excellent for celtic bear reasons #but also because it liberates me from feeling obligated to legally change my name to arthur when I get around to doing that #my mother Hates™ when people's legal name is a diminutive e.g. Sam and not Samuel #so I have always felt that I needed to soften the blow of being trans by respecting this pet peeve of hers in how I changed my name #obviously I was never actually obliged and I doubt it would make much difference to her either way next to... everything else #but my stupid ocd brain convinced me this was something I really was obliged to do #and now I am free from that imaginary obligation