About the Name

Hi everyone, it’s Dalni back for another blog post!
 
One question that I get asked fairly frequently is: where did I get the name from? While I wish I had some great back story to tell on account of the name, really it came about as just a silly coincidence.

 
When I originally began my mermaid activities, I had planned to be Mermaid Dani, after my name Danielle. The first account I made under the mermaid theme was a Tumblr, so that I could share picture of my projects. When I went to get the URL for my blog, every possible way I tried Mermaid Dani was taken already. It seems to be a pretty popular name! I didn’t want numbers in my URL, because that would make it harder to remember and tell people. I tried every combination of dots and dashes; between words and even between letters. After so many multiple attempts I was getting exasperated, but finally one of them worked! I was so happy with myself for finally getting a free URL.
 
I went back to check what had finally worked and noticed that an L had slipped in by accident. At first I was so irritated, but I thought about it for a moment, and decided that all things must happen for a reason. After saying it a few times, I started to like the name. It was unique and almost musical. It was very much a mermaid’s name.
 
Because this name derives itself from a misspelling of ‘Dani’, I personally pronounce it DAHL-NEE, with a nasal ‘A’ like the name Dani itself has. It’s a difficult name to pronounce on sight, and many people stumble on it at first. A lot of them will come to pronounce the name as DOLL-NEE from only reading the it. I like both pronunciations, and won’t correct anyone when they say one or the other. It’s just great having people know my mermaid name!
 
I’ve looked up the name, and found nothing for ‘Dalni’. I instead went and tried the name ‘Dalny’, and this wasn’t really a known name either. The only results I found for it were that there is a small town in Russia with the name Dalny. I guess I may have made up a new name! Or maybe it’s just a mermaid name the humans didn’t know about yet. What pronunciation do you like best?
 

As a side note, I’ll be at the Pirate Day as part of the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival on the Burlington Waterfront in Vermont! Pirates day is a free event that runs from 10 am to 2 pm, make sure to stop by!