Zrajm. (Photo: Björn Lindström)

About My Name

Zrajm is my name. There is nothing particularly odd about that name – except that is it unique. I have never encountered any other living being (or thing), online or otherwise, that was called zrajm. Google it and the results are all me.

In fact, since there is nothing else that the name could be confused with, I write it like any other noun in all lower case. (Though capitalized at the beginning of sentences, otherwise it’d look weird, wouldn’t it?)


Pronunciation: [sɹaɪːm] or [ɕɹaɪːm] (using IPA). You can also think of it as “slime,” but with an R instead of an L. (Sometimes people comment on the similarity to the Jewish toast l’chaim.)


History: It started off as an Internet nick back in 1998, which – as people whom I first met online came into my life – subsequently spread out into my everyday world.


Status: Today almost everybody knows me by the name zrajm, and most people do not recognize me by any other name. It is the name I have been introducing myself as for the last 10+ years. – When anyone ask for my “real name” I simply state that zrajm is my real name.

The only exception to this is The Bureaucracy™ – I have only recently begun the process of changing my name, and it’s far from certain that the Swedish bureaucracy will accept a simple, mononymous, zrajm (the name laws here does not seem to explicitly require a last name, but it does state that everyone should be assigned one at birth).

There are also some old friends (and family) that are just too lazy or too stubborn to change their ways.


Recent changes: For a long time I used to use a longer form (Zrajm C Akfohg) on Facebook, Google+ and wherever a last name was required. But, frankly, the latter part isn’t very memorable and have never been that important, so I don’t use it any more.


Klingon name: Since I’m a bit famous for my involvement in the Klingon language and Klingonska Akademien, people frequently assume that zrajm means something in Klingon – it does not. Hell, there isn’t even a z-sound in Klingon! (Not to mention that the syllable structure does not at all match.) – My Klingon name is maHvatlh. (Which I, with my Terran accent, pronounce [maxvaːt͡ɬ] – though some klingonists might argue that [mɑxvɑt͡ɬ] is more correct.)


Speling: Sometimes people misspell my name. The misspellings I've seen include: Zarjim, Shraim, Schraim and Zjraim. (I've expected Sraim, Zrajim and Srajm but haven't seen them yet.) And if you do a search using that mightily popular search engine, they suggest that you might mean zram.

Now if you only ever heard the name I can sympathize, but otherwise it really isn't that difficult. Five letters: Z – R – A – J – M. See?