Nom de guerre vs nom de plume. The difference is?
Ooooh this is a tricky one!
Actually, it isn’t - in principle. But the misconceptions about these two terms exist because, like so many other words and phrases in the English language, over time they’ve been misused, misappropriated or just misunderstood.
The key thing to remember is that both 'nom de guerre' and 'nom de plume' mean basically the same thing, which is: a name that isn’t the person’s real name, or more simply, a fake name. So, as long as you use them in that context, either is fine, because the meaning will be clear - and that’s the most important thing. But, there is a subtle difference between the two.
Nom de plume
Nom de plume literally means 'pen name.' (think 'nom' as in 'name' and ‘plume’ as in the French for ‘feather,’ as in the instrument - the quill - which was dipped into ink to write with) People used and still use these writers’ names (or 'pseudonyms' - a perfectly good substitute for nom de plume) for a number of reasons.
First off, historically, many female writers used male nom de plumes to make prospective publishers think they were men, due to the prevalent sexist belief at the time that women were not capable of or indeed had no business being writers. And most women writers knew this was the case, and used male pseudonyms because it greatly improved their chances of being taken seriously as writers. And thank the lord they did. Otherwise, Charlotte Brontë (who used the nom de plume Curer Bell) may never have published her great works: imagine the world being deprived of Jane Eyre! Nor would the great novels of her sisters — who also wrote under the ‘Bell’ nom de plume surname — ever have seen the light of day, including masterpieces such as Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. And we may never have been gifted the classics of George Elliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).
A modern example of a nom de plume is J.K.Rowling writing under the name Robert Galbraith. Asked why she wanted to write under this pen name, she expressed that (understandably) she wanted to move away from the author persona who had become so deeply entrenched in the public’s consciousness as the writer of a certain wizard saga. In fact, even her Harry Potter author name is arguably a nom de plume. Apparently she wanted to be 'J.K' rather than 'Joanne' because she believed removing the gender from her name would make her works appeal to both boys and girls.
I myself use a nom de plume: Matty Adams isn’t my real name. I use this strictly as my blogging pseudonym because I also write music and fiction, so when I’m sharing my blogs on social media, they don’t get intermingled with and diluted by my other work. The other benefit of this nom de plume is as a writer, it allows me to write in a particular 'mode' which I think focusses my writing when creating content in this medium.
Nom de guerre
‘Guerre' comes from the Old English word 'werre' loosely meaning 'worse' (which, like so many English words, has a Germanic origin) which was later developed by the French into guerre meaning 'war.' So nom de guerre is literally a ‘war name.’
So what is a war name, and why did/do people have them?
Well, firstly, 'war name' also encapsulates political or revolutionary activism as well as military conflict, and there are many reasons why people aim to conceal their identity in such times.
Firstly, people have nom de guerres to help protect their real identity (and by extension their family’s identity) particularly in case of post-war reprisals.
But of course the aim of a nom de guerre can be to conceal the identity of a criminal. Terrorist Ramírez Sánchez for example was given the code name 'Carlos' - a fake name referencing his South American heritage.
Stalin liked to be addressed by the name 'Koba,' after the protagonist from the novel 'The Patricide' by Alexander Kazbegi. He liked this nickname - particularly through the revolutionary phase of his life - because the character Koba was something of a heroic avenger who lived by a knightly moral code. (Ironic eh?) So in this sense, the nom de guerre of ‘Koba’ reinforced Stalin’s (however misguided) aspirations of being a noble revolutionary restoring social order.
So there you have it - the difference between these two terms is basically the pen and the sword!
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