(Re)introducing Myself as Kurgen - Rebranding my Cosplay Name

A quick cosplay intro

If you’re new here, hello and thanks for checking out my work! I’m Kurgen, and I celebrated my 20 year cosplay anniversary this year. I enjoy making my own costumes and wearing them to anime conventions, and look forward to sharing my works in progress, the 'why' behind my choices, and my experiences here on my cosplay blog. I’ve made over 70 costumes to date.

This will be no surprise to some of you who’ve been following me for a while, but a few years ago I changed my cosplay handle from Melfina (or Melfina Cosplay) to Kurgen. This change was two-fold: I wanted a name that was a bit more original, and that represents who I currently am.

An old Facebook banner

Starting as Melfina Cosplay

Melfina had been my username since the beginning of my cosplay endeavors, ever since I signed up on Cosplay.com in the early 2000s. For more background and context, “Melfina” is the name of one of the main characters in the anime Outlaw Star, which aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami back in the early aughts - during what many would call “The Golden Age of Toonami”, which would be many millennial anime fans’ beloved first foray into the genre. Outlaw Star was one of the first anime that captivated and hooked me as an anime fan, and I related to Melfina a lot at the time.

Melfina, as seen in the anime

As a result of delving into anime and Outlaw Star fandom, I started getting creative by drawing fanart and pursuing cosplay, as many fans do.

What most don't realize is that, thanks to anime fandom, I had learned about cosplay a few years before I was able to attend my first convention. The nearest conventions to me at the time were either in Atlanta or Orlando, which were both considerably long drives (8-ish hours) for a young teen, either North or South of the rural area where I lived. There weren't any local options back then, unfortunately.

So, until that first con in 2004, I mostly lurked the CosCom forums and the now defunct CosplayLab (RIP) as I cobbled together my first few costumes with a lot of hopes and dreams and help from my mom. Subsequently, I was "Melfina" or "MelfinaCosplay" on all the other cosplay sites that emerged since then, DeviantArt, and then on social media once that became a thing.

Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that many of my older friends and acquaintances still know me only as Melfina. It didn't help that I took an informal hiatus during the pandemic, so I think a lot of people thought I had stopped cosplaying altogether and moved on.

Reinventing Myself as a Cosplayer

In any case, I was overdue for a rebrand - I had been considering a name change for a while, but couldn't settle on anything. I still love Outlaw Star, and Melfina will always be one of my favorite characters, but I don't identify with her quite as much as I did when I was younger. She's more nostalgic to me now, reminding me of where I began, and those early years of cosplay as a teen and young adult, and not knowing what the hell I was doing.

Spoiler: I still don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm just older now, with less(?) anxiety, and more money to throw at figuring it out.

The Birth of Kurgen - My New Cosplay Name

The name "Kurgen" emerged in my professional life. One of my coworkers blessed me with it as a nickname (along with many other iterations based on anime titles), and it just stuck. Kurgen was born, as was the following laundry list of anime title amalgamations: Kurgen Lagann, Kurgo Proxy, In Another World with my Kurgen, Attack on Kurgen, Kurgenshitsuji, Neon Genesis Kurgengelion, Mobile Suit Kurgen, Kurgen on Ice, and many more.

“Kurgen” and alternatively “Kurgen Lagann” reflected my IRL name enough without being too on-the-nose, and I didn’t hate it. It’s concise, glib, and not overly serious. It has that ‘grumpy albeit good-natured village hermit that lives out in the woods’ quality that I strive for. It’s also, probably, a little bit cursed.

I also liked that it’s a fairly easy name to tweak and customize, depending on the context or social media channel - which I know isn’t great for brand consistency, but dang it, sometimes the name is already taken (the woes in an age where nothing is truly original, alas). I’m deathly_kurgen on Instagram and Twitter/X, KurgenLagann on Facebook, and Kurgen on YouTube.

What’s your cosplay name, and has it evolved over the years? I’m always curious about the meanings and stories behind the names, whether literal or more out there.