Wiccan Name Lists

Officials promote dining, arts, maritime history to draw tourists

SALEM, Mass. — Salem. The very name conjures witches. Witches hanged in the notorious trials of 1692, witch houses and covens, a Salem Witch Museum and the Witch Dungeon Museum.

This city of 41,000 souls is so closely identified with its witch history that flying witch logos adorn police cars and firefighter uniforms — and Salem High School's mascot is, naturally, a witch.

A thriving, modern witch community practices witchcraft and even has a new public relations outfit, the Witches Education League. Tourists flock to the Salem Common during the town's "Haunted Happenings," a month-long celebration of Halloween.

In the offseason in this historic Massachusetts seaport, warlock Christian Day holds forth in a quiet, dimly lit room, where visitors who pay $65 for a 30-minute psychic reading watch as he moves his hands in graceful, fluid motions over a sparkling crystal ball. At a nearby mall, a ghoul dressed in black, his face painted white with fake blood around his mouth, stands near a black coffin, spooking customers for a kitschy thrill near a house of horrors.

These are typical tourist encounters in this historic Massachusetts seaport. But Salem leaders want visitors to know that the city offers a whole lot more, and they've rebranded to promote such generic attractions as dining, the Peabody Essex Museum and the Salem Arts Festival, which recently featured "Buckaroo Bonsai" and bellydancing.

Tourism officials and business owners hope their unwitchly emphasis on other museums, sunset cruises, exceptional architecture and a rich maritime history will encourage visitors to spend more time and money in Salem.

"We estimate that tourists coming in for a day are spending about $90 per person and those tourists coming overnight are spending over $210 per person," said Kate Fox, head of the agency promoting tourism that also coordinated the latest rebranding. She said Salem sees an estimated million visitors a year.

"Tourism in Salem is a more than $99 million industry a year and when you look at all the businesses it affects, it's our largest industry in Salem, so it's very important, it's a huge piece of our economic development picture," Fox said.

This is not the first time Salem has tried to remake its image. In 2004, Salem businesses could not agree whether the new brand should lead with witchcraft or maritime history, and the process collapsed in the planning stages. In 1925, the Salem Evening News pushed for the Witch City to rebrand in an article that proposed promoting its flourishing tanneries (Blubber Hollow), shoe factories (City of Shoes) and textile industries (Where We Make Your Sheets).

What's in a (Pagan) Name? « Nook of Names

The boxes!

The fact is, a “Pagan Name Box” would be almost impossible to compile, because almost every name you can think of has Pagan roots. Just take a look at what I wrote about Christina in Sneak Peak Week to see what I mean.

If you’re a Pagan, Witch, Wiccan, Druid, Heathen, Mages, Shaman or Independent Thinker , and you’re after after a Pagan name, the most important thing you need to do to in the quest for your Pagan name is to establish in your own mind what ‘Pagan name’  precisely means to you. Is it: