What's a Xigfireon?

Xigfireon (pronounced "zig-FEER-ee-on") is an old name. An invented name, to be sure, but one that has been with me for most of my life.

I first came up with the name Xigfireon when I was about twelve years old, as the name of a character I created for the fantasy role-playing game Rolemaster. As was often the case with such games, I spent a great deal of time imagining not only the character, but the world in which he lived and the adventures that awaited him.

Xigfireon was something of a hybrid character. Part warrior, part wizard, part druid. He was physically capable, but equally interested in knowledge, magic, nature, and solving problems through ingenuity rather than brute force.

He was an adventurer. He sought out the unknown and was always willing to take on a difficult challenge. He was also a protector, willing to defend his family and his village from those who would use their strength to prey upon the weak or the innocent.

He wasn't without flaws, and he certainly wasn't opposed to the occasional pursuit of treasure. But he was never particularly interested in wealth for its own sake, and he had little use for those who would take unfair advantage of others. Whatever spoils were won through a successful campaign were meant to be shared.

Over the years, Xigfireon followed me into other worlds.

I used the name for characters in other fantasy settings, and eventually in futuristic games such as Cyberpunk and Cyberspace. As the internet became an increasingly prominent part of my life, Xigfireon also became a sort of handle or alias. Eventually, it found its way into my music and other creative endeavors.

And then, many years later, I decided I wanted to start a brand. This turned out to be more difficult than I expected.

I had been thinking about creating a clothing and art brand for years. I had the artwork. I had ideas for products. I had even begun putting some of it together. What I didn't have was a name.

I considered all sorts of more ordinary, recognizable names. I could have come up with something that sounded more like a conventional clothing brand, or something that immediately told people what I was selling.

But whenever I thought about what to call it, my thoughts kept coming back to Xigfireon.

I hesitated for quite a while. It was an unusual name. It wasn't immediately obvious how to pronounce it, and there was no established meaning that I could point to when someone asked what it meant.

Yet there was something about it that I couldn't quite let go of. It had an archaic quality to it.

Perhaps that was because its origins were rooted in the fantasy worlds of my childhood, which themselves had been so heavily influenced by Celtic mythology, ancient cultures, nature, magic, and the mysterious worlds that exist somewhere between history and imagination.

Perhaps it was because Xigfireon had already become something of an alter ego for me, a name I had carried into different worlds whenever I wanted to explore some other part of my imagination.

Whatever the reason, it felt like mine. So, in late 2022, I finally decided to stop looking for another name. Xigfireon it was.

I began working on the logo, creating the first shirts and hoodies, and building the website. After many years of thinking about it, Xigfireon finally made its debut on January 18, 2023.

But I've continued to wonder about the name itself. What exactly is a Xigfireon? There are a few ways I've come to look at it.

One of them comes simply from the English components of the word.

The first two letters, XI, are the Roman numeral eleven. The G can be interpreted as giga, the scientific prefix meaning one billion. Put those together and XIG can be read, rather whimsically, as eleven billion.

Then there is fire, representing light, warmth, energy, transformation, and the creative spark that gives life to an idea.

And finally there is eon, an immense span of time.

Taken together, one poetic interpretation might be something like: An age of fire lasting eleven billion years. Perhaps that's a little grandiose, but I've always liked the idea.

And then there are the Celtic connections that I've discovered only much later.

I didn't create the name by translating Irish words. I invented it long before I knew about these particular connections. But when I began looking more closely at the sounds within the name, I found some remarkable coincidences.

The three main pieces of Xig-fire-on can be made to evoke three Irish words: sióg, fir, and éan.

Sióg refers to a fairy or supernatural being, evoking the magical and otherworldly realms that were so much a part of my original conception of Xigfireon.

Fir is a form of fear, meaning man, and in its plural form means men.

And éan means bird.

The phrase sióg fir éan is not a literal Irish translation of Xigfireon, nor am I suggesting that it is a historically authentic Irish expression. The grammar and word order would require more than simply placing three dictionary words next to one another.

But as an imaginative interpretation of an invented name, I find the associations fascinating. A supernatural being, a human being, and a creature of the natural world that moves freely through the sky, all at once.

Together, they evoke something that exists not apart from nature, but within it. Something that is simultaneously physical and spiritual. Something that looks upon the natural world with reverence rather than simply seeing it as something to be conquered or exploited.

That idea has always resonated with me as I've long been fascinated by nature, from the smallest details in my own backyard to the enormous forces that shape our planet and the cosmos beyond it. I find something profound in the interconnectedness of living things, and in the idea that we are participants in a much larger story rather than isolated beings existing independently of everything around us.

That is one reason the fire within Xigfireon also feels significant.

Fire is light. Fire is energy. Fire is transformation.

And in a more spiritual sense, fire can represent the spirit and the spark within us: imagination, curiosity, and the creative force that compels us to explore, discover, create, and share.

Interestingly, the Irish word síog also has another meaning involving a streak, seam, lode, or vein.

I like to imagine that as a streak of light. A thread of light running through darkness. A spark moving through the cosmos. A little bit of fire carried forward through time. And perhaps that isn't such a strange way to think about Xigfireon after all.

The name began with a twelve-year-old boy imagining a character in a fantasy role-playing game. That character followed me into other worlds. The name followed me into adulthood. It became an alias, a creative identity, a name associated with music and art, and eventually the name of this brand.

The same name has somehow managed to travel from ancient-inspired fantasy worlds to futuristic ones, from childhood imagination to the internet, from electronic music to visual art, and finally into something tangible that other people can wear and enjoy.

In that sense, Xigfireon has always been about exploration. About imagination. About creativity. About finding connections between things that might not initially appear to have much in common.

And perhaps most importantly, about remembering that whatever abilities or strengths we possess are best used not simply for ourselves, but for the benefit of those around us.

That was part of the character I imagined when I was twelve. It is still part of the person I aspire to be. And it is part of what I hope Xigfireon can represent.

Original artwork inspired by ancient patterns and symbols. The natural world. The cosmos. Light and energy. Interconnectedness. Curiosity. Imagination.

And the endless possibility of what might be just beyond the horizon.

The name was invented when I was twelve.

The story is still being written.