A reputation is an identity that can seem like a fair assessment because it’s formed by consensus—an overall agreement on your qualities, decided by your community. It’s a democratic perception; you are reliable, or always late, honest, sweet, quick to judge, gossipy or trustworthy. Monarchs’ reputations—for brutality or fairness, say—were sometimes carried over to their nicknames: Bloody Mary, Ivan the Terrible, William the Conqueror, Richard the Lionheart, The Sun King, Ethelred the Unready. It makes you wonder what your title This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Five Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 47 How to Change A Name A short guide to finding what suits. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Learn Lenience We were all young once. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Pay it Forward How to be a mentor. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Be Accountable On youth and responsibility. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Think Back A reexamination of nostalgia. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Grow Up In praise of aging.