Mononymous person break with his past. The new name combined several features. It was an anagram for a Latinized version of his family surname, "Arouet, l[e] j[eune]"; it reversed the syllables of the name of a family "château", Airvault; and it has implications of speed and daring through similarity to French expressions such as "voltige", "volte-face" and "volatile". "Arouet" would not have served the purpose, given that name's associations with "roué" and with an expression that meant "for thrashing". The 19th-century French author Marie-Henri Beyle used many pen names, most famously the mononym Stendhal, adapted from the name of the little Prussian
Fran Frey Fran Frey Fran Frey (December 23, 1903 in Indiana - December 1, 1962 in California) was a singer and saxophonist best known for his work for George Olsen and His Music in the 1920s and early 1930s. Among his better known songs is "The Varsity Drag" of 1927; "Big City Blues" of 1929; "A Garden in the Rain", also of 1929. Frey sang on 77 songs with the George Olsen band, both as recordings and on the radio. One song, entitled "Who?", sold more than a million recordings. Frey was heard on the "Oldsmobile Program" on CBS radio in 1933.