http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire wrote:
<<François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works.
François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris, the youngest of the five children of François Arouet (1650 – 1 January 1722) and his wife, Marie Marguerite d'Aumart (ca. 1660 – 13 July 1701), from a noble family of the province of Poitou. The name "
VOLTAIRE", which the author adopted in 1718, is an anagram of "
AROVET LI," the Latinized spelling of his surname,
Arouet, and the initial letters of "
le jeune" ("
the young"). The name also echoes in reverse order the syllables of the name of a family château in the Poitou region: "Airvault". The adoption of the name "Voltaire" following his incarceration at the Bastille is seen by many to mark Voltaire's formal separation from his family and his past. "Arouet" was not a noble name fit for his growing reputation, especially given that name's resonance with "à rouer" ("to be broken on the wheel" – a form of torture then still prevalent) and "roué" ("a debauched or lecherous person").
Richard Holmes adds that a writer such as Voltaire would have intended it to also convey its connotations of speed and daring. These come from associations with words such as "voltige" (acrobatics on a trapeze or horse), "volte-face" (a spinning about to face one's enemies), and "volatile" (originally, any winged creature). Voltaire is additionally known to have used at least 178 separate pen names during his lifetime.>>
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