Kurt Valaquen was the stage name of Kurt Harland in the early days of the cyberpunk/synthpop band Information Society. He says that in the beginning, each of the band members took pseudonymous last names "just to be cute". His original pseudonym was Jaxom Valaquenyar, a name taken from two different characters in the novels of Anne McCaffrey and J.R.R. Tolkien. When he joined InSoc, he took the last name, and shortened it to Valaquen. A great many people thought this was his real last name for quite a long time.