Why did you pick that name?

The stories behind the names

[Rani]

Hi,
My real name is Rani and it's also my user-member name.
I'm glad i didn't choose a nickname because i probably would have wanted to change it 10 times by now.
I notice many members with very interesting nicknames and I'm always curious to why they picked that particular name.Is it a reflection of a hidden identity or a childhood hero? I would love to hear about it.

Thanks.

[Pfui]

Hi, Rani! I picked my "phooey" nick because it's short, anonymous, and light-hearted (at least to me:) Boring Backstory: I work online and wanted to be able to talk about and/or ask work-related questions here without my sites being easily findable. Plus my time here is on my own dime/free time, thus the informal name. Fun topic, Rani. I look forward to reading others' tales, too.

[netchicken1]

I saw mine on the net long ago and thought it was neat. It was either netchicken or webbunny.:)

Its stuck with me now for years, but unfortunatly the original site, which was a .hu seems to have turned to the dark side of the net.

[FrostyMug]

i liked FrostyMug because i was shopping for one at the time! :) Still think it's a nice, original choice.

[msr986]

Mine is boring....

The first three letters are my initials, The following numbers are my port office box number.

<Sigh>, I guess I need a life!

[edit_g]

I have no idea!

[Radial]

I had just finish a big job and had drinks after to celebrate and by the end of the night had to many fell over broke both radial heads so two broken elbows that was 1999 and i have used the nick as a reminder since then. :)(:

[redstorm]

because i am from "red China"

[Kirby]

One of my dogs was named after a vacuum cleaner, because when we rescued her, she sucked up every bit of food she could find. I came to this forum looking to suck up every bit of info available. If not Kirby, it would have been SpongeBob, for similar reason.

[JollyK]

JollyK seemed like the thing to do at the time. The "K" is actually one of my initials, and I am, indeed, a rather jolly sort in general.

Then, of course, there's JollyK, the famous superhero whose power is blinding supervillains through the use of non-validating, ancient, and otherwise hideous HTML design.

Or was that me too?

Dang.

:-)

JK

[edit]

Radial: OUCH! That's going to give me nightmares.

Kirby: I have the same kind of dog, I think. We hardly have to clean up after the 5-year-old nephew visits: just let the dog loose.

Rani: thanks for starting the thread. I tend to get a kick out of 'em myself.

[kevinpate]

<--- sits down at the boring table

[Hawkgirl]

Well I was going to choose Erika_Tabke, but it seemed a bit presumptuous at the time, since I hadn't even met the man at that point. So I picked Hawkgirl instead. ;)

[trillianjedi]

Hawkgirl

I always thought there was a motorbike background to that one HawkGirl?

<---- back in the day I was known for my exploits in hacking a certain IM client to make it do things it wasn't designed to do. I can't say more than that ;-)

Someone else nicknamed me that and it stuck.

[Matt Probert]

Do you really want to know?

Okay, I was born Paul Farwig. But my mother and father deserted me at birth, and I was adopted by a couple who after two daughters were unable to have any more children, and desperately wanted a son. They appropriately renamed me 'Matthew' (God's gift) and naturally with adoption my name changed to their name, Probert. Hence I always use my real name (and never a nickname), Matt or Matthew Probert out of respect to the couple who saved this abandoned child from an otherwise dire life in children's homes - to use a pseudonym or nickname would be disrespectful to them.

Matt

[wheel]

I live and work in the town that has north america's largest operational waterwheel(*). Eventually shortened 'waterwheel' down to 'wheel'.

(*)Note, the waterwheel doesn't actually DO anything, like provide power. It was put up as a tourist attraction, all it does is spin around ;). And as a tourist attraction, I'd say it's not done a very good job.

[Lyndsay]

My name is Lyndsay. Another boring one here!

At least with a semi-unique spelling it is generally easy to get this username without having to add numbers or more initials.

Though, like Pfui, sometimes I wish I had a bit more "annonymous" of a name for some work related stuff. I really don't have anything BAD to say though, so it's not an issue.

[Moosetick]

I'm a name thief. I was playing an online interactive trivia game back in 97-98 with a few friends. There was someone else playing with the same name who kept winning all the time. I took his name to confuse everyone and the name stuck. Now I continue to use it because it is rarely taken when I sign up at new places.

[Hawkgirl]

> I always thought there was a motorbike background to that one HawkGirl?

Yep ... I'm hoping to upgrade sometime this year to VFRGirl. (*cough* *cough* *non-subtle hint for Brett* *cough* *cough*)

[mattglet]

I'm in the boring club as well. Just a shortened version of my name... although I can't remember how I even came up with it in the first place.

@Matt Probert - I'd like to shake your hand some day.

[acersun]

Well, mine is very banal: Once I needed a nick, there were two monitors in front of me: an Acer and a Sun.

Pfui:

Does this come from Hong-Kong Phooey from the Hanna Barbera Studios?

However, in German Language Pfui has a particular meaning:

[dict.tu-chemnitz.de...]

Thus I like you nick very much. It is cool, and I never saw it used as nick. Never ever. Thumbs up!

[tbear]

Well, I was helping a guy set up an internet cafe about 5 years ago. His nick was grizzly, so he suggested I use teddybear, since my name (well, for brits anyway) is ted (mum always called me teddy). My real name is Tadeusz (my dad is Polish).
Teddybear is often taken and tbear sounded quite cool at the time.
I have since discovered that the name is often used in association with a certain sexual bias.
Although I am quite an open guy, I am definitly VERY hetero, LOL :) Hasn't been embarrasing so far....

This is another of those threads that make you proud to be associated with the other members.
Nice one.

[BillyS]

<-- Another boring one.

My real name is William or Bill. BillyS just sticks the initial for my last name on there too. I picked that name because most BillS or Bill nicks are gone. Billy is pretty unpopular so I can grab that pretty much everywhere I go.

I really don't like being called Billy (or Willie for that matter). At 6'2" and 190 pounds I'm certainly not a "y" type person.

[seofan]

Mine is pretty self-explanatory ;-)

[milanmk]

My real name is Milan.

As usual, it was hard to get that username in any popular website so I added first letters of my initials and last name at the end, not that much interesting nickname but at least it get me registered easily.

Well Rani, I really like your real/nickname.

[mvandemar]

My choice was pure narcissism, I just love my name. :)

Well I was going to choose Erika_Tabke, but it seemed a bit presumptuous at the time, since I hadn't even met the man at that point.

What, you're not gonna update us with how you feel now...?

-Michael

[Rani]

Well Rani, I really like your real/nickname

Gratzie infinite
[wordreference.com ]

[ska_demon]

I was the drummer and founder member of my old 8 piece Ska band. I did a lot of the song writing (which I thought I was useless at) and surprisingly, the band did very well. We played with some famous Ska bands and were quite popular in the area that I live in. I got to meet some heroes such as Buster Bloodvessel (Bad Manners), The Selektor, The Beat and my faves Rico Rodriguez and Prince Buster.

After a gig someone told me that I played the drums like a demon so.......

Ska_Demon

I thank you ;oP

Long winded but hey, you asked ;o)

Ska

[tbear]

Oh, wow, you met Prince Buster!
I'm green with envy. He was one of my favourites in the 60s....... diving around the West Indian ska/bluebeat/reggae clubs in South London.
Oooo the memories....... a little smokey though ;)

[King of Bling]

heh... after my hero -- P. Diddy

Just kidding!

[truezeta]

Sorority chick!

Started using the name after I pledged Zeta in undergrad. Of course, there were always debates about who actually pledged and who didn't. So I added TRUE so everyone would know I was the real deal!

Ahhh, young and silly. :~)