August 05, 2005

Curious George: What's in a username? What does your username signify?

I'm curious what significance (if any) your username has. How long did you ponder what name to give yourself on MoFi? Do you ever want to change your username? What would you change it to? Is your username difficult to pronounce? Do you have different internet handles on different sites or do you stick with the one name? Just something I've wondered about seeing the different internet names around here. I think that it's interesting to see why people choose the names they do.

  • Mine is ancient Anglo-Saxon for 'well endowed and good in bed, manly yet in touch with his emotions'.
  • And here I was thinking he fisted kittens. Which I suppose says more about me than about him. Who may also be me -- we/I haven't settled that one out yet. As for mine, it's stolen from Casablanca's most interesting character. "He's like any other man, only more so." Picked it out without any real thought, as I should have planned my sign-up more carefully (I thought I could change it later). Different handles for different sites, but I don't give away my secrets THAT easily.
  • Mine is a contraction of "Zed" (the last letter of the alphabet where I'm from) and broadcaster. I chose it because it's simple and yet unique. It has no deep meaning, other than I work in broadcasting (TV). I've been able to use the same name on many sites so far without having to resort to Zedcaster532 or something like that.
  • 'Chief of the world will the great "Chyren" be, Extra Ultra Arse, loved, feared, dreaded: His fame and praise will go beyond the internets, Even when named victor of a thread, he will endlessly complain.'
  • Now send him money. /YSF
  • I wanted to be T-bone, but there was already the_bone, so I had to be Koko instead. Koko is getting upset!!
  • It's the generic name of my favorite tree.
  • when i first moved to the bay area, i saw a billboard in the mission, san francisco's predominantly latino neighborhood, for california cheese. the advertising slogan in english is "it's the cheese" which in spanish becomes "es el queso." at the time i wanted a new screen name for AOL (this is 10 years ago, back off...) and eselqueso was exactly the limit, 10 characters. it also made me giggle when i said it out loud. since then, i've used it a variety of places, althought sometimes i interchange it with "zulu as kono" which is my favorite tv credit ever- from hawaii five-0; the character of kono is played by an actor named zulu.
  • I'm so ashamed.
  • Déjà Vu. And hey, there's Zedcaster, right after me.
  • Believe it or not, the name "Bone" less prurient than you might think. It's a longstanding nickname that goes back to late junior-high/early high-school or so. 1. As a teenager I was very skinny. Not much has changed, although I've filled out some; I'd describe my figure now less as a "stick figure," and more as a "swimmer's build." 2. Along with my pronouned slenderness came ridiculously bony knuckles with which I would pummel my neighborhood friends in disputes that usually involved Nintendo. A few people started calling me "The Bone" after those fisticuffs, and it kind of stuck. 3. There's a cadre of 10 or so people back home in San Diego who call me by that name almost exclusively. It's been my online handle for many years, and I'm currently known as such on both MonkeyFilter and MetaFilter. It's also the name of my blog, which is in the top 10 Google hits for the phrase "gunter glieben glauchen globen" (the pseudo-Germanic words intoned at the beginning of the song "Rock of Ages" recorded by UK hitmakers Def Leppard). 4. I know that the big question is, "Has it acquired any meanings since then that are, you know, dirty?" On that matter I shall maintain an eternal silence. In other words, probably so.
  • No, really. It was just the once.
  • Well, crud. I did a search, too. Honestly I did! Oh well. As for my username: When the Spish (at the time, we were just Spsh) first got the computer at home, we needed a suitable screenname. Eventually we settled on Spsh4 (The first letter of our names, plus the number 4) An online friend always pronoucned it as "Spish!", and it stuck. When the newest addition to our family arrived, it was coincidental that we chose an "I" name, so that "Spish" would remain accurate. As for the "Co" part, there's two explanations. One is that SpishCo just sounds like a fun company to be a part of. The second is that the "Co" is for our Cat, Oreo. As for changing my username, well, that's been done already. Before I ever posted, I had signed up as "the P@", which is my usual internet handle. I had tracicle change it for me because I just thought that SpishCo fit into the realm of monkeys better. [shrug]
  • Mine's just the name of a crazy dude in a song that I like. If I were to choose again, I'd probably go for "Rev. Studly Mayhem". Because when I make my move into hardcore porn, that's going to be my porn name. I'm childish, and I find it funny.
  • The first part of my username is my first name. The second part of my username is a title that some people use to refer to me.
  • I was looking for a username and domain name that would be easy to remember, easy to spell and preferebly funny. my wife told me that during her time as a kid in Korea, she learned a phrase that translated to "house pig", and it was how wives referred to their husbands. I thought it was hilarious, and the .com was available.
  • mine signifies the 'mark one GTI', otherwise known as the Volkswagon Rabbit (or Golf mk1 in Europe). I used to have one, which was an absolute piece of crap, I'm sad to say. The previous owner had chopped the springs, put in an oversize steering wheel that was broken (it appeared that someone had hit it full on and bent it to one side), the shocks were shot, the horn didn't work and I paid far more for it than it was actually worth. Of course I thought it was cool as anything, even though I only fixed a few things on it before I traded it in on my favorite car ever, a Ford Mondeo (Contour in 'muricaland).
  • thursday's child has far to go. i was born on a thursday, my parents were born on thursdays, i tend to wander a bit, and i'm immature as hell. i am usually thursday, unless it's taken, in which case i am usually randomthursday.
  • housepig, i always love your name because it makes me think of my guinea pigs.
  • a new screen name for AOL (this is 10 years ago, back off...) and eselqueso was exactly the limit, 10 characters. That's right, 10 years ago, because now the limit is 16 characters.
  • Thank God, for a second there I thought you were named after the band.
  • Horrible winter that lasts 3 years and preludes the Norse apocalypse. Ice giants and gods battle it out. They all die. World ends. Entire universe is torm asunder. The end. It's one of the several alter egos I have used for various reasons far back before the age of the intarnets. Can't remember why or when.
  • Matches your cats.
  • It's an invocation of sorts. I capitalize the first letter to distinguish myself from phalse prophits. fish sandwich anyone?
  • Well, one of 'em at any rate (Ragnarok). For a while I had a habit of naming various animals after the depressing bits of mythology.
  • I had been using the same handle for some time (although it's not my *only* one) when I signed up here. I've always loved tea brewed with milk rather than water, and at the time, sugar was a "theme word" for me (whatever the hell that means). Alas, I've never had a problem signing up with sugarmilktea. I find that it also suits my personality. You can see it in use here [Veganporn.com, SFW] (I forwarded dxlifer's "nugget" post of yesterday, and they chose to FPP it). If we were able to post little avatar pics for our user names on MoFi, I'd use the one that I use for the CD exchange board. If I could change my username, I would make it.... Scratch that, I still might need that name before I give it away!
  • I was trying to come up with a really clever username when my malamute barfed on the carpet right in front of me. Argh.
  • Oh, and I guess mine is based on my last name, and I like the connotation of "smith" as maker/artisan, not that I'm especially techy. On AA my handle is techsmitty, since in the army I'm sure i'd be called "smitty".
  • I've used this name for a long time in lots of places (but I'm not the one on Amazon). I have lots of books. A couple thousand of them at last count (maybe more now). Every room in the house has at least one overladen bookcase. I am female, hence the "chick" (not juvenile poultry). Sometimes people misread the name as "biblechick" and respond to me in very bizarre ways.
  • There's a song I really like by Tom Waits. One line says "Nobody's sure where Mr. Knickerbocker's at." I've been thinking of changing it to Burn Chao, which is the title of a song I wrote about the opening scene from Mars Attacks!, combined with a dash of Discordianism. But changing names would lead to too much confusion.
  • Very boring - first letter of first name and last 6 letters of last name :-) Also now my .com domain name. I usually TRY to use it on other sites though often I find it taken - I'm not sure why anyone would want "bdragon"? Maybe they are shortening "black dragon" or something...
  • Mine is my default screenname which started out as a nickname in college. It's origin involved an overheard conversation concerning my friend's dog who shared my name (Kim). Kim's owner was talking about how he took her to a farm and she was so happy that she ran around like a maniac and then took a big dump in the middle of a field. A mutual friend came late to the conversation late and only heard the last part, and thought he was talking about me. Hilarity ensued. Some how I got stuck with Kimdog, instead of the actual dog.
  • I am bitter, and cats love me. That being said, I am not as bitter as I was when I made up the name. Those of you who have never offered a taste of earwax to a cat would be surprised by how much they enjoy it. I was reminded of this when the "Cats have no taste for sweets" news came out.
  • I think it's short for badassmotherfuckingdragon. It's a common gamer term.
  • Named after a 50's rock'n'roll/blues song that had been stuck in my head for days around the time I signed up. The song itself is named after a car.
  • And here's the science on cats eating earwax Who knew?!? But still, yuck.
  • Used to have a siamese kitten who'd spend the entire fucking night liking deep inside my ears. Exactly when I'd fall asleep she'd stick her tongue down my ear canal. It wasn't enough to cover my head with a pillow, she'd slink her way underneath it. I'd have to wedge my head between the bed and the wall, and even thogh this kept her from reaching my ears, it didn't stop her from trying. She'd sleep perched on the back of my head and neck, waiting for the opportunity. That cat was so evil, but too damn cute to stay mad at.
  • I was in Cleveland for a relative's wedding, had some time to blow, and spent some time at the Museum of Art, which is a pretty good one. My hotel was near the airport in the burbs. On the drive from hotel to museum, pretty far into the city, I saw huge, plain graffiti letters, just quick lines of spraypaint, near the top of a large building: VERB MINX and thought, hey, that would make a pretty cool username. and so it has. comedy ensues, however, whenever anyone sees the graffiti and asks me if and how I did it. (No, I had nothing to do with it. Thus, I never know if the one or two other "verbminx"es I've come across online are ripping ME off, or just ripping off the graffiti that I also ripped off.) I don't know if the graffiti is still there, but it was there for at least a few years after I started using the name. How it was done is a pretty good question, because it's very high on a wall that is several storeys tall, but not quite at the level of the roof.
  • Mine is a play off of my actual last name. In my home area it seemed as though everyone had the same first name so we went by last names to avoid confusion. My name went through several changes, originally being "Hatfield" it sooned shortened to "Hat." While living with my friend Reeves at college, he noticed how high-strung I was due to class projects and split my name up into "Hate-filled" and that later became "Hatred." The irony is after we graduated college and I no longer had class projects to worry about I became extremely calm and passive, so my current roommates are confused as to why I go by "Hatred." As for using it everywhere, I usually do, but sometimes other people are using it, forcing me to get some lame username that doesn't make any sense at all.
  • (licking, not liking)
  • also pertinent - and a big duh to me for having left it out - i heart reading, i heart writing.
  • My friend Jennifer and I are not big fans of the common nicknames for our names. So we called each other Jenny and Mandy just to be annoying. That morphed into Jennyfear and Mandyman. She was inspired by the horror movie Candyman. I didn't plan on becoming mandyman in real life, but then I didn't plan on meeting so many wonderful monkeys and monkey associates in LA. This has forced me to make peace with and stop flinching when referred to as Mandy. *shudder* Still haven't mastered that.
  • There's a song I really like by Tom Waits. One line says "Nobody's sure where Mr. Knickerbocker's at." Dammit, I know that one. It also has a like "We could always get a millionaire to shovel all the coal", yes?
  • I work in the big swamp nearby with the same name. I use it everywhere, because nobody else does.
  • Just out of interest/mild concern, did anyone think that Blaise Bailey Finnegan was my real name?
  • Mandyman Mandyman Mandyman Mandyman Mandyman!
  • In case you're wondering, it's uh-CHAFF-uh-lie-'a With the A's at both ends almost silent.
  • So, this post should have over 3,000 comments, right?? *ponders the 3800+ MoFi usernames* *wonders how many are sockpuppets* *imagines how many are active* *remembers the usernames BANHAMMERED* aaahhh, that's better!
  • I'm immlass just about everywhere, unless I can't get it. It was taken on AIM, and some places won't let you have a username with "ass" in it. It's short--under 8 characters--and not that common. It's short for Immigration Lass, after a job I had for a number of years as a paralegal for a corporate immigration attorney. I referred to myself that way in passing once in a thread where someone asked for visa information ("Immigration Lass says ..."), and then someone wrote me a theme song, so I had to keep using it.
  • I was a huge fan of Chris Elliott and thoroughly enjoyed this bad movie. Plus, IRC handles were limited to 9 characters at the time (are they still?). There are other cabingirls out there, though...I've occasionally been unable to use it as a username. I have another nickname that I go by in those instances.
  • ♫ Who can take a sunrise, Sprinkle it with dew? ♫
  • I really would like to take a rainbow and wrap it in a *sigh*.
  • patita is spanish for "duck" (f). Why a duck?
  • Mandyman didn't appear in my cubicle and try to kill me. I am very disappointed.
  • It's not you Koko, it's me.
  • Blaise Bailey Finnegan: yeah, that's the same. Roar, roar, the thunder and the roar sombitches never coming back here no more the moon in the window and the bird on the pole we can always find a millionare to shovel all the coal. Steam, steam, a hundred bad dreams goin' up to Harlem with a pistol in his jeans a fifty dollar bill insida Paladin's Hat and nobody's sure where Mr. Knickerbocker's at
  • I'm the one who says "it's not you, it's me"! If it's anyone, it's me!!
  • Took mine from a character in a fantasy novel I was writing. (Aside: wrote for two years, never even reached the middle. Put it aside because it sucked.) Malthusan was the villain, though I liked him as much, if not more, than the protagonist. Not to be confused with "malthusian", derived from the works of Thomas Malthus. That's not to say Malthus's name wasn't in my head when I was trying to make up a new name.
  • BBF: I've wondered the same. I thought your nick was from Finnegan's Wake. You know, because they both have the word Finnegan in them.
  • well, yaknow, I was kinda hoping for the name, but then I thought that I should have probably just used Google in the first place anyway
  • I was home for the first summer after my freshman year of college, and we were tunneling through the filth in the back of my best friend's mom's car when we dug up this book called Kissed by Shadows by Jane Feather. It was one of those trashy romance novels that one finds so comforting because it lets you slip into the belief that your parents are no longer havin' at the havin's and your mom's only release is trashy romance novels. Anyway, the main character's name was Lady Pippa Nielson and the book was insanely graphic. I seem to recall one scene in particular where she is rubbing Lionel Ashton's...bits on her cheek and he literally says "Nay Pippa, that is enough." At the time I thought my trusty old Volvo Binky might be done for good, and that I would need a new car, which would have to be named Pippa. But Binks made it through, so I made Pippa Feather my new handle. I use it for all websites. And may name my firstborn Pippa too. I dunno, we'll see.
  • The name of the main character from the Japanese version of my favorite Nintendo game of all time: Dragon Warrior.
  • My username, which I use everywhere on the net, is a contraction of my last name (Kane) and Music and (as you may have learned in the recent limerick thread) is pronounced Kay-Muss. It doesn't hurt that it conjures up an association with Albert Camus (like Amerika) so that some people might assume I'm smarter and more literate than I actually am. Actually I didn't give it all that much thought when created it, but having used it for so long, I'm now stuck with it.
  • I just like the words "ooga booga". That the phrase is often used to scare people (to startle them, really) is hilarious given the ridiculous nature of how it sounds - it's just a multisyllabic version of "boo" in that respect. I love silliness, and the inherent silliness of such a handle is what appeals to me, so much so that I personalized my first cell phone with "Ooga Booga" instead of my own name and my current phone proudly presents those words as well. It was only logical to bring it with me online. As an aside, I remember reading a kid's book called "The Wizard of Op" which used optical illusions in creative ways to tell the story. It featured a witch who used the magic words "oogly boogly" to cast her spells. That's always stuck with me.
  • Jennyfear /flinches uncomfortably, strangely aroused
  • I've been using Jim T. for about 4 years now, having migrated from another Trek based nickname. Kimberly actually suggested it, since someone had labeled me as Mr. Man. While that worked within our circle of friends, I didn't think it would translate well to others. James Tiberius, in case you were wondering. Yes, I am a geek. Why are you looking at me like that?
  • Cos... uh... You've got a bit of spinach in... No, other side... Still there... Nah, you got it.
  • I've had several names over the years - the best one was Barfokitty, which was my first on prodigy and yes, aol, I confess - but I always start to hate them passionately after about 6 months or so. Then it's too late and I'm stuck, especially since I like using the same name everywhere I am; easier for me to remember. This latest (which I'm starting to dislike) came about from looking at my laundry hung out to dry. I pretty much have only worn black for years and years but somehow seeing it all out there was kind of surprising: "Oh wow, look at my goth laundry."
  • I was bored. I had just finished a great scriptwriting course where we used storyboards to tell stories. That's it. Future names i might pick: Mycroft Mittens. Gandalf Giblet. Peebles van Zant. Hiroshima Hitchcock. Octavian Biggles. Hardass Stompyerballs.
  • Victory Gin is the state manufactered and distributed booze in Orwell's 1984. I suppose both George and myself are comforted by the fact that, no matter how much the single party system crushes your humanity and soul, you still have gin to wash it all away.
  • My initials and first half of last name, my brother was known as Tank, growing up, and I never perceived my first and middle intials being re, until I needed a screenname, ie,,retank.
  • I can't spell "wolf" in swedish.
  • After hours of soul searching and debating and consulting tarot and runes, I settled on Kimberly. Which is, uh, my name.* I had enough of nicknames after bbsing for several years in which I went through various "handles" such as BerlickiE, SpoogeGirl, and TheSquooge, but then I decided I just wanted to be me.** *or IS IT?!?!?! **or DID I?!?!
  • Zanshin means “the remaining mind” and also “the mind with no remainder.” Mostly a nerdy reference to my training in Aikido and Rinzai zen.
  • Not sure of the significance. Just what the boss calls me.
  • It sounds cool. Really, I know nothing about dirigibles.
  • I like Bob Dylan and I like my name. I am not a lady, or even a tramp; I just like silly puns with misleading punctuation.
  • Initially I chose mine for /. account (which I used to post a comment, I think, once), and it was meant to refer to my level of tech savvy at the time -- not a 1337 h4xx0r, but the guy everybody asked how to use their software. Now it's more of a wink and a nod to what my life has become, married, homeowner, babies not too far away, worried about the state of my lawn, trying to find gainful employment that doesn't suck the life out of me, etc.
  • hmmm, i feel rather boring. well, rory was taken as a username, and rory's my name. so i added an initial. genius, eh? took me hours to come up with that.
  • I live on an island....
  • It's from a song title, "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" by Blue Oyster Cult (with Patti Smith). I have used it other places online, too, which leads to the inevitable "Hey baby, I'm a gemini too!" private messages. For the record, I was born in March.
  • I was in the middle of searching for recipes that could use guavas (there was a back yard bumper crop that year, and eating them unprepared was getting old - would still like to try guava chiffon pie sometime :), when I thought to sign up at Blogger and needed a screen name. A couple years later, signing up at MoFi, I gave little or no thought to it and went with my initials. I've wanted to change that username for a while and just did!
  • I live on an island.... posted by islander at 12:50AM UTC on August 06, 2005 I don't get it.
  • well, I have snakes growing out of my head....
  • I was drunk. The Game Show Network was on in the background. That's all I know.
  • well, I have snakes growing out of my head.... posted by Medusa at 01:46AM UTC on August 06, 2005 Ya lost me.
  • My name is Aztec for "owl semen."
  • Greek goddess of war, wisdom and the household arts. Who, incidentally, bore on her shield the severed head of the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa, whose terrible gaze could turn men into statues. Sing it with me, Medusa... "EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED!!!"
  • Hi ya guava, I like your new name!
  • I don't get it. Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Koko.
  • I was playing an old computer game that asked for a callsign, and 'stripe' just came to my 12 year old (486dx 80, yeah 12 might be right) as something cool. Apparently I haven't changed much since then.
  • I once wrote a thesis on HMS Dreadnought. It's a naval historian thing.
  • I was out camping at Big Bear during the winter. There was still snow on the ground. All through the night, my girlfriend and I heard strange rustling noises. The next morning, when we were packing up camp, we noticed a hole in the bottom of the tent and a freshly dug gopher hole. The little guy managed to chew his way up through the tent to spend a warm night under our blankets. I've always respected him for his perseverance and lack of fear.
  • It's a Suede song, yo. (That's "The London Suede", for all y'all Americans. They had to change their name, apparently.) Anyway, Killing of a Flash Boy was a B-side to We Are The Pigs, and it still sounds like vast quantities of awesome, over ten years later and at least as many years wiser. It was the domain name I was already using (and still do), and it's still what I'd probably call my production company if I was ever to set one up, although the brief use of it as a nickname between me and my best friend has long passed into the mists of history. Had I not been called that, I like to think that I would have been Seamus O'Motown.
  • Dx = diagnosis in medical shorthand. 'Life' as I had decided to keep living after crushing years of mental illness. Then since I still needed one more letter one day the 'r' was added in tribute to the old man, who really is a lifer. Plus I'd dealt with so many of them when professionally active.
  • I just used what it said on the label on a bucket of frogs. I suppose "bucket of frogs" would be damn near just as good, now that I think of it. Elsewhere I've used the same name, although here and there I shorten it to "clf" just because I can.
  • Oh! Oh! Oh! I've just remembered, I know why mothninja's called mothninja. It's a great reason. DIMMN has mentioned it somewhere here, I'm sure.
  • I, like so many, am just mundane. My user name is a diminutive of my real legal name, which is cynnbaddasskickyerass. Kind of long, I think.
  • When I first came up with this nick, the intel(R) pentium(R) was supposed to be The Next Big Thing(tm) in computing..so I decided to be one step ahead. Pent = 5, Hex = 6, hence heXiuM.
  • Well, it's my name. I'm a printer and engraver and general all-round quality arty type, you know. If any of you have a nice piece of architecture you need a picture of, you should get in touch.
  • Bees sing.
  • When I was in high school (all girls catholic school even), us unpopular girls tended to band together in a pseudo-goth group. Hey, you would've too if you had to go to my school. So, when leaving the house to go out to a dance or other school function, I dressed all in black with lots of black eyeliner and dark lipstick. My dad commented one day that I "looked like Darth Vader with lipstick." Taken right from my MeFi user page. Fast forward a few years to my first non-Prodigy email address, and after some discussion with a friend about the very story I told above, I decided I needed to work Vader into it somehow. But I didn't want to be "Mrs." Vader, because, like, I'm totally my own woman. So I went with the more ambiguous "Ms." so then no one would know my real relation to Darth. And I'm still not telling.
  • In about 1993 I went to work making art for videogames, for a REALLY small developer with offices in a flat in San Francisco's Marina. This was one of the first post-art-school indications I had that I might not have to be broke and live on the beach for the rest of my life; that was a load off my mind. My hours were- well, 'flexible' doesn't begin to describe it. I generally slept late, worked late, and rode my bike home up a ridiculously steep hill in the Presidio and then through the deserted streets of the Richmond district, coasting through lights and alarming- and being alarmed by- man-sized raccoons. Life was good. Anyway, tucked into one of my new employer's rooms was an old stand-up arcade machine. The game was Robotron 2040, and as you can well imagine it was a big productivity booster. One of the company's programmers and I got so good at it that we could play for hours without stopping, wrapping the score counters at some millions of points. Whenever one of us beat out the other's high score, we got to enter three letters which would be displayed in the game's 'attract mode'. My rival had a sort of hacker-dude-handle which he abbreviated; I needed something similar. Then, one night at home I came across a PBS Monty Python marathon which included this sketch: --- Second Presenter: Peter Ilyich Tchaikowsky was born in 1840 in a Ken Russell film just outside St Petersburg. His father (Leo McKern), a free-lance bishop, was married to Vern Plachenka (Julie Christie) but secretly deeply in love with Margo Farenka (Shirley Abicair) and the strangely flatulent Madame Ranevsky (Norris McWhirter). Soon, however, the family (Eldridge Cleaver, Moira Lister and Stan the Bat) moved to the neighbouring industrial village of Omsk (Eddie Waring) where they soon found themselves, sadly, quite unable to cope (Anthony Barber).
  • I blame #mofirc.
  • A long and tedious tale. When I was at school, I ran a facetious campaign as a Mercian Nationalist in the school's mock election (Mercia being one of the seven ancient kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, as you know). When, subsequently I was put in charge of the school library, I put up a notice board where people could er, post, anything they thought was entertaining. One boy used to put his poetry (not bad) on there; one person used to put stuff about what saint's day it was; various other things. Some of us indulged in a kind of ongoing fantasy in which we each had our own imaginary state; each person would post the latest news and attempt to turn the narrative in their own favour (without sacrificing plausibility and literary quality too much - you couldn't just say "Then an army of killer robots appeared from nowhere and destroyed the Gray Republic"). Childish stuff, but hey - we were children. Since I already had a Mercian reputation, I adopted the name of Plegmund of Mercia (actually a worthy chap, Archbishop to Alfred the Great) for the Lord Protector of my personal Commonwealth. When I came across Monkeyfilter, the general tone and even the content of some of the posts vividly recalled the old notice-board from those pre-computer days, so I revived my old alias. I have to say that there are times here when I still get the feeling I'm in the company of bright but slightly unruly schoolboys...
  • Once upon a time when I was a little tike my dad used to call me Chechebell. Chechebell was the original alias and has since morphed into Cheche, Cheeches, and now currently Cheech. Very rarely does dad call me by my real name now in my middle aged end of the Boomers life. Other nick names followed with my friends. My real first name rhymes with banana so I'm also Banana Head, Banana Brain, Banana breath, BA NAN NA. I'm sisterly linked to Squidranch alias Squiddy on this blog. His nickname growing up was Dober. Have no idea where my dad came up and as soon as day light hits I'm going to make a call. BTW, here's a monkey related African Cheche. http://www.junglestore.com/cheche.html Kinda cute huh!
  • Opps, still getting my feet wet. http://www.junglestore.com/cheche.html
  • Dumkoff!
  • Ever seen a banana blushing? My apologies fellow primates. Where is my Squiddy when I need him. I'll get the link thing down by today. Promise.
  • Mine is shamelessly stolen from the anonymous remailers. It is latin and roughly translates roughly to "the name is unknown," or in more a modern saying, John/Jane Doe.
  • Hey, and to think I actually pressed "preview" and didn't notice my several mistakes. Oops.
  • A sabre (fencing) action--a cut to the side of the opponent's body under the front (dominant) arm. Because my other random username was taken.
  • Fox Mulder from the X-Files. When I signed up on AIM, I tried all kinds of variations of fox, but they were all taken. My favourite number is 8, so it replaced the 'o'. Also, if you turn it sideways, it's a symbol for infinity, which has some deeper signficance, I'm sure.
  • when I still get the feeling I'm in the company of bright but slightly unruly schoolboys... WHAT YOU SAY? ...Then an army of killer robots appeared from nowhere and knocked down Plegmund's house....
  • >Also, if you turn it sideways, it's a symbol for infinity, which has some deeper signficance, I'm sure. Then, if you turn it right-ways-up, it's a symbol for a snowman, which has an even deeper significance.
  • It's a typo of Suphlatus aka the angel of dust. I was a goth in high school, what can I say?
  • My given name is David, the nickname for whichis Davey, and I'm about *mumble* pounds overweight. Hence BigDavey. I know, nobody really needed this explanation.
  • I stopped working in IT in 1999. A friend of mine was going over the wonders of the new generation Macs and the great new operating system, and I replied that, cool though it was, I'm a System 7 girl myself. For some reason, we thought that was hilarious. he even made me a t-shirt commemorating the fact.
  • Mine is from some graffiti on a garage that was on my way to work a few years ago. It was accompanied by a crude drawing of an oil derrick. I did try to take a photo, but when I had the film developed it hadn't come out, and by then the graffiti had been painted over. I've always remembered the phrase and so use it online for various things, although it's a bit long for some websites, but I have a bunch of other handles. Just reading this thread has made me think of another one: 'corrupt schaedler'. Maybe I'll find a use for that at some point.
  • There used to be a phrase painted in large white letters on a railway bridge that crosses the North Circular road in London between Crouch End and East Finchley I used to see regularly on my way to work, drill_here_fore_seismics, it was "M KHAN IS BENT". Sadly, I feel I could not use this as a nym.
  • It's been my handle for as long as I've been online, and originally came about because of my uncanny ability to kill flying insects in mid-air - I would actually never hurt a moth, but MosquitoNinja sounds a bit stupid. hi flash!
  • Maybe someday I should be "Jennifer Johnson", from the longstanding west Toronto graffiti saying "I love you Jennifer Johnson" (in awkward two foot letters, visible for years from the subway). Whoever she is or was, Jennifer Johnson was loved. But my nickname is simply my initials. I find that, ironically, more anonymous than a longer nickname. I wish the system allowed one letter, though.
  • squidranch is a derivation of my company name "rancho calamari". I have resided in LA for most of my life and while living in Hollywood on Beachwood Drive I used to go to an inexpensive sea food restaurant on Melrose that had a wicked good plate of calamari. While living there I would probably eat the calamari plate there at least four times a week. Shortly thereafter I needed to come up with a DBA (i.e. "doing business as") since I was getting hired more and more as a consultant in theme parks and virtual reality. I remembered a band that I liked had the name "martini ranch" and I thought that I would borrow from that name, attached my favorite sea food and latinize it, thus "rancho calamari" was born.
  • jb is really Jennifer Beals!
  • Wait, you're not jb any more, are you?
  • BTW, regarding my sister chechebell's post above, my nickname "dober" came from my name "Michael" which morphed from Michael to "michell" then to "michelob" then from that to "lober" and finally to "dober". I haven't been called that in a coon's age. In college I my nickname was "thrasher" which I supposed was derived from my last name "escher".
  • Very convoluted, Squids. Please lay down on my couch and we will discuss your multi-tenticled persona.
  • No, I'm still jb. I was just thinking about graffiti and what would have been a cool name. oh, you mean did I change my name in real life? No, way too much paperwork. Even if I were a big believer in changing my name at marriage, the visa hassles alone would have kept me from it.
  • Good point. My passport was under my maiden name but my visa was under my married name, so every time I travelled, I had to carry my passport and wedding certificate so they could match ticket details to visa and passport and grrr. And I couldn't send my passport away to get my new name put on because a) I would have had to go through all the hassle of reapplying for a visa and b) I needed to keep my passport with me at all times by law. :P
  • Both * and *.
  • Bluehorse, have you recieved your shirt yet?
  • once again I'm late to the party -- I try not to turn on a computer on the weekend. Mine, while it could be mistaken for a reference to a character from Watership Down, is really just because I'm in a band called the Hogtown Stompers. BTW, path did you once explain your nick as "Pat H"? If so, then I may know you from, erm, somewhere else.
  • on further reading: nevermind, you're obviously the wrong gender to be the fella I remember from talkers of yore, but then again this is (and was) the internet, so who knows.
  • Sir Squid: I have donned my One Shirt and sit, fingers poised, ready to right all the wrongs of MonkeyDoom/Dom. Actually, guys, this is one b*tchin' shirt!!! Thanks.
  • Bluehorse, could you post a photo of yourself in "the shirt to rule all shirts" to this thread? I'd be obliged.
  • *kicks thread for the hell of it*
  • *lays banana wreath at the Tomb of the Unlogged-On Monkey*
  • *thread raises head sleepily and says Huh? Then loses consciousness again.*
  • Would an underpants monster by any other name... oh, nevermind.