53

What's the story behind your username?

If you are one of us folks whose username is not your actual name, what is the story behind it?

I'll go first.

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    Uh-oh, good luck proving @MikeEdenfield is not a false name! – Möoz Oct 12 '15 at 2:57
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    I just copied my username from StackOverflow. Prosaic as hell :) – DVK-on-Ahch-To Oct 12 '15 at 3:04
  • @DVK : Short but sweet, both the story and the name! ;-) – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 3:05
  • @Praxis, point of clarification, in my opinion, part of what's the story ought to include why did you pick it – ThePopMachine Oct 12 '15 at 5:50
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    @ThePopMachine : I'd prefer people be able simply to contribute whatever they think is interesting. – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 6:29
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    Fun question! Why the downvotes? – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 12 '15 at 6:57
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    @Wikis, (Not me but) I would imagine people are voting on the legitimate position that this is not on-topic for meta because it's not about questions, answers, scope, or how the site works. (But I find that position to be no fun.) – ThePopMachine Oct 12 '15 at 14:18
  • @ThePopMachine: thank you for that explanation. If that is the case, they should vote to close rather than downvote. – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 12 '15 at 14:59
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    @Wikis : To counter ThePopMachine's explanation, cataloguing memes and organizing movie nights are also not about questions, answers, scope, or how the site works, but meta has been used frequently for those purposes. Therefore, there is plenty of precedence for this type of question, and they should not vote to close this without voting to close those too. – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 15:05
  • @Wikis : I suspect they are not downvoting for the reason that ThePopMachine has suggested (he is almost uniquely concerned with whether things are on-topic or not), but rather just because they are not "into" this kind of fun question. Clearly you and I both see the value of it. :-) – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 15:07
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    @Praxis: all possible theories. But unless the downvoters explain, we can only speculate. It seems a wasted opportunity. – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 12 '15 at 15:10
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    @randal'thor: how do you know it is one person? Each answer has two downvotes, maybe we have two unhappy campers. – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 12 '15 at 20:42
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    @randal'thor : To each, their own. Let's not let it stop us from doing something intended to be fun and community-building. :-) – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 20:52
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    I would have taken my usual username (used at online game services like Xbox Live, Steam, UBI, etc) if I hadn't registered at StackOverflow first and there I found it appropriate to use my real name, even though it is a rather common one. – Thomas Feb 2 '16 at 14:28
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    This question is inspiring to me. I should start a meta post on the many passwords of SFF se... – CHEESE Mar 11 '16 at 19:05

66 Answers 66

62

Someone lay me down a sick beat. We goin' ham.

It's mid-2007, not too long ago,
when a little nerdy white boy and his buddies go,
and sign up for Xbox Live to play some videogames,
using Gears of War and Halo as a replacement for dames.

Well I'm sitting there just thinking, trying to choose a handle,
but my friends names are much better, mine can't hold a candle.
Take a look at my initials - D and R can make Doctor,
think about the wannabe gangsters I can mock-a.
Throwing round words and phrases, abusing dumbass slang,
my satirical skills will make their heads hang.

Like a flash of inspiration, the air begins to sizzle,
hammering my controller, I type "Dr D Rizzle".
But it turns out that was taken, so I go for second best,
"Dr R Dizzle" sounds just as stupid, I guess.

It's been nearly a decade now, the name was a bad choice,
but I kind of got used to it as my online voice.
If there's a lesson here, then the lesson is this;
'Don't choose an online name while trying to take the p*ss'.

2
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    Darn, I wish I could upvote twice. – Praxis Oct 20 '15 at 14:42
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    I pity the foo' who downvoted this mad rap. – Dr R Dizzle Oct 20 '15 at 14:57
48

I am named after the minor planet 14111 Kimamos which in turn is named after a science teacher in West Virginia and not the lady in Michigan who writes romance novels under that name. (Just kidding. Actually user14111 is my real name.)

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    Well since your real name is user14111 then you're effectively excluded :-P – Möoz Oct 13 '15 at 2:01
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    So the real story for you is, "Once there was this woman and this man and they loved each other very much and wanted to have a kid..." – Tango Oct 14 '15 at 1:47
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    This one made my day. :-) – Praxis Oct 15 '15 at 0:11
38

I slammed my fists on the keyboard a few times until I got a result I liked.

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    Lol right... what if it brought up Richard 2.0 ??? – Anthony Pham Oct 19 '15 at 22:33
33

"Slytherincess" is, unsurprisingly, a combo of "Slytherin" and "Princess".

I've had this online handle since 2002.

I first read Harry Potter fan fiction at a site called The Sugar Quill, and I participated in their forums. I basically liked their site, but it was very restrictive -- for example, the site would only archive fan fic with what they considered to be canon pairings -- Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, and Sirius/Remus (whom the site administrators considered a canon pairing). If you questioned their restrictions, even in light conversations on their forums, your post would disappear -- that kind of BS.

Oh, and, uh ... Slytherins were definitely not welcome there, and I had felt an affinity toward Slytherin since the first time I read the first book. Why? That's a whole 'nother story!

So, yeah, things at the Sugar Quill were all around problematic. I knew I was going to have to leave the site. I hadn't yet registered at the Quill; I decided I would. I tried out a variety of Slytherin-themed names, but Slytherincess is the one that stuck. I left The Sugar Quill, but not before leaving silly, but harmless, messages in a few of the forums I had frequented, so I could splash my new moniker, because someone had to say it: SLYTHERIN WAS HERE! ;)

Because I got into Harry Potter fandom quite early on, I was able to scoop up my username in a variety of apps, most of which are obsolete now: Gmail (I still use my Gmail account); Yahoo; Livejournal; FictionAlley, AO3; Harry Potter conference sign-ups; Twitter; Facebook; Pinterest; Flickr; and, yes, Stack Exchange! :)

Here's the screen-saver for my iPhone (My iPhone is named "Malfoy", for anyone interested):

enter image description here

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    Thanks for sharing, Slytherincess! Glad you've had a better time here than over at Sugar Quill. :-) – Praxis Oct 20 '15 at 14:22
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    "Sirius/Remus (whom the site administrators considered a canon pairing)" - you owe me a new keyboard and a glass of tea. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Oct 22 '15 at 17:51
  • @DVK-in-exile -- I do, don't I? I will send both via owl post :D – Slytherincess Jan 23 '16 at 23:05
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    "Slytherincess" is, unsurprisingly, a combo of "Slytherin" and "Princess". media.giphy.com/media/oyF8cKgNtlYNG/giphy.gif – Möoz Apr 12 '17 at 22:51
32

I would give a whole detailed explanation for my username, but really just see the previous post, it's probably all explained over there. :)

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    I had a friend in grad school who, with a student library helper, spent a couple hours searching for a science journal called Ibid. – eshier Oct 24 '19 at 16:45
30

It is a clever disguise; my real name is Bason Schmaker

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  • If I could put a bounty on this, I would! – Möoz Jun 8 '16 at 22:04
30

Scooby-Doo → Scooby → skooby → SQB

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    You learn something new everyday! :-) – Praxis Oct 14 '15 at 20:22
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    Ha! And you would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for us pesky kids! – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 14 '15 at 21:16
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    Why not SQL???? – Anthony Pham Oct 19 '15 at 22:26
30

I joined this Stack Exchange to ask Wheel of Time questions. Rand al'Thor is the main character in the Wheel of Time series, and also someone I can identify with personally in many ways. Nobody else had taken that username (at the time, I didn't know usernames could be duplicated), so I used it. If it had already been in use, my second choice would have been Aragorn.

When the Last Battle comes to Stack Exchange, I will stand firm, my two closest friends at my side, to defend what is right against the dark forces of evil and the Shadow:

Tarmon Gaidon

Long live the Dragon!

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    I want to be the guy with the hammer. – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 14:56
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    -1 because Bela is the main character in Wheel of Time. – TZHX Oct 12 '15 at 19:38
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    So who're are your two best friends? – user31178 Oct 12 '15 at 21:16
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    @CreationEdge Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara, of course ;-) – Rand al'Thor Oct 12 '15 at 21:59
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    if only you had finished the books... – Himarm Dec 29 '15 at 20:34
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    I WILL FIGHT BESIDE YOU – Matrim Cauthon Sep 14 '17 at 13:26
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    "f it had already been in use, my second choice would have been Aragorn." This totally reminds me of this excellent web comic :) – Amarth Oct 17 '19 at 20:31
28

I just love cheese. That's it.

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    But why is it all capitals? – Valorum Mar 11 '16 at 19:43
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    @Richard : Because he loves it. – Praxis Mar 11 '16 at 20:20
  • @Praxis - Then why no exclamation marks? – Valorum Mar 11 '16 at 20:23
  • @Richard : Because...because...darn. – Praxis Mar 11 '16 at 20:27
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    @Richard. The Absense of Exclamation Marks is a Deep and Thoughtful Statement. My love of cheese is intended to spark people, inspire them: to start sentences, not finish them. – CHEESE Mar 11 '16 at 21:16
  • I also like cheese. Just not enough to fully capitalise my love. – Valorum Mar 11 '16 at 21:18
  • Created account just to up vote this!! – Fawad Mar 19 '17 at 14:43
  • A lurker has emerged from Downbelow! Accept my belated welcome, @Fawad. – can-ned_food Jun 21 '17 at 8:05
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    If you take all the capitalized letters from @CHEESE's comment (TAEMDTSM) and turn them into an anagram, you get Ted Stamm. Ted Stamm was, as we all know, born in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is home to Brooklyn Slate Co. Brooklyn Slate Co. offers a very nice slate cheese board, and is located at 33 Bowne St, Brooklyn, NY. 33 + (the number of letters in the company's address) = 50. 50 is the number of cheeses made in the USA that start with the letter 'C'. C is letter no three of the alphabet, which is also the number of silver badges CHEESE currently has. This path is circular, like cheese. – DCOPTimDowd Jun 21 '17 at 15:55
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    @DCOPTimDowd Perfect until the end...I had no silver badges when I made the comment. – CHEESE Jun 21 '17 at 16:02
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    @CHEESE I think using "currently" gives me a Get Out of Jail Free card on this one – DCOPTimDowd Jun 21 '17 at 18:17
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    @DCOPTimDowd Taking the capital letters in your comment you get IGOJF. Turning into numbers, this becomes 9714106. Dividing this by 8, your number of bronze badges, you get 1214263 with a remainder of 1. 1st street in Brooklyn is home to 251 1st street, which has 11 stories. 11 is the atomic number of sodium. Sodium's melting point is roughly 371 degrees K. The year 371 began on Saturday. Saturday was named after Saturn. Saturn, if you include the Sun, is the seventh body in the solar system. 7 is the number of silver badges DCOPTimDowd currently has on the main site. – CHEESE Jun 21 '17 at 18:45
  • @CHEESE My favorite game console was also the Sega Saturn. My mind is rekt. – DCOPTimDowd Jun 21 '17 at 18:58
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    You really need to answer this: meta.stackexchange.com/q/316515/278659 – Rand al'Thor Oct 9 '18 at 22:23
26

You might want to take a cup of coffee and sit down for this.

Well, it all started in 2007. The world was a much more innocent place, or was I younger and more innocent? Who's to tell?

Anyways, being on volunteer work in Haifa Israel, a bunch of my friends and I started calling each other "Freak", you know, in a cool way.

Hey Freak, how's it going?
...
Dude, you're such a Freak
...
etc.

Now a bunch of the girls I knew started a mini clique of their own called "The Freaks". Being that it was now the most exclusive club, I had to be in it (even though I was a guy). But they hesitated, it was really harsh for me, I felt that I was one of the founding members because I had originally in on the "Freak" naming. I had even looked up a Hebrew phrasebook and found the meaning of the word "Freak" which was:

Moozaroot - פריק

I was gutted, how could these girls exclude me in this little, random, meaningless but oh so exclusive club, when I was such a strong impetus of its creation? Yeah, na, I was having none of that.

So I spoke to my "sister" from the clique (who wasn't really my sister but looked exactly like me - weird huh, "freak"-y even, lol), so everyone called us siblings. After a long while we convinced them to let me into this clique (and I even owned my new moniker - "Freak Wannabe").

Now my sister and I started calling each other "Mooz" because it was just shorter and funnier sounding than "Moozaroot".

Since then, I've used Mooz, or a derivative of it, in:

  • StackExchange
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Microsoft Live
  • ASOIAF account
  • And a myriad of online games
    • A few of my younger cousins and friends have taken the 'Mooz' post-fix to their usernames too. I've sort of got a mini clan going, tee hee.

And there you have it, a small narrative titled "Mooz".

so, the next time I act like a "freak", you will know that it's because I am.


Why 'Möoz'?
The 'umlaut mark' doesn't actually mean anything to me, it just looks cool AF!

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    Why are both Moozaroot - פריק transliterated? – Politank-Z Oct 12 '15 at 21:59
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    Great story, Mooz! Thanks for taking the time to share it! :-) – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 21:59
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    You’re a freak. – Paul D. Waite Oct 13 '15 at 10:09
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    So next time you show up in chat, we can say, "Oh, frak, it's the freak?" – Tango Oct 15 '15 at 3:49
  • I claim with pride the distinction of having been called "a freak" in high school — by one of my teachers.  Naturally, it became my nickname for the next couple of years. – Peregrine Rook Oct 16 '15 at 6:57
  • @PeregrineTook Hey Freak, how are ya? – Möoz Oct 16 '15 at 8:34
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    Moozaroot is actually weirdness, or freakiness. Freak would be moozar (male) or moozara (female). But other than that your story is awesome! – Lord Voldemort Nov 17 '15 at 23:47
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    @LordVoldemort I think your story is awesome and should be told; maybe in a series of books or movie adaptations... Oh – Möoz Nov 18 '15 at 3:03
25
  1. My user name should show that I was male, so people wouldn't have to refer to me as "he, or she, I dunno". (My real name seems to have that effect; it sounds androgynous to native English speakers.)
  2. I also like science fiction, and I wanted a name that reflected that. (It's a character from Red Dwarf, in case you're wondering. My avatar is the Red Dwarf itself.)
  3. And I found I have rather a tendency to make lists of everything. No matter the question; if I answer anything, it's often in list form. So, that's what I do, I make lists.
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    Nice explanation (in list-form, no less)! :-) – Praxis Oct 14 '15 at 15:37
24

Organic marble! It's gluten free, absolutely no BPAs, non allergenic, and crunchy! Contains only trace amounts of uranium! Accept no substitutes for this all natural product!

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    But is it free-range marble? – Jason Baker Oct 21 '15 at 22:58
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    Non-GMO, right? – FoxElemental Oct 10 '18 at 23:12
24

I stack, therefore I am. I build Lego for public display. My builder's name is Major Stackings and denotes the utter importance of each and every creation I put together. ;) Although I build whatever captures my interest, I'm mainly into micro scale & miniland scale MOCs (M.O.C.s, in Lego language means my own creation(s)), so, to me, the name Major Stackings is pretty funny. I use it here, because, you know, Stack Exchange sounds like a Lego swap meet.


Here are a couple of the links from BrickCon 2015: Three theme coordinators (myself included) get interviewed http://www.breakingdads.com/all-sorted/as-pod/brickcon-2015-interviews-part-2/ and the BreakingDads.com guys explore some of the displays on video http://www.breakingdads.com/all-sorted/video/brickcon-2015/

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    But that's not your name now, right? Why the new name? – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 12 '15 at 6:46
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    @Wikis I'm incognito atm. Kind of a joke until I get sent and then share a link of a BrickCon interview with my real name. Plus some of the pics from BrickCon gave my real name away. So, since it's already out there I figure I'll share once the piece gets edited and put online. Then I'll go back to my regular nic. – Major Stackings Oct 12 '15 at 7:41
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    It might help the non-experts if you explain (or at least link) what in the world MOCs are? :) – DVK-on-Ahch-To Nov 2 '15 at 15:26
  • @Axelrod Here's the link to the 2012 Lego/Sci-Fi blog I wrote way back then. scifi.blogoverflow.com/2012/10/brickcon-2012 – Major Stackings Dec 24 '15 at 1:25
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    And here I thought you were the militant arm of the Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things – Erik Dec 2 '16 at 21:37
23

I’ve been a fan of The Lord of the Rings since before everybody had heard of it:

  • I read it for the first time in the late 1960s.1
    • I still have a very dog-eared and taped up copy that was printed in 1966.  Not a first edition, or anything, just old.
  • I’ve read it cover-to-cover probably five or six times.  (I have bought a newer copy; the old one is falling apart.)
    • Yes, I know there are people who read it every year.
  • Every now and then I pick it up and just read a chapter or two.

So I wanted my user name to reflect that.

Also, I grew up in an area where peregrine falcons are indigenous, and I wanted to pay homage to them.  And, of course, Pippin’s real name is Peregrin Took.  And, of course, a “rook” is a kind of bird.  So it all fell into place.

Also, I like chess, although I’m absolutely no good at it.
________
1 Yes, I remember when telephones had “dials”.  And, yes, we did ride dinosaurs to school.

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    Ha! I remember before telephones had dials. – user14111 Oct 16 '15 at 8:03
  • I, too, remember the joys of the rotary phone! Also, pay phones on every corner, leaded gas, and drive-in movie theaters :D – Slytherincess Jan 23 '16 at 23:25
  • Ah, yes; pay phones.  I think I saw one five or ten years ago.  And phone booths — I loved the scene in the Superman movie where Clark Kent runs up to a pay phone that's just a phone on a pole and regards it with a look on his face that says, "So where can I change into my costume?" – Peregrine Rook Jan 24 '16 at 4:11
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    I'm not that old and I remember dial phones. I would wake up to the whirring and jarred-crunches of the dial-up modem tone; and the phrase "Get off the Internet, I need the phone" is in no way strange to me. – Möoz Feb 2 '16 at 3:05
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    Ha, ha! I remember party lines and "Operator, please get me . . ." I also remember 10 cent a gallon gas and 15 cent pizza. Or was it the other way around? I remember milk in glass bottles with the cream on top, I remember zzzzzzzzzzzzzz – rosesunhill Mar 20 '16 at 14:00
22

I'm named after a far away moon. In the year 2293 of the Prime Timeline, I exploded due to over-mining. This caused an ecological disaster on my parent planet that led to two warring empires not really fighting anymore.

enter image description here

(TL;DR: I picked it because I like Star Trek.)

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  • Kudos to @Richard for making this animation. :-) – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 2:54
  • Doesn't really answer the question. Why did you pick it? – ThePopMachine Oct 12 '15 at 4:49
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    @ThePopMachine : lol...I didn't say why did you pick it, only "what's the story?" A moon exploding is the story. – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 5:06
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    “I exploded due to over-mining.” We’ve all been there bro. – Paul D. Waite Oct 13 '15 at 10:10
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    And here I was assuming you were a Walter Jon Williams fan. – Mike Scott Mar 11 '16 at 19:06
  • Huh, I always just assumed you were an ethnologist or philosopher or one of those fields where they talk about praxis and theory… – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jun 21 '19 at 23:06
17

I am a competitive ballroom dancer and have a serious passion for all three types of tango, which is Argentine, American, and International. I was originally TangoOversway since, when I first logged on, the system wouldn't let me use Tango, but found later I could change it.

In American tango, there is a move at the lower ability level (Bronze) called the Oversway. It is, for that level, a particularly challenging move, but looks awesome if you get it right. So combining that with the dance name seemed a good choice.

As for the different kinds of tango, my favorite (and my fiancée's, as well) is Argentine tango, which doesn't have an oversway and generally is not used in competition. Argentine tango is just a beautiful, passionate, and sensual dance. International tango is used mostly for competition and American tango is used for competitive ballroom, but also used for social ballroom.

What can I say? I just love to tango!

6
  • I kept meaning to ask you if you were into dance --- now I know. Thanks for sharing! :-) – Praxis Oct 14 '15 at 1:29
  • I always thought you were former military. The dancing monkeys make much more sense now. – DCOPTimDowd Jun 21 '17 at 14:56
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    Actually, they're orangutans. – Tango Jun 21 '17 at 17:07
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    @DCOPTimDowd: And, even though I was interested in the military as a teen, at this point, anyone who knows me in real life can tell you I'm about as un-military as one can get! ;) – Tango Jun 25 '17 at 15:51
  • @Tango Don't they allow dancing in the army now? ;) – DCOPTimDowd Jun 26 '17 at 15:45
  • @DCOPTimDowd: Maybe, I don't know. I've never been in the Army. The closest I came was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol. – Tango Jun 27 '17 at 2:20
16

Back when online gaming meant telnet, I was younger. And stupider. I may have just repeated myself.

I was just discovering the internet when I heard about online role playing. Friends liked MUDs, but I found myself drawn to MUSHes, which had less numbers and involved less killing harmless level 1 critters for an hour. The biggest MUSH I found was Elendor, and it was based around Lord of the Rings (big enough that it may even still be around, I haven't checked). So I registered an account, thinking thoughts of being Gandalf.

Everyone has those thoughts. There's a big sign that says "book characters are reserved, don't try to make one" for a reason. Naturally, being young (and denied), I took umbrage and for the next infinity of fifteen minutes tried to think of a character minor enough to sneak in as. I finally came up with a name that worked to my delight.

It worked because I'd misspelled it. I'd been aiming for Haldir. I'd typed Hildar. (I later turned the character into a dwarf, for amusement)

Remembering my silliness, in a later RPG that year I just rearranged the letters again, to create Radhil. Almost by accident, I also created a character that knew many stories and how to draw the wisdom from them, something I rather desperately wanted to emulate at the time and until that moment hadn't realized or figured out how to put words to it. It took more years still, but I did learn the trick, and still am.

So twenty years on, I still use the name. It reminds me I can be silly and stupid at times, and also that I can learn.

1
  • Thanks for taking the time to share this, Radhil! :-) – Praxis Oct 14 '15 at 1:33
15

If you can't figure out my real name, I'm not going to tell you. It's pretty obvious. If you're having trouble figuring it out, Google the word "spoonerism".

4
14

Sadly, I didn't have any strong convictions about a user name before I joined. I happened to be in the process of watching Avatar at the exact moment I signed up, and I ended up typing in avatar_sully. I'd like to say it's some sort of high-browed life imitating art thing (my user account being an avatar of me), but...no. It was just extreme laziness.

And the silly thing is, I don't even really like Avatar.

I've thought about changing my user name, planning it out in my mind that I would go to my profile page and click that Edit button. But I'm just to lazy to move the mouse there.

It seems right that I should be punished for my laziness by being condemned to live out my online life with not the user name I need, but the one I deserve.

1
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    You do realise you can change your user name? (And, ironically, your avatar.) – Mr Lister Oct 21 '15 at 20:29
13

My username is user13267 because it has these properties

And I promise I didn't just google it up

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    But, wait, you're actually user13716. Is this serious? – Rand al'Thor Oct 22 '15 at 11:01
  • upvote the answer and may be I'll tell you :) – user13267 Oct 22 '15 at 11:08
  • Upvoted due to curiosity :-) – Rand al'Thor Oct 22 '15 at 11:13
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    wait this doesn't increase rep?? dang it – user13267 Oct 22 '15 at 11:14
  • Nope, votes on meta have no effect on rep. – Rand al'Thor Oct 22 '15 at 11:15
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    Anyway I guess I owe an answer, the name was bestowed upon me by stackexchange's RNG, and turns out it had all these cool properties – user13267 Oct 22 '15 at 11:15
  • So the cool properties are not being a Fibonacci number, not being a Bell number, not being a Catalan, . . .? Did you know that the Bell numbers are named after a sci-fi writer? – user14111 Oct 22 '15 at 23:58
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    more I think about it, I think "cool" should have been in quotes – user13267 Oct 23 '15 at 0:13
  • also, 14111 – user13267 Oct 23 '15 at 0:14
  • On Arqade, you could be user32167. – Mr. Bultitude Nov 13 '15 at 21:04
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    I liked it, because every number is special! – Fawad Mar 19 '17 at 14:45
13

I actually hadn't really realized I was using my actual name for my display name, so I modified it to my preferred handle :)

Originally, I went around the Internet as Broseidon, which I stole. However, that name was reletively common and I need to be a special snowflake.

So, I took Premier Romanov from Red Alert 2 and added a B to make it BROmanov. Because I'm very clever. I grew up with the Command and Conquer series, so it was only natural.

After 3-4 years of having my own unique handle, I've found it stolen by another steam user and now I weep every night.

0
12

I play world of warcraft, it has a random name generator, it gave me himarm, read as him arm, not hi marm. thank you

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    I will now read it properly in my head from now on. Thanks for sharing! :-) – Praxis Oct 13 '15 at 17:39
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    Woo-hoo, I always read it properly. What do I win? – Möoz Oct 13 '15 at 21:09
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    @Mooz you win not having me track you down and gut you like a fish – Himarm Oct 13 '15 at 21:11
  • Great, so do I :-D – Rand al'Thor Oct 13 '15 at 21:56
  • What do you mean? It's clearly pronounced hi-marm. – ThePopMachine Oct 15 '15 at 5:46
  • For some reason, I'd always read it as being vaguely Farsi or Pashto or something along those lines. Don't know why, but I've always pronounced it [ˡçim.ɑɾ(ə)m]… so at least I guess I've been syllabifying it correctly, just pronouncing it all wrong… – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 22 '16 at 7:20
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    I've been reading it as "Hirmarm". +1 for dyslexia. – DCOPTimDowd Jun 21 '17 at 16:53
12

In case you were wondering, my username is "Often Right". Now, if you're a Trekkie and you don't know who this is then leave this site now - just joking!

Often Right is an obscure reference for Dr Noonien Soong - don't trust Memory Alpha, trust me - his name is Noonien. Lore says he was known as 'Often Wrong', but I didn't like that name, so I'm changing it to 'Often Right'

Now, the important question: why did I choose this handle? Well, there are a few reasons:

  1. There is actually a striking resemblance between the real me and the character of Noonien Soong, not so much in appearance but in characteristics
  2. I'm also fascinated by concepts of artificial intelligence and robotics
  3. He's my favourite character from Star Trek
7
  • Thanks, Noonien! ;-) – Praxis Oct 13 '15 at 0:34
  • Awesome! I always wondered where your username came from :) – steelersquirrel Oct 13 '15 at 14:40
  • 2
    Also known as Often Wrong. – Mr. Bultitude Oct 20 '15 at 2:05
  • @Mr.Bultitude not to mention 'The Doc' 😉 – Often Right Oct 20 '15 at 2:10
  • Time to remove that top section? – Rand al'Thor Jan 23 '16 at 14:01
  • @randal'thor haha yeah - I'd quite forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder 😉 – Often Right Jan 23 '16 at 23:30
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    @Mr.Bultitude And now, Often Right. – Rand al'Thor May 5 '16 at 9:54
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Way back when, when xbox live was first becoming a thing. Me and my older brother wanted to play online. We spent the night setting up the router and such (Old model even for 2005-7 or whenever it was) so we didn't actually get online that night. I go to school the next day and just come home to him playing online on some random named account and i ask why it isn't with my account. It was my account but my name was taken and so he decided in his infinite wisdom to random name generate a new account name for me. Needless to say I wasn't happen but it has long since grown on me and spread to every corner of my internet ID. Crazy. It's actually really good considering how unique it is, it has only ever previously existed once. Stupid twitter.

Also I'm apparently some fruit with a seed in the center or something, who knew!

2
  • XBox live random names are nuts. – user40790 Dec 23 '15 at 17:23
  • My best mate was DejectedApple, it's an awesome name – Edlothiad Jun 5 '17 at 23:06
11

I was looking for an obscure nickname for one online messaging board or another. I was playing a game called Waku Waku 7 at the time, which featured a character called Politank-Z, which was a walking tank piloted by a Mario-like character and his dog. It fit my criteria at the time: absurd, obscure (the only web search references I found to it were to the video game), and non-identifying. I have stuck with it, for the most part, since.

enter image description here

1
  • hey ! I played that game too ! :D – yondaime008 Jan 25 '16 at 15:46
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The first online community I heavily participated in was a Kingdom Hearts forum, and sometime after Kingdom Hearts 2 came out there was a thread where everyone posted their Organization XIII names. For those unfamiliar with the game, the Nobodies in Organization XIII created their names by taking the names they had back when they were human, rearranging the letters and adding an X. So my real life name of "Eric" became "Ixrec".

I quickly realized that this would make a good username as it was fairly short, distinctive and had essentially zero google hits, so I've been using it consistently on every other site and community I've joined since then.

2
  • 1
    Are you sure it's not lxrec or ixrec or 7xrec or something? ;-) – Praxis Oct 12 '15 at 22:00
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    @Praxis I'm pretty sure my real life name is "Eric", not "eric" or "Er1c" or "Er7c", so... – Ixrec Oct 14 '15 at 22:38
11

My display name on this SE community comes from a Character from George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire.

Most of the people who are familiar with the work assume that it's after Aegon I 'The conquerer' Targaryen but in fact it is after Aegon V 'the fortunate' Targaryen. (Aegon I was a useless bloke who wasn't really a very good ruler).

I did toy with picking the name "Aegon the Answerer" (Because it kinda sounds like Aegon the Conqueror) but then I thought it is too weird. So Aegon it is, Seven bless our good king Aegon V.

4
  • 1
    ahhh, I was goiing to ask which Aegon. I had pretty much ruled out IV, because you know... – Möoz Jul 11 '16 at 22:29
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    Aegon IV had a lot of fun tho lol. They can call him unworthy but that guy must have been fun to have at parties (If you don't have any female family members or friends in a radius of 2 KM) – Aegon Jul 12 '16 at 6:53
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    plus he gave us Bloodraven, so can't complain too much! – Möoz Jul 12 '16 at 6:58
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    With Dunk, they are one of the coolest buddy couple of the ASOIAF world ! – Bebs V Dec 3 '16 at 17:54
11

After the character in “Game of Thrones”.

Why? Because I didn’t have any better ideas. :P

4
  • Why'd you change Bellatrix to Arya? – Nikita Neganov Feb 15 at 10:06
  • @NikitaNeganov Because J.K. Rowling keeps retconning her universe and I couldn’t think of anything better. I’ll probably change it again once I have a better idea. – Arya May 9 at 16:41
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    yeah, it took me a while to realize it was you when I was reading yet another HP-themed extremely detailed answer :) – Nikita Neganov May 9 at 16:43
  • 1
    @NikitaNeganov Thanks! :) Well, I will be something better soon enough, once I figure out what that is! – Arya May 9 at 16:56
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I wanted to promote an Area 51 initiative I created about wikis, first called "Wikis and Wikipedia" and then "Wikispeedia". We weren't getting enough people interested so I changed my user name to "Wikis at Area 51", an initiative which delivered zero impact.

When our Area 51 proposal died, I shortened it. I might change it again; searching for "Wikis" (eg in Mos Eisley or even here on meta) is pretty hopeless: most of the time people are talking about Wikipedia. :)

7
  • 1
    It makes me think of the main character in District 9... Though, obviously spelled slightly differently – Catija Oct 12 '15 at 18:36
  • @Catija: indeed, I nearly added that! – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 12 '15 at 19:00
  • 1
    @Wikis, I don't understand what this proposal would have been – ThePopMachine Oct 13 '15 at 3:29
  • 1
    @ThePopMachine: maybe that's why it wasn't a success?! It was a place to discuss things like how to implement a company wide wiki, how to work with software extensions, which wiki software to choose etc. BTW, will you explain your user name? – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 13 '15 at 6:21
  • 1
    @Wikis, ah got it. This is now an answer in a wiki comment about a question in a wiki comment about meta-wiki answer by Wiki-named user about a wiki site proposal about wikis. This is some serious Inception s#*t. – ThePopMachine Oct 13 '15 at 17:19
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    @ThePopMachine: and I popped over to my machine to pop a message to your machine via the Stack Exchange machines while drinking pop. I need a lie down. – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 13 '15 at 17:42
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    Seeing all the great examples on this page, I really wish I'd thought of a better name... – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 28 '15 at 12:00
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Like the pine trees lining the winding road,
I've got a name, I've got a name;
Like the singing bird and the croaking toad,
I've got a name, I've got a name.
And I carry it with me like my daddy did,
But I'm living the dream that he kept hid...

That's about it.

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