# 'Origin' of Your User Name



## LiVeWiRe

[Don't think there has been a thread like this before, but if so then just let me know and direct me there if possible...thanks!]

Just curious to hear the 'origin' of the names users have on the EN World boards...

Obviously if you use your actual name then that's self-explanatory, but if not then please respond...

Thanks!

BTW, my user name originally came from a Champions character that I used to play where the GM developed characters for us based on our personalities, skills, etc.  He deemed me 'LiVeWiRe' because he swore I had electricity coursing through my veins making me so energetic!  

I've shared that story with others and they agree...the name fits!


----------



## BiggusGeekus

LiVeWiRe said:
			
		

> *Just curious to hear the 'origin' of the names users have on the EN World boards... *




I was once like other men....


But one fateful day I was bitten by a radioactive game designer.   At first, I used my powers for personal gain.  But when my Uncle Ben was killed after reading a copy of _Synnibarr_  -- an action I could have prevented -- I realized that his words were true: with great power comes with great responsibility.  I have since dedicated my life to fighting the forces of evil!  I am a CR/ECL computational godsend!  I am _*Biggus Geekus!!!*_


----------



## Apok

The Apok is an O.C.C (Occupational Character Class) from the Rifts RPG.  No, it has absolutely nothing to do with that guy from the first Matrix movie.


----------



## Rashak Mani

Rashak Mani is the name of my favorite and most well roleplayed character...     Not playing him now thou...


----------



## Crothian

My parents thought it would make a good name for their eldest son.  

Or maybe not...


----------



## Nifft

Nifft the Lean is a character in books by Michael Shea. They're great books, but for some reason obscure.

 -- Nifft


----------



## KB9JMQ

Its my  HAM callsign.
It is normally available for use whenever I sign up somewhere.


----------



## wallshot

after some hellacious penalties for trying to bank arrows off of stone walls, my 3rd level elven (Monte)ranger slew three ogres while the party tank held them at bay...just kinda stuck after that....

besides, all my other names are derived from a period in my life i would rather soon put behind me...


----------



## beta-ray

i have no imagination.

Stole the name from onoe of my favorite Marvel comics character.


----------



## CTD

Craig Thomas Dalrymple

or (if you are a Windows user) shorthand for 

Crash To Desktop

I'm a tech and my name is Craig, so it fits me well enough either way.


----------



## NiTessine

Long ago, back in the days when the computer game Baldur's Gate came out, I named my first character Giralian NiTessine, borrowing the name of an elven noble family featured in Elaine Cunningham's Forgotten Realms novel _Elfshadow_. Then, a while later, I started going to Interplay's BG board, the Backroom, using the name NiTessine. It stuck.


----------



## Skade

Skade is a character from my Einherar campaign, named for the norse goddess Skadi (really a frost giant).  In the campaign she was a snowly skinned woman who owed her loyalty to the character's jarl.  The reasons for this were left a mystery, as she was not of the kindred, and seemed to revel in the outcast place she held among the tribe.  It later came to light that she was the daughter of a Frost Giant, who would eventually become their greatest adversary) and a cruel druid of a primal, haunted wood, called Thangodrun.  Her harsh upbringing, and her unusual heritage made her intersting to play.  Her frosty demeanor, and cruel streak were a departure for me, and I belive she was one of my players favorite NPCs.


----------



## Winterthorn

My name hails from my outdoor LARP days of yesteryear: I played a really interesting Necromancer, it was really cold outside, and we were playing in brambly woods. Winter + thorns... The rest is history I suppose... 

-W.


----------



## Hand of Vecna

I really _am_ the Hand of Vecna!

(( okay, okay, at the time I signed up here, I was playing Radknooz, First & Only Kobold Cleric of Vecna.  He was convinced he'd be Vecna's "right hand man" eventually ))


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari

I used to be Isida Kep'Tukari, the name of my first 3e character, but due to very strange and frustrating login problems, I deemed it to be less stressful to just register a new login name.

I was playing in a EN World In Character Call of Cthulhu game at the time, and my character's name was Ray Silver.  Hence the name.


----------



## Chun-tzu

Chun-tzu comes from Confucianism, so anyone familiar with the term would know that I have an interest in Chinese philosophy. Plus, it's obscure enough that I can use it for email addresses and the like without having to throw numbers or decimals into it.


----------



## tleilaxu

the tleilaxu or bene tleilax are from Frank Herbert's dune series... They are masters of genetic manipulation


----------



## Creamsteak

My complicated name is based on an aboriginal tribe located in mid-australia that believed in worshiping the god of stick-figures...

or more literally, I wanted to take two "soft" sounding words and cram them together into one easiliy recognizable name. I've been using it since 1992 when I first gained internet access. You can always recognize my name and instantly know that nobody is imitating my name. There are a million "Sniper!" names in any competitive online video game. By being named "Creamsteak" I keep my titles and streeks alive!

Sometimes I get called creamstreak... which shows the direction certain' people's thoughts travel ever so quickly, but in all light I am literally a steak that's been through a blender.


----------



## demiurge1138

I was reading a book on obscure words when I came across "demiurge". It means "creator of worlds", so I grabbed it, figuring that it would be an appropriate alias for a DM. The "1138" is from THX-1138, Star Wars, and any other movie from the increasingly fractured mind of George Lucas.
Demiurge


----------



## Wayside

...and long before the day
Was old, the joy which waked like Heaven's glance
The sleepers in the oblivious valley, died,
And some grew weary of the ghastly dance
And fell, as I have fallen by the _wayside_,
Those soonest from whose forms most shadows past
And least of strength & beauty did abide.

-Shelley, "The Triumph of Life"


----------



## Kershek

Kershek is a name I made up some time ago because I was tired of Kurgan being taken when I signed up for things.  I had used Kurgan on IRC for a good 8 years so I guess it was time for a change.

And yes, I made up the name before that ape "Kerchak" was shown in the Tarzan movie.


----------



## Terraism

The first campaign world I was working on, years ago, ended up being named Terraism - in theory, it was Latin for "False Earth."  Having since taken Latin, I tend to hang my head in shame every time I think about its genesis... however, when I was trying to come up with an e-mail address, almost as long ago, that came to mind, and I've been using it ever since.  It's unique enough I don't see it elsewhere, either.  

The only unfortunate part is that I all too often get asked if it means "terrorism," when I'm giving out the address to someone I only know passingly well...


----------



## Victim

The first couple of times I played Perfect Dark on the N64, I kept getting creamed.  The game allows you to create a custom name, so I changed it to Victim since I kept losing.


----------



## LGodamus

Laocorn Godamus is the main villain in fatal fury the movie. He is a power mad man with a cursed bloodline who is destined to wear the armor of mars, god of war, and be consumed by it.


----------



## Enforcer

So, during the summer I work at an overnight camp in waaay northern Wisconsin. On a night off, four or five summers ago, some friends of mine went into this crappy little store called the "5 and 10 Toyland." To promote mischief, we were looking for dartguns--the kind that shoot those suction cup darts. Lo and behold, I found a beautiful dart shotgun made of yellow and orange plastic. It was called "The Enforcer." A friend bought the same gun in different colors, except that one was "The Protector." Anyways, I've been using Enforcer for a while now, though since its so cool, most other places I'm Enforcer5981. 5/9/81 is my birthday.

Yes, I'm aware that there's a Jet Li movie of the same name. I do own it, but it's not the source of my handle.


----------



## jgbrowning

*damn, i'm boring*

my handle is..

j=joseph
g=gordon
browning=browning

jgbrowning....  boring.. 

joe b.


----------



## Ridley's Cohort

*I hope this is obvious to everyone...*

I think my name is of no importance.  

I think my greatest accomplishment is standing around as set dressing while Ridley the Dimpled One saves the world single-handedly as recreated in _Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie_.

He is even more charming in real life.  I can tell you are all envious of my role in history.

There is hope.  One of his cohorts (Snails) bought the farm recently and Ridley is looking for a good man to take his place...


----------



## Oni

I picked my screen name because it is short and easy to remember.  Most places I'm Oni or Oni 7 (as Oni is occasionally taken by someone else).  I like it because of the vagueness of what an oni is.  Everything from goblins to gods of storm and thunder, monsters to guardians.  I've thought about changing it from time to time because of some people initial reactions (my brother once told my grandmother I called myself the devil online  *thwack*).  But it is convenient and a fair number of people know me by it, and I've got a sig picture for it now and everything.


----------



## Wayside

If I remember correctly, Plato's Demiurge formed the world, but the meaning of Demiurge that seems more common (maybe I just come across it more often) is from Gnosticism (Manichaeism too), which held that the creation of the material world was actually an evil act meant to keep souls from the pleroma.  The Demiurge was an evil figure for these early Christians... much like George Lucas is an evil figure for us


----------



## Wolfspirit

In the old Eye of the Beholder series of computer games, one of the pre-generated characters had the name of Wolfspirit, which I thought was rather cool, and started to use it on buletein boards and such.  (Hey, I think I was 12 at the time)

Now, of course, I think that I've obsorbed Wolfspirit into my persona, since I wear pretty much only Wolf shirts, and have a real fascination for wolves which I really didn't have prior to playing Wolfspirit :b


----------



## Tonguez

named for my favourite thing 

(and because of the whole communication-internet thing too I s'pose and then of course well...)


----------



## Mirth

Matt Wagner's _Mage_

Read it. You'll understand.


----------



## Jamdin

Jamdin comes from my real name, James Dinsmore. I came up with it many, many years ago as an alter ego for myself in D&D. My better half is named Esmore. It was only recently that I discovered Jamdin really is a name in Malaysia.


----------



## Talath

My user name came from a random name generator a long time ago, back when I was in 7th grade. It was set to generate a random elvish dragonlance name, and all it kept outputting was "thalas" and "thas" and very similar elven names.

The only name that was any different was "Talath Gond", so I took and used it as a name for various MMORPG, handles, and so forth. The name Talath is almost never taken, but there have been a few instances.


----------



## Agnostic Paladin

Back when third first hit, we started playing living greyhawk. Our home region was the Duchy of Urnst. Urnst has a philosophical movement called sceptics that feel that gods don't deserve worship since mortals can become gods. Since there was nothing evil about them, I decided I wanted to be sceptic paladin. My DM said no  When I decided I needed a new name, I went back to that concept, and became Agnostic Paladin. (Also, that's what I like to imagine myself as.)


----------



## Painfully

It got picked after about 30 tries to choose a login name on AOL.  Mostly so I could play the old NeverWinter Nights game they had.


----------



## Turlogh

Mine is a fairly obscure character from the writings of R.E. Howard.
An Irish warrior from around the time of the war between the Irish and the Vikings at Dublin. Turlogh Dubh of the clan Na O'Brien is the full name/ title or some times Black Turlogh.

Basically a cool character from a great author and I lack creativity so i stole it


----------



## Fast Learner

For the irony.


----------



## LiVeWiRe

*So far...*

*Awesome!* 

Thanks for all the responses thus far!  It's really interesting to see how/why people choose their user names...or at least, _I_ think so...

If you have ever wondered about the origin of a user's name, then point them in this direction and maybe they'll post it!

Keep'em coming!


----------



## Hopping Vampire

beta-ray said:
			
		

> *i have no imagination.
> 
> Stole the name from onoe of my favorite Marvel comics character. *




yeah beta ray bill was cool.

hopping vampire was an undead monster from asian lore


----------



## Balfin

Balfin was the name of the first NPC I ever used as a DM, and reoccurs with his twin brother Sarter in every game I run.

I would have used my first PC, but I don't remember what his name was and I'm sure I stole it from a novel anyway,


----------



## Arcane Runes Press

Arcane Runes Press is.....

uh

...... the name of my company.


None too exciting I suppose, but it is, along with a ninja man picture, on all my business cards.  

Patrick Y.


----------



## Alaric_Prympax

Alaric Prympax is an important NPC IMC set in Greyhawk.  Alaric because I've always liked the name from histroy (yes, I know he was a barbarian but I've always thought it was a cool name) and from Fantasy novels (Kathrine Kurtz' Deryni novels, Alaric Anthony Morgan is my favorite character).  Prympax is derived from the city Prymp in GH in Ahlissa where his family comes from.  I developed a long histroy of his family and the Great Kingdom and a little dispute over the throne of the Aerdi.


----------



## thalmin

Thalmin was the name of a major npc dwarven smith in a campaign I ran for six years.


----------



## Cyberzombie

Well, while I don't post much any more, I was here back when this was Eric Noah's boards.  Back on the original boards, there was a fellow named Ruin Explorer who liked to argue.  I felt like getting into an argument with him (I believe my first argument was that Robin Hood was a paladin and not a ranger), but I needed a screen name.  I played Shadowrun mostly at the time, so I decided to go with a Shadowrun name for a D&D board.  I was there to argue, anyway, so I thought I should just be contrary.


----------



## maransreth

Made mine from a Dragon article on creating Elvish names.
Mara=Priest
ansr=runes
sreth=magic.
So all together it comes as Priest of the runic magic. Or something like that. Was about 5 years ago or so that I came up with the name.


----------



## doraemon8

Me? Doraemon is the blue robotic cat from the future come to save the world and he has a really really cool pocket of holding that is infinite in size, weight of 0, and holds everything that comes to your imagination.  I was nicknamed that a few summers ago because I always carried a million things in my pocket and I was looked like him.  8 because it is my favorite number, 4*2 (42)=8, 8 is merely infinity on its side, and because 8 is shaped like doraemon.


----------



## Frostmarrow

Winterthorn said:
			
		

> *My name hails from my outdoor LARP days of yesteryear: I played a really interesting Necromancer, it was really cold outside, and we were playing in brambly woods. Winter + thorns... The rest is history I suppose...
> 
> -W. *




Cool. Frostmarrow was a necromancer too, originally. A friend of mine made a EQ-clan-website and he wanted me to write some stories and background for it. I invented Frostmarrow and told the stories through him. Frostmarrow the scribe.


----------



## hong

Frostmarrow said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Cool. Frostmarrow was a necromancer too, originally. A friend of mine made a EQ-clan-website and he wanted me to write some stories and background for it. I invented Frostmarrow and told the stories through him. Frostmarrow the scribe. *




Aren't you glad you decided to stop using "Frosty"?


----------



## Aitch Eye

I wanted to use something from Cordwainer Smith's "Instrumentality" future history stories, but names like "Manshonyagger [Menschenjager]," "Manikin MEEE," and "Old Hot and Simple" all just seemed like they'd be a bit much when paired with casual posts. I thought Aitch Eye sounded low-key but still pleasantly mysterious, but should have guessed that people would think it was an encoded greeting. It actually comes from the millennia-long conspiracy among animal derived slaves to gain legal rights; while the words do stand for the letters, it's an acronym.


----------



## mythago

A mythago is a figment of everyone's imagination. (See the book _Mythago Wood_ ).

I started using it back in the days when we had to hike uphill five miles each way in the snow to hook up our 300 baud modems, and it stuck.


----------



## Kamard

My original name on these boards, long long ago, was Gehreleth, from the old monster type of the same name.

Now Kamard actually also comes from these boards.  He was a character I used to harrass the fighters in You Bastard!

He is an arcanaloth, you know, Anubis-esque yugoloth.

My handle everywhere else is Jackalgod or Anubis in some flavour or other.  I really identify with him, for some reason, to the point of getting a tattoo of him on my forearm (cursed capitalism... I needs me some money)


----------



## Frostmarrow

hong said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Aren't you glad you decided to stop using "Frosty"? *




Yup. It was impossible to get any kind of response with that screen-name.


----------



## BOZ

"BOZ" sounds the same as my last name.  as for my ezboards username, "BOZ ummagumma", the latter part is the name of a Pink Floyd album.  in other forums in the past i've been KBozMan or BozMan74 or KBoz74, or a million other things... K being my first initial, and 74 being the year of my birth.  

most people don't get that for some reason...


----------



## Gez

Gez is actually simply my initials. 

I use it everywhere I can on the Internet. The rare times it's already taken, I simply add 117 after it, for my birthday is on 11 july.


----------



## Eternalknight

Eternalknight comes from every single D&D game I have DMed.  In one form or another, there has always been an ancient, undying knight in the world.


----------



## Zander

Zander is my nickname IRL. It's derived from my first name, which is Alexander. 

My username has nothing to do with the character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer called Xander. My family and friends have been calling me Zander ever since I can remember - years before Buffy was a twinkle in Mrs Summers's eye.

My surname IRL is Simkin, hence my sig.


----------



## Geist

GEIST.

Second Part of a two part name...

Full Designation:  PanzerGeist

Origin Germanic.
composed of two words.

_Panzer_ which is german for armor.
ang _Geist_ which is german for ghost, spirit or soul.

PanzerGeist Was the designator given to the cyborgs in a game I was designing before d20 came out and the game design was put on the shelf.

The reason for this naming was based off of a mix of MD Geist. an anime where a ruthless soldier type wears a rather cool suit of powerd armor.


As well as Ghost in the shell, and anime about well lots of thing. but a saying from the cyborgs in that movie was "a whisper in my ghosts"


so i combined the words. Panzer to represent the metal body that kept the brain and soul  (Geist) of a person alive.


ok so call me odd =P  I thought it was cool.

and ive used the nick since i was 13.


----------



## Alzrius

"Alzrius" is the name of an Abyssal Lord from Planescape (in 1E terminology that would be a Prince of the Abyss).

Alzrius gets mentioned only once or twice in a couple of Planescape products, and never in connection with anything important. I can't recall the exact products, but I think they were among _Hellbound: The Blood War_, _Faces of Evil: The Fiends_, and _On Hallowed Ground_.

Additionally, one of the last few Dragons to be published in 2E had an article "Armor of the Abyssal Lords." One suit of armor was described as being flame-themed, and its Abyssal Lord was unknown. That was probably Alzrius (see below).

Alzrius was described as being a living flame (curiously like a fire elemental), and that when he sent his minions out into battle, he gave them a piece of his own body to use as a torch (which means he probably was the host for the Abyssal Olympics). He ruled the 601st Layer of the Abyss, which is called Conflagratum.


----------



## tburdett

First initial of my first name and my last name.  Back in the glorious days of the Commodore 64 I went by the handle Beyonder.  I guess I've outgrown that.  The way I see it now is if I can't post something as myself, it's not worth posting.


----------



## s/LaSH

Take my initials. Cram them into one space, so they look like some crazy runic tangle. Simplify that tangle into an easily drawn symbol. That's what I put at the end of my signature.

Fast forward a few years. I've used it so often I write the symbol as fast as any other letter, and because of its shape it always feels like I'm cutting the symbol into something, like Zorro's Z. I start referring to it as a chop (is that Chinese dialect for signature?) or slash.

And from there, I just elaborated a little. 'Slash' can refer to a... biological term, so I quickly changed it to s/LaSH, because the / symbol was both another meaning of 'slash' and resembled one of the lines from the original symbol. The capitalisation sequence, which is very important, was balanced out in my head one day. If the 'a' is a pivot, then the rest of the word weighs correctly and won't fall over.

I haven't enhanced it since then. Now that I think about it, it's quite crazy (I calculated a capitalisation sequence?!?), but hey, if someone walked up to me and said, "I compliment you on your rational, totally sane outlook on the world", I'd check them for drug use. Or maybe brain damage. If anyone's seen Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, they'll know what level of damage I'm talking about.


----------



## Dinkeldog

It's a Marine thing.


----------



## Bagpuss

Bagpuss comes from a children's TV show that was on while I was growning up in the UK. About a magical cloth cat.

I reused the name for a Nosferatu Elder character I played which was a shortening of "Bag of Puss".

I took it here as a laugh once all the Iconic's started appearing. But I've been posting here since before 3E came out, originally as DMaple.


----------



## John Smallberries

John Yaya and John Bigbutte were unavailable.


----------



## Chain Lightning

I just went with something straight forward and simple. A random spell from the PHB. 

Plus, whenever someone uses the spell, I take the blue Viz marker and draw lighting arcs between the miniatures on the game map.


----------



## Pbartender

It's a nickname I picked up at work.

I work at a partical accelerator that makes antimatter...  Antiprotons in particular.  "P" is an abbreviation for protons. A "P" with a horizontal line over it is abbreviation for antiprotons.  It is spelled "pbar", and is pronounced, "Pee-bar".

One of our primary jobs is to produce and store antiprotons.  Hence, I am a Pbar-tender.


----------



## 'o Skoteinos

'o Skoteinos (pronounced as ho skoteinos) is the nickname of an ancient Greek philosopher, Herakleitos.

'o Skoteinos means the obsure / dark one, and Herakleitos was called that because of his view on life.

The name suits me in so many ways...


----------



## Kilmore

Kilmore is the name of my self-insertion character in a series of fantasy stories and comics that I intermittently work on.  His picture's at http://homepages.apci.net/~kilmore/gallery.html


----------



## Hand of Evil

There is a computer game called Dungeon Keeper (a wonderful game), in it the cursor is a hand that picks up, directs, slaps, monsters and adventures...it was called the 'hand of evil'.  

I used it when signing on to the forums dealing with that game.  When I started here I just kept it as it really applied to what a DM does.  

I have thought about changing my to Yippy Coyotee or to my old BBS handle, Jamm'in Jake Jambore Street Preacher of Sin, but sort of like HoE.


----------



## Lurks-no-More

Lurks-no-More is word play; on one hand, as a registered poster, I lurk no more; on the other hand, the name's a modification of Grey-no-More, from the inestimable Cordwainer Smith (Hiya, Aitch Eye!).


----------



## Mr Fidgit

John Smallberries said:
			
		

> *John Yaya and John Bigbutte were unavailable. *



Big Booty!


i was discussing great movie lines with a friend the day before i signed up. thus...
\/     [edit - and the charcter who said it]
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/


----------



## Buttercup

I suppose most people have guessed this, but my name is from the movie, Princess Bride.

When I registered on Nutkinland last month, I was surprised to find out that everyone thought it referred to the repulsive and badly drawn Power Puff Girls.  It doesn't.


----------



## Dismas

Used to post as OtherNiceMan, but lost the password. That name came from a GenCon a long time ago when I stepped in to run a game of For Faerie Queen and Country at short notice. I didn't even have the book at the time. Luckly none of the players turned up as they were all nursing hangovers.

My current name Dismas is a religious name, he is the patron saint of: condemned prisoners, criminals, death row prisoners, funeral directors, prisoners, prisoners on death row, reformed thieves, undertakers.

He was one of the theives who was crucified with Jesus, the one that asked for his blessing.


----------



## Elocin

I have been using this handle for the past 4+ years when I met my wife.  It is her name spelled backwards and I try and use it everywhere including my online gaming accounts.


----------



## ninthcouncil

I used to use "xibalba" when I could for internet-related things (it's the name of the underworld in Mayan mythology). However, it's not quite obscure enough, so I was increasingly finding it taken - and I really don't like adding numbers. When I couldn't register it on yahoo, I fell back on ninthcouncil, as at the time I was mulling over an idea for a modern occult/conspiracy campaign in which The Ninth Council was a (literally) underground organisation based around a secret London tube line. It never got out of gestation, but I liked the name, so it's become my preferred handle when I need such a thing.

As to where The Ninth Council came from - it's from a (misheard) lyric in a Fall song...

"There's a silent rumble
From the victims of the ninth council"

For the correct, and equally incomprehensible, version, see 
here


----------



## WizarDru

It's an old nickname given to me way back in my 1e days.  I've kept it ever since.


----------



## Dark Dragon

I used my nick name first as a pilot's name when I played the Tie Fighter computer game years ago (remember, you were fighting for the Empire  ). I was quite good at it ... hmm, perhaps I should play some missions of X-Wing Alliance again.
Well, second point is, in each adventure I DMed, there was at least one dragon...sometimes helpful, but mostly pure evil, rarely was one of the dragons evil and arrogant but not destructive (ever heard of Balagos the Flying Flame?). I like dragons.


----------



## Tetsubo

Kershek said:
			
		

> *Kershek is a name I made up some time ago because I was tired of Kurgan being taken when I signed up for things.  I had used Kurgan on IRC for a good 8 years so I guess it was time for a change.
> 
> And yes, I made up the name before that ape "Kerchak" was shown in the Tarzan movie. *




Every time I see your name I think it's Kershaw the knife maker.


----------



## Tetsubo

My nick is my favorite Japanese martial arts weapon. Large, slow and blunt. Much like myself.


----------



## fett527

fett- The most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy.

527- The ultimate number in the universe.


----------



## JoeBlank

I'll play, but it's another boring one. Joe Blankenship, so I am JoeBlank most places I go on the internet. I do like that it implies that I am not giving my last name, but am just inserting a ______. 

Of course, when I first started using it, I thought "Blank" was rather obscure and that no one would actually have that as a last name. I live in Atlanta, where one of the founders of Home Depot now owns the Atlanta Falcons football team: Arthur Blank. No relation, unless that is just his screen name.


----------



## boxstop7

Mine is almost completely random.  "box" is a nickname I picked up in college (for a variety of reasons), "7" is my favorite number.  the name itself means absolutely nothing and has no significance.  I try not to put too much thought into mundane matters such as these, what with the apocalypse being upon us thanks to class-action lawsuits filed against McDonald's for making people fat... 

~Box


----------



## Angelsboi

my name has two origins.  First the lesser known one ... 

My mom was 14 at the time.  My Mammaw and Pappaw (for non southern folks read: Grandma and Grandpa).  My Pappaw was a trucker and wasnt always home.  My mammaw was an alcoholic and very abusive to my mom.  Like most abused kids, she wishedfor a happy ending.  My mom prayed to God to send her a guardian angel to protect her.  

It was then she met my father, who was 25.  She thought he was the one.  They had sex for the first time (my mom was on the pill and my father was using a condom) and 9 months later when she was 15, I was born.  My real father had left her and it was just me and my mom.

My mammaw stopped being abusive and quit drinking cold turkey.  She eventually passed away 3 years later but my mammaw loved me so much for saving her life.  My mom swore up and down that i was the Angel God had sent her.

So shes been calling me angel for 23 years.  7 years ago, Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired and i feel in lust with David Boreanaz, who plays Angel.  My mom said eventually she'd see me on the news stalking him and maybe one day, id be Angel's Boy.

Being gay (and having this thing for symetry) Angelsboy seems ... off because of the y's tail.  So i changed it to Angelsboi and i am still called Angel, for short.


----------



## blackshirt5

When I got to this site and got ready to make a screen name, I was wearing a black shirt.  Enough said.


----------



## National Acrobat

*I'll play*

Quite simply I love Black Sabbath. National Acrobat is the name of my favorite Sabbath song, off of my favorite Sabbath album, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. Seemed to fit rather well. Since I love sci-fi and fantasy, the name works. The song is about a futuristic method of encoding embryo's to create the 'perfect' children, at least that's what Sabbath says. Geezer Butler admits that he was tripping pretty heavy when he wrote the lyrics, so who knows. Anyway, that's the story and I am sticking with it.


----------



## Dieter

*Name Origin*

Dieter (full name Dieter Niederburger) came from an old Top Secret S.I. (now F.U.D.G.E) character of mine. He's the Swiss-born black-ops commando. 

Basically he's a Connery-style Bond with a good dose of The Punisher thrown in for flavor.


----------



## Magius del Cotto

Magius del Cotto is the name of my fictional alter ego (basically me just put into my writings).  He is incredibly powerful (somewhere beyond avatar status), and he travels the multiverse, trying to make amends for almost destroying his own world.  He cannot be killed, and he can change shape almost at will (both thanks to incredibly rare technologies), but his favored form is a human male, about 20 years old.  I'd go into more detail about his backstory, but I've been using him for years now, and just the summary would take up several pages.


----------



## wighair

Mine is just a stupid one I use on the web where I can. That said there do seem to be other wighairs out there!

I have no (or very little) natural hair remaining, so if I wanted some it would have to be wig based. I do NOT however currently wear a wig! ;-) honest!


----------



## Tsyr

Tsyr is a character I have recreated in almost every game system under the sun at one point or another, and is also my single most played AD&D character. *shrug*.


----------



## John Crichton

For years, I used the name Blade as a handle.  But after the movie came out and now that I'm much older now (was in my mid-teens then) it needed a change.  Also, I ran a very popular comic-book creator's website and many folks knew me so I figured I'd start new.

As for the name *John Crichton* (or as many prefer here: JC, which is actually something I may change it to): Farscape is my favorite TV show and the username wasn't taken here so I just used the main character's name.


----------



## alsih2o

alumina, silica and water.

 clay, baby.


----------



## Imhotepthewise

I would have used Imhotep on its own, but it wouldn't take.  Imhotep the Egyptian was the builder of the Step Pyramid, one of the first to study medicine, and other science.  Later worshipped as a god, even by the Greeks and Romans.  Given a bad name this century and last as a shambling, rag wrapped, bad guy.  Imhotep was one of the first recorded scientists and architects.  I assume he was wise.  I hope to honor him in this tag.

"To speak his name is to make him live again!" -  Egyptian proverb


----------



## Voadam

Tetsubo said:
			
		

> *My nick is my favorite Japanese martial arts weapon. Large, slow and blunt. Much like myself. *




Isn't Tetsubo a character in Akira?


----------



## Voadam

Voadam is a character I played shortly after the Complete Fighter's Handbook came out, he was a human viking elite merc with the myrmidon kit and stats good enough to switch to mage. I played him for years, moved to Wisconsin and played him in a 1e/2e homebrew campaign where he went to epic levels as a switch class character. He also showed up as an NPC hunter in a VtM campaign I played in. I'm getting to play him again in 3e in a game that starts up in a couple of weeks (his stats, items, and levels have been trashed by undead but he still fights on).


----------



## Marius Delphus

I can't imagine anyone has actually been wondering, but I'll satiate my ego by going ahead and posting. 

Marius Delphus is one of my many NPCs: in 3E terms he's an epic cleric of Vulcan. (In Marius's world, Vulcan is actually the "Roman" pantheon's chief deity; as an aside, all the deities of this particular pantheon have both no alignment and every alignment....) Marius got created in the late 80s to fill in the party roster after an epic-level near-TPK (H4), and he's been around (somewhere or other) ever since.


----------



## Oni

Voadam said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Isn't Tetsubo a character in Akira? *




I believe the character you are thinking of is named Tetsuo


----------



## Ashy

Apok said:
			
		

> *The Apok is an O.C.C (Occupational Character Class) from the Rifts RPG.  No, it has absolutely nothing to do with that guy from the first Matrix movie.   *




Yea, I ran an Apok named Deacon once...  Very cool stuff....    Wormwood rocks!


----------



## Tom Cashel

Angelsboi said:
			
		

> *My Mammaw and Pappaw... *




Hey!  I've got a Mamaw too!  She's from Tennessee.

But...

My username comes from James Joyce's _Ulysses_...the esteemed Thomas Cashel Fitzmaurice O'Boyle O'Flynn.

K.M.R.I.A.

Cheers,
Tom


----------



## Henry

alsih2o said:
			
		

> *alumina, silica and water.
> 
> clay, baby. *




Chemistry used to be a hobby of mine.

I'll never have to look up your name again.


----------



## der_kluge

We actually have had this thread before, but what goes around, comes around, I suppose.


Mine is complicated.  It's German for "The Clever", or so I thought, until a German exchange student told me that the "die" is feminine and "der" would be the masculine, so it actually means "clever woman", which makes sense, since it is the name of a rather obscure German opera by composer Carl Orff (Carmina Burana), whose long title is "The King and the Clever woman".

The name itself was the product of an hour long search one night to try to find a unique hotmail name - something I didn't have to add numbers to.

I'm thinking of changing it, though, since the thought of being a "clever woman" kind of depresses me.  Since I'm a guy and all...


----------



## Henry

My real name is Algernon Q. Thristwhistle, but when registering on these boards, I picked the most exotic, fantastic screen name I could think of.


----------



## Videssian

Mine is from Harry Turtledove's Videssos cycle.. it's a very neat set of books, worth checking out.. he's one of my top 3 authors.. Anyway, Videssos is the capital city of the Videssian Empire, and someone who is a member of that empire is a "videssian"..


----------



## Clear Dragon

At one point I was explaining the alignment difference between chromatic and metallic dragons to someone new to the game and they asked me what the most dangerous color of dragon was. I chose my response to be my user name.


----------



## Arnwyn

My handle is the name of my favourite NPC in the very long-term campaign I run - and it's never taken anywhere else on the 'net.


----------



## Wolfspider

My user name comes from the name of a drow assassin I ran as a nemesis for my players starting in the early 80s.  I even got a chance to play him a couple times (the most memorable being a juant through time and space to the world of Athas).

These days Wolfspider is manifesting in the current rule set as a 30th level ranger with his black heart set on making my current (18th level) PCs miserable.

Heh heh.


----------



## Moxie

Moxie was a popular soft drink in the 30's and 40's. It's still around today, but very limited in distribution. Some times you can still hear someone say "You've got moxie!" Their ad campaign seems to have outlived the product.

It's also from Bored of the Rings. Moxie and Pepsi were the names of two of Frito's companions.

It's also the name of one of my cats. The other one is named Pippin. Three guesses where that one came from!


----------



## fusangite

Well, my signature line pretty well covers it.

I'm from Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the most Chinese cities in North America. On Canada's west coast, aboriginal people had contact with Chinese explorers hundreds of years before Europeans. The royal house of the Gitksan people, for instance, have a Sung dynasty Chinese coain as one of their heirlooms. 

In the 19th century, European scholarship discovered a Chinese court record about a group of Buddhist missionaries who sailed to a land west of Tahan (the Kamchatka Peninsula) to the land of Fusang. Fusang, in the description sounds like a weird amalgam of every civilization in Pacific North America -- coffee beans growing on cedar trees, etc. 

Essentially, I live in Fusang as much as I live in the Americas. Also, a favourite tradition in my GMing is fantasy versions/revisionist histories of the Americas. So far, I've run a quest for the Holy Grail set in a mythic version of the Americas in 1237, as well as a game set in 1990 and an alternate version of 2002 and a short Gamma World campaign based around the reservoir on the Peace River in Northern BC. 

Anyway, my handle keeps the idea alive of me running a medieval Pacific Rim game and reminds me that I live as much in Fusang as I do Vancouver.


----------



## Oni

I would also like to add that having lived in New England I can say with first hand experience that Moxie is one of the most vile drinks I have ever encountered.


----------



## 0-hr

Since my real life name is Ryan, I used to use "RYN" as my initials on video games. Online, that became "Ki-Ryn" simply as a variant on the oriental unicorn name (Ki-Rin).


----------



## Sir Hawkeye

Rale Hawkeye is my oldest D&D character that "stuck" (I created one of every class I think. I was 11 or so at the time.) Half-elf Ranger, now level 11. You say you want a revolution? Hawkeye's your man.

"Sir" was chosen for euphony mostly, as he doesn't have knighthood. I suppose once he builds a castle he can call himself "Sir".


----------



## Mark

LiVeWiRe said:
			
		

> *Obviously if you use your actual name then that's self-explanatory, but if not then please respond...*




Does this mean that we shouldn't post if it's self-explanatory?


----------



## King_Stannis

Inspired by the fantastic "Song of Ice and Fire" series by GRR Martin.

King Stannis Baratheon, the one true king of Westeros.


----------



## Quickbeam

Simple enough...

** I really like the LotR books.
** Talking trees like those in _The Wizard of Oz_ the Ents, are way cool.
** And mostly because I happen to be similar in personality to my namesake.  Which is to say that I'm jovial, tough, and quick to give an answer before I've always heard the entire question or proposal.

Besides, I like how it sounds .


----------



## Undead Pete

My name is Pete

I am a DM.

I like throwing much undead crunchy goodness at my players

Ulgurstaastaa = PURE GENIUS


----------



## Turjan

"Turjan of Miir" is the name of the protagonist of the first story in Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" from 1950. I think it's the first time that D&D type magic has been used, ever. Well, obviously D&D took it from Jack Vance . 

I'll always remember Turjan's magic duell with Kandive the Golden. They use spells like "The Excellent Prismatic Spray", and the descriptions are awesome .


----------



## Swack-Iron

*Swack-Iron*

Swack-Iron dragons are amongst the most feared wyrms of Garwheeze Wurld, the home of the Knights of the Dinner Table.


----------



## Someone

This is the most stupid name I could think on.


----------



## Desdichado

My last name is Dyal, an Indic name, and in my yoga classes my students used to call me Mr. Joshua because I'd chain them up from the ceiling and beat them.

Or, Joshua Dyal is just really my name and the fact that Dyal is also a last name in India is just a coincidence!  

How much explanation do you want on my name, anyway?  I could go on and on about how some of our folks think the origin of the name goes back to the first recorded sherrif of Oxford, but I don't know if I buy that or not.


----------



## Seule

Many years ago I playe a Ranger named Seule on a MUD (Realms of the Dragon if anyone cares), and the name stuck as a number of online friends only knew me by that name.  It's not taken very often online, and is fairly unique.
Of course, when lonely French guys started hitting on me because it's also the feminine of 'alone' in French, I had to get my wife to translate.  We both find that very funny.

  --Seule


----------



## Lazybones

Pretty self descriptive.

I mean, writing a novel-length story hour while at work, or building NWN modules until I can no longer see the keyboard, no problem.

But actually working...


----------



## Mallus

I'm positively drowning in originality right now...

Mallus is my current 3E character...

Mallus Dargentum is the bastard middle son of Magnus Dargentum --a wealthy owner of silver mines, go figure...

His older siblings are Castor and Medea.

His younger siblings are Malcolm and Iphaegenea {"Iffy" for short}.

He has been, at various times, a physician, a drug dealer, engaged, bereaved, wanted and unwanted. He is now, nominally, a defender of True Love, going by the name {and homebrewed Prc...} Mallus Lovesworn.

BTW, Mallus is meant to suggest "malice" and "malleable". He's often bent over backwards just to annoy his family  --for not legitimizing him-- and he has a meanl streak a mile wide.

My next handle will be Space Commander Travis Bickle...


----------



## nsruf

*Re: damn, i'm boring*



			
				jgbrowning said:
			
		

> *jgbrowning....  boring..
> 
> joe b. *




Yup, we initials-plus-last-name-people are a boring lot

Nikolaus Sebastian Ruf

PS: I wanted nyarlathotep when I first signed up, but it was already taken. Funny thing is, I hardly ever saw that guy post (and to add to the confusion, my login for the reviews page is nyarlathotep).


----------



## Mordane76

Mordane was my first RPG character of any real structure; he was created as a Dark Ages Vampire, roamed Europe through the late Dark Ages, travelled to the Americas and roamed the New World for a little, then was staked and left to rot until the modern era, where he was awakened upon an unsuspecting 90's Boston.

The 76 comes from my first attempt to make a Hotmail account, and when I tried to put in Mordane, it was already taken... apparently by 75 other people.  So I put the -76 on it.  I didn't even try just plain Mordane when I signed up for the boards; Mordane76 is also my AIM name.


----------



## littlejohn

Littlejohn is my middle name, believe it or not.


----------



## The Sigil

Originally posted by The Sigil 
Well, I used to be too lazy to write or sign my name (I know, "Spencer Cooley" is so horribly long) so I started using my initials instead. I got to the point where I was very quick about doing it and instead of "STC" it looked something like "812" and then like a symbol indecipherable as alphanumeric characters.

Since I used it on everything, I noted it was kind of like my own personal "wizard's sigil." And in time, I just started calling myself, "The Sigil" since my initials/sigil was more easily recognizable than my name... I was no longer myself, I had become the symbol of myself - the sigil, if you will.

I decided it was kind of cool and stuck with it.

Then Planescape came along and everyone thought I copied "Sigil," their world. Bah. It's not "Sigil" and it's not "a sigil" or "some sigil" or "one sigil" it's "The Sigil" - the definite article 'The" is as much a part of the name as the word "Sigil."

Kind of like the difference between "one ring" and "The One Ring," ya know?

Why am I so picky? I dunno. 

--The Sigil


----------



## vic20

The Commodore Vic20 was my first personal computer, and the one that I took my baby steps as a programmer on.


----------



## carpedavid

Mine is an obvious pun on "carpe diem" - or "seize the day." I just like the sound of "seize the dave." Although, it might not be _too_ obvious, as I've never seen anyone else use it.


----------



## seasong

When I first got on the Internet, I called myself "a little fish in a big pond". People really liked that moniker, and it seemed to fit my style of conversation well, so I stuck with it.

"a little fish in a big pond" does not fit very well as a userID, however, so I needed some kind of short hand. I experimented with alfiabp, littlefish, etc., but ultimately decided on _seasong_ as a small gesture to whale songs, which I was interested in at the time.

Later, I added a layer of meaning to the nick when I developed a Magic: the Gathering deck that relied heavily on and showcased the abilities of the _seasinger_.

Recently, I added another layer when I got interested in _chantey singing_, the timing songs of sailors.

And that's pretty much it. It fits okay, it represents a random subset of my interests, and it's pretty.

I like pretty.


----------



## Pazu

Buttercup said:
			
		

> *I suppose most people have guessed this, but my name is from the movie, Princess Bride.
> 
> When I registered on Nutkinland last month, I was surprised to find out that everyone thought it referred to the repulsive and badly drawn Power Puff Girls.  It doesn't. *




I'm guessing that you didn't have the convenient subtitle "Princess of Florin" for the folks at Nutkinland? 

Not that Buttercup from _The Powerpuff Girls_ isn't a great source, either.  Admittedly, I love both the Powerpuffs (TV show and movie) and _The Princess Bride_ (book and movie).

-- Pazu


----------



## Pazu

Oh, and by the way:

Pazu is the name of the hero in the classic Studio Ghibli film _Laputa: Castle in the Sky_*.  Headstrong and not too bright, but steadfast, good-hearted, and devoted to his lady love.

I can identify with that. 

-- Pazu

* I really, _really_ wish Disney would hurry up and release the film now that the region 2 DVD is out...


----------



## Hatchling Dragon

Apok said:
			
		

> *The Apok is an O.C.C (Occupational Character Class) from the Rifts RPG.  No, it has absolutely nothing to do with that guy from the first Matrix movie.   *




And _Hatchling Dragon_ is an *R.C.C.* (*R*acial *C*haracter *C*lass) from Rifts.  I was very in to Rifts and a frequent visitor on the Palladium boards when I discovered first DnD 3e, then WotC's boards and finaly my new on-line home the ENboards (back when they were Eric's still).

It seemed to 'fit' with the whold DnD setting so I kept it.  I'd noticed a couple others that seemed to post on both boards as well, and I wanted to let them know I was doing the same.

Besides, the name fits so well, I'll still be a 'kid' at 100, if I live that long 

Hatchling Dragon


----------



## isoChron

Hm, mine should have been Chronos like the ancient Greek god. It's my nick at Counterstrike and I'm used to it. 
Ok, since I'm no creative mastermind I copied the nick from CS to EN-World. So far so good ...
Then came the change of the EN-Server some time ago and i could not connect under my "Chronos"-nick anymore. As I wanted to register anew as Chronos I was told by my silly computer that this name is not available ...  
Ok, so a new, but not so new name had to be found ...
I'm working on geochronology at the university and there is an important part in dating a rock ... drawing the isochron.
Hmm, Chronos ... chron ... isoChron ! Heureka, I got it. 

Chronos aka isoChron


----------



## Skade

*Almost on topic reply*



			
				King_Stannis said:
			
		

> *Inspired by the fantastic "Song of Ice and Fire" series by GRR Martin.
> 
> King Stannis Baratheon, the one true king of Westeros. *




I love that series, and would almost venture to say it is my personal favorite fantasy series ever.  Since my screen name has some frosty refrences I was going to use the Stark words in my sig, "winter Is Coming".  A very dark and portentious phrase in the world of George R.R. Martin.

But youre wrong, Brand Stark is the one true king!!!


----------



## Zarthon

Zarthon is the name of my favorite D&D character, dont use him much now days


----------



## JohnClark

My favorite character from the Clancy novels.


----------



## Bastoche

I usually register my real name, but on the 4th previous (or maybe it's the 5th) of this board, at the time when Eric Noah was still handling his website, there was a Sebastian registered in. The first place I posted, everybody where mistaking us so Sebastian sent me an email asking me to change my username to avoid confusion. I went for Bastoche which is the way my cousin called me when I was a kid.


----------



## Psionicist

The year was 1999, I lurked over at the very first instance of Eric's old message board, before the site was hosted by rpgplanet. I read every single thread (or thread, "entry" is a better word because the forum wasn't really a forum but a guestbook sort of thing). I decided to participate in the discussions, but I never did. Then in all of a sudden, Eric got a new message board at rpgplanet. I signed up with the name Psionicist, as I am a long time fan of the concept, it's generally a pretty cool word and it's fairly unique, plus it's a good username for a RPG-board.

That's my story.


----------



## drakhe

My current user name (Drakhe) finds it origin in my liking dragons and celtic/norse beckgrounds. I had seen the word drakhen in some fantasy novel used to refer to dragons, and liked it so much I adopted the word with the 'n' dropped as my nick, figuring that if drakhen is dragon, maybe drakhe could be a person involved with dragons (it's all fantasy anyways)

Another older nick I used a lot is T-Alpha (which stood for tiger alpha). The origin of this nick stems from the term 'tiger team'. This term refers to a team of people who's function was to try and penetrate computer security at al cost, in the interest of checking actual security. (in the early days, and maybe even still today, hackers who got cought often ended up heading these tiger teams, and well payed at that since no large corporation was/is interested in having their lack of security advertized. At the time I (must have been 13 or 14 years of age) I dreamed of being member of such a tiger team. And off course ;-) I would be the leader (or at least head the prime unit, don't remember exactly) hence tiger alpha! (I even had a logo: a lowercase letter alpha in celtic styile encircling a growling sabretooth tiger.


----------



## Mercule

Mercule Corin is one of my favorite characters.  He's a pacifist elven ranger -- great for roleplay, horrid for dungeon-crawls.

Anyway, since I made up the name out of whole cloth, it should be available to me anywhere I care to register.  And I do use it pretty much everywhere I go online.

About the only except is my AIM because I forgot my password.  There I go by sobekre.


----------



## Dispater

Because pretending to be the archduke of Dis is pretty damn kewl.


----------



## yongi

"yongi" has been my nickname since birth, given to me by my cruel and overly-literate father.  it's a corruption of Yonghy, as in The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo , by Edward Lear.  The spelling corruption comes from my older cousins.

Dad decided that I looked like the YBB when I popped out into the world.  According to some, I still do.


----------



## ColonelHardisson

Colonel Buck Hardisson is a character I've used in some of the fiction writing and screen writing I've done. I've never used him as a character for an RPG, but I've done stats for him. He's sort of like a character from the pulp magazines of the 20s, 30s and 40s; think of him as something like Dusty Ayres (of Dusty Ayres and his Battle Birds), Doc Savage, Buzz Lightyear, and Buckaroo Banzai rolled into one. Or something like that. The original incarnation of the character was as a pilot of a B-24 that flew the Ploesti mission of August 1943, and he appeared in a sequence in a screenplay I was writing at the time I first began posting to Eric's boards way back when.


----------



## La Bete

I worked for a french company in London, and after a serious night out on the tiles, and some disgraceful behaviour from myself involving 2 jugs of vodka redbull and a camera, and voila! La Bete du TGM, later shortened to la bete


----------



## BluWolf

I discovered D&D about three years after I discovered Tolkien. So when I started to game with some older gamers back in 81 the DM gave me a character for my birthday. (hey I was 12, it was the bomb to me). 

ANy way the character was a High Elven rangerish type guy with an animal companion (the guy was ahead of his time) that was a giant blue furred wolf.

I always liked the image so when I started posting online I just used it. In fact my ebsites are registered to my company, BluWolf Productions. What does this company do? Nothing but buy gaming material apparently. My lawyer said I couldn't incorporate and write all this stuff off though. Hey, I tried.


----------



## Tetsubo

Oni said:
			
		

> *I would also like to add that having lived in New England I can say with first hand experience that Moxie is one of the most vile drinks I have ever encountered. *




I still live in New England. Moxie isn't *that* bad. Though it is an acquired taste...


----------



## sparhawk

*User name*

Got my user name from a David Eddings book. I have no imagination for names


----------



## Templetroll

The first group I gamed with were mostly students at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, circa 1979.  A few of us went to a convention in Delaware and we decided to have a name for our group.  We were a bunch of guys, gamers to be exact, and although we were not particularly loathsome we chose the name "Temple Trolls".  When it came time to get a name for D&D boards I used that group name for mine.


----------



## Sulimo

I'm a *huge* Tolkien fan. 

For quite some time I'd been using _manwe_ as an alias online and at some point something I wanted to join already had someone using manwe, thus I looked over manwe's aliases amd sulimo was born. Thankfully it seems obscure enough that I'm always able to use it whenever I join something else.


----------



## Aaron L

Well, I didn't know I was supposed to be creative when I registered here.  I kinda regret it now.


----------



## Sinistar

Beware, I live...

Sinistar was the first video game that ever captured my imagination. I played it one day when my class was at six flags for a trip. I hate roller coasters, (almost as much as I hated the class...) so I had nothing to do. I had a few quarters and saw the video game sitting there with no one using it. 

Since then, I have been an avid gamer in just about every sense of the word. It was the first email address I had when I first got email access back in '92.

Oh, and Enforcer, congratulations on your birthday. You chose a good one, just ten years too late... whippersnapper...


----------



## jalea

I chose Jalea because he is probably one of my favorite characters from our d&d campaign.  Jalea is usually getting the party into trouble one way or another not that HE thinks so 
My other favorite character is from our Gurps horror game, Jake Mitchell who's motto is shoot first then shoot again and then ask questions.


----------



## Teflon Billy

Mine is stolen lock, stock and barrel from *Knights of the Dinner Table*

_Teflon Billy_ is Brian Van Hoose's dwarven Wizard character.


----------



## Welrain

I'd always assumed they had named the character after you Teflon Billy..not vice versa  

My name...my first ever character circa 1989.


----------



## Grim

My name from my favorite worm on a Worms Armogeden Team i had called Death. It was just plays on words involving death, the grim reaper, etc. I was D to the EATH for a while, but then I decided I liked The Grim Reapa' better. And then I just shortened it to Grim.

I always wear black, and my characters are always dying, or getting screwed by the DMs acursed luck, or their own, so it fits.

I used to be Hobin Kobad, the name of my first character. I made that name up while flipping through the MM and seeing Hobgoblin and Kobold. But, ehh... great things start small...


----------



## Sanackranib

*screen name*

Like Mmany others Sanackranib was one of my characters            ( Necromancer) Since I made up the name I havn't had any problem posting it (it's never already taken) so I use it on the boards I post on for continuity sake.


----------



## Ravellion

It's short for Ravellion Darkmoon. Because of the way too sterotypical name, even though it was a really cool character, I decided to shorten it to Rav. (It was the last character I played under 2e rules with my own gaming group BTW)

Rav


----------



## Sunglar

*User name origin*

Like many others here my user name comes from a Character, in this case my 1st edition AD&D Paladin, Sunglar Redstrik.  Although I had played a few characters before, I usually was (and still am) the DM.  I love being a DM, but this was the one character I loved to play.

He eventually became an NPC in my long running fantasy campaign, actually two because a second generation NPC was named after the first Sunglar.  My best friend who DM’ed the original game I played the character in has dropped him as an NPC in a couple of places.

I even have convinced my wife to agree that if we ever have a boy I can name him Sunglar!

The name is unique enough I get to choose it everywhere, so if you see a Sunglar, it’s probably me.


----------



## Wikidogre

Well its simple, i started out being just Ogre...simple nickname by friends starting form the days of Nerds, that and i was taller and stronger than all my ohter friends. Later in life i was being observed tearing into a cheese steak hoagie violantly, simply not even breathing. Then a burst from the firends who then call me Wickedogre the food slayer. As for the current spelling a couple of years ago i was first registering my AIM screen name and i think i was drunk or on a couple of gellcaps.....not sure, but I kant type usooally, and bam! i look at my confirmation email and it is WiKidOgre.........and the rest is history.


----------



## Kershek

Teflon Billy said:
			
		

> *Mine is stolen lock, stock and barrel from Knights of the Dinner Table
> 
> Teflon Billy is Brian Van Hoose's dwarven Wizard character. *




So where the heck did that crazy picture come from?  Yes, it *is* funny.


----------



## Gossamerblade

A few years ago, I read a fantasy novel called "Gossamer Axe" So when I started looking for a handle, that title came to mind.


----------



## Teflon Billy

Kershek said:
			
		

> *
> 
> So where the heck did that crazy picture come from?  Yes, it is funny. *




That picture is od Professional Wrestler *Al Snow*.

My Girlfriend is going to take a picture of me in the same vein very shortly and it will replace my long standing Al Snow pic.

Everyone should like it...Eric Noah thinks I'm handsome.


----------



## Kershek

Teflon Billy said:
			
		

> *
> 
> That picture is od Professional Wrestler Al Snow.
> 
> My Girlfriend is going to take a picture of me in the same vein very shortly and it will replace my long standing Al Snow pic.
> 
> Everyone should like it...Eric Noah thinks I'm handsome. *




That sounds great... at least put both of them side-by-side for a while before you remove Al's.

And as for Eric... Ok, I'm not going there.


----------



## Citizen Mane

I had a fantasy baseball team called Kajambalaya, and a buddy of mine and myself referred to the players on the team as Kajambalayans — from there it's only a hop, skip, and a jump to Kajamba Lions (which sounded more like a baseball team anyhow).  I just grabbed it as my handle when I registered.  It's been over a year since I started browsing the boards, and lately I've been thinking of changing my handle, but I haven't really decided yet.  I still rather like this one.

Best,
tKL


----------



## willpax

I usually sign letters (you know, those old fashioned things you write on paper and send through the post office) "pax nunc." Simple Latin: peace now. 

My first name is Will. 

Back (ages ago) when I first was allowed to actually pick my own email address, I combined these into "willpax." It has since become my online alter ego, as it were. 

I'm now on about the fifth service provider, and it has never been taken (yet). Now that I've written the previous sentence, it will never be available again.


----------



## Buttercup

fusangite said:
			
		

> *Well, my signature line pretty well covers it.*




You know how you can read a word incorrectly, and never even realize it?  I've been seeing your name as fungas-ite instead of fusang-ite all this time.  And wondering why you misspelled fungus.  Doh!


----------



## tburdett

Aaron L said:
			
		

> *Well, I didn't know I was supposed to be creative when I registered here.  I kinda regret it now. *




You could always pick a new name and start over.


----------



## Ace

Ace is archaic street slang for "Buddy thats got your back" like an Ace in the Hole

It also denotes martial valour, like a Flying Ace and skill like a "Viseo Game Ace" 


Its also rarely used on discussion boards, easy to type and uses my first initial  

You can't beat that


----------



## Sir Hawkeye

*Re: User name origin*



			
				Sunglar said:
			
		

> *Like many others here my user name comes from a Character, in this case my 1st edition AD&D Paladin, Sunglar Redstrik.  Although I had played a few characters before, I usually was (and still am) the DM.  I love being a DM, but this was the one character I loved to play.
> 
> He eventually became an NPC in my long running fantasy campaign, actually two because a second generation NPC was named after the first Sunglar.  My best friend who DM’ed the original game I played the character in has dropped him as an NPC in a couple of places.
> 
> I even have convinced my wife to agree that if we ever have a boy I can name him Sunglar!
> 
> The name is unique enough I get to choose it everywhere, so if you see a Sunglar, it’s probably me. *




Man, we are such nerds! 
Just so Sunglar doesn't feel picked on, I'm including all of you who are named after your D&D characters. And in case anyone missed it, I am also named after a D&D character.

My God, this whole place is full of nerds! 
Wait, I knew that...
NERDS UNITE! 

I hope that all came off as humor. Otherwise, I've offended way too many people.


----------



## Severion

Read the first two books of Gene Wolf's "Dying Earth" series back in the late eighties (i think that was it, can't seem to find them to confirm it) when i first got AOL in '91 i was trying to think of a name and rememberd "Severion, follower of Catherine, seeker of penitence and truth" (he was a torturer and executioner) and it stuck. I occasionally add an 8 onto the end of it.

BTW i have been informed that it's misspelled, and i have since married Catherine.


----------



## Mortaneus

Originally a Blood Omen:  Legacy of Kain name for the big bad necromancer villain.

Later, Mortaneus D'Angelo was a villain in a game I ran.

I started using it as a handle in FPS games.

I'm also commonly known as Kriticism, but this was the only name I kept using on here after eric's black boards shut down.


----------



## NoOneofConsequence

Buttercup said:
			
		

> *I suppose most people have guessed this, but my name is from the movie, Princess Bride.
> *




Mine also derives fromt he Princess Bride, though a little more obscurely. When the masked "Man in Black" is asked who he is he replies with the enigmatic "No one of consequence." I always thought it was a cool response and it's almost never taken on boards like this, so when people see it they know it's me.


----------



## Oubliette

I named myself afeter the best card (from a DM's perspective) in the Deck of Many Things.  Of course, that's Donjon, not Oubliette, but I didn't have my DMG handy at the time.


----------



## Left-handed Hummingbird

When I ended my days of lurking, and signed up on Eric's messageboards a long time ago, the boards were teeming with animals such as Squirrel Nutkin and others. Thus this name seemed suitable and a name that would stand out.

Huitzilopochtli is the Aztec god of the Sun and war. His name - translated into English - is Left-handed Hummingbird. 

The Aztecs believed that when a warrior died in the field of battle they would first serve the Sun for a couple of years; after that they would live forever as hummingbirds. The hummingbird is thus a symbol of the reincarnated spirits of the dead warriors. Huitzilopochtli's animal avatar was actually an eagle.


----------



## Wil

It's my name


----------



## bwgwl

Aitch Eye said:
			
		

> *I wanted to use something from Cordwainer Smith's "Instrumentality" future history stories...*



hey! don't see too many Cordwainer Smith fans around. that's cool -- and i never made the connection before. 

i'm not very original. my screen name is my cat's name.


----------



## Agback

G'day

It's a trophy of my first flamewar. I originally spelled it 'Silverback', but that was too long for a nick on IRC, hence the abbreviation.

Regards,


Agback


----------



## Some guy from Ohio

I am a guy and I'm from Ohio.


----------



## Agback

alsih2o said:
			
		

> *alumina, silica and water.*




That would be Al2O3, SiO2, H2O. What you have is aluminium, silicon, and water.

Regards,


Agback


----------



## Aitch Eye

bwgwl said:
			
		

> *
> hey! don't see too many Cordwainer Smith fans around. that's cool -- and i never made the connection before.
> 
> i'm not very original. my screen name is my cat's name.  *




Don't feel too bad, Smith named several characters after his cats. Of course, those characters were themselves cats (or cat derived)...so I suppose, really, you'd have to use the name of someone having an unrequited relationship with your cat to be doing something all that similar. (Hopefully that's not an option.)

I figured that even Smith readers might not pick up on the name; it's nice to now know that there were at least two others on the boards that at least potentially could have. (Hiya to you as well, Lurks-no-More.)


----------



## arwink

I hadn't had a chance to play a character instead of DM for about ten years.  I got the chance about the same time I started signing on to various DnD boards.  Arwin Khorstar seemed too long to type out every time I logged in, so I shortened it to arwink.


----------



## DM with a vengence

Well, I used to be Pathetic Nerd, but then I decided that I wasn't so pathetic anymore.

Right after I killed 12 characters in 25 pages of RttToEE.

And 12 of those pages were exposition and the town of Homlet.


----------



## Khorod

Needed yahoo name.  Tried all my longstanding aliases.  All required crazy numbers.  So I pulled out the list of my then current D&D project, the pantheon of gods.

Khorod is the God of War in a world that never got used.  He was balanced- representing all aspects of war, from the noble glory to the horrific destruction.

I prefer to think of it as a devil's advocate sort of thing.
And nowhere is it used...

<FONT size="-1" color="red">the important thing... death ray eyes.</FONT>


----------



## pogre

*What's in a name?*

My handle comes from my college football days. I played Offensive Guard - it's a combination of my last name and appearance:

***Ogre +
***Pogue =
***pogre


----------



## Inez Hull

Inez Hull is the name of a real person only misspelt that I came across and thought would be a cool character name. It became my handle for Diablo and I have used it for CRPG's and the net since. It was between that and Augustus Pusic, another real name which I thought sounded cool.


----------



## Sidran

I shant bore you with the reasons why I Sidran was given this name that I carry here to this day but once long ago I was Archmage Sidran, a Wandering talespinner by trade, and a dabbler in the magical arts ( I say dabble in the same way Master Elminster "Dabbles", or the Famed Merlin who by chance was actually not a magi by trade at all) 

Now though I seemed to have fallen on darker days, my eyes give out on me at the most inopportune of times (I.E. 2:00 AM), 
I no longer carry the heavy burden of the honorific Archmage, for my magic has fled me.  In younger years, yes I now before the dinosaurs were fossels, I was Sidranais D'preioux a some one infamous swashbuckler, and rabblerouser in my home state of Avyronne.

Oh I seemed to have rambled...

OOC: 

Sidranais was the first NPC I played an really played well as a DM 
Over the Ages Sidranais has "Commonized" his name to the Short of Sidran, though in kindoms such as Naul ( A rome like state) he is Known as Dux Sidranius, and In Elustre, The Silver City he is known As Sidarinais. When he Signs a letter it is as 

Sidran of Torringall (though Torringal has not existed in the world since the last part of the Last Age, some two thousand years ago)  

I have also been known to post as Volo, and My Email is Sid7e


----------



## Paul_Klein

My parents had sex, later I popped out, and they named me Paul. 

My dad's last name is Klein.


----------



## EverSoar

Well my inspiration came from Sara Douglas's Battleaxe, and wayfarer redemption series.  I thought my name was original, but it turns out, its actually in the books


----------



## Allanon

Allanon, the druid character from the first 4 shannara books (although he comes back sorta in the following series).
The books are good, while you're waiting for Robert Jordan, G.R.R. Martin and such to finish their running series.


----------



## Pseudonym

All the other names were taken.

Seriously.


----------



## Celtavian

*Re*

One of my favorite characters. A half-elven wizard/cleric/fighter (2nd ed) who dared the halls of Undermountain. 

This character did not suffer a point of damage until 12th level, not a single point, and was finally struck unconcious in the final encounter from a trap. 

This character did not hide. He actually was quite helpful to the party as a whole, and turned the tide of battle in our favor quite a few times. He never did engage in melee though, which was a testament to his skill as a wizard. It was a combination of luck, cautious (not cowardly) play,  excellent choice of spell combinations and good timing when casting spells. 

This character was my most enjoyable  to date.


----------



## Gospog

*Gospog?*

A Gospog is a monster from the game TORG.

Specifically, it's a "plant zombie", grown from a corpse and a "gospog seed".

I use it often as it is rarely taken when I sign up for posting boards and the like.


----------



## sellars

Sellars is from the character from Tad Williams' Otherland books.

If you haven't read them, ask 'em for christmas they're great


----------



## Ruined

Time to chime in. I've always been a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, and back when I first got heavy into the internet, my favorite song was one called ' Ruiner '.  And so I adopted that as email address, screen name, wherever. Sometimes going for Ruined was easier, since others obviously liked the group.

Got on this board, and wouldn't you know it, ruiner and ruined were both taken. _So you get what we have here, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any better than you men, but some people you just can't reach..._


----------



## alsih2o

Agback said:
			
		

> *
> 
> That would be Al2O3, SiO2, H2O. What you have is aluminium, silicon, and water.
> *




 yes, if you think you, in your chemical superiority, are able to define what "clay" is.

 since you are so bright, and obviously able to make choices for the rest of us i am sure you will notice that indeed YOU are wrong, and that ALL clay is Al2 O3, 2SiO2, 2H2O.

 but because clays vary so much in their near infinite range over countless deposits most folks don't try to be as dogmatic as you.

 remind to invite you to my next party, you seem like someone who would be loads of fun to have around, after all, there is nothing like someone who cannat tolerate a little simplification for simplifications sake. 

 see agbak, clay varies, and while you seem to think you have enuf information to criticize what i have written you might have revealed, with a modicum of research, that while these variances can carreen all around the geochemical map (Kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) to Montmorillonite (Na0.33Al1.67Mg0.33Si4O10OH2H2O) ) almost every geochemist and every potter i have ever met use the simplified alsih2o rather than go into a lengthy description of a material that will surely vary if you get a sample 6 inches over from the first sample. (being as the wife is a geologist and i am a potter i have spoken with a few people on this)

  but i am sure you will still feel quite fine over your level of nitpickyness without ever approaching any of this.

 btw, if you ever do find that mythologically pure sample let me know. a lot of folks i know would be interested in seeing it


----------



## Plane Sailing

It might seem a little complicated, but bear with me for a moment...

There is an fairly common expression, to denote the ease of an activity. Something is considered "plain sailing".

The derivation of this expression piqued my interest - it comes from the days when it was possible to create reliable flat marine navigation maps. All of a sudden it was possible to plot a course on a flat map which find you ended up in the right place. Sailing became easy when your navigation map was a flat plane instead of the surface of a sphere...

So the original expression for a simple activity was "plane sailing".

Now in D&D I've always been interested in the idea of different planes of existence, and they have featured heavily in all the games I run (from long before planescape, i might add!). So the vaguely D&D/magical twist inherent in the original source of a modern day expression appealed to me.

If avatars get switched on again, you will see mine as a small sailing ship navigating through the planes...

Cheers


----------



## VorpalBunny

"Vorpal Bunnies" are what my old gaming group used to call hoops back in our 1st ed. _Gamma World_ days.  I always kinda liked the name.


----------



## Airwolf

Mine came from a big black helicopter that used to fly in the late 80's.


----------



## Tsyr

Just to expand on Tsyr a bit, since I didn't post much detail compared to most people...

Tsyr was one of my earliest characters, like I said. I honestly don't remember exactly what system Tsyr was first for...

Tsyr's full name, normaly, is Tsyr Soulmoon. His first incarnation was an elf... which makes me suspect it was DnD, though I won't swear to that.

Occasionaly, I use Tsyr_Soulmoon together, sometimes I use just Soulmoon (On IRC, for example), and ocasionaly I use "Reitsuki", a Japanese varient on Soulmoon. Use that one mostly for online games, but not always.

Tsyr is more a concept and personality than a specific character... He has been different classes in different systems. The name doesn't even survive intact a lot of times; sometimes it just doesn't fit, but I always try to keep some aspect if the name. Generaly fairly relaxed, enjoys life... Wise enough when he cares to be, but doesn't seem that way most of the time because... well... he's too busy enjoying life. Enjoys books, maps, and knowledge-seeking in general, though, in his more serious moments. There is always something more for Tsyr to learn, and he always wants to learn it. Not very charismatic, mostly because he doesn't care enough to work on people skills, but not a bad guy, once you get to know him. Tsyr is always the eldest of three children, with a brother only a couple years younger, and a sister much younger. His sister is known to die quite often as a character plot point. In his various incarnations where his sister died, he typicly has a dark side to him... One of those people who are nice enough, but you can push to far, and then they get scary.

Tsyr has a natural aptitude for magic (If magic exists in the setting; if not, he is generaly a talented musician of some form), but prefers physical skills over mystical ones. A sword in hand, a gun on his hip, whatever the case, it suits him. Despite that, he always has a fairly spiritual side... It just doesn't always extend to magic. In game terms, he's normaly a hybrid class, in a class-based system... Ranger-ish normaly, but I've gone other directions on occasion. Elven, if possible, but I try to do the best I can when elf isn't an option...

A list of some of the existing Tsyr's that I still play today:

Tsyr Soulmoon, Elven Ranger, exists in any form of DnD you care to imagine.

Tsyr Soulmoon, Elven Ranger, also exists in Dark Age of Camelot. And Everquest, for that matter.

Eric "Tsyr" Honda is an elven decker (Decended from Japanese parents, took Eric as a name when he left Japan) with a touch of magic ability (Tsyr is his hacker alias), in Shadowrun

Reitsuki is a character I play in Anarchy Online, one of the tall grey guys (can't remember the name), Adventurer class.

Tes'Iru Reitsuki is a Sho blademaster/spell sword type character in Anarchy Online 1 and 2.

Just some of the more prominent ones that still exist.


----------



## incognito

Back when the internet was text only (gasp!) and caht rooms were considered the best thing since sliced bread, theer was a large contingent of people who used misrepresentive nicknames (like Someone who is 5'4" calling themselves "VeryBigBoy or the like').

There 'regualrs' in the chat rooms used to give these chatters a hard time.  Enter me, who jumped into the discussion mid-rant, and explained we are all really _incognito_ while online.

I thought I was being so clever and insightful at the time.  They immediately went and told me to f*#k myself...

...but the 'incognito' part stuck in my head.  ANd I feel liek it's better than 'DarthMaul69' (my second choice)


----------



## bwgwl

Aitch Eye said:
			
		

> *Don't feel too bad, Smith named several characters after his cats. Of course, those characters were themselves cats (or cat derived)...so I suppose, really, you'd have to use the name of someone having an unrequited relationship with your cat to be doing something all that similar. (Hopefully that's not an option.)*



heh. i had noticed that Smith uses a lot of cat imagery in his writings... like the "partners" in _The Game of Rat and Dragon_, the cat-girl C'mell, the Catland of Commander Suzdal, Mother Hitton's Littol Kittons... my kinda guy.


----------



## KnowTheToe

Well my original handle was CamelToe.   That came from the ramblings of a DJ named Johnathon Brandmeyer (SP?).  He was always bringing up CamelToe, Mooseknuckle etc (you know wedgy's in the front.)  Then one day he brought up a website http://www.Cameltoe.org.  About that same time I found out about Erics site and became a Lurker.  Why does that sound so dirty?

Well after a few hundred posts, people thought my name was offensive, So I changed it, after all it was just for fun.  Now I am KnowTheToe, which is the catchphase of the above website.  I even bought a T-shirt which I only wear to Cons and Chicago game day.


----------



## Kershek

DM with a vengence said:
			
		

> *Well, I used to be Pathetic Nerd, but then I decided that I wasn't so pathetic anymore.
> 
> Right after I killed 12 characters in 25 pages of RttToEE.
> 
> And 12 of those pages were exposition and the town of Homlet. *




Some would argue that the above description would qualify for Pathetic Nerd status.


----------



## Piratecat

I have 1.75 cats. The .75 of a cat is often referred to as Tripod or by his Indian name, "Dances with Chevys."  The lack of a leg spawned the inevitable comparison to a pirate. 

Now, picture him with a hook and an eyepatch, and you're good to go!


----------



## Dark Dragon

alsih2o said:
			
		

> *
> 
> see agbak, clay varies, and while you seem to think you have enuf information to criticize what i have written you might have revealed, with a modicum of research, that while these variances can carreen all around the geochemical map (Kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) to Montmorillonite (Na0.33Al1.67Mg0.33Si4O10OH2H2O) ) almost every geochemist and every potter i have ever met use the simplified alsih2o rather than go into a lengthy description of a material that will surely vary if you get a sample 6 inches over from the first sample. (being as the wife is a geologist and i am a potter i have spoken with a few people on this)
> *




Ahh, good to see some people with a link to geology AND rpg 
I agree, clay is a really complex stuff (just found the formula of nontronite: oh man...). I'm glad to do my work on volcanic rocks. 
It is a bit sad when the party crawls in a dungeon and no one knows what colour the rock has (except the standard GREY), or how hard it is  and so on...

DM: You enter the circular room. In its center stands an altar made of purple basalt...
Me: Huh?! Hmm, I should disbelieve...

Heck, I've been assimilated by my job. Noooo!


----------



## Jovah

Jovah is a gnomish cleric of Luck I have been playing (on and off) for about 10 years. (see the sig)
Originally I randomly denerated his name with dice = something out of an older Dragon.


----------



## Someguy

i've always used this name or with the numbers 1121 as this is failry un-original and also fairly common...been around since a bit after the beginning..been posting for.....lemme see....2 years i think


----------



## diaglo

I'm a good little devil.

a 1ed imp.


----------



## Sejs

S.e.j.s. (pronounced 'sez') are my initials, and kind of a fallback user name when the two I normally use (Guy Incognito, and Salron Omens) are unavailable.  It's also short, and really easy to type.

^_^


On a seperate note..


> NiTessine




Heya NiT, long time no see.  I was also on the Bard's Table/Backroom  back in the day.  Heh, always nice to see a familar name.


----------



## Ashrem Bayle

*shrugs* Made it up.

Back in the dark ages of 2nd edition, I got bored and started playing Vampire a lot.

I got involved in White Wolf's chat rooms and took the name Ishamael for my Tzimisce character. I blatantly stole it from jordan's Wheel of Time series.

Later, I managed to politic my way into the position of Bishop, and changed my name to Lord Ishamael Drakov because it was more prestigious.

Over time, I grew bored with my power and retired the character. From his ashes (almost literally) I create Ashe Bratovich.

Ashe was Ishamael's progeny who killed off his sire.

Anyway, I played Ashe for quiet a while and then 3rd edition came out.

Drawing from my other character, I created Ashrem Bayle, one of my first 3rd edition characters. 

On the message boards I was simply Ishamael, which is my username for almost everything. When we started up our online WoT game (see sig), I needed a new name and obviously Ishamael wouldn't do. 

So, Ashrem Bayle was reborn as a male Wilder in our WoT game.

Since then, I have also used the name, for our online D&D game (see sig) for my Savant character.

I just like it. I use it for my name in most online games as well.


----------



## Qlippoth

It's been appropriated often (notably in _Mage: The Ascension_), but it refers to the negative reflections of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.



			
				Tetsubo said:
			
		

> *
> I still live in New England. Moxie isn't *that* bad. Though it is an acquired taste... *




Moxie isn't a soft drink. It's nerve tonic.


----------



## Sialia

Sialia means "bluebird."

Isn't that just darling? 


_...and over our heads 
will float the bluebird, 
singing of beautiful and 
impossible things, 
of things that are lovely 
and that never happened, 
of things that are not 
and that should be. 
Oscar Wilde_

And, of course, the black and white profile of a bluebird in my avatar (which y'all can't see anymore) is a reference to Alfred Hitchcock.


----------



## kingpaul

LiVeWiRe said:
			
		

> *Just curious to hear the 'origin' of the names users have on the EN World boards...*



Hmmm...Paul King, kingpaul...no idea where I go that from.


----------



## Datt

I needed a name for a dwarven fighter I was creating.  My friend and I then decided to be twin dwarven brothers.  So I became Datt Hrothgar and he became Dizz Hrothgar.  And yes we have a sister named Daodder Hrothgar.  I got the last name for the king in the movie The 13th Warrior.


----------



## Dawn

A while back, I happened upon a character that closely resembles my wife (a redhead of course). 

Enter Dawn.
She is the Goddess of Birth and Rebirth and the Lover of Death.  She is officially a creation of Joseph Linsner and was published through Sirus magazine.  

She has become one of my all-time favorite RPG characters.  At present there are several versions of her at different levels in different games (online and real life).  She maintains the same personality (somewhat anyway – those of you fortunate enough to have a redhead in your life will know what I mean), so playing the different games is pretty easy.  

Steve


----------



## Utrecht

Utrecht - I am of Dutch decent and it is where most of my family is from (that and Soest) - so back in 1989, when I was first introduced to the internet, I needed something unique sounding (at least to Americans) and thus I logged on as Utrecht.

I am sure there is records of Utrechts for the past 13 years throughout all of cyberspace.......  (It would be interesting to pull that)


----------



## Tcheb

Tcheb is short for Tchebycheff, my favorite mathematician.  He's famous (in math geek circles) for a whole bunch of things, but I got hooked on him for his decision theories since I'm an AI programmer.


----------



## Cassiopea

Cassiopea, a cluster of stars that appear in the autumn sky, the time of my birth, and thus my middle name is Autumn.

Sincerly, Cassiopea Autumn "LastName?"


----------



## Mondain

Mondain is a Dark Lord in Ultima I.

I'm new to the boards here. Anyway, I have only recently gotten back into pencil & paper RPGs. When I was seven years old (1985) I had played Basic D&D with some buddies and we also used to play a lot of video games (remembers flashing, blue arcades with awe) and later when I got a NES I played my first video game RPG, Ultima: Exodus (actually was Ultima III for PC) in 1988. At first, I hated the game until I played it a little longer and got the mechanics down "gee this is like a D&D video game". Anyway, I was enchanted by the idea of this little world in a box! You named your characters, they ate, slept, fought, talked, explored, and best of all matured as they saved this colorful lil world of Sosaria.

I got the Hint Book (was just a kid!) and inside was this cool manga (japanese comic) of the previous Ultima games history. In the story of Ultima I (which I've beaten on PC and enjoyed thoroughly) a hero comes forth to battle the evil wizard Mondain. Mondain is depicted as a kind of primal barbarian type with a horned helm and looks every bit the evil emperor. I liked this character so much that he is now the villain in my current 3e game (with some creative embellishment) in a world named, yes, Sosaria (Ultima's world before the tyrant Lord British renamed it Britannia Ultima IV, I liked Sosaria better).

Anyway, over the years of RPGs (video, PC, paper) I never forgot Tolkien (which I was read as a kid for bed time) and Ultima (which was the first time I really felt immersed in a fantasy myself). I've always wanted to bring the Ultima world into my DMing and having just picked up D20 am working on doing just that.

Dave S


----------



## Zappo

From the name of the funniest fake Magic card ever devised (though you should have seen the illo to understand), as well as from the name of the funniest homemade creature in my old OD&D campaign (Zappo was the name of the party's pet Slivan Dragon, who caused many crisises of laughter in those good old days - think Errol from the "Guards, Guards!" Discworld novel, to get a fair picture of the creature's personality, and add to it a saliva-based breath weapon). 

Both are fairly ridiculous things, and I chose it as a nickname so as to have a stark contrast with the cheesy teenager character names the rest of the group used to choose (stuff like Darkstorm Hellsword, or Gorak the Skullsmasher). I _like_ contrast.


----------



## The It's Man

Hmm, _The "It's..." Man_ is the only Python persona I can quote by heart 

I never planned to post a lot and then only short ones. So I thought this ID would be appropriate. I even created an alt-id on other boards for when I want to write long posts.

Also the one and only book I ever had signed is signed with _It's..._


----------



## Tratyn Runewind

Hello!



> Posted by Turlogh:
> *Mine is a fairly obscure character from the writings of R.E. Howard.*




I always kind of wondered whether you were named for the famous Irish bard, Turlough O'Carolan.  I've heard a little of his work on Chieftains albums.  Here is a page with some info on him.  Perhaps it'll inspire you to have more fun with the Bard class...  



> Posted by John Smallberries:
> *John Yaya and John Bigbutte were unavailable.*






> Posted by Mr Fidgit:
> *Big Booty!*




Boo-TAY!  TAY, TAY, TAY!  *POW*...  



> Posted by Mondain:
> *Mondain is a Dark Lord in Ultima I.*




Ah, the classics.  Had a lot of fun with your skull in Ultima IV, though it cost me a lot of my virtues...  

My own handle is that of a fictional fictional character from an old but amusing gaming-related novel.  Any of the Old Gaming Hands around here remember which one?  (Yes, I know Googling on my handle will get the answer almost instantly...)

Anyway, fun thread...


----------



## kegger

*oragin of user name*

The name started in college.  Got it from one of my fraternity brothers.  (if anyone interested the frat is Alpha Phi Delta).  At first it was because I looked a little like a keg, not that I could drink one.  But by the time I graduated, well......


Worst part was it was a dry campus.  Gannon University, in Erie, the mistake on the lake.  Or as some call it, Dreary Erie.


----------



## Horacio

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *I have 1.75 cats. The .75 of a cat is often referred to as Tripod or by his Indian name, "Dances with Chevys."  The lack of a leg spawned the inevitable comparison to a pirate.
> 
> Now, picture him with a hook and an eyepatch, and you're good to go! *




Cute story, Pkitty 

My user name is simple my given name. Well, technically my second given name...


Ramón Horacio "two given names, two family names" González García


----------



## bwgwl

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *I have 1.75 cats. The .75 of a cat is often referred to as Tripod or by his Indian name, "Dances with Chevys."  The lack of a leg spawned the inevitable comparison to a pirate.
> 
> Now, picture him with a hook and an eyepatch, and you're good to go! *



i'm glad i'm not the only one here who's named after their cat.


----------



## randomling

Ahh... now, this is where I wish I'd picked the user name with an interesting history. But I was getting bored of it, I've used it since I was 16 and it doesn't really feel me-ish any more.

I'm quite into all thing surreal and odd and random - and have a habit of sitting in chat rooms and being deeply weird at people. So when I signed on to MSN I decided I wanted a new name and that was randomite. Just meaning, person who is random.

Tallarn has taken to calling me "randomling" - which I prefer. But I can't change it now!


----------



## Gryphon

I flew in a world war two flight sim called Air Attack years ago and required a suitable name. After a few false starts, I turned to the name of one of my favourite beasts and a heraldric protector of the realms.

A Griffin but someone had that name so I took Gryphon instead. I soon became [Sith]Gryphon when I joined the dark jedi squadron, and finally [Jedi]Gryphon when I was turned to the light.

Over two years or so (longer  think)I even became CO of the squadron and a top 50 pilot in the european rankings, moderator, administrator, known online here in the uk and across in the US and the other countries playing like Germany Australia  etc etc(It took over my life lol, I would be still playing but the game died).

So after being called Gryphon on line and over the phone by my squad m8's I became Gryphon.

I had a superhero character named Gryphon a long time ago but I don't think it made a difference.

Most of my email addies were gryphon based and basically I am Gryphon when on line.


----------



## ColonelHardisson

KnowTheToe said:
			
		

> *Well my original handle was CamelToe.   That came from the ramblings of a DJ named Johnathon Brandmeyer (SP?).  He was always bringing up CamelToe, Mooseknuckle etc (you know wedgy's in the front.)  Then one day he brought up a website http://www.Cameltoe.org.  About that same time I found out about Erics site and became a Lurker.  Why does that sound so dirty?
> 
> Well after a few hundred posts, people thought my name was offensive, So I changed it, after all it was just for fun.  Now I am KnowTheToe, which is the catchphase of the above website.  I even bought a T-shirt which I only wear to Cons and Chicago game day. *




I remember that. Everytime I saw you post, "Camel Toe Annie," a theme song for a character on Conan O'Brien, ran through my head...


----------



## Phowett

Phillip + Rowett = Phowett


----------



## shadow

Do any of you old-timers remember Super Nintendo. (Yes that was before the days of CD based systems!)  There was this old game called Final Fantasy 3.  I've always been a big Final Fantasy fan, but FF3 for Super Nintendo has always been my favorite.  Anyway, the game featured a mysterious Ninja/Assassin Character known only as Shadow.  Being the quintissential mystery man, he quickly became my favorite character.


----------



## Piratecat

randomite said:
			
		

> *Tallarn has taken to calling me "randomling" - which I prefer. But I can't change it now!  *




Of course you can. I have secret Ninja Admin powers. Email me, eh?


----------



## Tsyr

shadow said:
			
		

> *Do any of you old-timers remember Super Nintendo. (Yes that was before the days of CD based systems!)  There was this old game called Final Fantasy 3.  I've always been a big Final Fantasy fan, but FF3 for Super Nintendo has always been my favorite.  Anyway, the game featured a mysterious Ninja/Assassin Character known only as Shadow.  Being the quintissential mystery man, he quickly became my favorite character. *




[hijack]
Actualy, properly, that's FF6... America only imported a few of the earlier games (FF 2 over here was really FF 4, as well), and then for some reason STARTED getting the names right at FF7, resulting in a lot of gamers who don't follow the industry at all wondering where the others went.

My first gaming system wa a C64... well, I guess that's technicly a computer... So make that the original NES (Though I later went back and got older ones too).[/hijack]

I have a friend who has used Atma as his name every since he played that game too... I used "Dave_the_Moogle" for a while, but I got too many questions about what a moogle was supposed to be...


----------



## Kesh

I had gone by a couple different names when I first got online, but at one point I wanted something more... well, interesting.  During a chat session, I randomly picked the name 'Kesh' out of thin air. I've used it ever since.

It wasn't until a couple years later that I realised I had read the name in a book, _Spock's World_, prior to that. Ah well.

And no, I've never read the _Empire of Kesh_ books. Quit asking!


----------



## Kesh

Tsyr said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I used "Dave_the_Moogle" for a while, but I got too many questions about what a moogle was supposed to be... *




I somehow doubt that'd be a problem anymore online.


----------



## Jolly Giant

Skade said:
			
		

> *Skade is a character from my Einherar campaign, named for the norse goddess Skadi (really a frost giant). *




She was, as you say, a frostgiant. She got elevated to Goddess-status after marring Njord, God of the sea. She had a pair of magic skies, loved skiing and therefor got to be the Goddess of Skiing. The fact that the vikings actually had a Goddess of skies says a lot about what an important means of transportation skies used to be in Scandinavia...

As to my own username, it used to BFG. That came from a Roald Dahl children's book called 'The BFG (Big, Friendly Giant)'. Since absolutely nobody knew what BFG stood for, I changed it to Jolly Giant.


----------



## HellHound

My original nick WAY back in the old BBS days was either "The HellHound 101" (in Canada) or "J'son BlackHammer" (while living in Atlanta).

The HellHound 101 was a computer virus turned sentient that I created for a science fiction RPG as a DM many years ago that I still thought was a cool idea when I first started BBSing in 1985. Which is pretty funny since back in 1985, the list of known computer viruses was only a couple of pages long. We still logged in using 110 baud modems... I thought I was hardcore because I had a 300/1200 baud modem. Fastest dial-up in town.

At 300 baud, with lousy phone lines, you could actually speed-read text as it scrolled by on non-stop mode on a message board.

Okay... I'm REALLY dating myself here.

So anyways, the HellHound 101 virus (the name was chosen for the mix of high-tech and fantasy texture) was a computer virus in my Traveller game that had been uploaded to a deep-space exploration probe and had become sentient (as had the probe, a la Star Trek episode 1). The virus finally downloaded itself from the probe the a science facility on a water world the party was about to land at...

Anyways, the name stuck, and in Ottawa, where I owned my own BBS for many years, more people knew me as "Hound" or "HellHound" than as Jason... My leather jacket says "HOUND" in big letters on the sleeve, and I used to DJ as DJHound and even when doing body piercing, I used the nickname more than my given name.


----------



## hong

Mondain said:
			
		

> *
> Mondain is depicted as a kind of primal barbarian type with a horned helm and looks every bit the evil emperor. I liked this character so much that he is now the villain in my current 3e game (with some creative embellishment) in a world named, yes, Sosaria (Ultima's world before the tyrant Lord British renamed it Britannia Ultima IV, I liked Sosaria better).
> *




Ah, right, in which case you will probably absolutely hate the following site:

Britannia 3E


Hong "will pimp websites for food" Ooi


----------



## ColonelHardisson

hong said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Hong "will pimp websites for food" Ooi *




Maybe I missed it, but I keep expecting you to sign off as "Hong "Kong" Ooi, Number One Superguy." But I get the feeling that not all American cartoon shows of the 1970s are internationally known.

Here's what I'm talking about:

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/watch/web_shows/hkp/index.html


----------



## Priest

Got tired of being Sidran


----------



## hong

ColonelHardisson said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Maybe I missed it, but I keep expecting you to sign off as "Hong "Kong" Ooi, Number One Superguy." But I get the feeling that not all American cartoon shows of the 1970s are internationally known.*




Well, I sorta wiped that memory from my mind. Although it all came flooding back after seeing the avatar pic the Squirrel gave me on Nutkinland.


Hong "the horror, the horror" Ooi


----------



## ColonelHardisson

hong said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Well, I sorta wiped that memory from my mind. Although it all came flooding back after seeing the avatar pic the Squirrel gave me on Nutkinland.
> 
> 
> Hong "the horror, the horror" Ooi *




Check the link I gave above; it's actually kinda cool, especially if you do know of the original cartoon.


----------



## Sir Osis of Liver

Lets see, my screen name is a play on words. Some get it, some don't. Basically i signed up at four in the morning after a long session of gaming and drinking, my friend and i had been joking about word play names like that. All those factored together are the reason i use this name. I also use it pretty much everywhere i post, cuase i'm lazy and do want to remember extra login names.


----------



## trancejeremy

Mine was inspired by DiscoStu from the Simpsons.  Only while I do in fact like disco, trance is my favorite type of music.

I used to always use "Troy McClure", until Phil Hartman got killed


----------



## Agback

alsih2o said:
			
		

> *see agbak, clay varies, and while you seem to think you have enuf information to criticize what i have written you might have revealed, with a modicum of research, that while these variances can carreen all around the geochemical map (Kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) to Montmorillonite (Na0.33Al1.67Mg0.33Si4O10OH2H2O) )*




Hey, I didn't even get started on clay. I just told you that Al and Si are aluminium and silicon, not alumina and silica.

Regards,


Agback


----------



## AussieDM

I'm an Aussie and I DM....

(And you all thought it was something cryptic!!)


----------



## Sanackranib

*origen*

We had a "Fessic" 1/2 Ogre character in a game but we've never had a "Buttercup" It's good to see the name getting some use though. Gamers are the bigest plagerists there are when it comes to us using names and places  keep up the good work!


----------



## Neo

Mines pretty simple

NEO means New, also the lead character from the Matrix (though that isn't why I picked it)

My company name is also Neo Innovations, which basically means New Ideas... 

I chose Neo because to me it says fresh, inspired, original and I try to embody those three traits in all my creations...

Oh and there is of course the whole Radiocative spider incident but thats another story LOL


----------



## cptg1481

*Ummm OK*

CPT = Current Army Rank - Abreviation

G = First Initial of Last Name

1481 = Last four Numbers of Serial NUmber

CPTG1481

Wasn't feeling all that witty the day I signed on.....


----------



## Klaatu B. Nikto

alsih2o said:
			
		

> *
> (Kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) to Montmorillonite (Na0.33Al1.67Mg0.33Si4O10OH2H2O) ) *




The scary thing is that I actually used clay in some undergraduate chemistry research. I always thought clay was clay. Oh heck no. There's like a bazillion variations. 

BTW, my nickname comes from two sources, both related.

Klaatu B(arada) Nikto was my favorite Dragonlance character, a kender. His name came from my favorite movie, Army of Darkness, as the magical words to be spoken before removing the Necronomicon. Ok, MIS-spoken.


----------



## Visceris

My nick's origin was based on an evil NPC I had that was powered by entropy and destruction .  He was a major force in different campaigns and different genres.


----------



## Agback

Klaatu B. Nikto said:
			
		

> *Klaatu B(arada) Nikto was my favorite Dragonlance character, a kender. His name came from my favorite movie, Army of Darkness, as the magical words to be spoken before removing the Necronomicon. Ok, MIS-spoken. *




IIRC, its use in _Army of Darkness_ was an homage to the classic _The Day the Earth Stood Still_.

Regards,


Agback


----------



## Darrin Drader

When I left Dark Portal Games, I wanted to remain an active part of these boards, but didn't feel that it would be appropriate to still call myself DPG Darrin for obvious reasons. Rather than going with something unimaginitive (like my name), I went with the name of the large castle I designed for my article "Every Home a Castle" in Dragon 295.


----------



## Grandpa

...after my driving.


----------



## ColonelHardisson

Agback said:
			
		

> *
> 
> IIRC, its use in Army of Darkness was an homage to the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
> 
> *




Yup, directed by the great Robert Wise. Klaatu was the name of the human-looking alien. The line was what needed to be said to the robot, Gort, in order to prevent him from destroying the Earth.


----------



## DonAdam

It's my high school nickname. My real name is Adam, and one day at a debate tournament I drew charicatures (sp?) of everybody on the team.

I don't draw well, mind you, but it was just to poke fun at everybody (everybody took it well, tarry not). I drew myself as "Don Adam Martin, Mafia Crime Lord and the Sexiest Man Alive."

Suffice to say, it stuck.  I was henceforth either known as "Don" or "The Don" to everybody.  The teacher (Mr. Dennis, aka Poppa D) and a few others used "The Don" so profusely that they even used it in the vocative, as in "Hey, The Don, come check this out."

The nick name quickly exploded into a full fledged mythology about the Don's family.  I, the quintessential nerd and anti-socialite, managed to become the center of social existence among the debaters from several schools, simply by arbitrating who was in the family and who were The Don's People (I always take care of my people).

I've known people for months without them knowing that my real name was Adam and not Don, since so many people called me that, and I still answer to "Don" instinctively.


----------



## Trevalon Moonleirion

At the time when I signed up here (well actually Eric still ran the place back then...), Trevalon was my character in my pal Ed (Fayredeth)'s game.   His companions managed to burn down half of an entire city.  His companions started griping when I had to turn them in.  "Chaotic Good?!  You're not chaotic good, you're chaotic bogus!!"


----------



## Eosin the Red

In micro we were working with stains ~ I really dig bugs ~ one of them was called Eosin. Eosins stain cells red. A few weeks later I was planning an adventure and needed to introduce a character that would later become known as the bloodiest king in the history of the empire. He would earn the tag line "the Red."  Seemed like a funny joke to name someone *Red the Red* so I ran with it. 

Later, I started poking around the internet and decided after many tries that all of the cool names were taken. Eosin the Red is never taken.


----------



## d12

*pity*

I felt sorry for the d12.  It totally got the shaft in third edition.  You don't need it unless you carry a battleaxe or are playing a barbarian.

And it spins REALLY well.


----------



## Knight Otu

I use two user IDs.

This one is my primary one. Originally I wanted to be  Knight *o*f *t*he *u*nion, but I figured it would be a bit too long in the long run, so I shortened it and came to like it better.

When we had to re-register for this incarnation of the boards, I had some trouble getting the confirmation mail, and the mail I sent to Morrus apparently did not get through. So I created another account and asked Morrus about it before resending the mail.
Originally, I did not want to use it afterwards, but at some point I decided it would be interesting to use it as a sort of "evil twin", and so *Ashardalon* was reborn. For those wondering, he is an ancient dragon mentioned in many of WotC's Adventure Path modules.


----------



## ConcreteBuddha

* 1) * I am slightly pretentious.


* 2) * I dig the ramifications of combining "concrete" (a hard, static, real-world substance) with "Buddha" (an otherworldly, abstract, dynamic, enlightened one).


* 3) * It sounds good as an email address.


----------



## Ziona

I enjoy writing & gaming, so I happen to have a baby name book lying around to supply inspiration on names for characters.  I was flipping through the book one night when I was creating my character & found the name Zion.  Feeling that it sounded too masculine, I added an "A" and thus created "Ziona."

So, Ziona is my user name, but it is also the name of one of my pc's as well.


----------



## James McMurray

My father was working as a dispatcher for the Fort Worth Police Department. One of his buddies was shot on duty, and I inherited that man's name. My father's last name was McMurray, and thus my username was born before I was.


----------



## FickleGM

Uh, let's see - I am fickle and a GM (mostly a DM, but I wanted to stay flexible).


----------



## frankthedm

My first name is frank

I am a DM


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

My first ever character was a half-elven sorcerer.  I thought it fit my personality - confused, spontaneous, egotistic, and crazy.  I used it when I first signed up at Eric Noah's page, and I've kept it.  If your wondering about my sig, it was a running gag in a campaign I played in.


----------



## trimeulose

*I am an arrogant gamer*

lemme spell it out for you:

Tri

Me

U

Lose

Ironically, it is apparently pronounced (TRIME-you- lowsss)


----------



## trentonjoe

Mine is my karaoke stage name.  WHile at least it was.  I was the coolest cat in town, chics digged me, and sang every day  but D&D night.  I rocked venues in such booming metropolises like: East Windsor, Lawrencville, New Brunswick, and of course Trenton, NJ.

I have since grown up a little, gotten fat, and developed high chlosterol. Every know and then I still see my old albums in small second hand record shops in the greater Trenton area.  _Trenton Joe Jr.: Live and Drunk_  or_Trenton Joe Redoes the '80's_,no w they  bring tears to my eyes when I think of missed opportunities.   I could have been the 1st Kelly Clarkson if someon had just given me a chance.


dumadum, dumadumadum,dumadum, dumadumadum, dumadum, dumadum, Sweeeeet Caroline!!!


----------



## Neo

Agback said:
			
		

> *
> 
> IIRC, its use in Army of Darkness was an homage to the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Agback *




Yeah wasn't it the Universal Greeting from said movie?


----------



## Taboo

Ok, I'll play along, too.

I got Taboo back in the days I could still afford and actually had time to read Image comics, of course that was a long time ago!

I stole the name from one of my favorite characters and it stuck. Plus, it kinda fits.


----------



## Barendd Nobeard

Neo said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Yeah wasn't it the Universal Greeting from said movie? *



It's actually the special command phrase to keep Gort (the robot) from blowing up earth.  Patricia Neal's character has to rush over and say it so he won't destroy the planet?  Klaatu is the name of the alien who gave her the instructions.

There is an interesting comparison of the movie to a famous religious figure here.

And to get this thread back on topic, my screen name comes from my first *Living Greyhawk* character.  Barendd is right out of the player's handbook.  Since he is a dwarf with no beard, he took the surname Nobeard.


----------



## Thyrkill

My sig. is actually my middle name. Thyrkill is an Anglo Saxon ancestor on my mother's side...apparently he was a mighty warrior-chieftan. Unfortunately, my sister got named after another ancestor...Dagmar. She's been bitter ever since 

Matt


----------



## Impeesa

Mine comes from an obscure african dialect. Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement, so impressed the natives with his skills while stationed there that he earned the nickname Impeesa - "The wolf who never sleeps." I liked it better than his other nickname among their people, Kantankye ("He of the big hat"). 

--Impeesa--


----------



## Silver Moon

*User Name*

Our weekly gaming group is the party known as the Silver Moon Adventurers.   As I am the group's founder and primary DM it seemed like a good name to use.    Now for the shameless plug, a recent campaign of the gaming group, set in the Forgotten Realms Orient, is posted on Story Hour under the thread title "Chinese Take-out".


----------



## jollyninja

one of many "wu tang clan" name generators where you enter your name and it gives you a handle.


----------



## Sanackranib

*name*



			
				Thyrkill said:
			
		

> *My sig. is actually my middle name. Thyrkill is an Anglo Saxon ancestor on my mother's side...apparently he was a mighty warrior-chieftan. Unfortunately, my sister got named after another ancestor...Dagmar. She's been bitter ever since
> 
> Matt *




Thats harsh! I thought my brothers had it rough with Alfred, Herbert and Zachery


----------



## ColonelHardisson

Barendd Nobeard said:
			
		

> *It's actually the special command phrase to keep Gort (the robot) from blowing up earth.  Patricia Neal's character has to rush over and say it so he won't destroy the planet?  Klaatu is the name of the alien who gave her the instructions.
> 
> *




Yep. And I posted about that on this very page, before the poster you responded to posted. I must be on a lot of ignore lists...


----------



## Gez

Jolly Giant said:
			
		

> *As to my own username, it used to BFG. That came from a Roald Dahl children's book called 'The BFG (Big, Friendly Giant)'. Since absolutely nobody knew what BFG stood for, I changed it to Jolly Giant. *




Having not been a children in the USA, to me, BFG is the Big F**kin' Gun from Doom. Ah, Doom...


----------



## Klaatu B. Nikto

*[OT] Universal Greeting*



			
				Neo said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Yeah wasn't it the Universal Greeting from said movie? *




The only universal greeting that comes to mind is the one from Transformers: the Movie.

'Ba weep grana weep ninny bon.' (spelled somewhat phonetically)


----------



## Moe Ronalds

I think mine is fairly obvious, but:

Moe+Ronalds+-e+-alds=MoRon.  geddit?


----------



## Atavar

*Atavar*

My screen name is from a character I played in a Greyhawk/Planescape campaign named Atavar Coramoor.

"Atavar" is a play on the word "avatar" which is sort of appropriate in his case since he had some divine ancestry (which had only roleplaying, not game-mechanic, implications).

"Coramoor," as all good Robert Jordan fans know, is the sea people's name for the character of Rand, the Dragon Reborn, in Jordan's "Wheel of Time" books.  Atavar looks a little like Rand, too. 

For those curious types who care, Atavar died in the climatic battle at the end of "Return to the Tomb of Horrors" to that adventure's main villain.

But his name lives on.... 

Later,

Atavar

---------

"Silly Pâté.  Tastes great...bounces high!"


----------



## Dave Blewer

I am the offspring of Mr and Mrs Blewer...

They decided to call me David.


----------



## Silver Moon

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *I have 1.75 cats. The .75 of a cat is often referred to as Tripod or by his Indian name, "Dances with Chevys."  The lack of a leg spawned the inevitable comparison to a pirate.
> 
> *




Wow P-Cat, it's a good thing I didn't know that was the criteria I was supposed to use to pick a user name.   You may remember from the last Round Zero that you attend at my house that I have a cat named Weebles who has Cerebral Palsy.   Using him as the basis my user name would be "Jon the Wobbly".


----------



## Bonedagger

At the time I came here I didn't think I would stay long (Started out as being a troll). So remembering bonedaggers from 2nd ed. being described as extremly sharp (;-)) I got curious about if anybody had taken the name.... That was about the same time I had to name my account. 

I decided to stick with it because of the email address it was connected to and since then it has growen on me. I don't ,however, use this account name anywhere else.


----------



## Piratecat

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> *
> Using him as the basis my user name would be "Jon the Wobbly".  *




You know, Jon, they say that absolute power corrupts absolutely.    If you want me to change your custom title to something else, just let me know!


----------



## Silver Moon

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *
> 
> You know, Jon, they say that absolute power corrupts absolutely.    If you want me to change your custom title to something else, just let me know! *




OK, I guess I asked for that one.     I'll let you know if I can think of another name - let's see what others might have for suggestions.


----------



## Malin Genie

Descartes.

Originally it was 'geniemalin' (the English word order, which I still am on other fora) but the French feel that the adjective 'evil' is one of the few important enough to go before the noun.

^_^


----------



## Airwolf

Buttercup said:
			
		

> *I suppose most people have guessed this, but my name is from the movie, Princess Bride.
> 
> When I registered on Nutkinland last month, I was surprised to find out that everyone thought it referred to the repulsive and badly drawn Power Puff Girls.  It doesn't. *




Thanks for posting this BC.  I had no idea where your name came from.  My wife saw it on the screen and she suggested it was from PB.  We had a short discussion about where your name came from.  


Regards,
Airwolf


----------



## megamania

Megamania is a comic book character I created.   If you break it down it means

(paraphrased)   a powderkeg of emotional and physical energy x1000

neat?


----------



## Reprisal

*A Nuclear Reprisal Inbound From Outerspace...*

Long ago, back when I was still in Secondary School, I used the name "Catalyst" and later "Catalyst001" until such a time that I discovered that the name was quite numerous in the places that I inhabited. Plus, hehe, I never really liked being called "Cat" whenever I was playing a game of Q2CTF or something.

So I took the name from a line in a song by Matthew Good -- much maligned in many circles -- and adopted it. I can still be found here and there by the name of Nuclear_Reprisal, but generally speaking, I've shortened it to Reprisal. Plus, hehe, I didn't really like being called "Nuke" when I was playing Counterstrike. 

Now, I'm Reprisal. Hooray, and they tend to call me "Rep" on Day of Defeat now... if anything at all, hehe.

Neat thread, 

 - Rep.


----------



## Carnifex

Carnifex is just a latin word that I like, because it means 'executioner'


----------



## scarymonkey

I got scarymonkey from some old episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast.  He said something like "Are you a nice monkey or a scary monkey? "  Oh well, it was funny at the time.  I guess you had to be there.  I have also used that nickname for years while playing too much Starcraft on battlenet.


----------



## DDK

*XXXX*

For those who know and love Terry Pratchett's novels of the Discworld, this nick should be almost instantly recognizable.

EcksEcksEcksEcks is a continent on the Discworld that is, in absolutely no uncertain terms, NOT Australia. It's just REALLY similar 

Fourecks is funny on so many levels but you kinda have to be Aussie (or an honourary Aussie, like Pratchett) to 'get it'.

One of the funniest things about it, is that there is a beer here literally called XXXX. It's bloody awful. Worse than Fosters even. It's made in Queensland (our version of redneck country... and all you Queenslanders can bite me for saying that. I've lived and worked in Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Proserpine and Airlie Beach and also worked in Cairns, Thursday Island, Frasier Island, Brisbane and a whole lotta other places in that god-awful state, so I feel justified in abusing it!) and the saying goes Queenslanders call it XXXX because they are so dumb, they don't know how to spell BEER. 

Anyway, obviously I'm an Aussie and I love Pratchett's books so...


----------



## Barcode

RN = Bob Arco
Common abbreviation = B.Arco
Add a computer affiliation and a couple of letters, et voila
Barcode


----------



## Creamsteak

I played a lot of online first person shooters from the age of 8, and since then I've developed a habit of either dominating or getting "owned" so I took it upon myself very early on to come up with a great name for the leftover gore my "|337 skillz" either turned people into this pasty meaty substance, or I would end up just like it.

Creamsteak - The meaty paste left over when you take a rocket right to the gut.


----------



## Morpheus

My RL  nickname is Sandman. It doesn't take too big of a leap to arrive at Morpheus-"The Sandman".


----------



## Ratenef

I was playing DnD with a group of guys back in '87, when I was 17 and after I had been playing for about 6 years already . At first I was given the NPC Mongo the Dwarf (who's primary weapon was a dwarven thrower) to see if I was good enough to stick around, since all the guys in the group were 5 - 20 years older than me.

Once I was accepted, the DM gave me a new character to play, a Paladin named Ratenef. At the time we were playing Queen of the Spiders. There is a Paladin who is a prisoner that you find in the module (I didn't find out that this was indeed a part of the module until just last month when I bought the module and checked for him).

I played that character for 5 years, and he now an 18th level Paladin of Tyr, sometime during our adventures we moved from Oerth to Faerun. The party I played with became known as The Outworlders, since we had all come from Oerth and there was enought of us (about a dozen I believe, 8 players and 4 retainers) to be a known force. One of us actually owns a bar in Waterdeep, the bar top is the blade from a Giants greatsword.

How I miss those days of 'shake n bake' !!!!


----------



## Daiymo

Hmm mine is boring. I had an old board name here a ways back, but drifted away from these boards for a while and subsequently forgot about it.

 Then a year ago after using daiymo in a series on online MMORPG's, I used this username to reply to an ad for a PbP Rokugan/OA game last year. Game and group are still going
strong and Ive been enjoying this community(mostly as a lurker) ever since.


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

Well my avatar is presently caused by a certain Admin...

...but my name is merely an old PC who only lasted one weekend. I just liked the name, and Ghost had already been taken when I tried to create an account here. *shrug* So I'm Tallarn.


----------



## Destil

Destil was the first charachter I ever seriously role-played in any sort of game (An online MUD called Dragonrealms). i've been using it ever since.


----------



## GnomeWorks

Around the time that I showed up here, I was trying to start up a gaming company that had been jokingly named "GnomeWorks Publishing".

So I called myself GnomeWorks.


----------



## haiiro

"haiiro" is an archaic word for "grey" in Japanese. I identify strongly with the idea that the world is almost never black and white - things come in shades of grey, myself included. I think that also means I take these things too seriously. 

I focused on Asian Studies in college (which made a big impression on me) and I've always liked using something slightly unusual (to me) for usernames. I've been haiiro online for around 2-3 years now, and it fits like a glove. It's very rarely taken, which is nice.


----------



## Steve Conan Trustrum

Steven Trustrum is my real name.

Conan is a long standing nickname earned independently from two different sources.

One was because, when I used to play the bruiser defense in hockey, I picked up a player from the other team and tossed him through the glass because he hit our goalie. The local newspapers said I was a barbarian so my team started calling me Conan.


----------



## Outlanders

I took my user name from my web-site, and I needed a user name and ID for the message board that I run, but mostly now... I use the name for the series of novels that I've written for.

Chris


----------



## DWARF

Have you ever met me?

You'd understand...


----------



## garyh

Well, garyh come from my name - Gary Hoggatt - but it's more than that, since just "gary" was available.  My personal website is www.garyh.net, so I figured I'd continue establishing my online presence as garyh.


----------



## Larry Fitz

Piratecat was taken...

and I've gotten used to responding to this name in real life, so I thought, "hey, why not?"

Actually, I wanted my handle to be obviously me, so people knew when I pumped stuff I wrote or LI produced that it was a biased opinion, thought that was the most fair thing to do. Plus I was hoping that WOTC would be so impressed by my creativity and wit that they would pay me heaps of cash to write the 4th Edition of D&D... um... still waiting on that....


----------



## Sixchan

Sixchan is one of those western Otaku nicknames that you get by taking a word and adding '-chan' on at the end.

Six comes Number Six, the Main character in the old TV show 'The Prisoner' (and not some other show that had a character called Six and anther called Blossom or something that I can't really remember).

'-chan' pretty much means 'little'.

So Sixchan, or 'Little Six'.


----------



## blue crane

*Re.: 'Origin' of Your User Name*

As far as 'Blue Crane' is concerned, it was the name of our national bird (pre- 1994 RSA elections)!


----------



## Legba

Legba. Voudoun loa of magic, protector of the home and deity of crossroads, the favorite meeting place of sorcerers. Worshipped in Santería as Eleggua, he has the same properties in both religions. He is also identifed with Saint Anthony. In Voudoun myth, Legba acts as the iterpreter of the gods; without his permission no loa can be contacted. (paraphrased from Voodoo: The Shadow War by C.J. Carella)


Emanuel


----------



## Dave Blewer

> You know, Jon, they say that absolute power corrupts absolutely.  If you want me to change your custom title to something else, just let me know!




My cat is fine, but _I_ have cerebral Palsy... I guess I should be known as Dave the very, very Wobbly.  

I found out a few years ago that in my gaming group that was blessed with more than one Dave that I was known as Dave the Leg


----------



## Grim

Mine used to be The Grim Reapa, but i shortened it to Grim.

The Grim Reapa came from my favorite game ever, Worms Armogeddon, and my number one team, "Death", which included... let me think...

The Grim Reapa
Bone White Cracka
D to the EATH
Dr. Bones
Scythy
Chilly Fingers
The Damninator
and...
Skullzilla

I was so goofy then. Luckly it was only a phaze. Now I'm just crazy.


----------



## larfinia

My very first character name. i use it for everythin.


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

djrdjmsqrd...
djrdj = djordje -> George in a different spelling.  Street Name...nick-name at Prep School

msqrd = masquerade -> various reasons...it has alot of meaning to me.


Also known on the 'net as raVen


----------



## GungHo

Double meaning...  The G.I. Joe character and service in the USMC.

*Semper Fi!
Do Or Die!
Gung Ho!
Gung Ho!
Gung Ho!*


----------



## BMF

I started using it with my T-shirt company a few years ago. Being a small businessman, I needed a title that covered all my titles. I was the CEO, the CFO, the COO and every other corporate title that existed for that company. Of course, today, I run 2 businesses, and am about to start a 3rd. So my busiess cards could have a huge paragraph of titles on them. Rather than have all those titles listed on my business cards, I deceided to appoint myself the rare corporate title of "Bad Mother  u k r."


----------



## Americancyco

A book.


----------



## Uzumaki

Japanese manga series and horror flick, about a town plauged by spirals.  It's good and creepy. Pick it up somewhere.


----------



## Forrester

From Dr. Clayton Forrester, the evil genius from MST3K, of course.


----------



## DDK

Legba said:
			
		

> *(paraphrased from Voodoo: The Shadow War by C.J. Carella)*



Is that not just the coolest setting? There are so many adventure ideas throughout the text that a DM is overwhelmed with options!

Pity I can never get anyone interested enough to play this


----------



## cthuluftaghn

The origin of my user name should be obvious.  Yes, I know that both Cthulu and Ftaghn are misspelled.  The first time I tried to use it as a login for something many years ago, the proper spelling was already taken.  So I shifted the "h" in both words and, ever since, I've been cthuluftaghn.


----------



## Meridian

Meridian comes from an old AD&D character I had by the name of Meridian Flint (a cambion anti-paladin: a half-fiend human blackguard/fallen paladin for 3rd editioners).

The origin of the character was pseudo-Biblical, so the name I chose kind of reflected that.  There was a phrase I latched onto: "the pestilence that walks at noonday."  Meridian is the archaic term for "noon."  Flint came from perverting the symbolism of Peter as the rock of the Church; being a fallen paladin, Meridian had been a rock of the Church but had splintered and cracked under the weight of his responsibilities.  Flint is a brittle rock, and is best known for use in creating fires...and as a tool of the High Lord of the Nine Hells, he was certainly used to start a holocaust on his home plane.

Meridian Flint.


----------



## mirzabah

"Mirzabah" was the name of one of my favourite characters - a dwarven fighter. It actually comes from one of the Dune novels - means "Foe Hammer".


----------



## Dristram

*Origins of Dristram*

Dristram was my first ever 3E charcter, a Fighter/Rogue.  He had three fighting styles.  Either two short swords, spiked shield and short sword, or simply the short bow.

I came up with the name Dristram from Tristram, one of King Arthur's knights.  And I chose Tristram because I used to have the alternanate form, Tristan, as my personna name as a Landsknecht (German Mercenary) at Renaissance Faires.


----------



## Taloras

Taloras Tamuril was an elven character i used to RP as online......havent played as him in years, but neither of my other 2 characters where memorable....Sarius and Vaynard really didnt do very well.....Im still known as Tal on most message boards online, if not the full Taloras.


----------



## Citizen of 2 worlds

I've lurked here a loong time, and I had to think about a username that fit me a while ago, when I finally decided to post..

I feel kind of like I'm a part of two worlds, and yet still part of neither. In many ways it is easier socially to be either normal hearing, or deaf... But as I'm hard of hearing with knowledge of sign language, I can function reasonably good in both worlds, but not 100% in either.. So my username thus became Citizen of 2 worlds.

Actually, since I took the name, I have started to feel that it is a strength to be able to communicate with both speech and signing, and not just being in a no-mans land socially.

I considered other alternatives.. Initials? M.U.F.F doesnt sound really good.. its a word in english.. bleh.

RPG based? Hmm.. I've mostly DM'ed.. (And not at all the last years) I remembered some names from my first session RPG'ing (a swedish RPG called Drakar & Demoner) - my brother promptly made a character called wrieth (wraith spelled wrong).. And funnily, those characters weren't really good.. stats like 7,9,9,11,10, 13 or something.. Power gaming came later..  

No, none of those early game names were much to choose from.. the other player in my first game actually was my father.. his character was Sikatos.. which _also_ was a misspelling.. 

Hm.. I migh have thought entirely too much about a user name, sonsidering i post so seldom.. ( But here's to posting more in the future..   )


----------



## EvilMountainDew

Well, I used to be known as EvilMountainDew, which was from an ooold Blizzard clan (it spanned over most games Blizzard made) and we were the Evil Soda Clan       I was EvilMountainDew and there were EvilCherryPepsi (who might join these boards) EvilOrangeSoda  and many many more

This one goes on about my fanatacism with MountainDew   and that im addicted to the stuff


----------



## paqman

*Champions also*

My name comes from a character I played in Hero/Champions also. He was a supers with the power to see far away with a claivoyance power.


----------



## Talvisota

Was my first email address.

It is Finnish for "Winter War," the Soviet invasion of 1939-40.  I focused on the diplomatic developments that led up to this war in my thesis.


----------



## Zaukrie

One of my favorite characters.  I merged two german words:  Zauber = magic; Krieg = war (give or take translations).  Combined Zaukrie = magical warrior.


----------



## godfear

Some call it faith.

I first started using the handle when I needed a username for my new DSL account, because my old (and painfully overused) nickname "zero" was, of course, taken. It was either inspiration or recollection, but if the latter, I have no idea what it came from.


----------



## AGGEMAM

Well, AGGEMAM, pronounced A - GE - MAAAM (3 A's), is danish baby language and means 'is it food'.

The phrase was used in a comic radio series called 'Gramsespektrum' (Snuggle-spectacle) for young adults a number of years ago.

When coming here the first time and being asked for a username it was really the first thing that came to mind.


----------



## Salad Shooter

I used to play the Tribes demo rather heavily (yes, the demo, AOL didn't like the full version) and one day I used it as my name, and I've been using it since...i think it was some sort of kitchen appliance that slices up veggies and stuff...


----------



## Tokiwong

*Toki=* A Korean word meaning Rabbit

*Wong=* A Korean word meaning King

Together they mean Rabbit-King, and usually the name is not taken, which is good, so I use it.  Not too glamorous or long, but I like it, and no I am not Korean, I just speak the language.


----------



## EricNoah

EricNoah is the name of one of my favorite characters.  He had the ability to Gather Information about D&D and spread the news about it from village to village using "the intraweb."


----------



## garyh

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *EricNoah is the name of one of my favorite characters.  He had the ability to Gather Information about D&D and spread the news about it from village to village using "the intraweb." *




Wow, that's a pretty neat sounding PC, EricNoah.  I could swear I've seen him before...  was he one of the Heroes of the Lance?


----------



## francisca

Well, I've been inspired.  I used to go by evil_rmf.  I'm not really evil, but it was the best i could come up at the time.

However, I've come up with a new one: francisca.  My surname is Franks.  The Francisca was an axe used by the Franks (and the Saxons).  Basically, they were thrown in mass into enemy formations before charging into battle.

There is some scholarly debate as to whether the axe was named after the people, or if the people were named after the axe.  

Either way, I like it.


----------



## Dreaddisease

My name comes from three places. 

First an Oingo Boingo Song

Second a book by W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge.

Third, when I played a Medic in TFC I needed a name for a clan I was joining.  Since I was really into diseasing people that is what I called myself.  

I've gone by DD, Double D, Diseased, Dread, DreadD, D Squared, Chili Palmer, etc...


----------



## jemkym

JEM is my initials, and does anyone remember Jem and the Holograms??? She was the first girl I had a crush on; unfortunately, she was a cartoon. And Kym is my girlfriend's name.


----------



## The Grey Dwarf

I've been called a "Garden Ornament" since I grew a beard.
(Neither thin nor tall, you see)
It was the first name that came to my mind when I had to register.


----------



## Asmo

Asmo is short for Asmodean, one of the Forsaken in the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. Then that bastard Rand al´Thor killed me off, so I had to change it to Asmo  

Asmo


----------



## baradtgnome

*Lookout, another New Englander...*

My name is actually Barad and I am a Gnome.  

Ok, so I am a middleaged guy who has played D&D for over 20 years and one of his early 1E characters was named Barad and he was a Gnome.  He was not necessarily my 'best' character, but he was reknown for being a light hearted trouble maker in game as well as to the DM.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.

IIRC this type of thread was on Eric's original boards, it was enjoyable then too.

Go Buckaroo Bonzai fans!

Moxie being an aquired taste is not unlike the many wonderful things that are reputed to tasted like chicken.

Always remembah, ya can't get theyah from heeah
--------------------
Whispers "I see stupid people!"


----------



## Shadoe's Lady

My husband's user name is Shadoe.  Since I always say he's the gamer and I'm just the wife I thought "Shadoe's Lady" was appropriate.  Although, now that he's got me posting, it's harder to make the argument that I'm just the wife.


----------



## Viking Bastard

Mastermind = Only thing I could think of that wasn't taken when I first came here years ago.

I rather dislike it nowadays and I usually go by the name Viking Bastard or Overlord everywhere else.

I just don't like changing IDs.


----------



## Li Shenron

I use a different name for each place I use to visit on the web. Having very many of them, and a very limited fantasy, I always borrow them from somewhere, at most altering them a little.

"Li Shenron" is the name of the last villain in the last series of japanese anime Dragonball, although the name is probably different in the original language, and in the english version.

In case you own the Oriental Adventures, Shenron is probably altered from Shen-Lung, the "spirit eastern dragon" IIRC.

BTW, if anybody can find for me a portrait picture of DBGT's character Li Shenron to be used as an avatar, I would be very greatful


----------



## Sir Trent

*Trent*

Trent was the name of a 1st edition D&D character I played years ago. I was umpiring a Jr. Babe Ruth baseball tournament at the time and a kid named Trent drove three baseballs out of the park in one game, so it was on my mind when I rolled up the character. Plus it's half-way related to my own name (Trevis). My Trent was a Ranger and died a senseless death at the tender age of Level 12. With the entire party dead but my character, Trent fought an epic battle to escape the ungodly horde our DM dropped on us. Trent had rescued all the bodies of his friends, tied them onto a string of horses and was about to make his escape when an invisible stalker, the last living monster in the complex, killed him from behind. That was my first TPK.


----------



## generic

Arise!


----------



## Sacrosanct

Sir Trent said:


> *Trent*
> 
> Trent was the name of a 1st edition D&D character I played years ago. I was umpiring a Jr. Babe Ruth baseball tournament at the time and a kid named Trent drove three baseballs out of the park in one game, so it was on my mind when I rolled up the character. Plus it's half-way related to my own name (Trevis). My Trent was a Ranger and died a senseless death at the tender age of Level 12. With the entire party dead but my character, Trent fought an epic battle to escape the ungodly horde our DM dropped on us. Trent had rescued all the bodies of his friends, tied them onto a string of horses and was about to make his escape when an invisible stalker, the last living monster in the complex, killed him from behind. That was my first TPK.




My brother's name is Trent.  But he couldn't hit three baseballs out of the park as a kid.  He couldn't hit three tennis balls out of the backyard as a kid...


----------



## Lanefan

Lanefan was for a very long time my longest-serving and best-known character: a no-BS Fighter who would argue with anyone.  Seemed appropriate for a discussion board. 

As for the name itself, it comes from a language I and some others waved at inventing many years ago and never did anything with: in that language 'La' means 'Man' and 'Nefan' means 'Moon'; Lanefan thus means 'Man [of the] moon'...which also fits well. 

Also, this means it's pronounced in *three* syllables: lan-ef-an.  Can't count how many times I've heard it pronounced as if I'm a supporter of someone named Lane...


----------



## Salthorae

Salthorae was one of my early 2e characters. 

Elven Ranger devoted to Shevarash in hunting the drow. Great fun character.


----------



## lowkey13

*Deleted by user*


----------



## cmad1977

Kingsrule77
Hockey fan. 
From Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Kings.
Kings do in fact rule.
I’m olde.


----------



## darjr

DAR my initials


----------



## Salthorae

darjr said:


> DAR




Daughters of the American Revolution?


----------



## Dannyalcatraz

California Pizza Kitchen used to- and may still- have a policy that waitstaff name badges were supposed to use the server’s first name and- instead of their actual surname- their birthplace.  At least, that’s what my server, Danny Alcatraz, told me.

Then he admitted that “Alcatraz” sounded better than “San Francisco “.

i asked him if I could use the name in a cyberpunk story I was writing, and he said yes.

Well, I liked the character I came up with, but not the story he was in.  Or the next try.  Or the next.

A year or two late, when I first decided to try out using a couple of message boards on the internet, I decided to use...an abbreviated form of my email.  But after those boards radically altered their ToS, I left them.

When I found ENWorld shortly thereafter, I was typing in that same username and paused...thought...and repurposed my cyberpunk character‘s name.  I use it almost everywhere I am recreating online.  The exception: I use a different name for online games.


----------



## doctorbadwolf

It’s mostly a Doctor Who reference that turned out cromulent enough to stick. 

But also it works because I am, by turns, very detached, introspective, and studious, and very “wild”, impulsive, and passionate. So, the dichotomy of the name fits.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz

Lanefan said:


> Lanefan was for a very long time my longest-serving and best-known character: a no-BS Fighter who would argue with anyone.  Seemed appropriate for a discussion board.
> 
> As for the name itself, it comes from a language I and some others waved at inventing many years ago and never did anything with: in that language 'La' means 'Man' and 'Nefan' means 'Moon'; Lanefan thus means 'Man [of the] moon'...which also fits well.
> 
> Also, this means it's pronounced in *three* syllables: lan-ef-an.  Can't count how many times I've heard it pronounced as if I'm a supporter of someone named Lane...



You *never* struck me as a fan of Lane.


----------



## Blackrat

So, it was back when I was 15 or thereabout, my girlfriend used to call me Rat, as I was tiny, cute and brought madness, chaos and destruction in my wake. It was easily inferred that she referred to the black rat. So, then came along internet forums and such, and I started to use it pretty much everywhere. Now ENW is pretty much the last place that I still use it


----------



## Doc_Klueless

Mine is based on a Twilight 2000 doctor/medic character I had that we played using the GURPS system. One of his disadvantages was Clueless. He was super fun to play.


----------



## Morrus

Dannyalcatraz said:


> California Pizza Kitchen used to- and may still- have a policy that waitstaff name badges were supposed to use the server’s first name and- instead of their actual surname- their birthplace.



So that they could more easily hack into their staff’s online accounts?

At least they didn’t insist on including their first pet’s name, too!


----------



## CapnZapp

Aebir-Toril said:


> Arise!



Have a like.


----------



## Anselyn

Name of a paladin that I played 20 years ago - misspelled version of Ancelyn


----------



## Anselyn

Anselyn said:


> Name of a paladin that I played 20 years ago - misspelled version of Ancelyn



And - interestingly (to me) - from an episode of Dr Who written by Ben Aaronovitch


----------



## dragoner

Used to design wargames ~20 years ago; one campaign I made for Panzer General 2, "The Great Patriotic War" depicting the Soviet side using Russian, Polish, Romanian, and other sources, was recently added to a browser game from somebody in Czechia.

On the forums, I decided to call myself "dragoner" because it sounded cool, my great grandfather was a captain of dragoons in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it means "dragoon" in German.


----------



## Ulfgeir

My username is from when I was a member of a mediaeval club and needed a name for  my persona. Ulfgeir is of old Nordic origin, and can best be translated as Wolfspear.

So ended up using that on a number of forums. On Discord (and the global name on City of Heroes) I use Red Gazelle. That was based on a character I played in Mutants & Masterminds 2e.


----------



## generic

My username is an inside joke of sorts which arose as a result of linguistic tomfoolery amongst my comrades.  The name "Abeir-Toril" was consistently pronounced as both ABE-er-TOR-ill and A-beer-TOR-ill, to the great annoyance of the DM, the group, and everyone.  While this argument raged online and in person, I jokingly uttered something that sounded like ABBER-TOR-ill.  The letter AE was chosen, and the name stuck. 

So, it's AE-burr-TOR-ill.


----------



## FrogReaver

Part High School nickname and favorite StarCraft 1 unit.


----------



## sgtnasty

They could not pronounce my name in the Army, so I was always known as "nasty" regardless of rank. It stuck, and my older brother had the same name in the Air Force.


----------



## Campbell

It's my mother's maiden name. When I choose it at the age of 14 or so I was pretty into my Scottish heritage.


----------



## Twiggly the Gnome

Strangely, it looks like I've never posted to this ancient thread. My user name comes from one of Mike Myers *Lothar of the Hill People* skits on SNL.

Watch Saturday Night Live Highlight: Lothar of the Hill People - NBC.com


----------



## ccs

CCS is just my real life initials.


----------



## billd91

There's either another thread about this here or on another message board I've visited - because I'm sure I've answered this before but I don't seem to be in this thread.
Anyway, my real name is Bill and my last name starts with D. And since that's a reeeeeeeeeeeel common combination in lots of places and I was tired of having to come up with unique names everywhere, I appended a number meaningful to me (graduated from college in 1991) and that was less likely to be duplicated.


----------



## Imaculata

I spend several years surviving in the wilderness of South Holland with the Brabant people, who gave me this name, which roughly translates to "He who inspects floors really well".


----------



## DammitVictor

_Shroompunk_ is my life's work, both trying to reinvigorate higher-level cosmic play in the OSR, and a meta-setting that's designed to feature and emphasize that playstyle by marrying good old fashioned Appendix N blood and thunder with _Super Mario Bros _and _Masters of the Universe_.

_Warlord _is to differentiate me from _the other Shroompunk_, who seems like a pretty cool artist but isn't related to my work at all.


----------



## pming

Hiya!

Er... I'll give you a hint... "its in my name"


^_^

Paul L. Ming

PS: Bonus...I often use "Plum" and "Plum_Fun". Basically, my initials but 'spoken as a word'; "PLM"...say it out and it sounds like "Plum". And Plums are purple; I like the colour purple.  I also use "Denakahn" on some other forums...my highest level PC ever, a 20th level 1e Magic-User grey elf.


----------



## Erekose

So long ago it’s hard to remember - I believe it was chanting in a dream


----------



## Snarf Zagyg

Most people assume it is based on SnarfQuest, the Elmore comic that was a mainstay of Dragon Magazine in the 1980s, combined with Zagig Yragerne after he ascended to godhood (ZAGYG!), thus making me an insane zeetvah.

Those people would be wrong! It is, in fact, a tribute to Roland Barthes.


----------



## CapnZapp

I don't remember exactly except I can refute the connection to Futurama, a show I was not yet aware of at the time.

If I had to guess, I took my inspiration from Snoopy the WWI ace fighter and Spiff the Spaceman.


----------



## Davies

Apparently it derives from the anglicized name of the patron saint of Wales, St. Dewi (aka St. David.) UK sources, and most Canadian ones, pronounce it "day-VIZ"; American sources, and my family, pronounce it 'DAY-veez', which is how the name 'Davis' is pronounced in the UK and Canada. I sometimes find the implications of that fact disturbing.


----------



## The Green Hermit

My best friend once told me that I would be happy staying at the top of a mountain with all the animals, hence "hermit." And forests are green, so when somebody had already claimed "Hermit," I added the green part as well.


----------



## CleverNickName

Someone told me that if you're gonna give yourself a nickname, it should at least be a clever one.

The origin of my avatar?  I just played waaay too much Final Fantasy VI.


----------



## Elf_flambe

My group hadn't been playing 1E D&D very long. We entered a room with stairs descending to the floor of the room, where a red dragon was curled up on his pile of treasure. The monk whooped and rushed down to start whacking it on the nose. Staying on the balcony, my elvish fighter/magic user started preparing a spell. The inexperienced DM decided he would roll a die to see who the dragon attacked, to be fair. My number came up, and the dragon breathed on my low-level character. Hence... Elf flambe!


----------



## TheIdeaOfGood

It's the opposite to the somewhat apocryphal true big bad of Kentaro Miura's Berserk universe, the Idea of Evil. The Idea of Evil sprang into being because mankind desired a reason for its misery and the universe provided them one. The Idea of Good would then be the opposite, the hope that evil, self-serving as it is, would eventuall be cast down.


----------

