66 replies to this topic

[Wizards_Hat]

Some peoples usernames are plain funny.
Some are quite normal.
Some are quite weird.
Most have nothing at all to do with a person's real name.

Just wondering if anyone has any (good) stories as to where their user name comes from.

...Not that I think mine is particularly interesting, but I'll start the (ahem) ball rolling:

I properly got into pinball whilst at Uni, where my best mate was also called Dan. Obviously when entering initials on pins we couldn't have the same, I chose HAT (as I always wore a hat at the time - quite a striking one...a bit like a trilby, except that a friend used to paint it for me every year so it always looked a bit weird...one year it had eyes all over it).
Anyhow, as I became quite good at pinball...a pinball "wizard" you might say, I took to using the name "Wizards Hat" for all things pinball related.

That's it...anyone else?
Dan.

[SunWizard]

Good idea for a thread.

My name comes from: I live in an off the grid, solar power, solar heat, solar hot water house for the last 10 years, and I have designed, sold and installed solar electric systems for 22 years.

And I look like a wizard even when not wearing a hat

[faralos]

Mine is the first multi-piece figurine I ever built/painted. The box actually said 'Faralos'on it; he is a 15th level mage in the D&D world. I've gotten much better since I first put him together, but since he's my first (and about 20 yrs. old now) I left him as is from my earlier painting days! Oh and he is about 3" high!

Attached Files

•  Faralos.JPG   456.65KB   16 downloads

Edited by faralos, 18 February 2009 - 11:19 PM.

[ValamirCleaver]

Valamir was the name of a Ranger I played in a mid '90s D&D campaign. He wielded a magical two-handed Battle Axe of Hurling that he named Cleaver. The character came to be referred as "Valamir Cleaver" exclusively by the NPCs and other PCs in the campaign and the name stuck. I decided to use it when I became active on the internet.

[KEG]

Well mine is simple KEG are my initials. Guess that's why I like beer so much I know there are many KEG's out there but at least I can say mine is legit..

-Kurt

[RYSr]

Well RYSr is not the offworld destination that Riker likes to go to on STTNG TV series, It's just my initials and SR for Senior (vs Junior), not very imaginative I know, but i'm an old Grandpa (57).

Rich

[Bob5453]

Bob was born on 5/4/53

[bjjb]

bjjb actually stands for Billy Joe Jim Bob, a nickname I got when I moved to Alabama from Texas. The guy I shared an office with thought I should be called Billy Bob, but I said Billy Joe Jim Bob, and it stuck. As a matter of fact, Clyde created me a name plate for the office called Billy Joe Jim Bob, and everyone else liked it too.

After a while even some of my customers started knowing me as Billy Joe Jim Bob (especially in New York City, Kansas City, and Orlando - I used to do site work a lot until I got back into a programming job).

Well, that's what bjjb stands for, and I reckon that sums it up...

[lupo51ca]

I was introduced to an Italian game show on tv by a man who was an owner and operator of a local arcade. I enjoyed watching this program when I went to the arcade and he helped translate what was going on since I don't know Italian. The show was called In Boca al lupo. and it was on channel 51 at the time. I spend many happy hours watching that show and playing his games. The ca is in reference to Canada, where I live.

[Noah Fentz]

I think it's hilarious to see so many names derived from former D&D characters! I, too, use a name of a former character.

Noah Fentz was a high level Paladin. Anyone who's played D&D knows how well that fits the Paladin's demeanor.

My other characters included:

Rand McNally - Halfling Thief/Cartographer
Sheldon Devaind - Dwarven Shrimpboater (indeed an oxy moron)
Midas Welby - Gnome Thief/Jeweler

[TheMcD]

My name came out of a thinking session I had. I thought up an online name in about 20 seconds, but the history is a bit longer. I've been using ROB as my pinball initials for a while, but then I came up to a machine that already had a ROB. I realized that ROB is too common and I could use something new, so I looked at my dad's initials, MAC and decided to go with MCD (full name's Robert McDaniel, to anyone who wonders how I came up with that). I then decided to slap a The in front of it and it had a nice ring to it, so I kept it.

The McD

[Shadow]

Mine would be self-explanatory to most US members of a certain age . . .but not so to the rest of the dullards here . . .thus . . .

. . .The Shadow was a pulp fiction anti-hero of the early 1930s through to the 50s. His adventures were chronicled in the popular US format of the era - namely a cheaply produced, sensationally-written, garishly-covered "pulp" magazine that sold for as cheap as possible due to its' popularity at the time of the great depression.

Later turned into a crap film . . .

The characters was a gun-toting, black-caped psychotic with a mask fashioned from a red scarf. He melted into the shadows and emerged to deliver vengeance on anybody he deemed worthy. He was a masked vigilante, working outside the system (a la Batman) and nobody knew his real identity . . .

. . .sound like anybody YOU know . . .

[DesAngel]

my handle comes from an album by Bad Company called Desolation Angels, I liked the ring to it and thus have been DesAngel ever since.

D

[Bob5453]

He was a masked vigilante, working outside the system (a la Batman) and nobody knew his real identity . . .

. . .sound like anybody YOU know . . .

Margo Pane knew his identity on the radio series. The radio drama also introduced female characters into The Shadow's realm, most notably Margo Lane (played by Agnes Moorehead among others) as Cranston's love interest and crime-solving partner — the character was eventually integrated into Gibson's pulp novels.^[9] She was first introduced in 1936, in the Shadow comic book. Many fans were outraged by this because no explanation to her sudden appearance was offered.

In Mad Magazine in the 1950s, The Shadow was spoofed as "The Shadow'" (the apostrophe because the name was short for "Lamont Shadowskeedeeboomboom"). In the story "Margo Pain" gets The Shadow' into predicaments — fights with gangsters, musical instruments (including a piano) dropped on him, etc. At the end of the story The Shadow' tricks Margo into going into an outhouse surrounded by dynamite — and, outside, he pushes the plunger down.

The radio drama is well-remembered for those episodes voiced by Orson Welles.


Whenever the electricity goes out at my house, I listen to The Shadow (on mp3 player with speakers)

Edited by Bob5453, 19 February 2009 - 05:18 PM.

[ValamirCleaver]

my handle comes from an album by Bad Company called Desolation Angels, I liked the ring to it and thus have been DesAngel ever since.

Sounds like a "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" to me... or was that a Jack Kerouac novel...

Margo Pane knew his identity on the radio series. The radio drama also introduced female characters into The Shadow's realm, most notably Margo Lane (played by Agnes Moorehead among others) as Cranston's love interest and crime-solving partner — the character was eventually integrated into Gibson's pulp novels.^[9]

Good thing it was the '30s or else they probably would made her adopt a less suggestive stage name... or she could have been a Bond girl...

Whenever the electricity goes out at my house, I listen to The Shadow (on mp3 player with speakers)

Obviously a battery operated one...

[yogiholzer]

Colleagues at work and before that buddies from military service always called me 'Holzer'. Holz (German) = wood (English) is part of my surname, but I think the idea was born of my style to play soccer/football at that time. Fair, but similar a logger/lumberjack/woodchopper anyway. Oops!

Later a colleague at work always called me Jogi or Yogi. It's was common nickname here for men whose first name is a short name and starts with J. My real first name is Jörg. I found out it's possibly a north european deduction? of Georg/George.

I combined both nicknames to yogiholzer and some people/friends use this in fact.

I'm used to yogi (or holzer or yogiholzer) and that's not only an online user name, so please don't change your behavior at all to call me yogi or yogiholzer or if you can't beware holzer.

[Arctic Blast]

Well, being from Western Canada, the Arctic half of the name is pretty much self explanatory. As for the Blast part...uhhh...I honestly have no idea really where that came from.

[slam23]

Well, for people that don't recognize the Chicago Bull in my avatar, my nickname actually pays homage to my favorite NBA player of all time (and the first I ever saw play, watching a friend's videotape "Come Fly With Me"): Michael Jordan. He wore nr 23 and I guess slam is self-explanatory. It also was a quick think-up for a bball magazine online forum, and it stuck with me thereafter. I also use mrslam23 when I feel I need some respect from other people or more accurate, when slam23 is already taken. The avatar comes from a photograph I took while visiting New Zealand. It was actually a neon sign that hung outside of a seedy bar if you can believe it. I immediately recognized the Chicago Bull -and the copyright infringement that was perpetrated -
I also used a D&D name for a while: Bimex, a classy wizard who frowned upon all the sweat, muck and blood that came with the other jobs....

[The Loafer]

My nick goes back a long ways, to a time when I was a porn star doing 35mm under the pseudonym "Meaty Loafer". I don't know, after that dark but fun period of my life, the nick "Loafer" just stuck...

[Jive]

My nephew was unable to pronounce "Tonton Jean-Yves", when he was still a very young kid.
All he was able to say was: "Ton Jive"
When I came for the first time on internet, I deeeeeeeeeeply thought about the fact that I had to have a nick...
I thought that my nephew was pleasing my ears with his "Jive"