How did you come up with your name?

[Grand Arbiter]

As in the title, and referring to your name here on the forum.


The short version of mine:
I was pondering some details for a self-made D&D campaign setting (still in the works), and decided I wanted a dragon wizard/mage/sorcerer as one of the characters that players may meet. Like Elminster or Mordenkainen in their respective settings. One of the few details I had was that he would be really into books and have a vast library...

Dragon names are usually long and complex, but I wanted something short that others could call him easily.
I eventually decided to use a word I had learned in my Italian classes at school - Libro (book).

When I signed up for the forum, I decided to adopt his moniker as my own.



That's my story, how about yours?

[Murk]

Murk is very close to my real life name (take a guess), and was luckily still available on this site. Every now and then I encounter the chance site where someone else is called Murk already and then I find myself in the weird position of having to pick another name.

It doesn't mean anything - or, at least, I didn't mean for it to mean anything. Wikipedia tells me there's a band, a movie and a tv character named Murk, though. I like to think I was first and inspired them.

[Asmodean_]

Originally, Yoshi (from mario), Boy (gender), 13 (favourite number)
But I've grown up since then so it's Asmodean (of the Chosen) _ (underscore because Asmodean was already taken)

[A.A.King]

The name A.A.King should be read as Alpha Alpha King (though that is obviouslu to much of a pain to write out every single time) and I like to think it is very obvious as to how it came about: I'm the Alpha among Alphas, I am King.

The real explanation is that there are two prominent A's in my real name in a somewhat unique way so I chose to focus on that AND I am King.

I have different nicknames across different boards depending on rules and availability (sometimes for example they do not allow for the . and AAKing without dots looks pretty silly to me) but the King bit is a consistent factor. (Apart from the one place where I decided to go with Monarch instead, you need to have a little variety in your live after all.)

[nyjastul69]

My name is a portmanteau of 2 NPC names from classic D&D modules. It was the name of one of my first D&D characters. I used it on the first board I ever signed up for, it also required a number, so I used my birth year. I figured I keep for sake of consistency, and I figured it'd always be available.

[DataNinja]

Well, for me, Shadow came about because the first video game I ever had to choose a username for, the character had black armour, so my youthful self decided on the oh-so-imaginative moniker of Shadow. Clearly, there would be a lot of Shadows, though, and I would have to distinguish myself so, well... Dark is essentially what you get when you take the vowels out of my name.

So, there you have it. The not-interesting story behind my username. And, thankfully, it isn't taken too often. At least, less often than you would think.

[Kid Jake]

My family had a rich tradition trolling people back when the CB radio was about the only way to do it on a mass scale. My grandfather always used the handle Uncle Jake, when my mom started everyone called her Baby Jake no matter what she tried to go by, and so when I started talking smack to truckers I went ahead and called myself Kid Jake.

Always thought it sounded cool, so I kept it.

[Iethloc]

I literally just strung together some letters to make up this name, back when I first used it in a fantasy MUD. I've used it ever since, and obviously it's never taken.

I've been asked how it's pronounced a lot, but I've always accepted pretty much any pronunciation. It's not like I made it with being pronounceable in mind.

[Red Fel]

When I was younger, I used a naming convention in just about any game I would play - tabletop, MMO, MU*, you name it. (See what I did there?) My orcs were named Felgrim; my knights were named Felric; my barbarian was Felnorg and my tinkerer was Felrika. And so forth. For a time, I also established an online persona using this naming convention; I still use it from time to time. No, you don't get to know that one.

I came here and decided to make a clean break from that particular persona. It had some baggage. So I took my usual naming prefix, slapped on an adjective, and went from there. I picked Red because I like the color, and because it's not a terrible prefix. (Ever play a JRPG? You'll frequently see an advanced version of a monster or boss X, named "Red X," like Red Goblin, Red Balloon, etc. It's a thing.)

The funny thing is, at the time, I had no intention of establishing myself as the premiere authority on all things Evil. That sort of evolved organically. And once it did, as it happened, the name became a matter of kismet - Red Fel is a perfect name for a perfectly diabolical sort.

[Comrade]

I just thought Comrade made for a pretty rad username.

[BWR]

I didn't choose mine, my parents did.

[factotum]

I just like the word. "Factotum" in English means, roughly, "jack of all trades", and I like to see myself like that. Note it has nothing to do with the D&D character class, which didn't exist back when I was playing D&D!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Mine is from the character I played the longest (6 years). Kind of wish we could go back to that game and try to finish it, or at least try to figure out what's going on with the GM's byzantine plot.

[AvatarVecna]

I'm an anonymous avatar of Vecna, evil god of secrets!

...it seemed like a cool idea when I came up with it in 8th grade. Shut up.

[KuReshtin]

Mine is a curse word in a made up language in a series of books.
I used to go by another name online for a long time until I realised it was widely used all over the place, so I decided to go with this one instead as there's usually never anyone who uses it.

[Burnscar]

I came here and decided to make a clean break from that particular persona. It had some baggage. So I took my usual naming prefix, slapped on an adjective, and went from there. I picked Red because I like the color, and because it's not a terrible prefix. (Ever play a JRPG? You'll frequently see an advanced version of a monster or boss X, named "Red X," like Red Goblin, Red Balloon, etc. It's a thing.)

Obviously, it's because the red ones go faster.

[Quild]

I started reading Forgotten Realms (and obviously Drizzt's story) around the same time I needed a pseudo for the internet.

I found a list of drow names and looked at those starting with the same letter than my first name.
Out of "Quertus", "Quevven" and "Quild", I liked the last one better even if it's not the closest of my name.

The pronunciaiton is however an issue.

I believe english people mostly pronounce it "K-wild" and I like to use "Kwild" for second characters. I usually pronounce it this way when playing with english players.

But French tend to pronounce "Killed". I don't like it. I like "Kou-ill-d"

That being said, I also suck with phonetics, so maybe you don't get it

[lunaticfringe]

Murk is very close to my real life name (take a guess), and was luckily still available on this site. Every now and then I encounter the chance site where someone else is called Murk already and then I find myself in the weird position of having to pick another name.

Wow, I never met a Mork before. So were you parents huge fans of Mork & Mindy?

My first 2 name choices were taken. I had just recently heard the quote "Every movement has a Lunatic Fringe." Which is actually a bit of a misquote. Teddy Roosevelt wrote: Every Reform Movement has a Lunatic Fringe. Anyway it stuck in my head, it was odd, Unique, and most of all worked as a username.

[Hamste]

A site I wanted to make an account on was relatively large, didn't delete account names to allow reuse, allowed multiple accounts and would be weird if numbers were used. As such every name I tried was taken and I couldn't just add numbers. So I decided to choose a random word and shorten it by one letter till I found a good name. After three tries (as well as a few I scrapped from not looking right) I got Hamste from hamster (in case you are curious I hate hamsters but the name looked good to me). I liked it enough and it was a very uncommon name so I kept it.

[Corlindale]

When I first played Neverwinter Nights, I needed to come up with a name for my Sorceror's raven familiar. Corlindale just popped up in my head, but I ended up liking it so much that I've used it as an online alias ever since.

When I was later involved in mod-making, it also became the name of a hero character in the lore of Fall from Heaven, a mod for Civilization IV. In that universe, he is a wizard who became a pacifist and joined the peaceful, scholarly faction in the mod's universe, after seeing the destruction his powers wrought on civilians in wartime.

[Lemmy]

Couldn't think of a good username, so I looked around for inspiration and saw a Motörhead album.

[2D8HP]

2D8HP is from the hit points that were rolled for a first level Ranger in 1970's Dungeons & Dragons.

To elaborate the extra hit die was a very big deal.
To quote the original article,

Spoiler: Original Ranger article

Show

1975 issue of the Strategic Review

RANGERS
AN EXCITING NEW DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CLASS
By Joe Fischer
Rangers are a sub-class of Fighting Men, similar in many ways to
the new sub-class Paladins, for they must always remain Lawful or lose
all the benefits they gained (except, of course, experience as a fighter).
Strength is their Prime Requisite, but they must also have both Intelli-
gence and Wisdom scores of at least 12 each, and a Constitution of at
least 15. The statistics regarding Rangers are:
Rangers Experience Points Hit Dice* SpelI Ability**
Runner 0 2 Nil
Strider 2500 3 Nil
Scout 5000 4 Nil
Guide 12000 5 Nil
Pathfinder 25000 6 Nil
Warder 50000 7 Nil
Guardian 100000 8 Nil
Ranger-Knight 175000 9 Cleric, 1st Level
Ranger-Lord 275000 10 +Magic-User, 1st Level
Ranger-Lord, 10th 550000 10 +2 +Cleric 2nd Level
Ranger-Lord, 11th 825000 10 +4 +Magic-User 2nd Level
Ranger-Lord, 12th 11OOOOO 10 +6 +Cleric 3rd Level
Ranger-Lord, 13th 1375000 10 +8 +Magic-User 3rd Level
*either with the standard system or the alternate system which
allows fighters 8-sided dice
**spell progression is as follows: when only 1st Level are usable,
then only one spell is usable, when 2nd Level spells can be
taken then the R-L gets 2 1st Level and 1 2nd Level, and at
3rd Level it is 3, 2 and 1 respectively.
Until they attain the 8th level (Ranger-Knight) characters in the
Ranger class are relatively weak, for they have a number of restrictions
placed upon them, These restrictions are:
- They may own only that which they can carry with them, and
excess treasure or goods must be donated to a worthy cause.
- They may not hire any men-at-arms or other servants or aides
of any kind whatsoever.
- Only two of the class may operate together.
Advantages which accrue to low-level Rangers are:
+They receive no regular bonuses for advancement due to ability,
but they automatically gain 4 experience points for every 3 earned.
+They have the ability to track the path of most creatures when out-
doors, and even in dungeons they are often able to follow:
Monster’s Action Regular Needs to Track
goes down a normal passage 01-65
goes through a normal door 01-55
goes through a trap door 01 - 50
goes up/down a chimney 01 - 40
goes through a secret door 01-3The ranger so tracking must have observed the monster no more than
six turns previously when in dungeon situations. On the outdoor he has
a basic 90% chance of following a trail, with a 10% reduction for every
day old the signs are.
Because of their ability to track Rangers also are difficult to surprise,
requiring a roll of 1 instead of 1 or 2.
All Rangers gain a special advantage when fighting against monsters
of the Giant Class (Kobolds - Giants). For each level they have gained
they add +1 to their damage die against these creatures, so a 1st Level
Ranger adds +1, a 2nd Level +2, and so on.
Upon reaching the 8th and higher levels, Rangers begin to accrue a
number of advantages besides the use of spelIs already indicated.
+From 2-24 followers will join the character as soon as 9th level is
attained by him. These followers are detailed later.
+Ranger-Knights are able to employ magic items which heal or cure
disease, including scrolls.
+Ranger-Lords are able to employ all devices which deal with
Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, ESP, Telepathy, Telekenesis, and Tele-
portation, including scrolls.
Drawbacks which apply to the 8th and higher levels are:
-The 4 experience points for every 3 earned bonus is lost.
- Followers who are killed cannot be replaced, although regular
mercenaries can be.
-As already mentioned, if a Ranger turns Neutral or Chaotic he
loses all benefits of the class, becoming an ordinary Fighting Man.
Special Followers: For each of the 2-24 followers the Ranger gains
a dice roll must be made to determine what the follower is. Further
dice rolls to determine type, class, and/or level will also be necessary.
Type Class (Men Only)
01-60 Man 01 - 50 Fighter
61 - 75 Elf or Half-Elf 51 - 75 Cleric
76 - 90 Dwarf 75 - 95 Magic-User
91 - 99 2 Hobbits 95 - 00 Thief
00 Extraordinary (see below)
Multi-Class (Elves Only) Level of Ability (Roll for each)
01 - 50 Fighter 01 - 50 2nd Level
51 - 75 Fighter/Magic-User 51 - 65 3rd Level
76 - 90 Magic-User 66 - 80 4th Level
91 00 Fighter/Magic-User/Thief - 81 - 90 5th Level
91 - 99 6th Level
00 7th Level
Extraordinary Followers
01 - 20 Ranger, 3rd - 7th Level
21 - 40 Lawful Werebear
41 55 2 Unicorns -
65 - 70 Pegasus
71 80 Hill Giant -
81 - 90 Stone Giant
91 - 99 Golden Dragon
00 Take two rolls ignoring any 00’s which might come up
Where not otherwise specified Rangers perform as Fighting Men.
They may build strongholds. In all cases the Ranger will prefer Lawful
to Neutral types.

"either with the standard system or the alternate which allows fighters 8-sided dice"
In the rules from "the little brown books" that were in the original Dungeons & Dragons box all PC's rolled 1d6 for their first level hit points (and all weapons did 1d6 damage).
The 1975 Greyhawk supplement's "alternative system" reduced Magic-User's to d4's, and increased Fighting-men's to d8's.

My beloved "Advanced" Dungeons and Dragons, which was a completely different game!

"No royalties for you Arneson! Mine all Mine! Bwahahaha!
Wait, what's that Blume?"

further increased Fighters to d10's with the 1978 PHB, and left Rangers with d8's but 2d8 at first level!
I remember reading Gygax lambast lenient "Monty Haul" DM's, and the guys who I played with took it to hart and 1st level was lethal! It was rare for PC's to survive to make it to second level.
The rules had you role 3d6 in order for your PC's "characteristics" which went in order of class introduction:

Strength (minimum 9 to be a Fighter)

Intelligence (minimum 9 to be a Magic User)

Wisdom (minimum 9 to be a Cleric)

Dexterity (minimum 9 to be a Thief)

Constitution (minimum 15 to be a Ranger), and

Charisma (minimum 17 to be a Paladin)

(Note: Strangely, while I've been studying 5e DnD for two years now, I can hardly remember the rules, but oDnD and 1e ADnD? More than 30 years later the rules are still crystal clear. Funny that.)
While it was strongly suggested that you let the "stats" decide what class your PC should be, I saw guys decide to play Fighters, just so they had a better chance at more hit points, even though Strength was the lowest "characteristic".
But it was about more than hit points, the Ranger was so infused Awesome! they could fight like a Fighter, have unique skills, like a Thief, and unique powers like a Paladin!
Also back then, except for fairy tales and science fiction, apart from maybe "The Hobbit", and a couple of "Conan" short stories, my vision of what a Dungeons and Dragons hero should be was largely shaped by the hero's in movies like the Ranger-like Robin Hood in
The Adventures of Robin Hood

Or "Strider" from the 1978 cartoon version of
The Lord of the Rings.

Note: If there's any doubt that Aragorn was an inspiration for the Ranger class, "Strider" was the Ranger second level "title" (a first level Fighter had "Veteran" as a level "title").
BTW "Pathfinder" was a 5th level Ranger in the original S.R. article, and a 7th level Ranger in the '78 AD&D PHB.

[nyjastul69]

Wow, I never met a Mork before. So were you parents huge fans of Mork & Mindy?

My first 2 name choices were taken. I had just recently heard the quote "Every movement has a Lunatic Fringe." Which is actually a bit of a misquote. Teddy Roosevelt wrote: Every Reform Movement has a Lunatic Fringe. Anyway it stuck in my head, it was odd, Unique, and most of all worked as a username.

I can't help but hear this when I see your username.

[tensai_oni]

I am very humble and totally not a fan of (certain aspects of) Japanese culture and mythology.

[Ceaon]

The character I played in my first D&D campaign was a human raised by elves. I decided to "elvenize" a human name and I chose the human name Keen, after my then-favorite game character Commander Keen. I decided the elves called him Ceaon. The character and campaign were a great success. The name stuck as the nick for almost all my forum-related and gaming-related activities.

[2D8HP]

Couldn't think of a good username, so I looked around for inspiration and saw a Motörhead album.

Motörhead!



As a youth I would announce "the next song is Motorhead, by Motörhead from the album Motörhead! when I DJ'd at radio station KALX

And Motörhead is linked to OOTS through:

Hawkwind!

As OOTS takes place in a Dungeons & Dragons world and, Law/Chaos started out as the only axis of D&D alignment back in 1974.The literary antecedents of Law and Chaos were Poul Anderson (Three Hearts and Three Lions) and Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melinbourne,

Having read some Michael Moorcock, I'm also pretty sure the Lawful vs. Chaotic axis exists because Gary Gygax didn't understand the concept of satire or the possibility that the reader was supposed to disapprove of the protagonist.

and at the beginning of 1975, Hawkwind recorded the album Warrior on the Edge of Time in collaboration with Michael Moorcock, loosely based on his Eternal Champion figure. However, during a North America tour in May, Lemmy was caught in possession of something crossing the border from the USA into Canada. And Lemmy was jailed, forcing the band to cancel some shows. Fed up with his erratic behaviour, the band fired the bass player Lemmy replacing him with their long-standing friend and former Pink Fairies guitarist Paul Rudolph. Lemmy then teamed up with another Pink Fairies guitarist, Larry Wallis, to form Motörhead, named after the last song he had written for Hawkwind.

*woo*

See the links?

Anyway:

Motörhead originally by Hawkwind

Sunrise, wrong side of another day,
Sky high and six thousand miles away,
Don't know how long I've been awake,
Wound up in an amazing state,
Can't get enough,
And you know it's righteous stuff,
Goes up like prices at Christmas,
Motorhead, you can call me Motorhead, alright

Brain dead, total amnesia,
Get some mental anesthesia,
Don't move, I'll shut the door and kill the lights,
And if I can't be wrong I could be right,
All good clean fun,
Have another stick of gum,
Man, you look better already,
Motorhead, remember me now Motorhead, alright

Fourth day, five day marathon,
We're moving like a parallelogram,
Don't move, I'll shut the door and kill the lights,
I guess I'll see you all on the ice,
I should be tired,
And all I am is wired,
Ain't felt this good for an hour,
Motorhead, remember me now, Motorhead alright

Songwriter: Ian Kilmister ("Lemmy")

Just so METAL!!!

[Peelee]

First initial, last name. Friends have been calling me that for decades. It's such a common name that I am virtually un-Google-able, even with specifics like city and age, so I don't mind bandying the nickname version of it about.

Funnily enough, even the username is more common that I'd have thought. There's at least 4 other Peelees on the internets that I know of, though I have that name on most of the best accounts and sites (at least, of the ones i care about).

The name A.A.King should be read as Alpha Alpha King (though that is obviouslu to much of a pain to write out every single time) and I like to think it is very obvious as to how it came about: I'm the Alpha among Alphas, I am King.

The real explanation is that there are two prominent A's in my real name in a somewhat unique way so I chose to focus on that AND I am King.

I have different nicknames across different boards depending on rules and availability (sometimes for example they do not allow for the . and AAKing without dots looks pretty silly to me) but the King bit is a consistent factor. (Apart from the one place where I decided to go with Monarch instead, you need to have a little variety in your live after all.)

Huh. I always thought that was a B. B. King reference.

[MrZJunior]

When my father was a young foreign service officer he was the desk officer for Singapore. While in this position Singapore and the US had a big row. Apparently one of the political officers at the embassy was getting too chummy with the members of the opposition who he was assigned to liaise with. He was expelled from the country and Lee Juan Yew, founder and first Prime Minister of Singapore, made a speech in Parliament denouncing a supposed plot within the State Department to depose the government. This plot consisted of three people, Mr X, Mr Y, and Mr Z. Mr Z was described as a young man just starting out in his career who had been tricked into taking part in this plot by his older superiors. Clearly this was meant to be my father.

[A.A.King]

Huh. I always thought that was a B. B. King reference.

Nop, in fact I hadn't heard of that guy until long after I chose this particular monniker so for all I care he's a reference to me ;)

[Asmodean_]

I started reading Forgotten Realms (and obviously Drizzt's story) around the same time I needed a pseudo for the internet.

I found a list of drow names and looked at those starting with the same letter than my first name.
Out of "Quertus", "Quevven" and "Quild", I liked the last one better even if it's not the closest of my name.

The pronunciaiton is however an issue.

I believe english people mostly pronounce it "K-wild" and I like to use "Kwild" for second characters. I usually pronounce it this way when playing with english players.

But French tend to pronounce "Killed". I don't like it. I like "Kou-ill-d"

That being said, I also suck with phonetics, so maybe you don't get it

I just always said "kwɪld", as in, like Killed, but Kwilled.