How did you come up with your name?

[Velaryon]

According to the Song of Ice Fire wiki I just looked up, Velaryon is actually a House in its own right--rulers of the island of Driftmark. They were married into the Targaryen family, though.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks!

Back then in my youth I was playing Secret of Mana in SNES, and they ask name for the main character. Since I'm bad/lazy at naming, I named the main character Fri because it's friday since I thought it's name-ish enough (btw, the female main character was named Sara from saturday, and the fairy is Mon from... guess what?). The name stuck since then.

All of that begs the question... what were you doing on Sunday?

[Fawkes]

Originally, the handle I used everywhere was Mechafox. I don't remember where exactly that came from, I think it had something to do with Starfox.

I used that for a couple years, until I started repeated being mistaken for a furry artist. That got to be awkward enough that I changed it - and as a goof, I made up a person's name that was phonetically similar to Mechafox: McAllister Fawkes (or McAFawkes).

Fawkes was available on GitP, so I shortened it further.

[MintyNinja]

My one friend in high school went by PuzzldPirate for all his username needs because he he was a Looter through and through. Teaming up with him in online games during the great Pirate-Ninja wars it made sense for me to take ScurviedNinja. You can imagine it quite easily, a Pirate puzzling over a treasure map while his Ninja friend hates being on a ship.

I came here with that name in mind but I believe it was taken. I was also the kid that always had a pack of mint gum in my younger days and so MintyNinja was a fair backup name. It's stuck here, and most other sites I go to now. Something refreshing about a ninja only noticeable by a slight mint scent.

[Mister Tom]

I'm named after the nut bar.

[Fri]

All of that begs the question... what were you doing on Sunday?

Not playing SNES apparently

[Cluedrew]

I accidentally re-created this thread. Well I also talked about avatars but that wasn't worth its own thread so this is my original post for that (cancelled) thread:

So I have often wondered about where people's usernames (and avatars) come from. What made you pick that name/image from among the effectively infinite options?

I'll start by saying I chose Cluedrew a long time ago, when I signed up for my first online account ever. It had to do with a game I was playing at the time, or the clue part did. I added "-drew" because I felt it sounded better. I liked the repeating "ue/ew" sound (phonics people), still do actually. Anyways I have kept the name, despite the fact I don't care about the original meaning, for consistency sake and because I feel it hints at my inquisitive nature.

As for my avatar (or rather, my lack of avatar) I have just never had been able to find an image that represents me very well. Which leaves me with creating one, but even then my best ideas there have not been great. Plus there were some very intelligent people who, when I joined, also didn't use avatar and I liked the association.

Maybe as an art project I should do the sketched magnifying glass or Cluedrew.exe in OotS style, but for now I am just an idea in your head. Which also fits me sometimes.

Also:

I picked Red because I like the color, and because it's not a terrible prefix.

And yet your avatar shows that are blue.

[Crow]

I have this avatar because I lost my old one, and Aedilred was the only person who offered to step up and make me a new one.

May he hang his head in shame. :D

[Max_Killjoy]

My handle comes from the days of playing tabletop Battletech -- Max "Killjoy" Cutter, CO of the merc unit "The Cutting Crew", who specialized in, um, "aggressive salvage" of enemy mechs / tech.

They "made a killing" during the Clan invasion.

[Dienekes]

Really into Ancient Greek history when I was in elementary school/junior high. I picked this somewhat famous Ancient Greek soldier as my codename in my first game of laser tag, and variations on it have been my online (and laser tag) handle ever since.

Unfortunately picking a historical person as your name means a lot of other guys take it as well, so I'll at times add other words in front or behind on different sites.

[8BitNinja]

My name comes from my YouTube name. But the reason why I chose it was because I liked to play NES games (8 Bit) and I think that ninjas are really cool. So I came up with the name 8 Bit Ninja. There are no spaces because I assumed the name was taken when I made my account.

[Recherché]

Recherché literally means “researching” in French but it’s also slang for “fashionable” or “chic.” I study the anthropology of fashion and clothing so what could be better than obscure French wordplay combining the two?

[PallElendro]

Name and class of my first Dungeons & Dragons character.

[Tiri]

My username is my real name, but using the spelling I figured out for it when I was two.

Suffice to say it's far removed enough from the actual spelling of my name (which is fairly uncommon) for me to feel safe using it as a pseudonym.

[neverjust]

My name is a part of my real surname + one never :D

[Amaril]

It's the name of the first D&D character I ever played, Amaril the elven wizard. I remember looking at the suggested names for male elf characters in the 3e handbook, seeing Aramil as the first one listed, swapping a couple consonants around, and calling it a day.

These days I'm not such a fan of elves, or wizards, so I doubt I'll ever play Amaril again.

[Thundercracker]

Thundercracker is a decepticon from the original transformers.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Thundercracker_(G1)

[Grand Arbiter]

Thundercracker is a decepticon from the original transformers.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Thundercracker_(G1)

I remember watching Transformers in elementary school. My brother and I would play with the toys together frequently.


Your avatar is pure undiluted awesomeness, by the way.

[Thundercracker]

I remember watching Transformers in elementary school. My brother and I would play with the toys together frequently.


Your avatar is pure undiluted awesomeness, by the way.

Ha, you can thank strawberries for that one. She had avatars for the whole cast I believe.

[IbnHoor]

I didn't choose mine, my parents did.

My parents also choose mine

[Obscure Blade]

My name is the same one I used to use on the City of Heroes forums and in-game chat before they were shut down. I usually use a different name on different forums, but with that forum shut down I decided I might as well re-use it.

It's the same name as my first character there; the chat handle was auto-generated that way as i recall. He was a Broadsword/Regeneration Scrapper (basically Wolverine with a sword instead of claws); "Obscure" because no one knew me there, and "Blade" because, well, he used a sword.

[AmericanCheese]

Well, I'm from Wisconsin



I don't need to say that much more, I don't think.

[factotum]

Well, I'm from Wisconsin

That explains "American", "Cheese" not so much.

[Siosilvar]

That explains "American", "Cheese" not so much.

Wisconsin produces a quarter of the US's cheese. It's not famous for much else that people remember, I know I'm drawing a blank right now. I think Harley-Davidson motorcycles is headquartered there?

[Tentreto]

I decided to get more into the internet, and decided to have an original name. My choices were between a few I had made when I was younger, 'torchic explorer and 'warriorexhibition', both of which seemed a bit pretentious to keep for the foreseeable future. Thus I chose between what I had named my X and Y Pokémon team, 'Gimli' the Chestnaught, 'Solace' the Pidgeot, or 'Tentreto' the Charizard.

In the end, I liked the name Tentreto the best, but loved Solace the most as a mon, so kept the bird motif and chose Tentreto.

The name itself? Random letters put together. I do enjoy people trying to pronounce it though. Apparently its quite close to Spanish.

I do tend to also go by 'Trick' 'Ramir' and 'Pidgey' sometimes as well though.

[Derjuin]

Mine came from a college acceptance letter about... 11 years ago.

The header read:

DEAR JU IN,

My name is not Ju In, nor is it related to Ju or In in any way. I made fun of it, pronouncing "Dear" as "Durr". And so, Derjuin came to be.

Suffice to say I did not attend that college.

[factotum]

It's not famous for much else that people remember

I don't think it's even famous for that outside the US, hence my puzzlement!

[AmericanCheese]

That explains "American", "Cheese" not so much.

Balls, I overestimated how well known my beloved state is. Wisconsin is basically Dairy: The State: The Motion Picture and I'd like to think that it's known for the Republican Party, Harley Davidsons and um... cherries?

Disillusioning moment for me

[An Enemy Spy]

I don't think it's even famous for that outside the US, hence my puzzlement!

Huh. Yeah, to any American the mention of Wisconsin immediately conjures up images of cheese and people wearing cheese hats on their heads to cheer on a football team named after the packers of... meat, actually.

I wonder what regions of the UK have qualities any Brit would recognize but are utterly unknown to anyone else.

[Peelee]

Balls, I overestimated how well known my beloved state is. Wisconsin is basically Dairy: The State: The Motion Picture and I'd like to think that it's known for the Republican Party, Harley Davidsons and um... cherries?

Disillusioning moment for me

It's the setting of That 70's Show, so it has that going for it.


....I think.

[Bohandas]

My name is one of the deities of the Church of the SubGenius. The mysterious god of mystery.

See http://www.poee.org/documents/Other_...f_the_Gods.htm for a full list of major Subgenius deities and other entities (warning. List of deities contains a couple minor instances of coarse language and adult situations)

EDIT:
It appears that that site is no longer up. The linked document can still be found on this badly formatted mirror:
http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/leefga/dict.html