Forum Name Origins

[Lathis]

I've always been interested in names - what they mean, where it came from, etc. In most cultures, you are stuck (except with legal intervention) with the name given to you by your family. There are some cultures where you adopt a name upon adulthood, but sadly that's not a practice of my WASPy ancestors.

However, on the internet where people get the opportunity to name themselves, this is especially interesting to me. So, here's my question: how did you develop your forum name?

I'll go first: I have been Lathis since 1993. It's the first name i ever used in chat rooms, the name of my old D&D character, the name of every video game and WoW character I make, and my name on every forum where I'm a member. It's sort of my online "identity" and I try hard to keep it separate from my professional online identity, so that embarrassing pictures of me at the Renaissance Faire don't show up for potential employers, ha.

Geeky side note: when I got married and changed my name, I found out at the SSN office, that I could change my name to almost anything! I moved my maiden name to my middle name and made my husband's name my new last name... But, I very nearly changed my middle name to Lathis... And I still kind of wish I had, lol.

What's your story?

 

[misshissingroaches]

Well, I, online am generally Wiztch. When I was about 7, I bought a webkinz heart monkey, and was trying to find a username that wasn't taken on the site since I had to create a new account. I said to my father, who was typing them all in for me, "Try wizard!" He tried to type it for my own amusement, since it was definitely already going to be taken, but kept misspelling it. "Wiztch" he typed over and over again. At some point I just told him to try that, and it worked! It has been my username for just about everything but this ever since.

 

[kinyonga]

Kinyonga is Swahili for chameleon. It struck me as funny when the group of chameleons was changed to kinyonga a few years ago.

 

[absolutbill]

My husband (Bill) set up this account for me, since I'm technologically challenged. This has been his username since college (hence the vodka reference), and since I've been on here so long with it I didn't want to change it - plus it was too much trouble to figure out how.

 

[Direwolf]

Great idea, Lathis! Thanks for sharing your forum name's cool story My forum name, Direwolf, grew out of my love for two things: 1) GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire in which the mythical Direwolf plays an important role for the ancient Stark family, Wardens of the North. I even named my car Greywind, one of the Direwolves from the series. And 2) The Grateful Dead's song "Direwolf" which was the first song of theirs I grew to love!

 

[JaniP]

I'm boring, first name, last initial ;P
Most of the time in other places I go by Roi and Roidath. (WoW etc).

Back in the day when neopets (yes, i'm a dweeb. I've been there for about 15 years) started up I was trying to think of neat names for pets, I used a "random dragon name generator" on the internet because I am so super cool and kind of liked the sound of it. My secondary toon name on WoW is Rakdyn (I go by Rak) for the same reasons. I started using Roidath for everything and then eventually just simplified it to Roi. I'm a big fan of ladies with male names so I've always liked using it.

As for my cham names (I know you didn't ask, lol). I usually name them after something. My two boys that passed away over the past few years from old age were Mr. Feeny and Lord Baelish - most people know boy meets world and game of thrones so no explanation needed . Wheatley is named after a character from Portal 2 and Irwin, after Steve Irwin because I love him so.

 

[Scottishbloke]

Great idea, Lathis! Thanks for sharing your forum name's cool story My forum name, Direwolf, grew out of my love for two things: 1) GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire in which the mythical Direwolf plays an important role for the ancient Stark family, Wardens of the North. I even named my car Greywind, one of the Direwolves from the series. And 2) The Grateful Dead's song "Direwolf" which was the first song of theirs I grew to love!

You are aware that there were real Dire Wolves running around in North America until they became extinct about 10,000 years ago? They were slightly larger and a bit more powerful than gray wolves, with heavier build but shorter and more stout legs, the latter trait being probably the reason they died out- they were slower than the competing gray wolves and couldn't catch swifter prey after most of the bigger, less fleet-footed Pleistocene animals vanished.

Regarding mythical wolves, I think the Fenris Wolf from Norse mythology is my favorite.

 

[Chase]

When I first joined, I was "LinkinParkRulez08". At the time, I was 13 so I thought I was really cool for liking Linkin Park and 8 was my baseball number, and favorite number haha.

I requested a change of my name from Brad, and after purchasing all the books from the library he said yes , which is where I have my name now. And that's it, kind of boring

Chase

 

[Lathis]

LinkinParkRulez08

Hahahahahahaha!

 

[MissLissa]

My name is Melissa, but pretty much everyone I know outside of professional places calls me Liss or Lissa (Lih-ssa, not Lee-sa ). It's gotten to the point that my coworkers calling me "Melissa" sounds weird. I prefer repetitive sounds, so MissLissa it is.

My chameleon Vladislav is named after a character in "What We Do In the Shadows", an indie movie I love.

The rest of my lizards (various skink species, mostly) are named after literary dragons: Falkor and Firethroat, Gorbash and Gleep, Jörmungandr and Jabberwocky, Scatha and Smaug, Toothless and Temeraire,..

 

[Scout]

Great thread!

My username is my heroes name. My hero is my 3 year old Manx cat.

When he was a little over a year old, he snuck out of a window at night and got himself really badly injured.
In the morning I found him laying under my bed.
Upon further examination I noticed his tongue was sticking out. I reached under and pulled him out to find his lower jaw completely sideways, with his lower canines digging into the side of his cheek, and the roof of his mouth.

My heart sank, and I didn't even hesitate to rush him to the vet.
After the vet got a few X-rays, he determined there was nothing they could do to help. The jaw bone was completely shattered.

The vet told me that he has never seen this type of blunt trauma in a cat before. He thinks a person intentionally hit Scout with a steel toe boot, or a bat. Sense there was no road rash associated with car incidents.

I was devistated that the vet couldn't do anything for us. He told me if he can still swallow food that we might have a chance at saving him, but it would probably be best to put him down...

Being as optimistic as possible at this point I took Scout home to see if he would eat, the vet also gave me a quick lesson on how to drip IV water through the SubQ space on a cats back. I would have to IV Scout 125ML of water 3 times a day, by myself.

To much of my surprise scout was extremely hungry and didn't even hesitate to gobble down some dry kibble. As happy as I was, there was no chewing going on, just swallowing. I went back to the vet to discuss what could be done about his teeth that were crooked, and had penetrated holes through his cheek, and the roof of his mouth.

The vet told me that young cats tend to grow muscle very quickly, and if I can IV scout water, and he continues to eat for another few weeks, we could attempt a dental surgery to remove the problematic teeth. After a few long and uneasy weeks I brought scout into a dental surgeon. The surgeon warned us that he's never done this before, and the results can end up worse then before. Knowing that, and knowing this surgery would cost us $1,200 regardless of the outcome. Without any hesitation we agreed to attempt to remove the two problem teeth.

A few hours after surery the vet called me into the room and told me that Scouts surgery went flawless! He even said the new bone grew back stronger then before, and the surgery was a complete success!

I was so relieved and happy this whole ordeal was over with. I couldn't give up on my baby cat, I assume he had curled up under my bed as his final resting place, as he never once meowed or tried to get my attention when he was hurt...

Scout is now 3 years old and is living a happy and stress free life. With zero complications due to this whole ordeal.

Scout doesn't venture off too far from my side now, he is like a little puppy.

LONG POST! Sorry about that.

 

[Scout]

Here's a picture of the little Trooper.

 

[LindsayG]

Great thread!

My username is my heroes name. My hero is my 3 year old Manx cat.

When he was a little over a year old, he snuck out of a window at night and got himself really badly injured.
In the morning I found him laying under my bed.
Upon further examination I noticed his tongue was sticking out. I reached under and pulled him out to find his lower jaw completely sideways, with his lower canines digging into the side of his cheek, and the roof of his mouth.

My heart sank, and I didn't even hesitate to rush him to the vet.
After the vet got a few X-rays, he determined there was nothing they could do to help. The jaw bone was completely shattered.

The vet told me that he has never seen this type of blunt trauma in a cat before. He thinks a person intentionally hit Scout with a steel toe boot, or a bat. Sense there was no road rash associated with car incidents.

I was devistated that the vet couldn't do anything for us. He told me if he can still swallow food that we might have a chance at saving him, but it would probably be best to put him down...

Being as optimistic as possible at this point I took Scout home to see if he would eat, the vet also gave me a quick lesson on how to drip IV water through the SubQ space on a cats back. I would have to IV Scout 125ML of water 3 times a day, by myself.

To much of my surprise scout was extremely hungry and didn't even hesitate to gobble down some dry kibble. As happy as I was, there was no chewing going on, just swallowing. I went back to the vet to discuss what could be done about his teeth that were crooked, and had penetrated holes through his cheek, and the roof of his mouth.

The vet told me that young cats tend to grow muscle very quickly, and if I can IV scout water, and he continues to eat for another few weeks, we could attempt a dental surgery to remove the problematic teeth. After a few long and uneasy weeks I brought scout into a dental surgeon. The surgeon warned us that he's never done this before, and the results can end up worse then before. Knowing that, and knowing this surgery would cost us $1,200 regardless of the outcome. Without any hesitation we agreed to attempt to remove the two problem teeth.

A few hours after surery the vet called me into the room and told me that Scouts surgery went flawless! He even said the new bone grew back stronger then before, and the surgery was a complete success!

I was so relieved and happy this whole ordeal was over with. I couldn't give up on my baby cat, I assume he had curled up under my bed as his final resting place, as he never once meowed or tried to get my attention when he was hurt...

Scout is now 3 years old and is living a happy and stress free life. With zero complications due to this whole ordeal.

Scout doesn't venture off too far from my side now, he is like a little puppy.

LONG POST! Sorry about that.

O my gosh what a terrible thing for a cat to endure. That literally gave me chills reading it. I'm so happy that everything worked out for you and little scout! He looks like such a happy pampered kitty.

 

[Carlton]

Mine's an obscure middle name of a great uncle...the only relative I knew in my entire family who willingly stepped foot off city pavement and actually enjoyed wilderness.

 

[pigglett79]

I have used pigglett79 for many years for my aol email and some usernames, but I really dont remember why I chose it back then. Now for all of my new user names and game characters I use RAWRchelle, because my name is Rachelle and I have this T Rex thing so hence the RAWR. I like RAWRchelle better and thought about asking Brad to change my name here, but then I thought people would think I am some stranger. And that is my totally boring story.

 

[wodesorel]

Back in 2000 I needed a new AOL s/n because, ya know, high school drama. I wanted Clover and hated using numerals, so tried to find something similar. Was helping a friend on a middle English project and settled on wode sorel, thinking it meant wood sorrel, aka oxalis. I've been using it as my online name for everything ever since.

Fast forward to earlier this year when I accidentally googled wode, and I found out I was dead wrong. 'wode' means mad/crazy/untamed/fierce/raging and 'sorel' is a red-brown color, like with horses.

Did I mention I have amber colored hair, and an anger management problem? Ya, somehow I picked the perfect name without meaning to.

 

[Decadancin]

and after purchasing all the books from the library he said yes

Now that's funny right there ...