What's the story behind your username?
We've had a thread about avatars, the obvious next step seems to be to ask about usernames. The explanation behind mine isn't very exciting - I use a totally new name for every profile I create and inspiration can be difficult to come by, in this case I happened to be listening to Nirvana when creating my Snapzu account.
I'm sure there's going to be some much more interesting explanations for some of yours!
8 years ago by nevermind
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It isn't very exciting.
For a long time I went by the name "Kurgan" as I've always been a fan of Highlander and I was terribly impressed with Clancy Brown in the role of the villain. However, as the Internet stopped being a secret among universities and research organizations, the username became a lot more popular and thus harder to guarantee it would be available. I tried "ghoti" but that was unreliable as well. Finally I attached "space" in front and thought it might prompt people to mistake it for "space ghost," the iconic cartoon superhero from Hanna-Barbera lately turned late night talk show host. Instead, most people mistook it for "space goat" and even one who read it as "space bughatti" which still has me scratching my head.
So it's not an exciting username, but it has the benefit of always being available when I want to register on a new website.
I used to do something similar, with a single username for everything, until I got sucked into a political argument with a right-wing troll on one particular forum and he (I assume) googled my username and started following me around other sites, essentially being as aggressive and offensive as he could to me and (worse) my friends. As he was many thousands of miles away I never felt physically threatened (though he did make threats, and managed to figure out my real name, home town and some details of my family), but it was a very unpleasant period. I now make a point of doing the exact opposite - the only time I use the same username twice is on sites where my real name is public, as there's not much point worrying about it on those!
I'd say to anyone who uses the same name on every site ( /u/jenjen1352 was another), be very careful.
(Edited, 'cos I apparently don't know how to give someone a "mention" in a comment)
I use this because I think OldTallAwkardClumsyGoofyConfusedOversexedCrazyGrandpa is just a bit too long.
I used to live in a small valley (dale) in England that was known locally as Cobbydale.
I've been told I'm an idiot a lot as a kid.
When I first played runescape, that's the only thing I could think. I kept calling myself an idiot.
Tranxene is just one of the many medications that I've seen going around a lot when I was working in a psychiatric institution. All my friends say that I am a very calm person, so Tranxene seemed to me an appropriate username.
My first name is Martinus (Martin) and one day, long ago, a former girlfriend named me "Maternitus", because it has the Copernicus ring to it (I like to discover things and learn, her words not mine :-P ) and maternity (because I make new things). I Googled it at the time and not even once something close appeared, so BAM! Username for life! :-)
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When I was younger me and my brothers were playing a new game of the very first Final Fantasy. Yup, on the good ol NES. We each picked a character to name and play as, that was multiplayer for us in the 80s, and after entering everybody's name I was last and put in my name, Cam. But before ending accidentally entered an "X" and we didn't know how to backspace. Instead of starting over, I think this was like our third attempt at entering names, I just went with it and it's stuck ever since.
96 is the opposite of 69 of course. And the number I always put on my jersey's when I can.
I had recently come back from a road trip with two old friends and we rode horses on the battlefield of The Little Big Horn, even forded the Little Big Horn river. The trip was fresh in my mind and though we were not riding Appaloosa, that image is was what I thought of.
Not much of a story, I'm afraid. I read Gravity's Rainbow when I was 19 or 20 and it made a devastating impression on me. It gave me such a thrashing that I just couldn't look at anything with the same sense of cold detachment that I was used to, everything felt so overburdened with history and dual meanings and misunderstandings and an absolute "correctness". I felt like I had just been woken up, I suppose. Anyway, Tyrone Slothrop plays a number of rather important roles in the novel, and I always felt terribly connected to the poor guy, for better or worse. Usually, I go with SlothropAnAbreaction because in a way, that's what it was, an abreaction, plus, I never wanted to simply take the name alone, but here I figured, what the hell, I'll try wearing the nose cone of a rocket as a hat and an old rug as a cape.
Probably makes it easier for people to read anyway.
My name is Jennifer; my mum's nickname for me was JenJen; I like the number 135; I drop capitals through laziness because I type one-handed; jenjen135 wasn't available on StumbleUpon (bizarrely) so I had to add a number. And there you have it: jenjen1352, everywhere I go online. I like to make things easy for myself. :)
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I'll tell you this much: I'm not named after Tiny Lister from No Holds Barred. ;)