Where'd your name come from?

[Strazos]

This is in the spirit of the "What do you do" stickied thread. If I were a mod, I would delete any and all attempts at conversation in this thread, and possibly issue a ban. Anyway....


I've been using "Strazos" as my online alias going on....9 or 10 years now. I first came up with it when I first got into AD&D with a friend, and was trying to think of a name for a villian I was putting in my campaign. "Strazos Strovanov" just popped into my head. It was also around this time that I first tried a little game called Gemstone III (now GSIV, ugh) back on Prodigy. It asked for a name, so I stupidly put in my actual name (first and surname). When I got in and realised I needed to use a "made-up" name, I swapped out my first name for Strazos, leaving my surname in. From that point on, my online name has always been "Strazos", except when my main in WoW was a female human war, but that's a fluke. I dunno why, but people cannot stand me always using this name...fuck them.

And just to pre-empt people who wanna trash on this thread....

[schild]

It's my last name.

Your story is too long.

[Strazos]

Damnit, did you not read the last part of my post?

Anyway, don't hate, just because I was creative, and you were lazy.

Granted, I use my last name as surnames in games that allow them, but still....

[Toast]

I picked Toast because it's usually what I am when I compete in online PvP. In particular, I think was playing Battlefield Vietnam.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Carmen Sandiego tribute.

[UD_Delt]

UD = University of Dayton

Delt = Delta Tau Delta, of which I was a founding father of the Dayton chapter... Hence UD_Delt

[shiznitz]

My last EQ1 character was Shiz Nitz. I also use Shiz and MrJoshua.

[stray]

I'm a homeless and jaded gamer -- hence, "stray". I seem to have settled down here though (almost 2000 posts...not good. Heh).

It also has something to do with my initials.

[Rasix]

Everquest random name generator.    Iksar monk.  Loved the character so much and the simplicity of the name, it's been with me ever since. 

Now in any MMORPG my first character will always be named Rasix (well, if it fits) and the rest are just random name generated.  I used to use less inspired naming during my UO phase, but I think sometime during EQ I grew up a little.

[Merusk]

I stole the name from someone else in an AOL RP chatroom in '94 and changed one letter.  Marusk became Merusk and I've used it ever since.

[Roac]

Roac is from Tolkien.  Very obscure character, and he was, literally, the king of ravens (as in, a bird).  I picked up the name for use in most of my rogue characters, because I liked the word/theme play.  Normally the story goes something along the lines of being called "king of ravens" as a taunt, since ravens are scavangers.  It's not intended to be flattering.  Then again, most of what rogues do isn't glamorous.  Ravens are also clever (for birds), an attribute that applies to rogues.

It also relates somewhat back to another character I've used before in White Wolf games - David "Myst" Waters.  He was a Ravnos (vampire) who owned a club named Raven.  Few more word plays, plus other stuff in the background.  He was a computer geek and rogue-ish, and yes, Myst is from the game Myst, plus the play on mist/water.

One more - I've used the name Sire (pronounced "sir-A", not like the English spelling) before as well, with another double meaning.  In Tolkien's elvish, it is the imperitive form of "to flow", as in with a river (for Tolkien fans - example is the river Siranon).  That character was a ranger, so there's the nature connection.  Plus it was just amusing for people to reply with "Yes Sire" or such.  Plus with links back to David Waters.

I usually like to do stuff like that with my character names - link them together somehow and try to include double meanings in either the wordplay or theme.

[Paelos]

Paelos is a derivation of my last name that I thought had some fantasy flair. Also, it's rare pretty much to me on the net.

[Samwise]

I'm not a Tolkien fan.  No, not at all.  

My first name in real life is Sam.  About nine years ago, a guy I played chess with called me "Samwise," and I was pleased enough with the sound of the hobbit form of my name to start using it as a gaming/online handle.

Unfortunately, since the movies came out, there have been a lot of wannabes.  But I am the original, god dammit.  Well, me and that Samwise guy who does artwork for Blizzard (no relation).

[Astorax]

Was watching an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series and it was an episode dealing with Lucifer's first angel, Astaroth.  At the time I was grabbing a mail account, and Astaroth was taken, so I asked my then roommate at the time (who was a Classics major) what would happen if you took the Latin name Astaroth and translated it into greek...poof, Astorax...

[Margalis]

Ha ha, I remember Frideay the 13th: The Series.

My name is a play on my last name. It's somewhat poorly chosen though as people inevitably either think I am Jewish (Margolis) or a woman.

[Rodent]

My love for rats and Skinny Puppy made me go with the nick Rodent.

[Fargull]

Raised in Pensacola Florida, now moved the hell away, much to my chagrin....

Gull is the one bird I associate from there.. so I am a Far Gull....

[ClydeJr]

My middle name is Clyde, same as my dad's.

[Fargull]

Ha ha, I remember Frideay the 13th: The Series.

My name is a play on my last name. It's somewhat poorly chosen though as people inevitably either think I am Jewish (Margolis) or a woman.

And here I thought you were italian with a thing for spagetti westerns...

[Pococurante]

Mine's a comment on our jaded little post-UO community... ;-)

[Signe]

Me mum gave it to me.

[Sky]

My UO character.

[HaemishM]

Braveheart, as in the sidekick character with the red beard. I loved that character, and that movie. When my buddy wanted to trick me into playing EQ, he showed me the barbarians, with their kilts and very Scottish appearance. I picked the name Haemish, adding the "e" because someone had the proper Hamish spelling on the server. When I left EQ and moved my guild to Dark Ages, I again picked a kilted Scottish Highlander and naemd him Haemish so my guildies would know it was me. I've used the name in just about every MMOG, until I came up with Haemcow in WoW and Maercus when I returned to DAoC.

[ahoythematey]

When FFT came out for the first time on the PSX, a friend and myself were screwing around with the naming session and intro, marveling at how ridiculously long you could make your character's name in that game.  I finally settled on "Ahoy the Matey" and have pretty much stuck with it ever since, sans spaces.

[Bunk]

True story: sitting around the parents basement when friends came by. Had been on about a five hour Eye of the Beholder bender in a poorly lit room. My buddy looks at my bloodshot eyes and asks me "Are on Bunk"? I though it was funny since I was about the most drug free kid in history. The nickname stuck.

[Llava]

I had watched a horribly bad anime called Vampire Princess Miyu.  Truly godawful.  Like Sailor Moon, but with vampires.

Anyways, there was a character called Larva.  I liked the sound of the name, but not the arthropod part.  So when I went to make my first character for DAoC, an Elven Nightshade, I ditched the R and wrote "Lava."  It was available, but I didn't like the look of the name.  So I added another L, and that made it look sufficiently elven to me.  So over time all my friends came to know me as this, so I've just kept using it.

[Jayce]

"Jayce" is pretty boring - it's a shortening of my RL name ("Jason") but spelled the same way as "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors" - one of my favorite guilty pleasures growing up.

In games I am now mostly Fenjay.  In UO I had the name Fenris, but as it turned out, a lot of people like using that name.  So it evolved to several other variations before I settled on a nice fusion of it and my real name.

Also, no one really would ever think to use that name, so I can usually come to a game late and it isn't taken.

[naum]

Naum is my real name.

[MaceVanHoffen]

I just made my name up, no significance to it at all.  It's my main in City of Heroes.  I wanted to create a story for a family of superheroes, and van Hoffen as a surname just kinda came to me.

[Big Gulp]

My first Shadowrun character from years upon years ago.  A troll with a minigun and a hammer.

[Polysorbate80]

Back in the days of xwing vs. tie fighter, trying to find a handle for the Microsoft gaming zone that wasn't taken.  5 billion attempts into the process, I flashed back on a "Zippy the Pinhead" moment and lo and behold, Polysorbate80 was available.

The number at the end of it pisses some folks off; I think they associate it with "stoopid-yahoo-grl-38495349" type names, but it's really just part of the substance's name.  I think it's a preservative.

It goes in Twinkies.  And shampoo.

[Riggswolfe]

Back in college a roomie convinced me to give the Star Wars RPG by West End games a try. I decided to go easy and make a Han Soloish character but I got stuck on a name. As I was debating my roomie started watching Lethal Weapon and I asked him what I should name my character.

Right then Murtaugh yells "Riggs!!!". So I took it as a sign and used that for the character's name. Later he got a nice freighter that he named the Kathol Wolf. His callsign in fighter battles was also Wolf. Later, I was looking for a name to use in an online chat RP room and took Captain Riggs. Over time it became hard to get that name for some reason so I started using a combination of the character's name and his ship/callsign. Riggswolfe was born. The e was put on Wolf once because the word wolf was taken and I kept spelling it that way.

[shiznitz]

Was watching an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series

/derail

Is that coming out on DVD? I remember really liking it, but I fear that might just be some distorter nostalgia. Who was the red-headed actress? She always struck me as an ex-porn star possibly. I have no idea why.

/derail off

[Viin]

Random character generator.

When I started playing SWG I was Irek Dabry (which I still use in other games, together or as seperate names) which is from the Star Wars Name Generator. I also used Myrddin for a long time back in the MUD days, it's from the Pendragon Cycle books.

Oh, also use to use Serial on Talkers, because my StarSiege: Tribes name was Seven.

[Triforcer]

I had to come up with a moniker for the SWG boards circa 2000, and I am a huge Zelda fan.  I spent all this weekend binging Zelda playing Link to the Past, Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask...