Username origins thread

[9bit]

There were some posts in the Social Thread about it. I loved reading those posts. Let's do this.

I have this fascination with online usernames. What causes a person to choose theirs? Some people have different ones for different sites / games. Some people use the same one everywhere (which I'm a proponent of). It's like another self. The digital representation of you as a person.

You don't get to pick your birth name, though you can later change it, but you do get to pick your Internet Name. A lot of people get stuck with something they chose when they were really young. I'm glad I don't use any of the dumb names I came up with back then, oh boy. But they still have a special place in my heart because they represent a part of me.

So, me. I doodle a lot when I'm like watching some junk on YouTube or whatever. Mostly symbols and shapes and stuff like that. One day I drew this:

Obviously that's a mockup I made of the symbol I drew, but that's what it was on the page basically.

After I drew it I looked at it for a while. It spoke to me. I slowly realized that it was a 9 and a b merged into something beautiful. And it was an infinity symbol that didn't connect to itself.

And out of the 9 and the b grew 9bit. It's short, original (mostly), not derived from a tv show, a movie, some band, anything like that.

The term 8-bit means a lot to me, having grown up with the NES and loving video games. So, this name sort of invokes that in the mind. Also, it's a little off from the standard 8 bits.

When I came up with the avatar design I have no idea. Maybe I saw an image of the regular Mario question mark block one day and thought: you know a 9 could go there. I really don't know. But I know that at some point I did think something like that and proceeded to make it using my limited self-taught Photoshop skillz.

So that's me.

 

[DKMikey]

A long time ago, I used to play an online game called DragonFable. I had a non-premium account that had all the best things (high-level characters, items, best classes, etc.) and traded it for a premium account. The guy's username for the premium account was Mikey. His class was a Deathknight (DK). Somehow, the name just stuck and I've been happy with it ever since.

 

[Szion]

I was once a face-deep Sonic fan. I discovered a character creator on newgrounds.com. Built the character to my liking, and when I showed it to a buddy of mine, she asked me what I'd call him. Ended up going thru maybe 15 terrible names, and then it occurred to me, that I could rearrange the letters of Sonic, as the color blue was found throughout my creation.
Scion is a car brand. Couldn't do that. Silent C? Lemme just make that a silent Z. Had maybe 10mins to think of it, (the others already had their names, and it was near time to part ways.). However, for something so childish and simple, I enjoy the way Szion looks on paper, as well as the Scion pronunciation.
There was a moment when I wanted to change it as a username for the fact that it was childish, however, when my girlfriend began to refer to me as Szi-Szi, I knew it was sticking, and there was no point in changing it..

 

[NWRL]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-fFHZuIa40

"What's your role?"
"Oh I'm just a ***** with a rocket launcher"

 

[bec]

i took my name and tag after my favourite character in the webcomic homestuck, becquerel. his nickname in the comic is bec and i just got my username changed to that.

 

[Kink-Link5]

I really liked Super Mario RPG and was a naive 13-year-old.

5 because no other number looked right next to it.

 

[Brim]

I'm very boring, my name on here originates from a book I was writing. Makes me wish I could change my username, to the name I thought of I awhile back, which I personally think makes a far better name for myself.

 

[DD2]

Got it from my least favorite cs map
de_dust2

 

[BackwardCap]

This name is just another step on the path to an ideal persona. In most corners of the internet I still go by the name "Blazermax" which was my first attempt to make the coolest name ever. When I was young I considered myself to be a pyro maniac at heart.

Not in the sense that I wanted to burn stuff but just my love for fire based super powers and the color red. It also served as a type of connection with my older brother who I had a Red vs Blue (our respective favorite colors) rivalry with.

So when I started my first mmo (runescape) and had to choose a name, I wanted it to be a mix of "fire" and the coolest name I could think of. I chose Max partially because it has an X in the name but also because a lot of characters I liked had that name (dude from Goof Troop, guy from Beyblade, various kids in movies). Then I combined it with the coolest name for fire being "Blaze".

Unfortunately BlazeMax didn't make a lot of sense, nor did it roll off the tounge so I thought "What do you call someone that uses Blaze". Not knowing that it was already a thing, I went "Of course, a Blazer. And with the two names combined I'll be the maximum blazer" thus Blazermax was created.

Idolizing the hot blooded nature of protagonists in Videogames, Cartoons, & Anime I later coined the term "Blazin!" and made it my mantra. When one of my friends later asked if Blazermax stood for "Blazin to the max" I just went "Yeah, I guess".

As I grew older with aspirations in being a content creator I decided that I needed a handle that was easier to understand. A title I could make a logo for and even use as the name for an indie development company or w/e. I had to find a symbol that represented the essence of being cool. Not the sunglasses & trench coat cool, but the skateboarding & goggles kind of cool. BackwardCap ended up being the thing that spoke to me the most as well as being original (at least in a sense that I haven't seen it used anywhere). My avatar is a pixel version of me wearing a backwardcap that I was inspired to make because of minecraft.

 

[Brim]

When I saw Red Vs. Blue I was scared this thread had slipped into Halo territory...

 

[NWRL]

What's wrong with Halo? Please don't tell me you're one of THOSE people.

 

[Brim]

What's wrong with Halo? Please don't tell me you're one of THOSE people.

Lol personally I have nothing against it, I'm just kinda sick of the Red Vs. Blue halo series, granted it was entertaining. But everything runs its course - you know what I mean?

Also, speaking of Halo I'm in the process of running through Halo Reach story with a friend, I'm just too damn cheap to actually buy it.

 

[NWRL]

Oh I stopped watching RvB after the first season but I feel ya. Reach was fantastic. Too bad 343 killed it.

 

[Xermo]

My current smashboards name is a derivative from my typical name "Xerom," given to me by my friend. Couldn't use Xerom here because a spambot got the name banned.
Xerom originates from naming the robot hero in the jrpg "Live a Live." Rather than the default name "Cube" for said robot, I chose an alteration of "Zero" but with an X instead of a Z. Xero was overplayed, so I added an M and it changed the way it was pronounced (to me at least). Stuck with it since.

 

[Paradoxium]

paradox

par·a·dox
[par-uh-doks] Noun nature.
1.a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory orabsurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
2.a self-contradictory and false proposition.
3.an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.
Origin:
1530–40; < Latin paradoxum < Greek parádoxon, noun use of neuter ofparádoxos unbelievable, literally, beyond belief. See para-1 , orthodox

Yes, true and false at the same time. Just look at the definition, it is. Incredible. "unbelievable, literally, beyond belief." We think we have a grasp on reality, but we do not. It should be impossible but its not, it always interested me, and since the Latin root is "paradoxum" i simply added an "i" changing the suffix to "ium."

-ium
a suffix found on nouns borrowed from Latin, especially derivatives ofverbs ( odium; tedium; colloquium; delirium ), deverbal compoundswith the initial element denoting the object of the verb ( nasturtium ), other types of compounds ( equilibrium; millennium ), andderivatives of personal nouns, often denoting the associated status oroffice ( collegium; consortium; magisterium ); -ium, also occurs inscientific coinages on a Latin model, as in names of metallic elements( barium; titanium ) and as a Latinization of Gk -ion ( pericardium ).

Yes by adding that suffix Paradox now becomes Paradoxium. As if a paradox is now a substance.

I've always felt that perception was unreliable, and that things are only the way they are because that is how we perceive them. So then what happens when we alter our perception? We alter our version of the world, imagine if you had the ability to control and alter your perception, then you could actually control your world. Paradoxium is the fictional substance i made up that allows you to do so.

Its stupid i know, but i wasn't planning on being a regular Smashboards poster

 

[NWRL]

All of these posters who put time into their names makes mine feel inadequate, I just abbreviated part of a video which made me laugh my ass off. :I

 

[Rarik]

All of these posters who put time into their names makes mine feel inadequate, I just abbreviated part of a video which made me laugh my *** off. :I

Same here, except I just took a name off of a random name generator, but changed one of the vowels because I thought it sounded better. Of course I later found out that my name is actually an Icelandic electric company, which is kinda cool I guess.

 

[Meme]

My second name is Manuel, usually Manuels get nicknamed Meme around here, I've been called like that since... well childhood, never had a problem with RPGs/Melee nametag where characters only had space for four letters.

Got lucky when making an account here, since this username is kind of common.

As for pronunciation mostly I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids and their internet memes...

At last year's APEX I was always called out as "Meem"...

It's kinda though explaining the pronunciation but Meme pretty much would be... "Meh-meh" I suppose...

 

[Sizzlorr217]

It seems this whole nametag-storytime thing happened in the Social Thread because of Calvo finally changing his username to Meiling, whilst explaining why he did that. Coo'

Well, taken from my post in the Social Thread:
"May we continue the Nametag-Storytime?
Well my name.. Hmm..
Perhaps you all heard about the best cartoon ever made in human history, Invader Zim. And if you don't, just watch it. All of it!
Well, Invader Zim got about 28-ish Episodes, before it got cancelled...(due to it's pure awesomeness!)
And in one of the last episode, 25 or 26, they introduced this huge badass character named Sizz-Lorr, who was damn important for the story line!
And as a little kid, new to the internet, your nametag has to sound like the coolest on the block, so what is more badass than Sizz-*******-Lorr?"

 

[SixSaw]

I used to be really into MGS, so I used SixGunOcelot for a while since RevolverOcelot was usually taken
Later I went through a phase where I wanted to have my real name in my tags, so I ditched the overt MGS refference for CamSix
After a while I got tired of that tag, so I thought for a while about what made a good tag. I decided: 2-3 sylables, composed of familiar or unassuming words that can be interpreted in multiple ways and are easily memorable, while having some subtle but concrete relation to your own personal identity.
I chose SeeSaw: "See" being homophonic with "C", the first letter of my name, and "Saw" because I was learning to play the musical saw at the time. Together they have additional meaning in forming the phrase "see-saw", like the playground fixture, so it has that added playful quality without being over the top silly.
SixSaw is an alternate I use when SeeSaw is taken, as a reference to my earlier tags (and I guess you could pronounce "Six" like "See" if you were French or something) while preserving the SS initials.
Yeah.

 

[Yurya]

When I had found out that my great-grandfather had changed my family's name to be "American" sounding I was disappointed because I thought that the original name was awesome. For my username I took the original name spelled it phonetically (with a slight tweak of my own) to give me a unique online alias that had no direct ties to me yet still meant me.

 

[Airrider]

It's Airrider because of Kirby Air Ride pretty much. I still don't own the game though.

It's complicated.

 

[splat]

All of these posters who put time into their names makes mine feel inadequate, I just abbreviated part of a video which made me laugh my *** off. :I

Then there's me, who had just downloaded a pack of splatter brushes (in 2006, mind you) and thought they were neat.

I want a name change.

 

[Giygacoal]

Flowteau is my older name that's a portmanteau of Flow (I like Flowlights) and Gateau (Another word for cake that I discovered playing Pokémon Pearl).

The name I came up with that I recently started going to local tournaments with (that I'll change to on Smashboards eventually) is Hydrone, which is a combination of Hydra and Drone. Hydra is a kind of monster that I like, and Drone is an odd word that could mean either robot or the kind of animal (I'm an Alien fan).

 

[Tryst]

I actually have No Idea how I picked my name. D:

 

[XalchemistX]

I was obsessed with Full Metal Alchemist

 

[MLGF]

6th grade, Youtube account was MarioLinkGenofan.
Upon going to my first forum, which was only 6 people at the time, everyone didn't want to call me something so stupid so they just called me MLGF to shorten it. Eventually I decided that it was a lot cleaner and changed my name to MLGF on pretty much every site, it really doesn't stand for anything TBH. I just kinda got used to it.

 

[PillsBuryDopeBoy]

I have mad love for the PillsBuryDoughboy, and an uncontrollable attraction to dope (Discrete Optimized Protein Energy, not the narcotic guys >.>)

 

[Bleck]

 

[Lil Puddin]

Because my name starts with a P, and similar to the stupid "let's give you a nickname, (PLAYER)!" thing from Pokemon XY, my friends did the same. They all went with Li'l _ until it got to me, so we decided to change it to Li'l (letter)________. So Li'l Puddin' for me. I thought it was a combination of funny/cute at the time. So I used it for almost everything online. Wish I could fit Puddin in the name thing for SSBB or PM though. Puddi works too, I guess. :<

 

[br8k]

Homestuck.

You'd think it would be 8r8k, but there's a Homestuck song named "Killed by BR8K SPIDER!!!!!!!!" and I liked that spelling more. Used to use [BREAK!] on Steam. I find the word "break" (in the destroying, escaping sense, not the relaxing sense) (also in the musical genre sense, like breakbeat) very motivating.

I also like it because it's sort of similar to my previous name, "Bracket", which I came up with as sort of a third-character-from-Cave-Story name, a la Quote and Curly Brace. Later realized "Bracket" had the same number of letters and same first/last letters as my real name. Then I joined Smashboards and realized Bracket was an actual term in competitive stuff like this so that also motivated my change.

 

[Xenozoa425]

A random word I thought up when thinking of a band name in Guitar Hero many many years ago, then slapped my birthday on it.

I have no regrets.

 

[Dillo64]

It's short for armadillo.

Because I can get very defensive.

And I just think armadillos are neat

 

[JediLink]

Well, when I made my name some six years ago, my two favourite things were Zelda and Star Wars. Plus JL are my initials, so it works pretty well.

 

[Wrestlemania]

From a Hulk Hogan and Mr. T tag team to 23 years of undefeated Undertaker, the history, the spectacle, the showmanship.
WrestleMania.

 

[Thane of Blue Flames]

Ike.

But slightly more complicated, in that Fire Emblem 7 was my first FE game and I loved it to death. Lordling was a term a bandit used to describe Eliwood in the second Eliwood chapter, and I just liked it. It kind of speaks to me about how all these character, Lyn, Marth, Hector, Ike, Eirika, all start off soft, with little in the way of combat skill and then grow to become these fearsome warriors wielding legendary weapons that vanquish dragons, dark sorcerers and everything in between.

No one really fits the 'Lordling' more than Ike, though. Mere pup to leader of a small band of mercenaries to Crimea's greatest military leader. All while being a complete badass every step of the way.

The name is supposed to remind you how we all start of small, but we all have the potential to do truly great things. Be it in Smash, college, or anywhere else, really.

So yeah. Lordling.

 

[Daftatt]

I played a text based MMO called Realm Battles (used to be middle earth battles or something like that but they got hit with cease and desist), my friend in my guild was called Tatt, and I really liked daft punk (and was 8 years old) so I amalgamated that into Daftatt.

 

[OMalley]

The RoosterTeeth series Red Vs Blue featured an evil AI program Omega, who named himself Omalley, and took over people's bodies. i liked OMalley

 

[wiiztec]

wii + aztec = wiiztec, I had been using Aztec as a nickname for myself ever since I went to this camp for a week long field trip in middle school, and one of the staff there was named Aztec, when I got a Wii I named my console nickname wiiztec and i've been using it for pretty much everything ever since.

I'm wiiztec everywhere online except for youtube and a few forums where i'm THENINTENDOLUMINARY

 

[NightShadow6]

That old runscape name generator.