Anyone care to explain their user name?

[Aspasia]

I'm sure you've all done this before, but I must have missed it. I'm just curious about the backstory of people's user names. Some are fairly obvious, but others not so much.

 

Here's mine: I tend to be a rather high strung person by nature. To counter that, I try to make my environment (and my routines and whatnot) relaxing, soothing, etc. The idea of a bucolic setting is particularly soothing to me, so I thought maybe if I saw that word and my beautiful avatar photo every time I came here to shoot the breeze, I would think "bucolic" thoughts and it could contribute to my efforts to just...chill. :)

[Slartibartfast]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slartibartfast

 

I changed it to that in the middle of a discussion regarding fake dinosaur bones being planted by Satan. It wasn't (mostly) a serious discussion.

 

It was Sis, which is a family nickname, I kept the same avatar so people who were not discussing Satan planting dinosaur bones would recognize me.

[Mrs Mungo]

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/St_Mungo's_Hospital_for_Magical_Maladies_and_Injuries

 

:D

[Jean in Newcastle]

I care to leave my name and location up to the imagination.

[Lara in Colo]

I care to leave my name and location up to the imagination.

 

me too!!

[umsami]

Basically, it's an Arabic kunya….people have kind of an honorary title where instead of being called Susan or whatever your name is, you go by the name Mom of or Dad of your eldest child's name.  So, for a Mom it's Um or Umm and for a Dad it's Abu.  My eldest son's name is Sami…so I'm basically Sami's Mom.  

 

It's kind of like when you have other kids over, and instead of calling you Mrs. So-and-So or Miss So-and-So (here in the South), they call you Michael's Mom or Michelle's Dad.  

[ZeeMommy]

All three (and one that's coming in February) of my children's names start with the letter Z. 

 

[PeacefulChaos]

Peaceful on the inside even when Chaos ensues around me.

that's the goal, anyway.  :lol:  I think I do okay at it, but hey, no one's perfect.  ;)  :D

[Word Nerd]

I am an editor, and I love the written word. Word Girl was my name when I joined.

[creekland]

Creekland is the name of our pony farm.  If you google it you can still get an OLD web page we had up many moons ago.  We still raise ponies, though not as many as before.  We only have 10 now and are selling down as our farm hands had the nerve to grow up and move out.  We had 28 in our prime.

 

However, it is the reason we got started on the internet way back when, so pretty much everything we do or every name I "am" uses it.  That way my mind doesn't have to remember oodles of things for different locations!  We old folks need things like that - or at least - I do.  I kind of like it anyway (that's why our pony farm acquired the name).  We do live next to a decent sized creek (maybe 40' in width) on the non-flooding side.

[KatieJ]

I care to leave my name and location up to the imagination.

 

In my case it's a lack of imagination if the truth be told.

 

Or I could lie and say my name is actually Sally and I live in New Haven Connecticut.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

umsami, that is very interesting!

 

My username came about after a stalker situation forced me to get a new WTM account. (sob) It was at the height of the WTM Kilt era so I picked an avatar pic from Scotland and a name from a Scottish folk song.

 

The pic is the Star of Caledonia. The lyrics of the song are:

Oh, will ye go with me, sweet Tibbie Dunbar?
Oh, will ye go with me, sweet Tibbie Dunbar?
Will you ride in a coach or be drawn in a cart, or walk down beside me, sweet Tibbie Dunbar?

I care not your Daddy, his land and his money,
I care not your family, so high and so lordly,
But say you'll go with me, no matter how far,

And come in my coatie, sweet Tibbie Dunbar.

[MrsMommy]

Mine is simple. DH always calls me "Mrs." and the children, of course, call me "Mommy." Well, they used to...now I guess it's just "Mom." Anyway, I put the two names I'm most often called by together, and that's my username.

[Mergath]

Mine was the name of my Weyrwoman's dragon back when I ran an online Weyr and was involved in a lot of Pern fandom. (Google Anne McCaffrey if you're unfamiliar with the Pern books.)

[regentrude]

the rain maiden, responsible for creating rain, after a fairy tale by 19th century German writer Theodor Storm

[TrixieB]

TrixieB

 

Probably most people here already figured it out, though. :)

[MooCow]

Cows go moo.

[Wheres Toto]

Mine probably falls under the obvious. :D

[Desert Strawberry]

I picked up the nickname Strawberry Shortcake in second grade, and have been Strawberry off and on ever since. My oldest and youngest are also strawberries, but we extend it to all four. 

I made baby carriers under the name Strawberry Baby, our school is Strawberry School, our house is the Strawberry Cottage,  I have unofficially changed my last name to Strawberry. It's taken on a life of it's own.

[Pod's mum]

Mine was the name of my Weyrwoman's dragon back when I ran on online Weyr and was involved in a lot of Pern fandom. (Google Anne McCaffrey if you're unfamiliar with the Pern books.)

 

My youngest is just getting right into these, so I am revisiting Pern too.

 

 

Umsami, I would be umgirl, or Girl's mum, if I went by my eldest child's call sign.

 

[AlmiraGulch]

Mine probably falls under the obvious. :D

 

We should be friends.  Or enemies.   :D

[OneStepAtATime]

Goodness this is an interesting, educational and entertaining thread!  And FTR, I loved the Pern books, Mergath!  I had no idea there were on-line Pern weyrs....

 

And my name when I first started was basically just my name, but our two year journey with two demoralized dyslexic kids as we yanked them out of school and started homeschooling on the fly has had a lot of ups and downs.  My kids needed me to step back, slow down, and take one step at a time, just look at today for a bit, not fret about tomorrow, KWIM?  So I changed it and it reminds me every day to be grateful for what we do have, and to just walk one step at a time through the stressful moments.  This is a journey, not a race, and we are on it together.   Some days I forget and get stressed, but at least I have the HIVE to remind me.  :)

[Firefly]

Big fan of the short lived (sob) sci-fi series of the same name. 

[displace]

I used to be displaced and somehow lost the account or something. We relocate often. Now it's displace which implies something else but still fits a little as I was the catalyst for our recent move. We also travel as much as possible. The pic is a small part of a glacier in glacier bay Alaska.

[Caroline]

On the old old boards, when I was just lurking, someone posted that she liked to live her life keeping in mind what she thought Caroline Ingalls might do in a situation. So I started replying to her posts with the name Caroline. And it stuck. 

[Library Momma]

I work with libraries - I have for 21 years.  I have to say though that if I realized that there was a Library Lover here before I chose my name, I probably would have picked something else - I feel that that I moved in on her turf and didn't mean to do so!

[SpecialClassical]

All three (and one that's coming in February) of my children's names start with the letter Z.

I just have to guess. Zoe, Zander, and Zach. The new baby will be Zelda or Zion.

 

I'm channelling Bill Murray as Bob here.

[trulycrabby]

I have 40 or so land hermit crabs.

[Harriet Vane]

I adore the Wimsey novels. In another life I might happily have been Harriet, making my way in the world by writing mystery novels. Wouldn't have minded marrying a wealthy British aristocrat, too. ;)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Vane

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

Self explanatory and timeless. 

[Acorn]

From little acorns grow the mighty oaks.

[Hunter's Moon]

I have had a total of four names here (I believe that is all). 

 

I chose my more recent one because I have always loved nighttime (and the moon) and it has to do with the month of my birth. 

 

My previous ones were an old AOL username that just stuck, a name I thought up on the fly with the help of a Beatles poster, and the Hebrew version of my middle name. 

[Violet Crown]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_the_Violet_Crown

 

Hint: not Athens.

 

It was previously Name in City, until a stalker targeted my dd and began harassing dh and me. I wonder how many of us here changed our names and/or accounts for stalker reasons?

[Loowit]

Mine is the same as my gaming character. It comes from the native name of a local mountain that has a connection with my childhood and family. DH helped me pick it when we were playing together. His character is the name of another mountain in our area.

[Kathryn]

I'm entirely unoriginal and my name is Kathryn.

[HRAAB]

It's what my children usually call me.  Ishki is Choctaw for mother.  They call their father inki.

[idnib]

Bucolic, here's another thread I remembered in case you'd like to read more.

[goldberry]

I care to leave my name and location up to the imagination.

 

That was me, too!  Just recently I decided that probably wasn't the best idea.

 

Goldberry was Tom Bombadil's wife from LOTR. I love LOTR, but all the common female names from there are usually taken.

 

 I'm still keeping my "previously known as" for awhile, then I'll delete it.

[Caroline]

Mine is a squished version of "Karen in San Antonio".

 

I remember at one point it was Karen in Sub Arctic. I don't remember where you lived then.

[Alexigail]

Not my name, but the name my husband calls me in private  :001_wub:

[LucyStoner]

There's a link in my siggie which explains mine, by way of explaining that my name is not, actually, Lucy.

 

Lucy Stone was a famous American abolitionist and first wave feminist who kept her name when she married. Assumed to be the first American woman to do that. Her and Henry Blackwell (also a well known abolitionist) published this letter upon their marriage in 1855:

 

While we acknowledge our mutual affection by publicly assuming the relationship of husband and wife, yet in justice to ourselves and a great principle, we deem it a duty to declare that this act on our part implies no sanction of, nor promise of voluntary obedience to such of the present laws of marriage, as refuse to recognize the wife as an independent, rational being, while they confer upon the husband an injurious and unnatural superiority, investing him with legal powers which no honorable man would exercise, and which no man should possess. We protest especially against the laws which give to the husband:

 

1. The custody of the wife's person.

 

2. The exclusive control and guardianship of their children.

 

3. The sole ownership of her personal, and use of her real estate, unless previously settled upon her, or placed in the hands of trustees, as in the case of minors, lunatics, and idiots.

 

4. The absolute right to the product of her industry.

 

5. Also against laws which give to the widower so much larger and more permanent interest in the property of his deceased wife, than they give to the widow in that of the deceased husband.

 

6. Finally, against the whole system by which "the legal existence of the wife is suspended during marriage," so that in most States, she neither has a legal part in the choice of her residence, nor can she make a will, nor sue or be sued in her own name, nor inherit property.

 

We believe that personal independence and equal human rights can never be forfeited, except for crime; that marriage should be an equal and permanent partnership, and so recognized by law; that until it is so recognized, married partners should provide against the radical injustice of present laws, by every means in their power.

At different times Lucy Stoner has been a term, sometimes derogatory, for women who keep their names or who are feminists. Susan B. Anthony was influenced by her.

 

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't link the Amy Ray song that I love:

 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jTEp_MHvenE

[Guest]

It was what the "Talk Like A Pirate Day" name generator spit out at me, but I kind of like it. The "Ethel" part is intended as in cranky old bat, not as in cute little toddler with hipster parents.

 

 

[KungFuPanda]

Because I do not charge for awesomeness or attractiveness.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

 

 

My hair is pink, and I teach my two brains (boys).

 

I expect they'll try to take over the world someday.

[Caroline]

Yeah, I lived in northeastern North Dakota during 2008-2010 and didn't want to change my username, so I fudged it for a couple of years. (LOL)

 

I'm surprised anyone remembers that!

 

I'm sure I have forgotten something incredibly important in order to store that piece of trivia in my head.

[bolt.]

In my first forum incarnation (10? 15? Years ago?) I posted under my first initial and last name, which was vastly unpronounceable, but it seemed like a straightforward handle that wasn't trying to communicate anything or be cute.

 

I thought better of that in the interests of Internet anonymity and personal privacy -- it's not a terribly common last name. So, I adapted a "bit" of that name into a way that the original might have been mispronounced.

 

I chose a common noun to make it essentially ungoogleable -- googling 'bolt' does not immediately display my content.

 

(It got a . on the end because it needed to be 5 characters, and starts lowercase to match my prior handle.)

 

Here are some playful ways to think of bolts...

 

- A lightning bolt that suddenly illuminates things

- A bolt (hardware) that holds things together

- A post that makes readers want to bolt (run away) or sit bolt upright

- A cartoon super dog that rescues people

- It might be connected with "nuts" in some people's minds

- Your idea here...

 

Funny info: when I read normal text, my eyes are immediately drawn to the word bolt, if it is anywhere on the page of text. Then I sometimes have an innane mili-moment when I wonder if I contributed content to this??? What was it?

[Aspasia]

This is so fun!

[Arctic Bunny]

We lived above the Arctic circle (in Canada) and I used to like collecting rabbit stuff and I didn't like the sound of arctic_hare.

 

The pic is our view from our house there.

[Miss Peregrine]

I have had a few user names but this one has been in place for a few years, I think.

I like the book, _Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children_. I have several of my own peculiar kids and also take in children. :lol:

[blondeviolin]

I'm a blonde lady who plays the violin. :)