# Avatars/User Names Explained **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 22, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829 "2019-11-22T18:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/81 "2019-11-25T04:53:49Z")
I named myself after a minor character in one of my favorite seminal movies (not the hideous 60’s remake) that no-one under the age of 900 has ever seen. My avatar is a flying pig. This is apt for me for so many reasons. But I chose it because it resonates with my rebellious and anarchic nature. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/82 "2019-11-25T06:15:34Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Thanks! > > I’d been wondering if it had something to do with this: > > [But You Dont Look Sick? support for those with invisible illness or chronic illness The Spoon Theory written by Christine Miserandino - But You Dont Look Sick? support for those with invisible illness or chronic illness](https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/) You’re quite welcome. No, it has nothing to do with “spoon theory,” nor does it have to do with a 1980s Canadian new-wave band (“The Spoons,” and I’ve been asked about this before). No, it’s just me, hitting two spoons against each other, in a variety of rhythms (we call them “patterns”) to music. I have about two dozen “sets” (i.e. “pairs”), in a variety of materials: stainless steel, silverplate, teakwood, bamboo, etc.; in a variety of styles: soup, dessert, teaspoon, etc.; and shapes: straight, single-curve, and double curve. Each material, style, and shape can produce different sounds. I prefer “Newfie spoons” (each spoon is separate) over “French spoons” (the spoons are joined together at their base) though I have a few sets of French spoons that sound pretty good. And now you (and everybody else) know far more about musical spoons than most people. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/83 "2019-11-25T06:30:53Z")
I had no idea Spoons. That’s great! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/84 "2019-11-25T06:39:31Z")
I’ve heard people play spoons, so I did know that sense of the word. But I didn’t know all the detail about types of spoons that you just posted. So thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/85 "2019-11-25T07:37:50Z")
Thanks, folks. Let’s just say that you look in your kitchen drawer, and see just-plain-ordinary flatware. I look in the same kitchen drawer, and see musical instruments. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/86 "2019-11-25T14:49:29Z")
Elendil was a great, brave and wise king in the Middle-earth legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien. I’d be honored to be descended from him, were he not fictional. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/87 "2019-11-25T18:44:51Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My username is based on the final word in my favorite play, _Cyrano de Bergerac_ (not actually the best translation). And I was born in 1945. My avatar is part of a composite photo I took of the Transit of Venus, from Vienna, in 2004. I had to stand out in the direct sun for 6.5 hours to get that photo. Without sunscreen. But it was worth it, just to get that composite photo. That is cool! That is the day I married my wife (or she married me, depending on how you see it): 08.06.04 in European notation (06.08.04 in the USA, not so nice I feel). We chose the date because of the transit, felt very appropiate, Venus being the goddess of love. My name is Pardelluchs badly spelled, and Pardelluchs is German for _[Lynx pardinus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_lynx)_, the Iberian Lynx, a magnificent animal (see picture) whose name I borrowed as _nom de plume_ when I started writing because I find it loveably and because we are about to get them extinct. In fact, I am pleasantly surprised that they are making a slight recovery, precarious as it is. Their numbers have doubled since I started using this name 🙂 Still critically endangered. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/88 "2019-11-25T18:58:37Z")
My user name is from the name of one of my two\* favorite _Star Wars_ characters, and the year of my birth. I’ve used it here since I joined the SDMB in 2000, and used it (or something very similar) when I was in the Straight Dope AOL group in the mid '90s. My avatar is the symbol of the Rebel Alliance, also from Star Wars. - The other being Wedge Antilles. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/89 "2019-11-25T20:51:28Z")
Any SF fan will immediately recognize my name as the name of the mathematician/psychohistorian who founded the First and Second Foundation in Asimov’s Foundation trilogy (which eventually grew to 7 with two prequels and 2 sequels. I have no avatar basically out of laziness. Trantor was Seldin’s planet as well as where the Second Foundation was. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/90 "2019-11-25T23:43:46Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Thanks, folks. Let’s just say that you look in your kitchen drawer, and see just-plain-ordinary flatware. I look in the same kitchen drawer, and see musical instruments. 🙂 So what you’re saying is that this is a type of synesthesia. Hmmm. Should I change my avatar to a pic of a quokka? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/91 "2019-11-26T12:18:46Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Treppenwitz is one of those German words (like schadenfreude or zeitgeist) which should have an English equivalent but doesn’t. Literally “staircase joke”, it means the smart reply that you thought of too late (eg, when you were already leaving someone’s apartment). Perfect for me posting on this board. > > j L’esprit de l’escalier. (A thought on the staircase / the way out). The killer wtty reply that is ten minutes too late. Me? Nomen est omen. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/92 "2019-11-26T15:12:49Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > My username is my profession. > > I’m not very original, but I am following in the steps of Buttercup, in the Princess Bride. In the book, she named her horse Horse. Whereas mine is not. I just like to cook. Elsewhere on the intertoobs I’m Malamutt, a play on malamute because I’m from Alaska originally. Boring, right? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/93 "2019-11-26T17:50:09Z")
Another Doper recently gave me the bright idea of buying myself a custom title, so that people could more easily see (and hopefully not take offence to) my choice of username - it is not a reference to roadkill nor an obscure film. I don’t care for avatars so I haven’t bothered to upload one. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/94 "2019-11-26T17:57:12Z")
I am peedin because that’s how my nephew pronounced my real name when he was 2. My entire family calls me peedin, like Cher, or Elvis. I chose that name to my AOL on a disk name lo those many decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/95 "2019-11-26T18:01:45Z")
I wanted to change my username. I happened to be reading a book of _Little Nemo in Slumberland_ comic strips that week. My avatar, my custom title, and my signature line all indicate that I’m pretty lazy. True story. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/96 "2019-11-26T18:21:35Z")
My username is a play on my real name. I’m not a fisherman. I’m not even particularly fond of eating trout. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/97 "2019-11-26T18:40:13Z")
My avatar is my favorite mode of transportation, and my username was given to me by the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/98 "2019-11-26T18:49:08Z")
I have always been fascinated by reptiles, rattlesnakes especially. Crotalus is the name of the genus that includes most rattlesnake species. My avatar is Crotalus ruber, the red diamond rattlesnake, which is the first species I extracted venom from when I started working in a venom lab many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/99 "2019-11-28T02:53:02Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > I only see avatars if I’m not logged in, which is rarely. So what is it already with the avatars, which one only sees when not logged in? I was starting to notice that too. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829/100 "2019-11-28T04:04:50Z")
My name, as is likely obvious, comes from the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ya’ know, Holmes’ foil. Smart enough to be his equal. Plus, I think it sounds cool. I was surprised when I discovered that it was available. My avatar is what I imagine a man like Moriarty could have looked like. I like a sharp suit, too. [This wasn’t my original user name. For the first few years, I was Atomicktom, which is a play on my middle name] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-user-names-explained/843829.md?page=6)