# Explain your user name please! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 20, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239 "2007-08-20T13:46:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Raspberry\_NOT\_Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Raspberry\_NOT\_Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raspberry_NOT_Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/121 "2007-08-21T01:31:44Z")
I am red and I am EMPHATIC. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/122 "2007-08-21T01:37:10Z")
Clothahump is the elderly Turtle Wizard in Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger novel series. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/123 "2007-08-21T01:44:16Z")
Back when I still played WoW (the period of my life I like to refer to as the Dark Ages), my handle was Soulflayer. Later, when I began fresh on a new server, I named my new toon Souldeux, for Soul the Second. I’ve long since abandoned that life-leeching horror show, but the name stuck in my head. To me, the greatest question that can be asked aside from where all this universe has come from is: What makes us more than just a collection of atoms, or, in other words, what makes us conscious beings? The Dope is dedicated to fighting ignorance, and to my mind, one of the greatest blows it could strike would be to answer that question. Perhaps the answer is, for lack of a better word, a soul. That line of thought brought me around again to my old username, and I just sort of went with it. Looking back, if I could do it again, my username would be **Entirely Unlike Tea**. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/124 "2007-08-21T01:49:04Z")
[I am what I am.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silenus) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/125 "2007-08-21T02:11:41Z")
[QUOTE=Raspberry, NOT Rhubarb] I am red and I am EMPHATIC. [/QUOTE] Welcome to the Dope, **Raspberry, NOT Rhubarb**. So, what are your feelings about Raspberry AND Rhubarb? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/126 "2007-08-21T02:17:33Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] I’ve been pondering changing it, in a thread we had a while back asking people to describe the previous doper **someone mentioned they thought I could be a bit caustic at times** so I came up with a possible one, CausticEffect. [/QUOTE] I’ve really got to start paying more attention to your posts. 😉 ---
**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:** [August 21, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/127 "2007-08-21T02:19:39Z")
My middle name is Thomas, and Atomicktom is an alliteration of that name. It came from a friend of mine in middle school, who was into things (like Pink Floyd and computer Bulletin Boards) that I would come to appreciate in later years. When he tried to get me onto a Bulletin Board, he said I needed a handle, and he bestowed Atomic-tommy on me. Eventually, to pay homage to him (I haven’t spoken to him since I was 14), I chose Atomicktom as my user name whenever one was needed on the internet. For some reason, though, I keep getting Dopers who tell me they thought I was Atomic_mom_. I promise I’m not capable of bearing children. Honest! ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/128 "2007-08-21T02:19:43Z")
BO-RING story, but I’ll tellya anyway. Had an ex-bf when I was 19 who decided to call me “Pumpkin”. Also got my first computer at that age, and guess who set up all my e-mail and everything for me? And since I guess I have no imagination when it comes to screen names, I’ve been using variations on the pumpkin theme ever since. _yawn_ ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/129 "2007-08-21T02:23:39Z")
Lord Percy Percy is a hilarious, male character in Blackadder. It’s been my screenname for years, since I was on AOL, and I love it despite the fact that I’m a GIRL. Probably not the best choice in retrospect, but it’s too late. I’ll always be percypercy now. -Lil ---
**Author:** ![Raspberry\_NOT\_Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Raspberry\_NOT\_Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raspberry_NOT_Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/130 "2007-08-21T02:57:59Z")
Thanks for the welcome **koeeoaddi**! I should probably have clarified that I am red, EMPHATIC and negative. My universe is an either/or kinda place. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/131 "2007-08-21T03:13:33Z")
It comes from one of my favorite poems, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on, nor all your piety and wit can call it back to change a single line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it.” I briefly considered “Piety And Wit”, but realized I had little of either one. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/132 "2007-08-21T03:21:01Z")
I am named for a cartoon coyote. When I had to come up with a screen name for my first online experience I wanted to use “wolf” in my name somehow because I happen to be very enamored of wolves and my real life nickname has a vague connection to wolves. But every possible combination with wolf was taken unless I wanted to add a dozen random numbers, which I didn’t. Then I said to myself, “Self, who are you kidding? You’d like to be a wild and free, noble wolf but you’re really more like a coyote who’s elaborate plans go all to heck.” Not that there’s anything wrong with being a coyote, they are clever and adaptive creatures and one day may take over the world! Oops, er … wasn’t supposed to say anything about that. Anyway, as I child I always rooted for Wile E Coyote because that Roadrunner was kind of annoying. So, I knew that I had to go with a Wile E name, but again too many possible choices were taken so I added my real life initials. I didn’t want to use my initials on message boards and I got lucky that just plain Wile E was available on my two favorite message boards. I tried a different name here at first because I just assumed it wasn’t available but I couldn’t fight my nature and got a name change when I found Wile E was available. Also, Wile E wasn’t completely inept and was modeled after the Native American trickster, Coyote, so that makes him even more interesting to me. Not that I’m much of a trickster … but I could be if my plans didn’t always go all to hell! ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/133 "2007-08-21T03:23:09Z")
Mine comes from a character in Larry Niven’s Known Space stories. I spell it with 2 f’s just to be obtuse. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/134 "2007-08-21T03:31:10Z")
I forgot to mention, like the poster formerly known as dahfisheroo, I frequently get mistaken for the wrong gender. My namesake is male, but I am not, but I am not willing to give up the name just because of that. Well, I can’t anyway because I already used my one name change. And holy crap, I talk too much! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/135 "2007-08-21T04:16:48Z")
Colibri is Spanish for hummingbird. I did my thesis research on hummingbirds in Panama, hence the name. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/136 "2007-08-21T04:44:38Z")
Me? I stole mine from an old thread from the dope back when I was a major lurker about 3 years ago when episode 2 was coming out. People were talking about the stupidity of sith names and were making up funny ones that followed the “pattern”. Darth (In)Vader. Darth (In)Sidious. So I’m Darth (In)Sensitive. Which I liked because of the juxtaposition of the evil of the Sith with the sunshine and daffodils of the other half. When I get a chance to get past my broke college student-ness and register, I think I’ll try and find that thread and pay for a year of that person’s subscription. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/137 "2007-08-21T04:55:59Z")
[QUOTE=Pithy Moniker] Of course, the Xbox live crowd is not as swift as other online communities. One person asked me what language was “Pithy Moniker” and almost everyone else had trouble with it. After three straight nights of being called “Pity Monkey” in voice chat, I paid the 10 bucks and had my gamertag changed to something else. [/QUOTE] Oh dear, this story really tickled me, and now I am going to think “Pity Monkey” every time I see one of your posts. That’s just funny. My user name is a way of referring to the Delphic Sybil (sort of but not exactly like the Oracle of Delphi, depending on what/when you’re researching), the subject of several classic works of art, perhaps most famously appearing on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which figured into the thesis I was working on at the time I had to sign up for my first internet account. It’s all lowercase because I didn’t quite understand that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to edit it … years later, I now feel rather strongly about it and get annoyed when I use it for online sites that make the first letter uppercase automatically. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/138 "2007-08-21T05:02:59Z")
I am in love with a cartoon, and the main character has the name of Brendon Small. Sometimes I feel like he makes more sense than anyone else on television, and that is scary. Anyways, [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Home_Movies_characters#Major_characters)! Obviously, it’s the character named Brendon. Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/139 "2007-08-21T05:10:45Z")
Drachillix hard ch like drak-illix. Was the name of one of the starting planets in a game a group of people I was associated with were putting together, if it had worked we would have had something akin to [Eve Online](http://www.eve-online.com/) a couple years earlier. Its damn scary how much we got done. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239/140 "2007-08-21T05:47:46Z")
I’ve been using Aleq as a nom de 'net since BBS days–most of the BBS’s I frequented had an SCA connection, and Aleq is an elision of my SCA name–“A” le “Q” y’see. Somewhere along the line I added the “Smart” part because it sounds snottier… 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-your-user-name-please/416239.md?page=8)