I need a secret outward identity in four days or less. The reason for the urgency is that I am moving to Atlanta then, starting my life anew. I figure, this is the perfect time to get a nickname. I’ve never had one, and I might as well now, since it’s the best time.
Basically, I was watching a movie, when it struck me that I would rather introduce myself as “The Dude” or whatever rather than my Christian name. (It’s in the Bible, look it up!)
I can invent an identity to go along with it, too. Suggest whatever you want, I’m open to whatever. I can provide pictures, detailed accounts of how I walk, where I prefer to drink coffee, whatever - just so you provide me with a nickname.
As for a starting off point, some people have called me “Jare-Bear” in the past. However, that’s too close to my actual name.
Nicknames are generally either based on your actual name or some characteristic about you that strikes people. Oh, and occasionally they come out of nowhere, like Skippy, or Sport, or Rocky.
Unless you give more info about yourself, I can only suggest that you look at all of your names - first, middle, and last, and figure out some permutation that you find pleasant and comfortable. Or you can pick some aspect of your appearance or character to emphasize and use that - my brother, when he was in college back in the Stone Age, was called Buzz, short for Buzzsaw, because he brought so much energy and determination to anything he set his mind to (he apparently got my entire share of drive, since I have none whatsoever). On the other hand, I know of a man who has been called Buzz for at least forty years, and to my knowledge, the only reason he was called that was that his actual first name of Forrest was too uncommon for it to be comfortable for him (this was decades ago, when unusual names were not the norm). Heaven knows where the Buzz came from, but I don’t think it was anything about him per se that lead to it.
You chose ZebraShaSha as your user name here. That’s a tad cumbersome, but how about Zebra? Or Zeb? Or ShaSha? Or Sha? I have no idea what your username means, so I can’t begin to guess what it was about it that appealed to you or where it came from. But if you liked it well enough to use it here, maybe that’s your best place to start. Or if you have other usernames elsewhere, maybe there’s your source.
Typically nicknames are either bestowed by others, or begun in fairly early childhood. It’s pretty darned hard to bestow one on yourself. On the other hand, you’re certainly choosing the right time to do it if you want to - it’s always easiest to change names when you’re going to be dealing with an entirely new set of people.
Ask me questions, and ye shall learn. I fly kites, I play the ukulele, I like to dance, sometimes I cry to myself at night.
The only other nickname I have been bestowed in my life is “cool shoes.” This might be due to having hot pink shoes, or the fact that the guy was a verifiable drug lord and was usually fairly stoned. I think everything he saw was hot pink.
I really love the suggestions so far, especially the badass sounding ones. I think I would like one that is really strong, masculine, and… well… badass. Something as tough as nails, but memorable and believable.
Also, I’m going to Gatech, which will be 7 years of Nerd Camp, so anything other than “Stevey” “Pete” or “Bill” is already out there. In other words, dance and a dance and go crazy!
Your SDMB handle, ZebraShaSha, has just always sounded very feminine (or effeminate) to me. No offense – I have enjoyed your posts, especially about music, but at first I thought you were some cutesy girl with an apartment decorated in zebra print!
Story goes of an English soccer player (a goalie) whose manager told him it would be great to lift his media profile to give himself a nickname. He decided to call himself “The Cat” (as in, reflexes thereof). Of course, the only way he could spread it was to use it about himself in the third person, so he starts making calls during play to his teammates, like “Pass it to The Cat!”, “The Cat’s got it!”, “It’s safe with The Cat!”, etc.
Team mates thought him a prime wanker for all of this embarrassing self promotion.
So they called him Tiddles. Forever.
Back in the 70’s I nicknamed a work buddy two different times. One was “Lance” after Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, because I just loved saying “Lance” the way the monkey (Mata Hairy, was it?) did in a high-pitched drawl.
The other was Sundance, because in addition to the movie with Newman and Redford, the running backs for the Dolphins (Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick) picked up the nicknames by way of the Monday Night Football gang (and maybe others, but that’s where I heard it first). This buddy and I were close in those days, still are, and for a long time he was just either Lance or Sundance. Nowadays, he’s just Mike.
That’s all I have for you unless you like Feldspar.
