# jr8 must die! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 16, 2001, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726 "2001-02-16T11:04:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/1 "2001-02-16T11:04:29Z")
I’m bored. Specifically, I’m bored with my name. Not my real name, mind you, just my online one. Of course, this is entirely due to shortsightedness on my part; I completely failed to anticipate the addictiveness of this message board. I should have read a bit longer, maybe perused other people’s user names, taken the time to come up with something classy, something that would roll off the tongue and/or the screen in a memorable way. But no, I pick something unpronouncable (unless you try to say it like “gyrate”, I suppose). So. Here’s the question (or, more accurately, questions): should I change my online name? Is it worth it? Will I get bored with the new one in a few months’ time? Will it confuse those few people who actually know who the hell I am? And what should I change it to? Or should I just shut the hell up and worry about more important things? Your advice/opinions, serious or non-, welcome as always. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/2 "2001-02-16T11:25:21Z")
“Gyrate” has something to be said for it, no? FWIW, yes, it’s confusing when people change screen names, but I can’t give advice, only a request that you choose something pronounceable. Pronouncable names just seem nicer and easier somehow. Good luck with the horrors of decision-making. Did anyone ever decide to be “Chicken of Bristol”, I wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/3 "2001-02-16T12:01:15Z")
I though it was ‘gyrate’!:eek: Thanks for blowing my illusion. I think **jr8** is pretty cool in it’s simplicity. C’mon, 3 letters and makes you think of dancin’! But don’t listen to me. I’m an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/4 "2001-02-16T15:11:44Z")
Aw, an unpronounceable username is FUN! It’s like reading a comic strip and imagining how the characters speak. The minute they assign an actual voice to a character (such as with “Garfield”), it destroys all illusions and fantasies (okay maybe not the right word, but you know what I mean). This is why I am glad that “Calvin and Hobbes” was never made into an animated series - it would have been horrible if it was not the same voice I hear when I read the strip. Besides, the little voices in my head really like reading the comic strips to me: they get to expand their vocabulary and amuse me at the same time. So for the sake of the giving the little voices in my head something to do, keep your name. Better yet, if you change your name, I’ll take over **jr8**! screech-owl (who has not had enough coffee today) [sub]P.S. spooje, you are not an idiot. You are cool in my book (and I write anything I want to in MY book)!\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/5 "2001-02-16T15:28:26Z")
Heaven forfend I should upset anyone’s little voices. 🙂 Still waffling, though. The other _nom de keyboard_ I considered briefly was “Ella Wendy Owen” – a virtual cookie to the first poster to figure out why. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/6 "2001-02-16T15:46:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by screech-owl \* > **…Better yet, if you change your name, I’ll take over jr8!..** Note to Moderators: Before anyone jumps on me, I was distracted for a moment and forgot to add in this phrase: Just kidding. Forfend? Never heard of the word. ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/7 "2001-02-16T16:43:22Z")
this is some sort of virus; everybody seems to be succeptible. I just recently did the name change thing. I was Spritle for so long I got tired. Like ChiefWahoo, you, and others, I chose my name quickly (used the one I had used years ago). I had lurked a while, but never really considered what a good user name would be for me. Now? As I considered a new name, I came up with about 5 possibilities. I chose one. I asked TubaDiva to change my screen name. Of course, she had been ill and didn’t get to for a while. Now came the second guessing. In retrospect, should I have changed? Idunno. To do again, I probably wouldn’t. In that we are only readers of other’s thoughts and ideas, I think it’s very true that readers associate a thought pattern or posting style to a screen name; that’s all we have to attach to the style. To change your name “forces” everyone else to change that association. It’s like getting used to a new poster. Making any change would probably be best (in terms of assimilation) if it were done early in your posting life - say under 100 posts or so, IMVHO. just some random musings… ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2001, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/8 "2001-02-16T19:43:14Z")
I, too, recently changed my name. I’d been on the board more than a year as **Da Ace** , though I’d never been completely happy with that name. It was the usual story – stare at the log-in screen for ten minutes, doodling on the blotter, trying to think of a name that’s personal and unique. All the names I could think of were references, and I didn’t want to go that way (though I often wonder what life would have been like as **Raymond Luxury-Yacht** or **Harry “Snapper” Organs** ). So I dredged a weird old name out of my past. After hating that name for months and months, I finally changed it. Now I’m a happier, saner, more _happening_ sort of frood. And I have a name that fits my posting style better. (Both seem like they should mean something, but don’t, exactly.) So, my advice is: do it. Spend some time thinking about possible names, and choose something odd and special. Then slowly grow to loathe and despise that name. It’ll be fun! ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2001, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/9 "2001-02-17T03:26:13Z")
“Ella Wendy Owen” deriveth from “L-O-N-D-O-N.” That is, “London.” Is that enough for a cookie? Do I have to speculate on your specific reasons? ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2001, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/10 "2001-02-17T03:48:40Z")
I say go with what your inner poster tells you to do. And btw, I think **Chicken of Bristol** is still up for grabs. Veb ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2001, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/11 "2001-02-17T06:10:18Z")
Hey, at least your name is not some silly horse name like Ipsypipsy. You definitely want to change that name, especially if you are a horse. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2001, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/12 "2001-02-17T06:35:38Z")
When I first signed up, I almost chose HowlingOldOwlInTheWoods from that always misheard line in Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” You can have it, if you want. Sir ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2001, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/13 "2001-02-17T11:35:38Z")
I suggest you **don’t** take the name GuanoLad, because, like, it’s already been taken by some weirdo with a warped imagination. It also keeps the babes away. ---
**Author:** ![Alonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Alonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonist)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2001, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/14 "2001-02-17T14:06:18Z")
I think **Czarcasm** still has “Chicken of Bristol” in his sig as a nod to **evilbeth**. (Checks [Rename the Moderator](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54721) thread)- yeah, he does. Hard to go in and get that- it’s guarded by smileys. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2001, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/15 "2001-02-18T18:18:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by foolsguinea \* > \*\*“Ella Wendy Owen” deriveth from “L-O-N-D-O-N.” > > That is, “London.” > > Is that enough for a cookie? Do I have to speculate on your specific reasons? \*\* A virtual Oreo with quadruple cream to **foolsguinea** for a correct answer! See – listening to the little voices pays off sometimes. As for a reason – why not? I live here, I like it, and it would confuse people – three good reasons right there. _Forfend_ – an archaic form of “forbid”. That’s what comes of reading too much old literature, I guess. If I named myself **Raymond Luxury Yacht** , would I have to pronounce it “ **Throat Warbler Mangrove** ”? ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2001, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/16 "2001-02-20T18:14:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jr8 \* > \*\*If I named myself **Raymond Luxury Yacht** , would I have to pronounce it “ **Throat Warbler Mangrove** ”? > \*\* That entirely depends on how silly you intended to be! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2001, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jr8-must-die/54726/17 "2001-02-22T12:06:18Z")
Ah, the heck with it…I’ll stick with **jr8** (although in deference to **spooje** will now pronounce it “gyrate”). [Leo Sayer]You make me feel like dancin’…[/Leo Sayer]