# Story Behind Your SD "Handle"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 19, 2007, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771 "2007-04-19T11:09:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/161 "2007-04-25T02:09:49Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Originally I actually wanted to be called “SirAloysiusRaikesV.C.Of27ButtermereCloseBletchlyMiltonKeynesBedfordshireU.K.” but somebody beat me to it. Obviously Lust4life was the closest user name to it so I chose that instead. [/QUOTE] So, you don’t work for RCCL? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/162 "2007-04-25T02:21:55Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq-WYUkm6Iw) ---
**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:** [April 25, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/163 "2007-04-25T04:13:15Z")
I did my thesis research on hummingbirds in Panama. _Colibri_ is Spanish for hummingbird. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/164 "2007-04-25T04:55:21Z")
Just a random collection of letters that I hit on the keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Redfrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@Redfrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redfrost)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/165 "2007-04-25T13:03:06Z")
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker] ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Zq-WYUkm6Iw/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zq-WYUkm6Iw?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque [/QUOTE] Wow! You’re good! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/166 "2007-04-25T13:57:36Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] Even though I assumed that anyone reading my name would understand immediately, I’ve been proved wrong on several occasions. I’m PICU nurse. as in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. That was my last incarnation in a 40+ year career in specialty medicine. My first screen name on the 'net was TraumaNurse. That was in 1994 on AOL. [/QUOTE] I see your username and think “pic nurse”. For some reason, that first U is invisible. Perhaps you could have used BiCaps? And no, unless you’d had dealings with it, PICU is not at all obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/167 "2007-04-25T14:27:58Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] Now if you’ll excuse me I’m swamped. I’ve got my electro-ray to finish, Superman to murder, Lois Lane to ravish – I’m SWAMPED. [/QUOTE] What does ACBG say to that? ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/168 "2007-04-25T14:45:06Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] I did my thesis research on hummingbirds in Panama. _Colibri_ is Spanish for hummingbird. [/QUOTE] And they also make a damn fine [cigarette lighter](http://www.colibri.com/cfHome.cfm?CFID=2922414&CFTOKEN=62956579) . ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/169 "2007-04-25T18:48:14Z")
Back in the Internet Stone Age–1993, if I remember right–I signed up for AOHell with the screen name _BonChat_ (good cat in French). By the time I made it out into the wider web world, that name or some variation was possessed by all sorts of other people, so I converted to _malchats_ (bad cats–it became pluralized and lost the capitalization). That was my original SD screen name (and remains my ID of choice throughout most of the web). When the subscriptions to this board stopped being free, I let my account lapse for a while, and when I came back there was some kind of snafu in reactivating the account (can’t remember what exactly). So to make things easy, I just chose a new name, one that retained the ‘cat’ theme. Being a bookish type, went to one of my favorite literary works, the Chronicles of Narnia, and chose a ‘good cat’ who is also a ‘bad(ass) cat’–Aslan, famously referred to throughout the series as “not a tame lion.” And there you have it. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/170 "2007-04-25T18:54:53Z")
Ages ago, I regularly played an online WW2 fighter game called Warbirds. My handle there was “grgyle”, short for gargoyle, because of primitive 6-character length field limitation for the player handles. On discovering the SD board, the handle “Gargoyle” was taken by a defunct member, so I added the “WB” as a pointer to my Warbirds days. That game wasn’t a big community though, so I doubt anyone ever noticed the reference. The fact that I was unaware that there was also a cartoon called “Gargoyles” on the “WB” network at the time only confused things further 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/171 "2007-04-25T22:59:31Z")
[QUOTE=phall0106] As far as how it came to be…well, my middle name begins with P. (and I used to go by that name), my last name is Hall and my birthday is January 6. How’s that for originality? [/QUOTE] Somehow, I always manage to read your name not as P. Hall, but as “phall,” as in the first syllable of phallic. :smack: freckafree comes from a Casper the Friendly Ghost talking doll (like [this](http://cgi.ebay.com/CASPER-TALKING-DOLL-VINTAGE-FRIENDLY-GHOST-MATTEL-TOY_W0QQitemZ180110196534QQihZ008QQcategoryZ88863QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) ) that I had as a kid. One of the phrases it was supposed to say was, “I’M a FRIEND-ly ghost” in a very sing-song voice. From day one, that phrase was garbled, and it sounded to my sisters and me that it was saying “I’M a FRECK-a-free.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/172 "2007-04-29T19:40:38Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] I did my thesis research on hummingbirds in Panama. _Colibri_ is Spanish for hummingbird. [/QUOTE] We have a book-covering machine in our store that is branded Colibri, it’s an Italian company though so It might have a different meaning. My “handle” is Irish (Gaelic) for The Thief. I’m not a thief though… I swear. ---
**Author:** ![Li\_l\_Pluck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ee59a6/32.png) [@Li\_l\_Pluck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Li_l_Pluck)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/173 "2007-04-29T21:23:46Z")
When I saw a thread similar to this one some time ago, I didn’t jump in because I wanted to maintain a little bit of mystique. Now, upon reading this one, my inner…er, bitch, was like, “Mystique?! Bitch, puh-leeze! Just who the hell do you think you are? Mystique, my ass!” so I reckon that I’ll share, too. This might be insignificant to others; to me, not so much. Back home in South Carolina, my grand-daddy–alav ha-shalom (may he rest in peace)–was known as “Pluck,” which, unless you were his wife, siblings, children, or grandchildren, was preceded by either “C’n” (Cousin), “Unca” (Uncle) or “Deac’n” (Deacon). People thought I favored him so much that I was sometimes called “Li’l Pluck.” When I joined the SDMB, I wanted to pick a handle that meant something to me, and since (a) I am, IMO, often distressingly unimaginative, and (b) I retain such fond memories\* of Grand-daddy, the decision was an easy one. I am sure that the dear man has turned over in his grave a couple of (hundred) times at some of the stuff I’ve said on these boards, but I like to believe that I do his memory justice by trying to carry on the values of kindness, honesty, decency, dignity, non-macho manliness, and Southern gentlemanliness that I thought he always exhibited. Yes, sir, Deac’n Pluck, you’ve been gone for almost 22 years, and I still miss you. Your spirit will be with me for as long as I live, but your name will be immortalized for at least the life of the internet. \*One of my fondest memories is of Grand-daddy, a few years before he died (so he would’ve been in his late 60’s), chasing the cutest little piglet around the hog pen (my family were farmers), just because my brother and I wanted to pet it. He didn’t catch it (those little suckers were fast!)–and he knew he couldn’t–but he tried just for us, and that’s all that mattered. If you’ll pardon me, I have to go dab my eyes now. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/174 "2007-04-29T22:58:04Z")
[QUOTE=BACI] I’m still waiting to see if **Alive at Both Ends** got his nick from the Geneis song Squonk. Almost ashamed that I know that much… 😃 [/QUOTE] Well, yes I did. I’d received some bad news and was a bit depressed at the time and did genuinely feel “a little dead in the middle”. (I’m over it now, but I’m quite happy with the name and feel no need to change it.) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/175 "2007-04-30T03:04:13Z")
I’m named after a [shoe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakai) company. I had a sticker of the name Lakai on my TV along with stickers from other skateboarding shoe companies as I was choosing a user name. Lakai was picked because it had the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement of letters. I really don’t like the way it sounds, but it sure looks nice. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/176 "2007-04-30T03:11:34Z")
I was reading some Lovecraft at the time and I thought the name of his best-known imitator would be nicely innocuous. I didn’t want people getting any ideas about me from my name, as opposed to my words. It kinda failed when I realized people here would _of course_ know everything from the Great Old Ones to Innsmouth to the Color Out of Space, and it failed again because it tends to make people think I’m female. I’m not. (What am I whining about? Leslie Groves and Brooke McEldowney have/had the same problem with their real names.) I might change it to something memorable, like 09:f9:11:02:9d:74:e3:5b:d8:41:56:c5:63:56:88. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/177 "2007-04-30T03:43:08Z")
I (badly) misremembered the name of [“Satoshi, the Eater of Souls”](http://www.leenite.org/thecritic/jaymisc.htm) from an episode of _The Critic_ around…1995, or so, when I first chose a screen name. It’s the inner “me.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/178 "2007-04-30T03:55:08Z")
I am Fullmetallotus (no spaces) I studied Yoga for almost 30 yrs, finally walking away from it at the Kundalini level… (too much truth, way too fast) I was working as a curator of a military museum at the time (truth be told I was better armed than the local police department … and a total pacifist) Stanley kubrick is one of my fave directors… My close personal friends know I can walk into a hardware store , spend a few bucks, and have a shopping bag full of ingrediants that can turn a few city blocks into hot, fast moving vapour… Good thing I am a pacifist… hence my name… regards Full metal Lotus… ---
**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:** [May 15, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/179 "2007-05-15T19:46:50Z")
I’m a Tolkien junkie. In my idylls, I’d like to think that I could be descended from this great King of Men: [Elendil - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elendil) ---
**Author:** ![vertizontal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@vertizontal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertizontal)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771/180 "2007-05-15T20:45:51Z")
When I was a kid, I was watching an episode of _All in the Family_, and there was a scene where Archie and Michael were moving some big thing out the back door, and somewhere in the typical chatter of guys who are moving a big thing, Archie said “ya gotta turn it to the vertizontal”. I thought it was a funny word. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-behind-your-sd-handle/400771.md?page=10)