# The "Whats the deal with your name?" Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2002, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211 "2002-07-16T09:42:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/1 "2002-07-16T09:42:13Z")
From an idea by p@cific@812 at [This Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=125640) So fess it up. Where did your username come from? What does it mean? What’s the story? Mine? _Seven_ is my real first name. I know. I’m not very creative. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/2 "2002-07-16T10:36:13Z")
**Mangetout** is French for ‘eat all’ and alludes to my tireless quest to eat the entire world (well, to sample all of the wares therein anyway). Of course it’s also the name given to immature pea pods (because with these you eat the whole thing), so I sometimes get called ‘snowpea’ (an alternative name for said vegetable) but I find that a bit too twee a handle for someone as large and hairy as myself. And it has been mistakenly read as **Man Get Out** ; the first time this happened(in a chat room), I thought the other person was simply being rude - it took quite some minutes of patient explanation to overcome my sulking). ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/3 "2002-07-16T10:42:00Z")
\*\* [imthjckaz](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=634463#post634463) \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/4 "2002-07-16T10:49:21Z")
‘Seven’ is your real first name? Neat-o! I’m naming my child ‘Pi’. Long story behind my name. Y’see, I’m a conlanger. Some people create model airplanes for fun; I create model languages, and the whole culture/history thing to back them up. I’m a very lazy partaker of this particular hobby - I’ve been working on the same project in various stages for the past year, but I’ve come up with at least a few lexical items. _Lodrain_ means something like ‘kid’, specifically a child before puberty of either gender (maybe ‘lad/lass’ would be a better gloss). Simple and to the point. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/5 "2002-07-16T11:01:40Z")
Mine comes from the job I had when I joined the SDMB: undersea (sub-) fiber optics (-light). ---
**Author:** ![DarkJudicator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@DarkJudicator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkJudicator)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/6 "2002-07-16T11:15:16Z")
StarCraft [battle.net](http://battle.net) geekiness. Judicator - the top tier of Protoss leadership. A few of the Protoss units have dark variants, thus the DarkJudicator nick was born. It beats the hell out of the million “UnderMind” nicks on there… ---
**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/7 "2002-07-16T11:50:31Z")
Squish is different from the username I use on all my mailing lists and most other 'net stuff. I’m a fan of the TV show LEXX; there are creatures called cluster lizards who are huge and nasty and eat people. In one show, a character found an orphaned baby lizard and kept it for a pet, naming it Squish. It’s such a darned cute little thing that I took that as a user name. Not that I’m either cute or little, you understand. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/8 "2002-07-16T12:06:04Z")
**Lodrain** wrote: [quote] I’m naming my child ‘Pi’./quote] C’mon! How’s the hell he gonna put: 1. 1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952 0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151 5574857242 4541506959 5082953311 6861727855 8890750983 8175463746 4939319255 0604009277 0167113900 9848824012 8583616035 6370766010 4710181942 9555961989 4676783744 9448255379 7747268471 0404753464 6208046684 2590694912 9331367702 8989152104 7521620569 6602405803 8150193511 2533824300 3558764024 7496473263 9141992726 0426992279 6782354781 6360093417 2164121992 4586315030 2861829745 5570674983 8505494588 5869269956 9092721079 7509302955 3211653449 8720275596 0236480665 4991198818 3479775356 6369807426 5425278625 5181841757 4672890977 7727938000 8164706001 6145249192 1732172147 7235014144 1973568548 1613611573 5255213347 5741849468 4385233239 0739414333 4547762416 8625189835 6948556209 9219222184 2725502542 5688767179 0494601653 4668049886 2723279178 6085784383 8279679766 8145410095 3883786360 9506800642 2512520511 7392984896 0841284886 2694560424 1965285022 2106611863 0674427862 2039194945 0471237137 8696095636 4371917287 4677646575 7396241389 0865832645 9958133904 7802759009 9465764078 9512694683 9835259570 9825822620 5224894077 2671947826 8482601476 9909026401 3639443745 5305068203 4962524517 4939965143 1429809190 6592509372 2169646151 5709858387 4105978859 5977297549 8930161753 9284681382 6868386894 2774155991 8559252459 5395943104 9972524680 8459872736 4469584865 3836736222 6260991246 0805124388 4390451244 1365497627 8079771569 1435997700 1296160894 4169486855 5848406353 4220722258 2848864815 8456028506 0168427394 5226746767 8895252138 5225499546 6672782398 6456596116 3548862305 7745649803 5593634568 1743241125 1507606947 9451096596 0940252288 7971089314 5669136867 2287489405 6010150330 8617928680 9208747609 1782493858 9009714909 6759852613 6554978189 3129784821 6829989487 2265880485 7564014270 4775551323 7964145152 3746234364 5428584447 9526586782 1051141354 7357395231 1342716610 2135969536 2314429524 8493718711 0145765403 5902799344 0374200731 0578539062 1983874478 0847848968 3321445713 8687519435 0643021845 3191048481 0053706146 8067491927 8191197939 9520614196 6342875444 0643745123 7181921799 9839101591 9561814675 1426912397 4894090718 6494231961 5679452080 9514655022 5231603881 9301420937 6213785595 6638937787 0830390697 9207734672 2182562599 6615014215 0306803844 7734549202 6054146659 2520149744 2850732518 6660021324 3408819071 0486331734 6496514539 0579626856 1005508106 6587969981 6357473638 4052571459 1028970641 4011097120 6280439039 7595156771 5770042033 7869936007 2305587631 7635942187 3125147120 5329281918 2618612586 7321579198 4148488291 6447060957 5270695722 0917567116 7229109816 9091528017 3506712748 5832228718 3520935396 5725121083 5791513698 8209144421 0067510334 6711031412 6711136990 8658516398 3150197016 5151168517 1437657618 3515565088 4909989859 9823873455 2833163550 7647918535 8932261854 8963213293 3089857064 2046752590 7091548141 6549859461 6371802709 8199430992 4488957571 2828905923 2332609729 9712084433 5732654893 8239119325 9746366730 5836041428 1388303203 8249037589 8524374417 0291327656 1809377344 4030707469 2112019130 2033038019 7621101100 4492932151 6084244485 9637669838 9522868478 3123552658 2131449576 8572624334 4189303968 6426243410 7732269780 2807318915 4411010446 8232527162 0105265227 2111660396 6655730925 4711055785 3763466820 6531098965 2691862056 4769312570 5863566201 8558100729 3606598764 8611791045 … on the DMV form?! ---
**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:** [July 16, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/9 "2002-07-16T12:30:11Z")
…So people will call the kid “4” for short. Heck, isn’t there a kid in “Peanuts” named “Five”? screech-owl - I was bitten by one. Nasty bite for a little bird. ---
**Author:** ![dragongirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@dragongirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragongirl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/10 "2002-07-16T13:25:12Z")
I was reading a book called Dragon when I discovered message boards, the other names I wanted to use were already taken and since I’m not very creative, this was the best I could come up with. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_alien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Go\_alien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_alien)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/11 "2002-07-16T13:31:22Z")
My name is an anagram of my real name. As are - A Legion, Lion Age, Nile Goa, Nail Ego and loads of others. ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/12 "2002-07-16T13:36:39Z")
Mine’s not too creative, either. Hamish is my real name, the one I use in daily life. My mother was _very_ proud of her Scottish heritage, which is how I wound up with so Scottish a name. I used to be embarassed about it, and anglicized it to James, but I don’t do that anymore. My older friends still call me James, though. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/13 "2002-07-16T13:51:38Z")
For people drawn to this thread topic, here is some interesting reading for you. There have been a number of threads dedicated to the topic of the meaning or origin of the Usernames selected by the Teeming Millions[sup]TM[/sup]… as follows… [Your Literary Straight Dope Handle](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=80663&pagenumber=1) [What does your Straight Dope nickname mean?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=49129) [What does your name mean?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85621) [Stupid User Names](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54201) [How did you chose your username?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=35192) [What’s the story behind your username?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=69008) There was another thread titled “What’s your username mean?”, but alas, this last link no longer points to the that OP. The thread in question was lost in the Winter Of Our Missed Content, and now points to a thread about phenobarbital. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/14 "2002-07-16T14:07:30Z")
Thanks, **Algernon**! It seems a thread of this sort pops up what, every six months or so? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/15 "2002-07-16T14:13:28Z")
Having been a huge fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber for decades (since the beginning of Jesus Christ Superstar), and having “Anne” in my name, and my B-day being December 25th, when his show “Whistle Down the Wind” included a song called “Annie Christmas,” how could I NOT appropriate it? ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/16 "2002-07-16T14:22:09Z")
I’ll play along again…Trouble is my cat’s name, and it seems to fit us both very well. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/17 "2002-07-16T14:24:13Z")
**Ruffian** , as you’ve noticed too, these threads appear regularly. I doubt if I have all of them, but I started collecting these threads because I found them interesting. Including the lost thread and this thread, the OP dates for the Username threads are… July 2002 March 2002 September 2001 August 2001 April 2001 January 2001 December 2000 August 2000 Eight threads in 23 months, for a Mean-Time-Between-Username-Links of 2.875 months. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/18 "2002-07-16T14:35:17Z")
From Robin McKinley’s _Deerskin_- it’s the main character’s name. I believe I’ve explained this before. Apparently it’s a good one- people remember it because of the alliteration… so that’s good if what I say sounds smart, and bad if I sound stupid. Oh, well. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/19 "2002-07-16T14:39:03Z")
And for your further entertainment pleasure, here is the [The Doper Name Game](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=97076) thread where a multi-page effort is made to categorize usernames. ---
**Author:** ![TelcontarStorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ab097/32.png) [@TelcontarStorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TelcontarStorm)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211/20 "2002-07-16T14:39:03Z")
**Telcontar** should be fairly obvious to Tolkien geeks. When Aragorn becomes King at Minas Tirith he announces it as his house name. Westerese for “Strider” **Storm** on the other hand is a nod to Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. I Have never ever been a blue calm sea. I have always been a storm. I use this name everywhere on the net. So if you see it, you can pretty much rest assure that it is me. 😃 Which may or may not be a good thing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whats-the-deal-with-your-name-thread/119211.md?page=2)