# What is the origin of your SDMB screen name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 2, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131 "2024-08-02T02:17:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/141 "2024-08-03T06:39:54Z")
I have been ‘accused’ of being roadkill, and asked if there was a connection with some obscure film that I now can’t remember (I think that was @Johnny_L.A who pointed that one out), but the simple fact is that I signed up here because I was curious, and we all know what that does to cats. A while back a smarter person than me (which is most of you) suggested I put that as a custom title, to try and avoid giving the impression I wish harm on animals. I still tend to avoid posting in pet threads, though. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/142 "2024-08-03T07:05:54Z")
The —dar thing is from my actual initials (dar) and what I misremembered from Dan Aykroyd’s character on SNL (Beldar, wasn’t it?) or ZEL— So it’s just a made-up name all around. There was a Zelda Fitzgerald from Alabama which is where I used to grow up, so there’s that “connection” too. ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/143 "2024-08-03T11:09:26Z")
I’m an ornithologist who studied corvids and _brachyrhynchos_ is the species name for American Crow. My avatar is one I caught, giving me the stinkeye. You can call me brachy. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/144 "2024-08-03T12:59:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’ve seen and used mapcases and they’re kind of cool in concept, although just storing a bunch of maps on top of one another without any easy way of identifying what the fifth map is makes my skin crawl. That’s the cartographers fault. Should have a proper title, easy to find. Lower right corner. We got rid of all of our flat files. The wooden ones where pretty cool though. The steel ones sucked big time. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The only map person I know of is @JKellyMap. Unless you mean in person, you know me too. Though I mostly work in data now. Don’t make maps. I manage the data that makes them. 35 years in GIS. Before that it was pen and ink, pencil, and paint brush. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/145 "2024-08-03T13:31:49Z")
When I went to University, it so happened that I shared the same uncommon Scottish last name with the President of the school who had the nickname Sparky. During Frosh week, it was presumed that I was his son so everyone started calling me “Sparky Junior” After a year or two, the president changed but the name stuck and it shortened to Sparky. The 812 comes from necessity so I added the old OU812 (oh you are one too?) joke which was Cheech’s license plate in Next Movie as well as a Van Halen album title. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/146 "2024-08-03T14:20:30Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > asked if there was a connection with some obscure film that I now can’t remember (I think that was @Johnny_L.A who pointed that one out), ‘Obscure’? Nay! It was _A Bucket Of Blood_ by the late, great, Roger Corman and starring Dick Miller! Here’s Walter’s ‘sculpture’, _Dead Cat_. [![](https://filmcapsule.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/61727-004-91538712.jpg) ](https://filmcapsule.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/61727-004-91538712.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/147 "2024-08-03T15:32:00Z")
Returning from a lucrative overseas job back in the early 80’s I bought a very small house on a very small lot in a very small town directly across the bay from the Golden Gate bridge, where a finger of fog would linger long after adjacent communities were dancing in the sunshine. My wag housemate brother and I called the place “Sunny Acres” and I’ve been sunacres ever since. It was confused a bit when I went to work for Sun Microsystems a few years later, but the name weathered that storm intact. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/148 "2024-08-03T16:33:35Z")
“Homie” is a diminutive of my last name, and also a colloquialism for “friend.” I’m hella friendly, and my name is already there, so back in college my dorm-mates started calling me “Homie” or sometimes “RastaHomie” (I sometimes wore a tam o shantern with the colors of the Pan African flag, for the lulz). When Al Gore invented the Internet I used RastaHomie, for pretty much everything, including my SDMB handle. After a few years, I figured the Rasta- portion was misleading (I’m agnostic, not Rastafarian) so I chose HeyHomie instead. The Hey- portion honors my brother (same mom, different dad, so different last names). Often when he greets me, he’ll go into the voice of Barney from _The Simpsons_ and say “Hey Homie,” and I rather like it. So I figured I’d change it to that. ---
**Author:** ![deltogre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deltogre/32/5041_2.png) [@deltogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltogre)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/149 "2024-08-03T16:42:36Z")
I am a member of Delta Tau Delta, and I am rather large in stature. (6’5", mumble mumble pounds…) Folks have called me Ogre for a long time. It amuses me when someone calls me “Del,” as if my last name were “Togre.” I seldom correct them. Once upon a time, I used the pen name “Vance Moravian,” but I no longer produce written online content as a vocation. My avatar is Zap Rowsdower. That’s a stupid name, but he saved us, and saved all the world… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/150 "2024-08-03T18:05:15Z")
Sorry, I meant “map” by user name. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/151 "2024-08-03T20:09:24Z")
One of my favorite books as a kid was “Ball Four” by former MLB pitcher Jim Bouton. It was the first ‘tell-all’ sports book. For revealing all the players’ philandering and boozing, Bouton became the most hated man in baseball. One day while Bouton was warming up on the mound in Cincinnati, Pete Rose registered his disapproval of Bouton’s literary effort: “\*\*\*\* YOU, SHAKESPEARE!” ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/152 "2024-08-03T20:29:48Z")
Eight Bobs in high school algebra class. Didn’t much like the teacher’s cute notion of assigning us variable names BobA, BobB, BobC so I moved my last initial to the front, and have used it as a single name for over fifty years. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2024, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/153 "2024-08-03T20:44:51Z")
Mine is from a Doonesbury character with the rationale lost aeons ago, but I have a proud tradition to uphold. It’s also [code](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-name/919810/90) for @snfaulkner , which is also a lingering tradition. I am not nearly as good looking as @TriPolar though, who by handle looks like me, but IRL he rivals Schwarzenegger in both body build, wit, and wealth. Tripler Some traditions should be acknowledged . . . but ultimately _let go_. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/154 "2024-08-04T01:25:44Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > One of my favorite books as a kid was “Ball Four” by former MLB pitcher Jim Bouton. I somehow got hold of the book and loved it. I was 11 and thought maybe I shouldn’t be reading it. I had just finished reading The Exorcist (a neighbor had dropped it off for my mom) and I similarly thought it was above my age range. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/155 "2024-08-04T07:38:33Z")
From an earlier thread: > [@What is the origin of your SDMB name?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-name/919810/163): > > Harlan Ellison used “rowrbazzle” in his book about “The City at the Edge of Forever”. But ISTR I read the word in something else he wrote before I read that book. Here’s the quote from the book: “There was actual rowrbazzle size money to be made from this kind of thing.” (An article for TV Guide about the episode.) But the way I remember it originally is the same meaning: an amount of something that was happily much larger than expected. And it sounded funny! I added the extra “r” because some… ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/156 "2024-08-04T13:12:33Z")
Every time I see your user name I think of the financial term: > **[Dead cat bounce](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_bounce)** > > In finance, a dead cat bounce is a small, brief recovery in the price of a declining stock. Derived from the idea that "even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height", the phrase is also popularly applied to any case where a subject experiences a brief resurgence during or following a severe decline. This may also be known as a "sucker rally". > The earliest citation of the phrase in the news media dates to December 1985 when the Singaporean and Malaysian stock markets bounced back ... Which is actually due to a book I read: > **[Amazon.com: The Dead Cat Bounce: A Home Repair is Homicide Mystery:...](https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Cat-Bounce-Homicide-Mystery/dp/055357857X)** > > Amazon.com: The Dead Cat Bounce: A Home Repair is Homicide Mystery: 9780553578577: Graves, Sarah: Books My own user name? See here: > [@What is the origin of your SDMB name?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-name/919810/248): > > During Christmas break (December 2004 - January 2005), I finally decided to sign up with snopes and had some discussions with my husband, who also signed up with snopes. We had already been living in the German-speaking part of Switzerland for a number of years. He, being an electrical engineer, took some electrical name with the masculine definitive article in German, Der. As I am female, I decided to use the female definitive article, Die (pronounced dee, not die). And the electrical name s… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/157 "2024-08-04T13:27:30Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > My own user name? See here: Cool! I always wondered, and was surprisingly close with my guess. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/158 "2024-08-04T13:42:31Z")
One of my favorite Star Trek TOS episodes. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/159 "2024-08-04T13:49:36Z")
My old Army unit. Regimental Support Aviation Troop, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131/160 "2024-08-04T19:50:48Z")
A guy I played with on a company softball team back in the late 80s, around the time “Field of Dreams” came out, used to call me Shoeless. Definitely _not_ because of my outfielding skills! When I first signed up for a Yahoo! email account, I used a slightly different spelling as my user name. That was my primary email address for many years. Then when I registered here, I had to enter my email address and come up with a user name, and I couldn’t really think of anything clever on the spot, so I went with Shoeless. As for my avatar, when they first allowed avatars here I tried to find a picture of Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson, but they were all kind of dark and hard to tell who it was. Then I thought as a joke I should use a photo of the _other_ Joe Jackson, the musician. Then I remembered the “Look Sharp!” album cover, with the shoes, and it just made some weird sort of sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-your-sdmb-screen-name/1005131.md?page=9)