My initials.
It was inspired by the White Wolf rpg Mage.
Essentially a military-industrial complex conspiracy of
mages is trying to wipe out magic, dreams, laughter, hot fudge etc. Various groups of good sorcerers fight back and lead the world into an age of wonders, boundless possibilities and deodorant that lasts past lunch. The Sons Of Ether are mad scientists with a special love of the “luminiferous ether” once thought to fill space. The sons combine scientific knowledge and understanding with a child like sense of joy and wonder.
I really identify with that. The more I learn about
the universe, the more wonderful a place it becomes. Right now, I’m working on a theremin and an LED heavy Halloween costume. Gawd, how I love LEDs!
Am I the only one giggling over Broomstick posting as to her handle?
Ginger
I am known as Stoid by all my closest friends, and have been since high school. It evolved from a friend toying with my real name, which is extremely unusual and old fashioned, and has an “S” in it, thusly:
___stoidian
Which was shortened to “Stoid” and stuck. I actually think of myself more as Stoid than as my real name.
stoid
How many times do you have to be told?
my love for spiders…thats all…no deep meaning…
I have no idea where mine came from. It was discounted at the Salvation Army store.
I’ve been using names with ‘blue’ in them for a long time - long enough that I don’t remember why. I have a standard blue-bearing name that I use in most places, but when I registered here I decided it was time for something new. I’m sure I don’t have to tell the assembled wit of this board what the first phrase that came to my mind was.
And, as a short hijack - my porn star name, done that way, would be Blackberry Center. Great. I go for porn, and end up with candy.
A Jimmy Buffet song;
Spider John is my name friend
I’m in between freights and I sure
would be obliged
If you’d share your company
In college I was real into Africa and African rhythms … Jomo is a name from East Africa, and means ‘Burning Spear’. Mojo is a word from West Africa, and refers to Magick. Late one night in my senior year (1980) I was real baked and wrote a bizarre science-fiction-fantasy short story, and for the byline suddenly the name “Jomo Mojo” flew down on a flaming pie! I got it published in my food co-op newsletter.
Coincidentally, Jomo uses the first two letters of my first name, and the first two letters of both my dad’s last name and my mom’s maiden name (they start with the same two letters). Mojo is the same flipped around. Neat, huh?
When I was seven until about twelve, I read the ‘Lone Wolf’ series of gamebooks by Joe Dever. I picked that as my handle when I started BBSing at a nice youthful twelve years of age, and that became ‘Lonewolf’ when I started mudding around 1991. About three years ago, someone asked me where it came from.
I explained that long ago, lost in the mists of time, there was a Celtic tribe who worshiped the mystical Olf. Every spring, the chieftain would go to the top of the highest hill and look for the Olf. He could never find it, though, and there were rumblings of discontent from the others, so he resolved to fake a sighting the next year. He arranged for a few other people to stitch together some furs and get inside them, and when he was on the top of the hill the next year, he had them run around in the distance. He pointed, and shouted … “Lo! New Olf!”
Which became abbreviated to LNO. 
From the books Ender’s Shadow and Shadow of the Hedgemon by Orson Scott Card. They both star the character “Bean”. Bean is my favorite character of the entire Ender’s Game series. There are going to be two more books in the Shadow series, the next being Shadow Puppets.
Hmm, suppose I have not been here long enough for people to really wonder, but I’d like to plug this.
It is a character from the brilliant book At Swim Two Birds. Writer is Flann O’Brien (which was his handle too, as it was not his real name).
Spelled it incorrectly out of a misplaced sense of originality.
Read the book. It’s great!
I was hoping to be more enigmatic about it–you know, at least stretch out the suspense until I’d made more than a dozen posts–but what the heck.
The book in question is John Crowley’s Little, Big, which is one of my fave books of ALL TIME. Excellent summer-evenings reading. Long and elliptical, lovely lovely prose. GrandfatherTrout was (or appeared to be) a fish.
It was first recommended to me in 1987 by Mrs. Barbara Abbott, a devoted teacher of high-school English and of Shakespeare especially. She had a superb SF lending library as well. She passed away last week. I will remember her fondly, and so will many many others.
I took my name from the elderly turtle wizard in Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger series.
It’s a combo of my first initial and the first 4 letters of my last name. I was inspired by the email address given to me by my university. They take your first initial and the first 5 letters of your last name. Having had to type that darned username so many times it just comes naturally, so I dropped the last letter (to give it a bit of symmetry) and was left with this.
I simply described my condition at the time of registration.
From the main character of Catch-22, Yossarian. My name is Ross, so I just changed it a little.
Sometimes I go by Nately, because I think I’m more of a Nately-type guy than a Yossarian, except I don’t have a whore who treats me like dirt. Taking applications. 
TYKLFE = Thank You Katie Lamothe For Everything
Katie was an ex-girlfriend, but I liked the name, so I kept it.
Mine is a misspelling of my aim screen name, Shotgun Haircut.
When i signed on with aim i was watching Crocidile dundee(two i think the one where he is in new york for a while then he and a women go hide out in the outback)
I was at the part when a guy with a shot gun trys to shoot Dundee through a door, somehow Dundee ends up with weapon and kills the thug, and at the same time i was in the middle of dying my hair red green and yellow, thus shotgun haircut is born