# Where'd you get your name?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 1, 2001, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775 "2001-02-01T22:20:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2001, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/1 "2001-02-01T22:20:29Z")
Not that my name’s genesis has a whole lot of interesting detail behind it.
**smoke:** Pretty much what it sounds like. I used to smoke cigarettes, but now I only do so while happily imbibing. Never fear, though- the name hasn’t lost ALL of its smoky signifigance (sp?). 😉
Let’s hear about yours!
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### Author:  [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2001, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/2 "2001-02-01T22:25:07Z")
Sorry for the ugly subject line. (I **DO** know vB, I **DO** know vB!!!)
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### Author:  [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2001, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/3 "2001-02-01T22:40:49Z")
Since I’m sure everyone’s **dying** to know, I’ll start in.
Scout - from To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s only coincidental that my recent Pit rant was about Girl Scout cookies (surprisingly no one pointed out that fact).
1222 - well, someone already took just plain Scout (now that I think about it, I could have chosen “Just Plain Scout”), so I added my birthday to it.
You may all now continue with your lives, having learned that highly pertinent fact. Proceed.
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### Author:  [@King\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Rat)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/4 "2001-02-01T22:47:57Z")
I’m re-reading “To Kill A Mockingbird” for one pf my classes I’d forgotten what a terrific page-turner it is.
I was watching the news one night and there was a story about soccerhooligans.
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### Author:  [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/5 "2001-02-01T22:49:35Z")
I bought my username for $75 from a guy who my friend’s cousin knows. He says he found it when it fell off the back of a truck.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2001, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/6 "2001-02-01T22:54:02Z")
My handle is:
1. A song by Shelly Fabres.
2. The name of a popular singer of love ballads from the fifties.
3. The name of a noir movie starring George Raft.
4. The name of a porn star.
5. The name of an obscure teen star.
Sometimes, I’ll visit a BBS where this handle is taken. Instead of making myself Johnny Angel47, or something, I just use the handle Frankie Machine, which is the nickname of a character in Nelson Algren’s _The Man with the Golden Arm_. Most people who recognize the name recognize it from the movie based on this novel, starring Frank Sinatra. As Algren said of the movie when someone asked if he’d seen it, “Why should I? It’s got nothing to do with me.” Now there is a teeny-bopper boys group called Frankie Machine. This group is also named after the movie, not the book, and if they ever become popular, parents may want to know why their teenagers are listening to a band named after a fictional horse junkie.
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### Author:  [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/7 "2001-02-02T00:01:17Z")
punha is what I called my Paddington bear. For whatever reason, punha has been my main online SN for a while. when I got my new email account, punha was taken, so I used iampunha (I am punha). Ergo, iampunha for the sdmb.
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### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/8 "2001-02-02T00:07:52Z")
Lots of animals have the scientific name hibernicus (it means Irish, which I am). Lepidus timidus hibernicus is the Irish hare, and megaloceros hibernicus is the extinct Great Irish Elk.
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### Author:  [@TruePisces](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruePisces)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/9 "2001-02-02T00:09:13Z")
Well, I didn’t want to use my usual handle for everywhere else, because it was relatively blah, and I was trying to think of something that fit me REALLY well… I had just been working on some horoscopes (I go through phases with astrology), so my sign was on my mind a lot. And, everything I’ve ever read about Pisces fits me to a T, so I am a…
(Ta-da)
**TRUE PISCES**
(Now wasn’t that the most boring story you’ve ever heard? 😉 )
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### Author:  [@Upham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Upham)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/10 "2001-02-02T00:25:35Z")
I was born with it. (YES! More boring then **True** ’s!)
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### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/11 "2001-02-02T00:43:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by smoke \*
> \*\*Sorry for the ugly subject line. (I **DO** know vB, I **DO** know vB!!!) \*\*
Fixed it for you.
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/12 "2001-02-02T00:53:19Z")
While watching me me arrange the books on my book shelf in my dorm according to height (so as to produce a gentle sloping effect with the tops of the books) and other bizarre things, my girlfriend called me neurotic, and when I was coming up with a SN for AIM, she suggested this. The “k” is just for style 😃
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### Author:  [@Davidbw1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Davidbw1)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/13 "2001-02-02T00:54:45Z")
Well, you see…back in 1984, my parents had this little kid (which they proceded to name David B. [Insert Last Name Begining With a “W” Here]
The rest is history (The one is there because DavidBW was taken on AOL, and once i had that, it’s easier to have everything the same
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### Author:  [@fenrir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fenrir)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/14 "2001-02-02T01:15:18Z")
I got my name from norse mythology.Something i’ve always read liked reading about .
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### Author:  [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/15 "2001-02-02T02:11:09Z")
Mine came from Chopin…the composer, not the author.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/16 "2001-02-02T02:37:04Z")
My dead cat. I’m not sure he was dead yet when I was signing on.
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### Author:  [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/17 "2001-02-02T02:50:49Z")
Mine came from a signature I made (and still have, which is obvious). I already thought zamboni was a funny sounding word and I went farther thinking funny things. (To quote Dudly Moore in “Arthur” “Sometimes I just think funny things.” No I’m not an alcoholic.) One day it just popped into my head. (Don’t try to analyze me. It’s hopeless.) I thought “the great zamboni” sounded like a stupid magician. I decided to make it a signature (see below) when I was J. Noble. Then I decided I wanted to change my user name. Voila! The Great Zamboni was created!
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### Author:  [@Jeffro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeffro)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/18 "2001-02-02T03:37:41Z")
My first name is Jeff but my friends call me Jeffro, you can too.
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### Author:  [@Amazing\_Tiki\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazing_Tiki_God)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/19 "2001-02-02T03:52:34Z")
You remember the _old_ episodes of MTV Beach house or something like that crap. Anyways there was this guy that jumped around and had this big Tiki mask on saying I am the Mighty Tiki God! He was pretty lame so I figure why not take the name and put it to good use? I mean hell I am so much cooler than anything from MTV 😃
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### Author:  [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2001, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whered-you-get-your-name/52775/20 "2001-02-02T04:13:17Z")
nothing terribly exciting here – my hockey coach couldnt get out my name, so he called me kinoons for short – the nickname stuck.
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