# Your user names! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 14, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829 "2009-10-14T20:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/1 "2009-10-14T20:27:37Z")
How’d you come to pick the user name you’re using and what does it mean? For mine, Yog Sothoth is a creature from the writing’s of HP Lovecraft, who created a more famous thing called Cthulhu. I spell it the way I spell it because my tongue doesn’t like to pronounce “thoth”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/2 "2009-10-14T20:29:41Z")
I used to go by Sir Blah, but Not anymore. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/3 "2009-10-14T20:36:18Z")
I’ve explained this in similar threads before. I knew my hubby was a geek before I married him, but I am not, and have never been, a geek. Because he _was_ one, though, we had the internet before just about any of my family/acquaintances even knew what the internet _was_! ("The internet?!?! What do you want _that_ for?!?) Somehow, explaining that it allowed me to ‘look up’ Ebert’s movie reviews didn’t carry a lot of weight. . . Anyhow. . .back in the day (as we old folk say), when you got the internet, and hence an ISP, you got an email addy to go along with it. My email addy was my first name plus my last initial, but all lower-case: norinew. So that’s what I had. So I used that as my username everywhere I joined. Just so happens the SDMB was the first message board I ever joined. It never occurred to me that people would read the name as “nori-new” until people started referring to me as “nori”. At that point I thought "Hey, they think I’m nori-new, _not_ norine w. Hmmm. Well, I _could_ change it. But to what? Nothing sprang to mind. By now, it’s gotten to a point where I think of _myself_ as “nori-new”. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/4 "2009-10-14T20:37:21Z")
I was feeling lazy when I picked my screen name. I went to my bookshelf and picked a random book off of it. Emile Khadaji is the main character in _The Man Who Never Missed_. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/5 "2009-10-14T20:37:26Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > I used to go by Sir Blah, but Not anymore. You haven’t been ‘blah’ since that sheep incident. . .😛 Hey, someone had to do it. I figured I’d be first. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/6 "2009-10-14T20:38:24Z")
Mine is pretty self-explanatory, and for that matter, self-evident. No one who _isn’t_ a dork would go by such a dorky pun. That said, I’ve never gotten all the way through Heart of Darkness, despite having had it assigned in about three different classes. What I did read, I hated. Also, please note: I am not to be confused with **Left Hand of Dorkness**. Same pun, far superior book. Damn it. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/7 "2009-10-14T21:03:52Z")
Play a normal major chord on the piano (CEG). Now flat the third (E-flat). Now add the 7 (B-flat). Now flat the 5 (G-flat) That gives you C minor 7 flat 5. It shows up in jazz a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/8 "2009-10-14T21:05:07Z")
J. J. Sefton is the hero of Billy Wilder’s great but rarely seen movie, _Stalag 17_. After I saw it, I became a huge fan of Billy Wilder and William Holden. I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![Rugose\_Partly\_Squamous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Rugose\_Partly\_Squamous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rugose_Partly_Squamous)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/9 "2009-10-14T21:06:02Z")
Much like the OP I chose mine influenced by HP Lovecraft. My username is a quote from Through the Gates of the Silver Key and describes the Nug-Soth, specifically the wizard Zkauba as seen by Carter. It is also a reference to the “Laundry” series of novels by Charlie Stross. Finally, it gives me the chance to use some truly obscure words. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/10 "2009-10-14T21:07:20Z")
My first name plus my country of origin. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/11 "2009-10-14T21:11:38Z")
I was a graphic designer by profession when I first signed up here. I used this handle on other boards at the time, but those were mostly to do with my profession. But, now I’m more of a CG modeler and animator, so the [cmyk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cmyk) thing is sort of outdated. I still like it. How’s it pronounced? “See Em Why Kay.” What does it mean? ■■■■ ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/12 "2009-10-14T21:16:39Z")
A song by Queen. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/13 "2009-10-14T21:19:36Z")
Josef Švejk is the main character in one of my favorite novels, _[The Good Soldier Švejk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk)_ (Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války), by Czech author Jaroslav Hašek. He’s also a Czech national hero, fictitious though he may be; the combination of deviousness and apparent stupidity that he uses in thwarting the system and the (foreign) oppressor is a major theme in Czech history as well as in Czech literature, and Švejk is seen by some as the epitome of Czechness. I’m not Czech but I love the country (having lived and worked there, if only briefly - but still I’ve travelled there extensively and I’ve been back there every year for the last 12 years), its history and its literature. Švejk is actually the first Czech novel that I ever finished reading front to back in Czech, and it also happens to just be mind-blowingly funny. I can just open it up and start reading and I’ll start laughing. I read a lot about Hašek, who led an exceedingly interesting life, and I also read a lot about the period of Czech history that he lived in, which just makes the novel (as well as his other writings) come to live. To me, my user name simply represents my proudest achievement: learning fluent Czech. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/14 "2009-10-14T21:19:42Z")
I have shared this in previous username origin threads, but it has been a while. My username is a nickname I have had since high school. It comes from the cult movie \*\*\*Eddie & the Cruisers \*\*\*- the actor Tom Berenger (who narrates the movie as well - it’s told from his perspective) played Eddie’s (Michael Pare’s) keyboardist and lyricist - in the movie, Eddie calls him the WordMan. Since I hung out with a friend who was a Big Man on Campus (kinda like Eddie) and I talk a LOT ;), after we walked out of the movie, my friend referred to me as WordMan… ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/15 "2009-10-14T21:22:40Z")
Mine came from a line in a song I wrote, and I thought would be a cool username - or at least, I thought so for the 15 seconds in between hitting the Submit button, and seeing “Welcome, Crown Prince of Irony!”. “Heh - that certainly looks pretentious. . .” In retrospect, it’s more than a bit pretentious - frankly, it makes me sound like some kind of hipster d-bag. But I’ve never bothered to change it, so I guess maybe I am - but I don’t wear girl-jeans or have floppy hair, so maybe I’m just a d-bag. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/16 "2009-10-14T21:22:59Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > It never occurred to me that people would read the name as “nori-new” until people started referring to me as “nori”. At that point I thought "Hey, they think I’m nori-new, _not_ norine w. And it never occurred to me to think of you as “norine w,” even though that makes sense, and I have no idea what a “nori new” is. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/17 "2009-10-14T21:24:13Z")
I have a red swingline on my desk. I added the ‘One’ because I thought it looked better. I didn’t realize until afterwards some people might think I meant RedSwingline(person). I don’t think most people would confuse me with [Milton](http://www.thejobbored.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/10221_office_space_stapler_with_milton1.jpg) other than the fact that I work in an office. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/18 "2009-10-14T21:24:49Z")
I had a dream that I wrote a children’s book and the main character was named Nars Glinley. I have no idea where my subconscious came up with that. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/19 "2009-10-14T21:26:42Z")
At the time, my dogs name was Alpine, I tried to use that as a login, but it was taken. It’s a bit odd. Another person on this board has the user name Alpine. We both have the same jobs and live in the same state. I just did a switcherwoo and now use enipla. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829/20 "2009-10-14T21:29:27Z")
My name is Jett, but a number of close friends have called me Jettboy for years. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-user-names/513829.md?page=2)