How did you get your handle?

[Drack]

I just made it up, and Drack stuck far better than my earlier online names. It's not taken from anything, but is often already used when I try to sign up in places. Other Dracks probably derived it from Dracula or something. It's a common enough name that googling will get you nowhere (Some documentation I wrote on setting up a gamecube development environment is on the second google page, everything else pretty much is other Dracks).

[Airwalker]

My very first AIM screen name was jiglypuf77. Not only did I misspell a Pokemon's name, but I used a Pokemon's name in my screen name.

I kept using it because I was too lazy, then in middle school a friend kept pestering me to switch my name. His AIM user name was SkyRunner2000, so as a joke, I made my name AirWalkerY2K. The name stuck.

(I never heard of Airwalk shoes before I made my screen name. I can't and don't skate. But I did buy a pair about a year ago. Good shoes.)

[eternal Zero]

I was always Zero when I called myself something in a game. Then for some reason I got really interested in the words eternity, eternal, etc. Been this way ever since. I branch out every now and again. I've gone by antigrav (before Zircon's album), seiryu, seiryuZERO, and Taikato. For those that don't know, Seiru = Azure Dragon of the East. I was born in the year of the blue dragon according to the Chinese zodiac, so yeah.

[OutSpoken]

I read a lot more then I talk, it's a fairly new screen name. I also used the screen name Met a lot, because of Metroid which was the video game that kind of started it all for me.

[Darth Lime]

I looked on my desk and there was a can of Pepsi w/ Lime and there was a Darth Maul LEGO figure next to it.

Darth Lime.

Easy as that.

[vindkast]

Three years ago I robbed and killed a man. This username was in a cookie on his computer, so I've been posting as him ever since.

[Walrii]

1 Odobenus rosmarus = a Walrus

many Odobenus rosmaruses = Walrii

[The Tiger]

I like tigers.

[Gollgagh]

I was originally planning to go through a set of screen names based around the elements in Final Fantasy VII.

I got through fire and ice with Archaeapyric and Hierpagos, respectively.

Tendriel Gollagagh means forked lightning, however upon shortening it, I misspelt Gollagagh and didn't notice for several months. By the time I did notice I just said "Fuck It™" and left it as it is.

also people kept complaining that I needed to stick with one screen name so I stopped here

[Scufo]

Sometimes people call me cynical. I'm not really, but sometimes I just feel like being a prick.

I don't use this name anymore, though. I'm mostly using Scufo (a horrible typo of scifi; missed the i on both sides). Occasionally I'll also go by Universal Solvent because I'm a goddamn nerd. I'm still trying to think of something good to stick to.

[i heart robots]

Hey wassup ya'll!

I'm relevant to topic, can you tell?

[CC Ricers]

My name's Christian but I prefer to be called Chris. Simple.

My other handle, CC Ricers, has a more interesting story. My initials are CC, and in 5th grade a girl used to call me CC Ricers. That was a Keebler snack that used to be made way back then. A lot of people think I'm a major gearhead because of this name.

[ILLiterate]

For the old name EazyP, I was at a lan party and I had no name, I was kicking ass in CS and some spazz started saying I was EazyP and it was funny, so I used it

For this name, I was sitting around thinking up rap names. I always say that I can't read, so I thought ILLiterate

[DrumUltimA]

I get the Jam from my first name. When I was much younger, I wanted people to call me that because I thought it was so cool. A few years ago my brother started calling me Jam again, and he threw Stunna on one day. I've used that ever since.

My old tag used to be Rags, and that comes from my last name.

you live so close to me and i have yet to meet you...

anyway DrumUltimA has been my handle since like, 4th or 5th grade. Basically, my dad got AOL and I wanted my OWN screen name. I was putting together things I liked. Drum was because I had just started playing drums in band and I was really identifying with that, and UltimA has NOTHING to do with the game Ultima online or the word Ultimate. It's because at the time one of my favorite games (which I didn't own, but my friend did) was Final Fantasy 6--and I thought the attack UltimA was TOTALLY badass. So after making a list of a bunch of potential names (thank god I didn't pick anything banjo-kazooie related, which was in the running), i picked "DrumUltima"

why the capital A? at the time the internet was relatively new and i wanted my screen name to look cool. So I figured i'd make my screen name look cool by capitalizing the A, making my screen name more symmetrical. DrumUltimA has stuck ever since, and I've never been disappointed with it. In fact, I'd say it's a good representation of the things I like in one name

I miss the good ol days, right after making this screen name, in AOL. Any one else here ever go on the AOL message board "pokemon obsession" by any chance? "D

[entropicdecay]

Mine started off as L_i_z_z.

Then I realized how retarded the underscores were, so I dropped them.

It didn't end there. Soon I bounced around names for a while (when we could change them on a whim). I was Citizen #(some big string of numbers), Miss Cyberpunk 2005/2006 (made a sig to go with it), Evil Incarnate (Sweet Home/Resident Evil 4 sig to go with it), Giygas Reloaded (yet another sig to go with that), Lizzodore Slowslop (character from an obscure but beautiful interactive movie called Gadget: Past as Future/Invention, Travel, and Adventre I played - I got to correspond with the composer who happens to be a really nice guy!), Still-Sore Suzie (on the anniversaries of techTV's demise)

So, how did I get these names? Combinations of games I like, a genre I adore, and something I still protest.

For kicks, I found my first-ever sig I used on OCR.

[Steben]

I've used Steben since sixth grade, so for ten years now. I used to have an image which explains it... but I don't think it's on this computer and I'm too lazy to make a new one.

Suffice it to say, if you take a Diploma-looking font, and spell out "Steven", you get "Steben". Since sixth-graders are inherently clever creatures, someone read my name as Steben from the A-Honor Roll list and used it as an insult. Eventually, it just became a running joke, so I used it as my screen name when I got my own AOL account back in the day.

By the way, how would you guys pronounce my name at first glance? If anyone ever asked me (they haven't), I'd say you pronounce it like my real name, Steven. (Because I always thought being referred to by your handle IRL sounds silly.) But most of the time I'll settle for Stee-bin. Steh-bin pisses me off, but more people pronounce it that way than I'd expect.

Alternate versions of my name are StebenCC and StebenXC. StebenCC comes from my full name, Steven Craig Clontz, Jr. And StebenXC comes from what I want to change my full name to, Steven Xcraig Clontz. The X is silent. (There's a story there, but I'll refrain for now.) I've also been known to go by SXC on occasion as well. But my favorite is just plain old Steben, which is why I'm glad I secured Steben.net before someone else took it.

[Soma]

I use soma because it's the name of a Strokes song and they are my favorite band. A lot of people think it's from Castlevania, or I'm like a huge dope addict (soma is also a drug) . Also some people think it's from soma apparel which apparently makes bras and lingerie and stuff.

I use Tragick on most other forums and videogames if Soma is taken. Used to be tragicked. The idea came from final fantasy XI believe it or not. One of the items you need to collect at level 18 to get your sub job is called "magicked skull" and i came up with "tragicked" but later dropped the ed to avoid mispronunciations and to keep it simple for xbox live.

[Israfel]

I got my name from Gustav Davidson's excellent Dictionary of Angels - according to that book "Israfel" is the Islamic angel of music.

Also, I released a mix here under the name "Dead Lovers' Consort." That's a reference to the German band Sopor Aeternus' two part album "Dead Lovers' Sarabande"

[operawonderdude]

Like many here, I started using a similar handle when I was fairly young. My sisters said it needed

to be a clever one (this was for my hotmail account) so of course being nine years old,

I somehow thought "Operawonderboy" was in fact very clever. I've actually come to realize that opera is one of

my favorite music genres...but I'm still not sure why I thought making it a sort of lame

superhero name would be "clever". My sisters, being older alot than me, didn't enlighten me on the level

of lameness the name had...so of course I kept it. Anyways, in the ninth grade I needed to give myself an

upgrade from "boy" to "dude". And there ya go.

[Thylacine]

I was looking for a screen name for Ragnarok Online and I flipped through the dictionary, glancing at the pictures. My eyes caught this thing that looked like a cross between a wolf and a tiger. It was a thylacine, an extinct carnivorous marsupial. I went with it, and that character ended up becoming an acolyte and a persona I associate with "the right things to do."

Since then, I've learned bits and pieces about it. I could attach any number of meanings to it, but the truth is that it was divine intervention (or, for those who feel we're a little less structured in this universe, dumb luck).

[Kenobio]

The story behind my handle is pretty simple. A friend from Japan once told me that Toad (of Mario fame) in Japan is called "Kinopio," which I thought was pretty damn cool at the time. Unfortunately I also misheard him and thought he said "Kenobio," and by the time I found out my error I had already established myself as Kenobio. I almost always use this handle for any online game or forum and also for pokerroom.com and Fulltilt, so keep an eye out!

[Binjovi]

You can actually add a letter A to the middle of my name and come up with my handle. Typically though I use Binjovi or Binjovist for whatever games I play. It has nothing to do with Bon Jovi believe it or not, however the Bin is certainly a reference to my actual name (again).

[uthlu]

My first handle used to be Bladepoet...just cause I write poems every now and then and like swords. Still use it on occasion. I switched to Zephrus for a while, based off the Zephyr Cloak MtG card (I think). The fluidity and fleetingness it suggested appealed to me I guess.

Now I use either Uthlu or Calathus. Sometimes Argorak. Didn't get them from anywhere in particular, just made them up.

[Sgt. Fuzzy]

I've had so many usernames it's hard to keep track, because most of them were in a phase where my adolescence made me think friggin' everything was cool.

Uhm. My current one is from Halo PC, where a friend and I started up a clan called Clan Fuzzy, where everyone would have a name with the suffix Fuzzy. I was going for Generally Fuzzy or Extremely Fuzzy at first, but I eventually just picked plain old Sgt. Fuzzy, which everyone seemed to like. Clan Fuzzy has since been disbanded without much aplomb, but a few of my friends and I still keep our names.

I was also once MagnaRave, because there was this attack, Magna Rave, from Evolution Worlds. A crappy game in all respects, but the move was so obscenely powerful I was obsessed with it. Yeah.

Kesenai or KesenaiTsumi came from Fullmetal Alchemist, where in that context kesenai tsumi means unforgivable sin. I eventually just went with Kesenai, because without the suffix it means inerasable, which is pretty cool for a Counter-Strike name. Sucked at CS though. Still do.

Don't ask about Spirit Dragon, I was 10 and I made the name on a misguided whim. It sounded so awesome in theory, all right?

[BardicKnowledge]

This current handle comes from a D&D session where my group had absolutely no idea what to do next, and I asked the DM if I could just flirt with enough bargirls to get the information we needed. Someone asked why "Gather Information" wasn't under Knowledge (Bardic) instead, and we all laughed -- in addition to the obvious humor, I had just applied to be a double major in computer science and music, so it seemed to fit.

When that's taken (or sadly, when it's too long) I go as MasterTenor on sites where it wouldn't sound terribly presumptuous (online gaming, etc). I'm good, but certainly not good enough to warrant the "master" in music circles.

Originally I started as "Cyan86", a mix of Cyan Garamonde from FF6 and the mob term "86", as in to kill someone. It worked very well for all of my Diablo days (though I'm now MasterTenor on modern B.net).