this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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This has probably been asked before but I wanted to add another layer/an alternative.

So, I ask, where did your username/pseudonym/nickname originate from? What's the meaning behind it?

Or alternatively, which is the most creative/interesting nickname origin you have come across?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The Old Man waiting for you at the end of time in Chrono Trigger is Gaspar, the Guru of Time. (At least in the US - in Japan he was called Hash)

I thought it was fitting since I ever so briefly ran my own instance (endofti.me) when I first jumped ship from Reddit.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

It sounds cute.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

I dunno, but people sure love calling me it all the time.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I liked Legos and I liked Pikachu at the time(I was 11 or so? Trying to make a Minecraft account lol)

I don't think I'll be able to use this name for anything commercial if I wanted to do that...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

Mine is a cheat code for Castlevania III on NES. Which is, I believe, the name of one of the developers of the game.

I like nicknames that are short and have no real meaning that just kind of sound like they could be a name.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

I studied abroad while the Two and a half Men season with Ashton Kutcher aired. A guy at a pizza place always wanted to chat but he barely spoke any English and somehow he really wanted to tell me that I look like Ashton Kutcher. Had similar length beard and hair at the time. A few days after that I signed up on Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

I used to be just "Cyborg" in IRC, forums and online games back in the late 90's because I found them cool. That was always my online nickname.

But it was already taken on Reddit when I joined so so many years ago. Cyborg is short for Cybernetic Organism. So I just used organism in the name instead. It was unique enough that no one else used it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I used to play GH3 on PS2 a lot and i played boss battles quite frequently

One time, in another game called Soldat, when a clan was recruiting they told me to change my old nickname since it was bizarre (i was 15 yo). I was looking for inspiration and quickly came up with Lou (final boss in GH3), added ` so i would be recognised easily while also not impersonating anyone unintentionally.

Few months passed by and i saw someone on some Soldat-related IRC channel chilling with my nickname and that person wasn't actually impersonating me (he/she used that nickname for much longer time than me since "Lou" is actually a first name which for me, as a native polish speaker, wasn't that obvious at the time) so that huge coincidence made me come up with an addition to my nickname - 2nd boss in GH3, famous guitarist - Slash. In the end i started using LouSlash`

As time passed by, in some places/websites/games i couldn't use ` so i drop it occasionally.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

When Counterstrike first came out a quarter century ago one friend had a PC and we would take turns playing it and wanted to compare stats on some 3rd party stat tracking site so we could talk shit on each other. Finding a unique name was a pain, but I got lucky with this one, which is probably based on something Jay from Clerks said.

I've been lucky that it isn't taken when signing up for stuff so I keep using it. A happy little accident.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Andrew t a

Andrew (teachers assistant)

Or depending on my mood

Andrew (total asshole)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Stole it from a user on a pirate bbs I was a member of in the early 90s, Digital Underground

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

I made an off hand joke about farts having accents once. It got some laughs and then I thought, "That would make a good username."

... aaand here we are today: You're welcome everybody!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

I wanted a short username since I'm not usually able to get one and the idea of it being something common and impossible to search was fun.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I literally have a slur for a diagnosis.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

My name is Helen. I hated that there were no good nicknames for it (ugh, Helly...) but I love my name. Mentioned this to a friend who was like "you could use other parts of the name for a nickname..." and suggested Lenny. As a woman on the internet, having a gender ambiguous username is very beneficial, so I adopted it, and I absolutely love it. I added extra ns because then it'd look like bad kerning Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

I first used this name during the "lulz xD so rAnDum" era, and I like to draw. So, RandomStickman

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I was playing some crappy F2P MMO (Perfect World, maybe?) and I made a warrior of some werewolf race. Just played with random wolf-related combinations and settled on this. Quit after two days and the username carried on for probably 15 years now.

I don't even really know all that much about Stalin. I just pulled it out of my ass.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

I’m chaotic and I like cookies, nothing more to it!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

My girlfriend calls me that regularly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

First shiny Pokemon I ever got. Basculin carried my team a lot, hence the name "CaptainBasculin".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I love airplanes and was excited to see a “modern” one where you could slide back the canopy just like in all those old WWII movies! It’s even ok to fly with it open (a little)!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_American_AA-5

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

it just means emoticon in french canadian

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Tally Hall (band) → callyral (pseudonym + username) → cally (nickname)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

My initials are BJB.

I was in jazz band in high school. We were doing a joint thing with the choir, so everyone was running around moving stuff to make space. My parents had bought me a nice music bag with my initials on a plate on the front of it. Someone held up my music bag asking who owned it. I figured they just wanted to let the owner know where it was being moved to, so I spoke up... "Hah, your initials are BJ!"

Hence, my name became blowjob. The completionists called me Blowjob Betty (I'm male) to get that last initial in, too. At the time, I was quite quiet and took myself maybe a little too seriously. This ended that.

One day, I was at my buddy's place, and he called me "Beege," saying he didn't want to say "Bee and Jay," as it was too long. At that point, I said fuck it. My name is Beege. Let's go.

Over time, my friends added an article because why the fuck not.

Over 20 years later, and it's still my name. It actually taught me to not take myself so seriously. Although, one interviewer at a job had a really hard time keeping it together when HR told her my nickname without catching the meaning. She and I are good friends now.

In any case, I always get a slight chuckle inside when people hesitate slightly after introducing myself. I'm great at keeping a deadpan face about it now, too

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

It’s a reference to a more obscure Marx Brother, as in the 30s-40s comedy group. Does not have any special significance to me personally.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Tenno, wake up. It's time to put on the silly norg fish mask from cetus and make it look good.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

It came from long list of mispronounced words from a Ukrainian girl that came to our country when the war started.

The list is gold mine for usernames, I have to contact my friend who dates her to get it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Title of a book by my favourite author Jonathan Carroll. Almost all of my various handles over my time online have been some variation of one of his book titles because they're so unique. I used one on Reddit and some Nazi started stalking me, and it turns out some lady on Twitter uses it as her handle there, so he kept messaging me and calling me Stephanie.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I zonk out really fast. Sometimes mid-sentence.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

As a bookish child, I made weekly trips to the library. To get to the kids section I had to pass the large print shelf, and there was one book that was always there: The Spitting Image. The gargoyle on the cover scared me! But when I finally looked him straight in the eye I found that he was trying to look furious, but came across as a little goofy. That's the way I imagine myself, too.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Glitch from the original Pokemon Red/Blue.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Someone submitted a web form with this name.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

School nickname

In Portuguese "zero hora" is the midnight shift, people started making jokes when I slept in class and the name got stuck.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

The way I drove and the papers I used for rolling joints back when I was a teenager

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

It means bare, naked, possession-less.

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