What's in a name?

[Jia]

Kali and I had a chat about our nicknames, and we thought it would be a fun idea to post a thread in the forums to hear the stories behind people's online names!

Why am I calling myself Jia?
Many years ago I created a character in the first Guild Wars standalone expansion "Factions". The game's setting was Asian, so I figured that I should pick a name that would blend in - and after some research on various Asian names, I went with a Chinese one: "Jia Huang Li".
Back then I joined an online community, but didn't think that I was going to stick around for too long. I used "Jia" as a forum nick for that community without putting too much thought into it; it was simply my most recent character's first name.
The community turned out to be a great place, and I became an active member there. The name stuck with me, and even though it's mainly a female name, nobody ever questioned calling me "Jia". By now I'm so used to it that I'd be completely stumped trying to come up with a new name!

What about you? What's the story behind your nickname?

 

[ToxicAsF]

Back in the days of Everquest, I was left with the most difficult decision ever. What do I name my character. I must have spent a good two hours before naming my Elvish character. Random name generators were my savior, but still took me a long time. I forget what exactly the gen came up with, but I ended up using a variation of the name using Gaeoin (pronounced Guy-oh-in). I used that name for quite a while, but it wasn't until my days of D&D that the flaw of my name was found. I wrote it down, and instantly someone went "HAHA YOU'RE GAY-OIN"..... /cry

So that is when I altered the spelling of my name to Gyoin. I have used this name for FFXI, EQOA, WoW, every internet persona I've ever created, and to this day continue to use it excessively. When I buy a new car, my license plate will be GYOIN. Caroline has agreed that we shall call our first pet together Gyoin. She did not agree with our first born to be named Gyoin.

I have used variations on one single named games, such as Guyoin, but the beauty of being the G-man is how, even after all the years of hazing being called Gayoin, Groin, Geeoin, Geeoyn, etc. I persevere and protect the wonderfulness that is Gyoin, and smite all who shall go against my pronunciation.

 

[Drac]

Mine started from playing a D&D Dragonlance MUD back when I was around ~12. There was a specific mob type, Draconians (who anyone remembers the books will know of) that exploded into acid (or other things) upon death in the game. I always thought that was awesome. When I started playing WoW later on, I initially thought you would get a last name like some other MMO's of the time. I decided I wanted play an irish undead rogue and was going to call him Drac O'nian. Never got to do the last name, but have always stuck with variations of Drac since then. (Unfortunately I missed out on just 'Drac' in GW2 as I derped around and made my char before reserving the name)

 

[TIG]

Wow was my first real jump into mmo's and I went through many names while trying to find a character and name I liked. I finally found that I was a big fan of druids, and managed to snag the name Raawr when I joined a 2 week old oceanic server. I love the name and snagged it in GW2 and its my account name in this game. That name lasted me from vanilla all the way to the litch king expansion where I rolled a death knight and named bhudda. I seem to go with either ironic or on the nose types of names.

When jumping into Gw2 I wasn't sure what I wanted as my identity so for the game account I snagged Raawr as my fallback, but then I sat down and spent some time trying to come up with an identity specifically for this game. About the time I found podcast 1 from alttabme.com I had finally found a fun name I could live with and started to put it on as much as I could. That name is the one you all know me by here on the forums "That 1 Guy". I thought it would be funny when people were talking about that one guy who was in chat the other day or something and I could be a smart ass and say that wasn't me! Unfortunately That 1 Guy is a mouthful when talking on mumble so I shortened it to Tig for a nickname. I didn't want just Tig on my character in game and I love the Firefly series so I went with browncoat as a last name for an homage to the series. I did manage to snag That One Guy as a name for my guardian so that I could pvp and others would see "That One Guy has killed so and so" in the messages.

 

[Waldemar]

My real name is Wout de Groot. De Groot means The Great or The Big/large. Wout is short for wouter, wich comes from walter. Walter comes from waldemar and that is where I got my name from Waldemar has different variants in other countries such as Vladimir ( Walt and Vlad are pretty simular too) and Voldemort. Funny thing is that Valdemar the Great (I) was king of Denmark from 1157 until his death in 1182. That's the history behind it !

Most people just call me wald.

 

[Miranda]

Soooo. Jia wanted me to post here.

My name isn't because of how often I burn myself believe it or not

I was joining a site, and my normal name was taken. So instead of being like xnamex or name2131241 I was like new name time! So I was googling a random name generator when I saw my sister had left the container of Roasted Peanuts on the computer table. Instead of being angry I was like, fuck yeah. I'm going to be Roasty! The people in the site I joined called me Roasty Toasty and RTP (bonus points if you can figure out what that means.).

<3

 

[MyLittlePony]

In the days of old (Everquest 1), I needed to name my new Iksar Shaman when the Ruins of Kunark expansion launched. I had been a regular reader of Applegeeks at the time (which sadly seems to have stopped updating). There was a character named "Naku" in the storyline, and I liked the name but not the spelling because it left the "a" sound open to interpretation. Thus, "Nahku" was born. It was the name of my Druid all through WoW as well, and pretty much any other game I play where I have a "nature/wilderness" type of character. No idea why I make that association, I just always have.

I also tend to use "Cawty" a lot (it's parked right now as my Thief), which is a deviation of "Cawti" who is an assassin from Steven Brust's novels (which again, I didn't like the spelling of, so I altered it a bit). My friend (Santos L Halper on the forums) and I tend to use a lot of Brust character names. Brust's novels are amazing, and I highly recommend them, start with the Book of Jhereg which contains the (arguably) first three books of the series. I actually have a spare copy if anyone wants it and would actually read it and pass it on.

I have a terrible time naming my characters, I can sit at the naming page in the character selection screen forever while creating alt.

 

[Waldemar]

Soooo. Jia wanted me to post here.

My name isn't because of how often I burn myself believe it or not

I was joining a site, and my normal name was taken. So instead of being like xnamex or name2131241 I was like new name time! So I was googling a random name generator when I saw my sister had left the container of Roasted Peanuts on the computer table. Instead of being angry I was like, fuck yeah. I'm going to be Roasty! The people in the site I joined called me Roasty Toasty and RTP (bonus points if you can figure out what that means.).

<3

Roasted Toasted Peanuts?

 

[ShewhoShallNotBeNamed]

I've generally used Kali in most games or a variation of Calypso, usually Kalypso. There's nothing really special I just always thought it was a very fantasy name and had a unique and interesting air to it.

My online handle for a lot of my online stuff (ie. steam) is usually kayabun, which is Kaya bun as in an asian pastry. Kaya is a type of coconut egg jam popular in Malaysia and Singapore and a bun is made out of dough. ^^

When naming most of my characters I usually like to use names of gemstones or a variation of a word/adjective that looks like a name but pronounced like the word/adjective. One of my characters is named Jelase, pronounced jealousy.

Another character is named Kalamethyst, my warrior.
Kali + amethyst (she is a sylvai with a purple glow) and pronounced similar to calamitous (causing or involving calamity), except you add in an -ist to the end instead of an -ous. Perfect for a warrior ^^

 

[Ultra CHEZ]

Since I was young my favorite food has always been cheese (my family is comprised of Dairy addicts). Anyway, I always thought it was hilarious to have a name related to cheese in everything I signed up for. I started with Nachos (I believe the movie Nacho Libre had recently been released) or some variation of that on a few different websites I played flash games on when I was young. That eventually evolved into anything including the word "Cheese" in it which eventually evolved into CHEZ. However, CHEZ was many times too short or taken, so I decided to add an adjective. "Ultra" was the one I finally settled on. I believe the first account to have "Ultra CHEZ" was my Xbox Live account that I set up when I was 13 or so. Since then it and any variation has been my go to username.

 

[Drift86]

I have another nickname in real life but I got it because of my older brother, so no story there.

I have been called Drifter for quite a while. I love cars, especially drift, I even bought the AE86 because of that, but no money no fun =(

So when I bought APB and with my lack of imagination for better (as you can see by the names of my chars) I started to use drifter or close variations for everything.

APB was probably the first MMO I played, good times. It was where I and Jia started to play together -brucethumbsup-

So nothing interesting to see here

 

[Dan]

My mother named me.

 

[Hekzul]

You guys all have some cool or quirky reason for a name that you stick with. I think the only name that has ever stuck with me in game was Rotten. It came from my tendency to name the actual character not really maintain a persona within the game. Rotten was an undead rogue and even though i had not played it in years everyone still calls me by that name when i talk to people from wow. I have like 4 or so names i cycle through. Now Hekzul came into existence due to my need to hide from people that turned out to be seriously insane irl. I thought it sounded like a cool Sith Sorcerer name when i was playing Swtor and i signed up on this site while playing that game. Who knows maybe few years down the road Hekzul will grow on me but it hasnt yet. I still regret making it my game account name.

Funny thing i do is i have names for classes/professions that have stuck with me for years. Paladin types get the name Dimos. Warrior type gets Sarto, unless the warrior ends up being a beast race like my charr warrior i made. In that case the name becomes Gorathan. I really have no clue where those names come from other than Dimos which came from some fighting game character back in the day on N64 named Lord Dimos. My brain works in odd ways.

 

[Meta]

I always liked mythology and and naming things after mythological creatures. When Final Fantasy XI just came out I named my character "Metatron". The angel Metatron was God's scribe: Meta meaning "beyond" and tron meaning "matrix" if I remember correctly. In game that was too long so my guildies (linkshell) just called me meta. I found I really liked how "Meta" sounded as opposed to Metatron, but since then the usage of that word has significantly increased and it's been harder to reserve that name so usually I add the roman numeral "XIII" to represent myself. So if I can't get Meta I usually try to get MetaXIII. Plus since MetaXIII can be taken to mean "beyond the self" or more literally "beyond myself" since XIII represents me I like to bullshit people that that's what I intended from the very beginning. *ponylaugh:

 

[Zevrix]

I've never had a nickname in real life, which always made me a little sad since my real name (Jennifer) is so boring and common. I made up for that with multitudes of game characters- all with different names. I feel like mentioning a few of them, so if this becomes a wall of text, I'm sorry!

My first MMO was Ultima Online. I had just turned 17 and was going through a lot of crap. I named my main character Ebony Rose and later made alts with variations (Ivory Rose, Azure Rose, etc.). I developed a personality and story for my character and even roleplayed a bit before I quit UO.

When I started playing FFXI a few years later, I wanted to continue with Ebony Rose's adventures, so I used that name again. I later made alts and had them all fit into a grand story, but to everyone I met I remained Ebony or Ebonyrose.

I began to play WoW about two years after I started FFXI and played one or the other (sometimes both) until the last few months. I made a human in WoW named Ebonyrose, but I never really liked the humans in that game. I had played some WC3 and grew to like the Night Elves (What a girl, right?!). So, my main character for vanilla was Ariahna (meaning "holy"), the NE priest. Each new expansion after that I changed mains (except for Cataclysm). Kavvi was my Draenei mage. It didn't mean anything, but I thought it sounded both Indian and Russian, which I felt fit for the Draenei. In WotLK, I switched to a Draenei shaman that I named Yazmir- another name that didn't mean anything, but I thought it sounded "right." I stuck with that character and the nickname Yaz all the way through Cataclysm, but I simultaneously played a Goblin warrior I named Zevrix. I got sick of people making fun of my nickname (Oh! Yaz like that birth control! Weren't they being sued recently? Hurr hurr.), so when I started GW2 I wanted to go with something different. For some reason I like the way Zevrix sounds- maybe because it uses so many letters we don't see all that often? I thought the name would be a good fit for an Asura, but I haven't gotten around to playing one yet.

My in-game names are a little more simple. I had hoped to reserve the name Lilia, but even though I logged in as soon as possible, it was taken. I was stuck then with Lilia Fidan. Lilia means "lily" and Fidan means "sapling." I'm not really happy with it, but I'm not starting over now, lol. Ayumi Moriko means "wandering forest-child," a good fit for a ranger I think. Characters I've planned, but haven't played yet are Sadira Ebonbriar, a prickly thief, and Modley Rivinix, an accident-prone engineer.

Being an alt-aholic, I've had a lot of characters and nicknames over the years, but the ones that stuck the longest were Ebony/Ebonyrose, Yaz/Yazmir, and now Zevrix.
Zevrix- it doesn't mean anything, but doesn't it just sound cool?! mg:

 

[ShewhoShallNotBeNamed]

Spoiler

I've never had a nickname in real life, which always made me a little sad since my real name (Jennifer) is so boring and common. I made up for that with multitudes of game characters- all with different names. I feel like mentioning a few of them, so if this becomes a wall of text, I'm sorry!

My first MMO was Ultima Online. I had just turned 17 and was going through a lot of crap. I named my main character Ebony Rose and later made alts with variations (Ivory Rose, Azure Rose, etc.). I developed a personality and story for my character and even roleplayed a bit before I quit UO.

When I started playing FFXI a few years later, I wanted to continue with Ebony Rose's adventures, so I used that name again. I later made alts and had them all fit into a grand story, but to everyone I met I remained Ebony or Ebonyrose.

I began to play WoW about a year after I started FFXI and played one or the other (sometimes both) until the last few months. I made a human in WoW named Ebonyrose, but I never really liked the humans in that game. I had played some WC3 and grew to like the Night Elves (What a girl, right?!). So, my main character for vanilla was Ariahna (meaning "holy"), the NE priest. Each new expansion after that I changed mains (except for Cataclysm). Kavvi was my Draenei mage. It didn't mean anything, but I thought it sounded both Indian and Russian, which I felt fit for the Draenei. In WotLK, I switched to a Draenei shaman that I named Yazmir- another name that didn't mean anything, but I thought it sounded "right." I stuck with that character and the nickname Yaz all the way through Cataclysm, but I simultaneously played a Goblin warrior I named Zevrix. I got sick of people making fun of my nickname (Oh! Yaz like that birth control! Weren't they being sued recently? Hurr hurr.), so when I started GW2 I wanted to go with something different. For some reason I like the way Zevrix sounds- maybe because it uses so many letters we don't see all that often? I thought the name would be a good fit for an Asura, but I haven't gotten around to playing one yet.

My in-game names are a little more simple. I had hoped to reserve the name Lilia, but even though I logged in as soon as possible, it was taken. I was stuck then with Lilia Fidan. Lilia means "lily" and Fidan means "sapling." I'm not really happy with it, but I'm not starting over now, lol. Ayumi Moriko means "wandering forest-child," a good fit for a ranger I think. Characters I've planned, but haven't played yet are Sadira Ebonbriar, a prickly thief, and Modley Rivinix, an accident-prone engineer.

Being an alt-aholic, I've had a lot of characters and nicknames over the years, but the ones that stuck the longest were Ebony/Ebonyrose, Yaz/Yazmir, and now Zevrix.
Zevrix- it doesn't mean anything, but doesn't it just sound cool?! mg:

Oh my god, I've used Rose as a surname in a lot of f2p games. Usually that or Love >.<;;;

 

[tr1age]

Ok, sooo my turn

I started out my MMO career in UO and used the name Sir Tristan or Knight Tristan. Tristan is already a very popular fantasy name because of it's history with the Knights of the Round table etc. So it just worked. Even made my characters look like me as much as possible.

I then started to like anonymity for my more devious characters and I came up with Dove, Gwenno, and Mendacity. Mendacity was my favorite because of its meaning and it being my thief: Noun:

Untruthfulness.
Synonyms:
falsehood - lying - falsity - lie - untruth

After UO I did a lot of shooters like Planetside and CoD, and used the handle TheGodfather. I hooked up with a group of NYC lan guys and they all had cool names so I figured being italian and wanting a bad ass handle that was it. I was 17 leave me alone lol.

That stuck for quite awhile but I always felt it was contrived and not original.
After UO I went to WoW and decided to go back to my Tristan ways. I originally made a human blond hair and all and went with Tristan but decided Alliance were ugly and I needed to be a Troll. So I made a troll and called it Tristanmon! Very original haha.

So After WoW I needed a handle for other games and decided to finally make the switch from TheGodfather. I remembered a good friend of mine from the NYC lan parties had a name called sp1te. I loved the usage of the 1 for the simple name.

So I thought about my interests and I have always be fascinated with medical fields and since I cannot do them in RL a game is a good way to express the way you want to play. With Age of Conan I made a healer and named her Triage. It was a good name for either a boy or girl character and it stuck after that game.
I then realized if I replaced the i with the 1 I was essentially getting that nostalgia from back in my Lan days and the name I finally wanted.

So Triage transformed into tr1age.

I love it and it usually was for my healing classes, but if you take it as defined:

tri·age(tr

-äzh

, tr

äzh

)
n.
1. A process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate medical treatment. Triage is used in hospital emergency rooms, on battlefields, and at disaster sites when limited medical resources must be allocated.
2. A system used to allocate a scarce commodity, such as food, only to those capable of deriving the greatest benefit from it.
3. A process in which things are ranked in terms of importance or priority: "For millions of Americans, each week becomes a stressful triage between work and home that leaves them feeling guilty, exhausted and angry" (Jill Smolowe).


I could use it for healing or damage, because either I am causing triage or I am assisting as a triage medic.
So there is my history in a nutshell

When I cannot get that name I often find a French or Italian subjugation to go with it. Such as Triage Infirmeire or Triage Faussete.

Some of my APB buddies know me as KittyBurn because my criminal was triage and I couldn't have the same name on my enforcer and went with KittyBurn cause I found it funny... although it left me being called Kitty and that was just weird haha.

 

[Devve]

My original IGN started in a f2p mmo called FiestaOnline.. I played a Cleric, the healer of the game, which made me feel like a god!.. so in that, i decided to name my character Godmyth <-- short for "God of Myth"

I used this name in WoW aswell, using funny letters so i could actually use "God" in a name.

Then when WAR launched, my first character i played was an engineer. Needless to say, the Godmyth tag just didnt feel right as i actually had no magic type abilities anymore.. All my abilities were mechanical.

so then i started writing down a list of words that had to do with mechanics and engineering.

After i wrote down a bunch of words, i sorted through them to see what words looked the coolest. Literally, like the conjuction of their letters together to create the most appealing yet subtle word lol.

The word i concluded to was "Development".

At this point in my gaming life, i had started to get involved with sponsors and broadcasting and stuff and it was always suggested from them to have a 1or2 syllable name that is easy to remember; in other words, easy to market.

So i shortened "Development" into "Dev".

I thought "Dev" was a lil funny looking, although i liked the pronunciation, so i added the "ve" to it making it "Devve"; aswell as adding another syllable to it.

final product being, Devve;
pronounced "Dev E", but i usually tell people to call me "Dev" for short.

Sounds good, looks good and is easy to remember!

Although i have no actual attachment to this name other than it just being an IGN, my exgirlfriend suggested that i name my kid Devve if i have a son.. We are no longer together, but i actually realy like the idea lol.
Only thing is having to explain to him down the road that his name was my old IGN. ;p

 

[Keleynal]

My name was the result of mashing the name generator on WoW until I found something that I thought would work for a night elf. That was back a couple of months before the release of Burning Crusade, and I played heavily with the same character all the way through WotLK. The name grew on me the longer I had it, and I went by "Kel" on vent and in guild forums.

My ranger's bear is named Supergoober, which was my main alt in WoW- a Draenie paladin tank. Since I want my bear to tank for me, it seemed to fit. After the paladin came a litany of goobers- Kelegoober the shaman, Darthgoober the Death Knight, ect., but I always come back to Keleynal as my main. I may eventually make an alt Guardian character named Supergoober as well.

You can also find a demon hunter Keleynal on the Diablo 3 US server.

The name is unique and androgynous and I'm sticking with it!

 

[Glad]

I have been playing MMOs as far back as the early UO days, where I went by the name Sin and various others. Obviously, as time went on the disadvantages of having such a common word as my signature name became apparent. In EverQuest, I joined up with a bunch of others in mind to create a themed guild on the PvP team server Tallon Zek. I decided to play a barbarian rogue within the guild, and came up with the name Hoibeard. The name stuck with me for almost a decade, but began to feel tired and out of place in other games. I also learned it was a real name, derived from Hubert, which had a specific pronunciation, sounding more like hibert. I didn't care for it.

Glad came out of SWTOR, as an alternative, when I decided to create a bounty hunter alt that I would play as a good guy in the Sith Empire, which quickly became my main. The name was meant to shed light on the character's psychology. He was "glad" just to do the job of a bounty hunter and had no care for politics or the overall consequences of the Galactic Civil War. There is no real reason for the surname Komrad, except that someone beat me to plain Glad on our server, and it kinda rhymed.

Oh, and in FPS shooters and vehicle simulation games, I often went by the names Jimmy the Hand and Ass On Fire, when name restrictions allowed. Both are somewhat of a play on words, and meant to be humorous.