What's the story behind your screen name?

[Cinde]

Now that we are sharing our "then and now" photos on another thread, it may be a good time to share our stores behind how we came up with our screen names. Some are obvious such as Chuck and Steve. But there are many that I have tried to guess what they mean.

I've been using Cinde (also Cinde Scooter) as an online name for 10 years. It came about when I was trying to log into a chat room and had to come up with a name quickly. I had just finished reading Cinderella to my granddaughter, saw the book lying there and just shortened it to Cinde.

[Jayell]

Jayell is actually my first two initials (JL - spelled out, which my Dad called me when I was kid). So it's sort of my own personal way of hanging onto a pet name (which my father is no longer capable of remembering . But after I started using it, I found I was more comfortable making comments and asking 'dumb' questions on forums and Listservs when I was not using my 'real' name. Although I use it so commonly now, it is sort of like a nickname.

I'm starting to feel like I've been in a confessional today

[ridon127]

When we got our first email, my hubby and I used the same e-mail so I combined the first 2 letters of his name and the first 3 of mine. My birthday is 12-7 and his also on the 7yh so we cam up with ridon127. He has his own now and it is easyone8x5. I don't know how he came up with that because isn't an easy one...lol he is a little short tempered...I asked him how he came up with it and he said he just thought of it and it sounded good..
Donna

[Peru]

Kind of simple-
Peru is a small town in New York State about an hour south of Montreal, Canada where my wife grew up and we settled after college. It's a great place to raise children and still has some of that "small town feeling". Although it has changed much in the 27 years I've lived here, my favorite story is finding a letter delivered to our mailbox addressed only as
"Bob and Wendy 12972."

[mark hansen]

Nothing creative about mine...

[Cinde]

Well I dunno about that Mark, I just Googled and found a lot of chicken soup.

[Doreen L.]

When I joined the Adobe Premiere Elements forum when it started three years ago, I registered and it asked for my first and last name - it never asked for a 'screen name'. So, I was always Doreen Luisi. When I came here, I just kept my real name.

I always get a kick out people addressing Steve as Grisetti over there.

[Gerry]

Gerry is short for, uh... Gerry.

[kodebuster]

I came up with my handle when the movie Ghostbusters came to town. I was also into software development for the financial industry at the time and considered myself a computer geek of the first order.

I originally started my programming skills on an Apple II, writing stuff in 6502 Assembly Language. I still have this PC tucked away in my attic and it has an original Serial # of 243. I'm guessing it was #243 off of Apple's assembly line in Cupertino.

People (even family), thought I was a little strange, so I didn't have many friends outside of this little computer world that I was into. They kept saying things like "why is he always alone and in basement with all that computer stuff". Their other favorite observation was "why does he sleep all day, and stay up all night". The best was "he seems to be gaining weight, but no one has ever seen him eat anything".

Being a computer geek in the early 1970's was a very lonely situation.

Signing up as a charter member for AOL to help beta test their products, I needed a handle. (This was way before AOL and their revolutionary Graphical User Interface (GUI) swept the online industry off of their feet).

So I thought I'd combine my software coding skills with Ghostbuster and came up with "codebuster".

When I went to register my name with AOL, I freaked out cause the "codebuster" handle was already taken. I mean how could this be, AOL had maybe a few thousand users on the system at that time, and half of them were software developers and beta testers.

So I substituted a K for the C, and kodebuster was born.

Been using it ever since...

[mark hansen]

Well I dunno about that Mark, I just Googled and found a lot of chicken soup.

Hey, I'm more famous than I thought... But no, there not me. The domain name for my (use to be) website doesn't even come up.

[Steve Grisetti]

This is becoming my favorite forum sub-head! You guys are all so much fun! I love reading about the stories behind the names!

One of my favorite origin stories is from John "Two Sheds" Macdonald. I'll let him tell it -- but he once confessed it was based on an old Monty Python bit. I had to Google it, and it is a very funny bit!

[momoffduty]

Mine came from my daughter's reference to me. A few years ago we were sitting at the gate waiting for our flight to Mexico. It was a much needed vacation for me because I am MIL's helper. She was able to stay in her own home because I took care of the maint, bills, etc. That year the dementia kicked in and it was more like a full time job. Just to go on vacation I had to recruit friends and my sibling to check on her. We are MIL's only family. Told my girls that this year they are old enough to take care of themselves, we were at an AI so what is there to need?

Before we left on the trip I informed my daughters (15 & 22yo at the time) & husband: I will not carry everyone's stuff in my beach bag, will not carry the backpack/purse into town, not keep track of anyone's money (altho I am the walking peso converter & speak some Spanish), keep track of anyone's stuff, etc.

So sitting at the airport at 6:00 AM I get bombarded with questions, where is my ____, when ____, will you hold my cash, etc. Finally said Hey I am off duty until next Sat. So all week the joke was that I was mom was off duty.

A year and a half ago MIL went to a senior complex. She is in the independent side with our help. Includes some transportation, a dinner every night, activities, etc. May have to go to the assisted side and they will inform us at that time. She just turned 93.

If she was still in her home I would not have pursued the video hobby. Worked out best for all....she is very happy having people/new friends around all of the time and they do fun stuff too. She likes to dance at the monthly parties and still has her occassional cocktail...which the doc said at 93 why not? May post a funny scene from Xmas.

[Cinde]

What about those of you who use your real names? Don't want you to be left out.

What do you use on other web sites or what would you like to use?

[VernonRobinson]

I started in the early days before wide access to the web. Back then everything was on a bulletin board, and you had to use your fast 1200 baud modem to dial them up. Many of those sites did not want someone named dragonslayer, or dungeon master on the board because they felt it eroded credibility and accountability. It never occurred to me to use an alias. As a result, I have always used my name. Also as a result, I have always been careful of what I say or do on the web. I never had any expectation of anonymity.

Regards,
-Vernon

[Maxine370]

Mine's not that interesting but I'll try and spice it up. When AOL first came out I wanted to use an alias instead of my real name (Beth), I was still a teen or in my early 20's back then and even though online predators were not prevalent back then (this is way back when AOL first came out and we had modems) I was still cautionary. My Dad's name is Max (but he always hated it so he is known as Allan). I happen to love the name Max but being Jewish I knew I probably would't be able to name any of my kids Max since we can't name for the living so I became Maxine. Of course on AOL, Maxine was already taken, as well as Maxine1, Maxine2,and so forth. SO randomly I chose 370. This year it kind of fits because I am 37 and was born in 70.