How did you come up with your username here?

[understatement]

For starters, I always said "understatement" really loudly whenever discussions went pear-shaped, and I signed onto this forum expecting the name to be taken. To my pleasant surprise, it wasn't.

How did you come up with your username on this forum?

[Tvtyrant]

Tualatin Valley Tyrant. It is where I am from (and sadly live still...)

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's a character of mine from an old game that we'd just finished a revisit of about a week before I joined.

edit: although to be honest the name's misspelled because of the character limit.

[Peelee]

First initial, last name. Easy peasy.

[W41Blackr4zr]

Me and my Buddies were playing D&D
my Character's Name was Four
the DM had made a groundhog day type one shot.
where everyday the universe would explode because we failed to stop the BBEG
(some 47ish level necromancer wanting complete destruction of the world who had set up an elaborate plan that was set to go off at the end of the day to explode the world)
(so we would keep living the day over because we couldn't stop him)

we started naming each reset, and on world 41 I got the idea to try out Blackrazor that we had collected
in one of his artifact rooms
(we had never used it before as we were all good)

so I rolled to hit the necromancer with the sword and rolled a Nat 1
and the Dm gets us to roll percentiles to see how big of a fail it is
I rolled 00...100% fail
the sword consumed my Character's Soul (3 saves were allowed and I failed them all) taking control of my body which caused the loop to end as I was not in control, proceeded to use my lawful good fighter to kill the Necromancer first, and then my entire party (they really tried but they were all at low health already and I had most of mine).
the world exploded as per usual but the loop was ended so it didn't reset the day
we all laughed and rolled some new characters
that was my one of my favourite moments ever

so My username Is wolrd41 or w41, blackrazor but I got rid of the o and substituted an A with a 4 (because my Character's name was Four)

[Kol Korran]

At the time I was heavily into Eberron, and I really liked the complex ideas behind the seemingly simple faith of The Sovereign Host pantheon (Explained in the Faiths of Eberron book).

As I was reading it over I liked the sound of the name one of the deities- Kol Korran.
I just liked the sound of it...

Yeah, nothing special.

[Icewalker]

Now this account is some real old school name selecting for me! I now have a set of standard usernames, as so many do, and this account by far predates them! Icewalker was a terribly uninspired name of one of my first long-term World of Warcraft characters way back in vanilla.

[DataNinja]

It came from a joke friends had back on Skype. I had a knack for remembering the right snippets to CTRL+F in past conversations, so was able to pull up stuff almost instantly to prove people right or wrong. Often ninjaing people. So, thus... DataNinja.

[farothel]

It was a character of mine in a Warhammer game from long ago. I started using it on fora and to maintain consistency (and to remember it easier) I try to use the same name on each forum I sign up on. As it's not really a common name, it has worked so far.

[Lacco]

My father and I used to play Dune 2 on the same computer. To avoid confusion (we have the same first name), he started naming his saves with preposition "dad" = "oco".

Once his hand slipped and wrote "occo" and after that he started doing so all the time.

My name's short version is "Laco", so I decided to follow suit. Hence lacco. And 36's just a number of my parent's former apartment, something I use when lacco is taken.

I was thinking of losing the 36 and upgrading to normal handle, but there's too much sentimental value.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Named after the lizard folk spell caster pc that I’ll get round to playing sometime (when someone else where I am learns how to dm grumble grumble). It’s changed from an evocation wizard to a wild magic sorcerer to a lore bard, but currently I’m thinking a divination wizard/alchemist artificer is what it’ll be.
Oh and alliteration!

[Cygnia]

It's one of my ol' nom de net -- I'm a huge fan of the band Rush

[sktarq]

SK are my initials

Tarq is short for Tarquin...which is the name my father wanted to name me, a fact that some of my boarding school friends found out and started using for me at the time...some of whom started to abbreviate that nickname to Tarq (or Tark)..and of the 300 nicknames I had from HS that one seemed to stick around longer. My father said he got it from Hamlet who got it from the Roman Kings.

[Fyraltari]

I wanted a username that I knew wouldn’t be taken anywhere (so I can use it everywhere for consistency) so I decided I needed a meaningless string of sounds that sounded somewhat nice. I took the name of my latest video game character (an altmer wizard in Oblivion) and fiddled with it until I got something I liked.

Tualatin Valley Tyrant. It is where I am from (and sadly live still...)
You mean you’re not a tyrant who rules over television? :smallfrown:

[deltamire]

Genuinely just two river-related landform words I found convenient to say (a nice collection of broad and slender vowels), and it's easy to remember and spell. My old user I used to go by on other sites was a bit too clunky and I just wanted a change. Not very deep or meaningful compared to some of the anecdotes on this thread!

[BisectedBrioche]

I like making bread, and I used to just go by Bisected.

[Rynjin]

My brother and I used to do kind of freeform RP games outside, where we'd make up stories and beat the **** out of each other with sticks and whatnot. One of my character's names was Rynjin, which I liked the sound of when I finally started having a larger internet presence (as opposed to my previous preteen username of choice, Darkfire). I go by this username everywhere, with two exceptions; both of which are because some Chinese guy took the name first. Same guy both times.

I've used this username for so long that I'm about as comfortable being called Ryn or Rynjin as my real name in conversation.

[Mith]

When I started joining forums, I used Mithrandir, which got shortened to Mith in forum discussions. Eventually, I decided to just shrink the name down to what was used anyways, and it is a useful nick to keep around.

[Peelee]

When I started joining forums, I used Mithrandir, which got shortened to Mith in forum discussions. Eventually, I decided to just shrink the name down to what was used anyways, and it is a useful nick to keep around.

I just thought you took a shot and mithed.

[Mith]

I just thought you took a shot and mithed.

Considering that I had to shorten the name by 60%, I say that is an accurate assessment!

[Peelee]

Considering that I had to shorten the name by 60%, I say that is an accurate assessment!

I knew that wasn't a myth!

[Mith]

I knew that wasn't a myth!

....I spent a while trying to develop a pun response, and you have out witted me.

[Fyraltari]

....I spent a while trying to develop a pun response, and you have out witted me.

You must be so miffed.

[Tvtyrant]

I wanted a username that I knew wouldn’t be taken anywhere (so I can use it everywhere for consistency) so I decided I needed a meaningless string of sounds that sounded somewhat nice. I took the name of my latest video game character (an altmer wizard in Oblivion) and fiddled with it until I got something I liked.

You mean you’re not a tyrant who rules over television? :smallfrown:

I mean I'm a fox, but I'm not fox.

[The Fury]

Tualatin Valley Tyrant. It is where I am from (and sadly live still...)

Heey! Represent! Where abouts? Hillsboro? Beaverton?

As for me, see I was really angry...

Kidding. The actual answer is pretty boring. I was writing a story at the time and one of the main villains had the epithet "The Fury" and I thought it sounded cool at the time.

[No brains]

There are some people who like to feel intellectually superior and be condescending about their knowledge of children's board games. I want to remind myself to never become one of those people.

I'm here to funpost, play pretend, chew bubblegum, and occasionally derail threads with my name- getting people to think I may be an ooze or construct. Oh cool, I still have some gum!

[Bartmanhomer]

I've been using this user name forever. Bartman is Bart Simpson's alter ego and is the parody of Batman and Homer is Homer Simpson. So I combined Bartman and Homer is make my user name Bartmanhomer.

[Tvtyrant]

Heey! Represent! Where abouts? Hillsboro? Beaverton?

As for me, see I was really angry...

Kidding. The actual answer is pretty boring. I was writing a story at the time and one of the main villains had the epithet "The Fury" and I thought it sounded cool at the time.

Who was The Fury? Norn of your business!

Hillsboro! What about you?

[KillianHawkeye]

So when I found this site and this webcomic, I was actually considering doing a D&D-based comic myself. Like all my projects, however, I abandoned it because I didn't have the physical or digital art skills way back then. I did, however, plot out a bit of the story and did a lot of development on the characters.

Hawkeye was going to be an wood elf ranger, the name was inspired by the Marvel character (although back in 2005-2007, he hadn't been in any movies yet so it felt like a more obscure reference). He was an archer, and I remember he wore a few feathers woven into his silvery-white hair. As I normally do with D&D characters, they are at most very loosely based on a character from popular media and I fill in the character with original details. The name "Hawkeye" itself was meant to be a translation of his elven family name, and eventually his given name would have been revealed as Killian (don't remember why I picked that, either).

He wasn't even one of the main characters of the story. More like a mercenary who would sometimes show up as a supporting character, kind of like Shadow from Final Fantasy 6. Especially any time there were orcs to kill, because that was his specialty. So when I joined the forums and wanted a D&D-related username, I elected to memorialize the abandoned story by using his name.

Later on, I played a version of Hawkeye in an actual D&D game. Although he didn't have the same story background or anything, it was still one of the more fun characters I've ever played.

[The Fury]

Who was The Fury? Norn of your business!

Hillsboro! What about you?

Also Hillsboro. Though the plan is to move to the Tigard/King City area in a couple months.

[Tvtyrant]

Also Hillsboro. Though the plan is to move to the Tigard/King City area in a couple months.

It's pretty funny that both Aloha and King City decided not to incorporate so they got eaten by neighboring towns. KC is a way better name IMO.

Where did you go to high school? I'm a hillsboro highschool graduate, year 2007.

[DataNinja]

Might be smart to continue the conversation over PMs, if you're going to start getting deeper into identifying info. :smallwink:

[Reathin]

A few years back, on an Exalted forum/chat thing, I was creating a new character (Defiler caste Green Sun Prince), and I had the general concept in my head of what I wanted, but I needed a name. It was a new design, not one of my slowly expanding recycled character list, so I had to come up with it on the spot. I thought what was a good sound, and thought, "I like the 'ea' sound, then spliced that with my little brother's character name "Raem" (who was, himself, based on one of the villains from Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles). Then shifted it to make it my own. "Reathin", which I only realized liter was also "Breathing" without the first and last letters, which made me like it even more.

[The Fury]

It's pretty funny that both Aloha and King City decided not to incorporate so they got eaten by neighboring towns. KC is a way better name IMO.

Where did you go to high school? I'm a hillsboro highschool graduate, year 2007.

I agree that King City is a cooler name than Tigard. Unfortunately neither is really that cool of a town. Maybe I just think that because "King City" conjures up mental images of retro-future buildings, concert venues and dive bars. The actual King City is... not that. Heck, Trimet only has like two bus lines that go there.

Aloha is... weird. Mostly because in typical Oregon fashion, "Aloha" is not pronounced in a way that anyone expects. I had a friend from Texas that said the actual pronunciation for "Aloha" killed her last brain cell.

Though I sort of agree with DataNinja, I'm not really that comfortable sharing that kind of information like where I went to high school. Sorry.

[Tvtyrant]

I agree that King City is a cooler name than Tigard. Unfortunately neither is really that cool of a town. Maybe I just think that because "King City" conjures up mental images of retro-future buildings, concert venues and dive bars. The actual King City is... not that. Heck, Trimet only has like two bus lines that go there.

Aloha is... weird. Mostly because in typical Oregon fashion, "Aloha" is not pronounced in a way that anyone expects. I had a friend from Texas that said the actual pronunciation for "Aloha" killed her last brain cell.

Though I sort of agree with DataNinja, I'm not really that comfortable sharing that kind of information like where I went to high school. Sorry.

No worries!

Aloha was originally spelled Aloah, then got changed by our infamously bad post office. It is named after a town in Wisconsin.

[Tarmor]

Tarmor is short for Tarmornalomea, which I constructed from Tolkien elvish around University time in the early 90's. (Back when I could write fluently using the Tengwar.) The long form has been used only a few times, but I've stuck with Tarmor for nearly anything internet related (like forums and site logins), and some gaming.

[Willie the Duck]

Willie the Duck is a character (a dragon, not a duck) from Larry Elmore's Snarfquest comics (which used to appear in Dragon Magazine)

[truemane]

I just thought you took a shot and mithed.

Dath wathup.

I first used mine as a username on a forum dedicated to discussing Stephen King's Dark Tower series probably in 1995 or so. I can't remember precisely where it came from, but even by I'd already been using the name "Christopher Arthur Truemane" in short stories and RPG's for almost a decade.

The lower-case 't' was originally either a time-saving measure or due to some site not being case sensitive. But by now it's part of the name and when someone calls me 'Truemane" it feels like it's spelled wrong.

And note it's true-mane (like hair) and not true-name (like dysfunctional D&D classes).

[Altair_the_Vexed]

When I was trying to get myself a memorable email address, years ago, when that was still sort of possible, I was getting increasingly annoyed by the choices that had been taken already - hence my email ended up being *name* "the Vexed" (at) email domain (dot) com.

And my name is Alastair - so Altair has always been my go to "other" name, because of the star. Again, long before Assassins' Creed.

[Velaryon]

A few years before I joined this forum, I had cribbed the name Velaryon from ASoIaF lore and used it for a D&D character (Game of Thrones wasn't a thing yet on TV so most of my friends didn't recognize the reference). I had a standard name I used to use on every forum I joined back then, but I was getting tired of it and wanted something new, so I went with this.

[dangelo]

I first used mine as a username on a forum dedicated to discussing Stephen King's Dark Tower series probably in 1995 or so.

At first I thought the name had something to do with the series but couldn't figure out what it was. The dark tower is awesome. Changed the way I read fiction.

[Matuka]

I took the name from one of my villains who was based on a monster in a Lego showcase video.

[TherianTheorist]

I like werecreatures, and alliterated from there.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Haruspex was my first attempt at a gamer tag, because it was a word with a meaning but wasn't in common use. I added Pariah to it because I figured a two-word username had a better chance of being unique. I was collecting Necrons at the time and I thought the Pariah units looked cool. Later on I realized that it meant something that wasn't great but I stuck with it because I'm attached to the name now.

[truemane]

At first I thought the name had something to do with the series but couldn't figure out what it was. The dark tower is awesome. Changed the way I read fiction.

No, there's no relation. The name originated in a short story I wrote in High School and, for whatever reason, stuck in my head and I've used it dozens of times since. That forum was just the first time I ever used it on-line (and I'm pretty sure was the reason for the lower-case t).

And yeah, the first three books of the Dark Tower are among King's best. The Wastelands might even be his best. Books IV and V are both quite good, but the timbers are certainly starting to creak. And then it pretty much goes off the rails. I think King just ran out of juice and just finished it in cold blood. Like an old married person joylessly going through the motions.

[Peelee]

I first used mine as a username on a forum dedicated to discussing Stephen King's Dark Tower series probably in 1995 or so.

Now, you say that, but I still suspect it is a form of hiding your true name, which is, of course, "truname". Also, since I just spoke it, you are completely under my control. And I have gone mad with power. MAD, I TELL YOU!

Anyway, gimme five dollars.

[Tvtyrant]

No, there's no relation. The name originated in a short story I wrote in High School and, for whatever reason, stuck in my head and I've used it dozens of times since. That forum was just the first time I ever used it on-line (and I'm pretty sure was the reason for the lower-case t).

And yeah, the first three books of the Dark Tower are among King's best. The Wastelands might even be his best. Books IV and V are both quite good, but the timbers are certainly starting to creak. And then it pretty much goes off the rails. I think King just ran out of juice and just finished it in cold blood. Like an old married person joylessly going through the motions.

King can't write endings, is the thing. I wrote a whole essay on how horror and suspense are forms of tragedy and he gets mislabelled as horror. All of his stories fall apart after the Choice is made, the further back he sticks the choice the better the book is until the post-Choice consequence scene which is invariably botched.

[Sapphire Guard]

Sadly I have no complicated story. I'm sure you can guess. Interesting thread though.

[Xyril]

It's a name of a character I played in an online game ages ago. It was a game with multiple character classes, playerbase wipes every few years, and a comparatively short grind to maximum level, so even more casual players would dabble with two or more characters at a time. It also had pretty ruthlessly competitive PvP, so once I joined one of the major clans, reusing one of my old usernames once the world rebooted would have painted a target on my back, meaning that I had to come up with quite a few creative names that I liked.

I became aware of the security flaws of reusing the same username/password on multiple services pretty early on, so that game became one of a few things I used as a bank for unique, memorable usernames. Not reusing names also helps me to remember which different password sequence is associated with each account, minimizing how much I have to rely on the password locker. It also reduces the chances that I type a valid password into the wrong service, and as well as the likelihood at a compromised site would figure out where to exploit that leaked password.

[Lacco]

Sadly I have no complicated story. I'm sure you can guess. Interesting thread though.

Guessing: you...are an actual guard? Do you guard a sapphire od immense value? A guard, last of the ancient order that promised to safeguard a sapphire of immense value and magical power?

[SZbNAhL]

My initials, preserving lowercase for name-prepositions*. I use the same name across multiple online accounts, but am wildly inconsistent about capitalisation.

*Almost certainly the wrong term, because I only realsied that I don't know what they're called once I was already typing the sentence. I mean things like the du in du Mourne or the ibn in ibn Saud.

[Sapphire Guard]

Guessing: you...are an actual guard? Do you guard a sapphire od immense value? A guard, last of the ancient order that promised to safeguard a sapphire of immense value and magical power?

All of the above.

[Fyraltari]

My initials, preserving lowercase for name-prepositions*. I use the same name across multiple online accounts, but am wildly inconsistent about capitalisation.

*Almost certainly the wrong term, because I only realsied that I don't know what they're called once I was already typing the sentence. I mean things like the du in du Mourne or the ibn in ibn Saud.

"du" is a nobiliary particle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobiliary_particle), I can't find what the technical term for "ibn" and the like is.

[Wildstag]

Wildstag is a username I've been using for everything since about 2014. It is mostly derived from my affinity for deer, and wanting to use a gendered name for male deer. It is also partially due to my fondness for the "Camping Can Be Cool" episode of Regular Show. Buck just didn't feel like it'd fit, Hart was too much like "heart" and my previous username "satyrsol" which people often spelled with "soul".

Stag worked well. Then when looking for the deer-in-the-headlights scene from the Regular Show episode, I found out that the guy was named "Stagman". Thus, Wildstagman felt right, and eventually because of the length of it, I truncated it and my username became "Wildstag".

On a couple sites where username changes are not allowed, I still use satyrsol, but I started using this site when I wanted it to be Wildstag. And it's stuck with me since May of 2014.

[SZbNAhL]

"du" is a nobiliary particle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobiliary_particle), I can't find what the technical term for "ibn" and the like is.

Patronymic particle? Even if that wasn't the term, it is now.

[2D8HP]

I just thought that the 0e D&D/1e AD&D Ranger class waa cool, and their started hit points (after CON modifiers) was two d8 dice.

Not much else to tell.

[Anti-Eagle]

There was a film called "Our Man Flint." It's a bond parody and whilst infiltrating the villain's lair the protagonist is detected by a bald eagle trained to attack Americans.
It's referred to as an Anti-American Eagle by Flint. My username was shortened to fit the forum's standard.

[Peelee]

There was a film called "Our Man Flint." It's a bond parody and whilst infiltrating the villain's lair the protagonist is detected by a bald eagle trained to attack Americans.
It's referred to as an Anti-American Eagle by Flint. My username was shortened to fit the forum's standard.

An anti-American eagle? That's diabolical!

[oxybe]

Middle name.

[SallyOsaku]

I love Japaneses culture and sakura is a very popular song in that country. Osaka seems to be very Japanese style...:smallcool:

[Wizard_Lizard]

An anti-American eagle? That's diabolical!

I'd think an anti-american turkey vulture would be more appropriate.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The joke there is that for a long time, two members of Haliaeetus were considered a single species called the American Eagle. Then somebody actually asked biologists why they didn't look the same, resulting in the classification being cleared up to the bald eagle (H. leucocephalus) and white-tailed eagle (H. albicillia). Incidentally, it was actually the latter that was first selected as the national symbol, despite being a Eurasian species that occasionally reached Greenland and further south.

[Peelee]

I'd think an anti-american turkey vulture would be more appropriate.

Note to self, Wizard_Lizard has not seen Our Man Flint (https://youtu.be/kt6HN-uw5X4?t=64).:smalltongue:

[Wizard_Lizard]

Note to self, Wizard_Lizard has not seen Our Man Flint (https://youtu.be/kt6HN-uw5X4?t=64).:smalltongue:

There are a lot of things I have not seen.

[Wildstag]

Wizard_Lizard, I know you explained yours as being derived from a PC, but I expected it to be from the "Lizard Wizard in a Blizzard" bit from Robot Chicken.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Wizard_Lizard, I know you explained yours as being derived from a PC, but I expected it to be from the "Lizard Wizard in a Blizzard" bit from Robot Chicken.

Well.. a theoretical pc that I’ve never actually played, never actually heard of lizard wizard ima blizzard..

[Perficio]

I heard it in the Enya song Cursum Perficio, a Latin phrase meaning something along the lines of "I finish the journey." Perficio is the "I finish" part, chosen ironically to reflect my habit of starting new projects all the time.

[Elythe84]

Mine is a variant of my WoW account name, which is Ayolythe the Fair.

[Ionathus]

I took Latin in college (because of course I did), and this was a faux-Latin translation of my first name. Give you three guesses.

[Asmotherion]

Well, I like the concept of Asmodeus a lot, and Asmotherion was a Character I was playing as at the time, whose concept was the son of Asmodeus, who was trying to fight his Evil nature by applying a Machiavellian perspective to everything, but ultimatelly became as evil as his father by justifying his evil deeds as "ends justify the means".

In real life, one of my hobbies is studying ancient grimoires and texts and making footnotes based on them for my personal setting, so I found it kinda fitting, as it is an occult referance.

The name, as you'd probably guess, is a combination of the name Asmodeus and Therion which means Beast in Ancient Greek, to give a meaning of "Beast of Asmodeus".


I took Latin in college (because of course I did), and this was a faux-Latin translation of my first name. Give you three guesses.

I'm going to guess Jonathan?

[Peelee]

I'm going to guess Jonathan?

You would think that, but you forgot about the labyrinthine declension system, so we have to work based off the root word "Iona". This, clearly, is a pig-latinized version of "Nio", which translates to the modern Neo.

Thus, we can safely assert that Ionathus is Keanu Reeves.

[Ionathus]

You would think that, but you forgot about the labyrinthine declension system, so we have to work based off the root word "Iona". This, clearly, is a pig-latinized version of "Nio", which translates to the modern Neo.

Thus, we can safely assert that Ionathus is Keanu Reeves.

Correct! Good catch on the declensions -- most people don't catch the subtle nuances.

Anyway I'd like to take this chance to confirm that my favorite movie I've starred in was, in fact, Speed.

[Peelee]

Correct! Good catch on the declensions -- most people don't catch the subtle nuances.

I didn't take four years of Latin in high school for nothing!

Well, actually, at this point I think it's pretty safe to say I did.

Anyway, I'm very excited for Bill and Ted Face the Music!

[Fyraltari]

I took Latin in college (because of course I did), and this was a faux-Latin translation of my first name. Give you three guesses.

I'm gonna say... Dmitri?

[Ionathus]

I didn't take four years of Latin in high school for nothing!

Well, actually, at this point I think it's pretty safe to say I did.

We all did, but then that's the point! Best college advice my brother ever gave me: "Take a weird language. Unless you commit to it after college, you'll never become fluent, so why not have fun with it and broaden your horizons?"


Anyway, I'm very excited for Bill and Ted Face the Music!

I've never seen any of the Bill & Ted films, if you can believe that. Are they worth it?


I'm gonna say... Dmitri?

Fun fact: I had no idea Dmitri came from the Greek god Demeter until I googled it just now! I was going to joke about how Slavic names could possibly translate to Latin...without realizing how much closer that language is to the Mediterranean than English :smallbiggrin:

[truemane]

We all did, but then that's the point! Best college advice my brother ever gave me: "Take a weird language. Unless you commit to it after college, you'll never become fluent, so why not have fun with it and broaden your horizons?"
I took it in university because my degree required one Medieval course. I hate then, and hate now, Medieval literature. So I asked my Department Head if I cold take Latin instead. He agreed. So I took it for two years, mostly for nothing. Although every now and again I get to impress someone's grandmother. Or translate a school slogan. I've translated a couple of degrees, always to much hilarity.


I've never seen any of the Bill & Ted films, if you can believe that. Are they worth it?
They are very Of-Their-Time. I re-watched them recently and they very much seem like artifacts of another time.

[Wizard_Lizard]

I didn't take four years of Latin in high school for nothing!

Well, actually, at this point I think it's pretty safe to say I did.


Yeah, don't have latin in my school as an option for anything higher than year 10. I did take it for the first two years though (Although the subject was just part of classical studies, not really a subject in it's own right).
And now.... I've forgotten most of it.
Salve omnes?

[SZbNAhL]

I didn't take four years of Latin in high school for nothing!

Well, actually, at this point I think it's pretty safe to say I did.

It helps with etymology.


We all did, but then that's the point! Best college advice my brother ever gave me: "Take a weird language. Unless you commit to it after college, you'll never become fluent, so why not have fun with it and broaden your horizons?"

Yn sicr mae ieithoedd anghyffredin yn hwyl, en það er auðveldara að læra tvö algeng tungumál og vera fær um að tala við nánast hvern sem er. Единствената употреба за необичайно езици е да се покаже.

[Welsh] Strange languages are certainly fun, [Icelandic] but it is easier to learn two common languages and be able to talk to almost anybody. [Bulgarian] The only use for uncommon languages is showing off.

That, and reading obscure reference works, but it takes much less work to be reading fluent than speaking fluent (plus you get to use a dictionary).

[GrayDeath]

Well, back in the early 90ies to mid 2000s I read a lot of Battletech. And the Gray Death legion was my favourite merc Company.

Easy as that.

[SirKazum]

Mine is just a poor attempt to make a punny name that sounds like "sarcasm". At least it's nowhere else on the internet, that I know of... (if you see another Sir Kazum, chances are that's me)

[Rynjin]

Mine is just a poor attempt to make a punny name that sounds like "sarcasm". At least it's nowhere else on the internet, that I know of... (if you see another Sir Kazum, chances are that's me)

I would've though "Czar/Tsar Kazum" would have been the more obvious choice. Too obvious?

[Yael]

Well, my mom named me Yael, so here I am.

My past name was UrashimaJamez, Urashima was a nickname I picked because my favorite manga at the time was Love Hina, and the main character is named Urashima Keitaro, and Jamez was because in high school, my friends called me Jimmy, or Jimbo (after Jimmy Neutron), as I was always high on grades and people asked me for help frequently (my name isn't even close to Jim tbh).

[Peelee]

Well, my mom named me Yael, so here I am.

Well that was anticlimactic.

[Yael]

Well that was anticlimactic.

Still, I've found this name is pretty rare, even it being genderless, so using it as a "nickname" is almost guaranteed to be available (my SN in League of Legends is also Yael, and given the amount of players the game has, a proper name should be pretty hard to find, and yet again, here we are.)

[Wizard_Lizard]

Still, I've found this name is pretty rare, even it being genderless, so using it as a "nickname" is almost guaranteed to be available (my SN in League of Legends is also Yael, and given the amount of players the game has, a proper name should be pretty hard to find, and yet again, here we are.)

It's a nice name! :smallbiggrin:

[Fyraltari]

Still, I've found this name is pretty rare, even it being genderless, so using it as a "nickname" is almost guaranteed to be available (my SN in League of Legends is also Yael, and given the amount of players the game has, a proper name should be pretty hard to find, and yet again, here we are.)

I have a friend whose name is Yolain. His dream in life is to meet anybody with the same name.

[SirKazum]

I would've though "Czar/Tsar Kazum" would have been the more obvious choice. Too obvious?

Nah, you're probably right. I just kinda misunderstood the phonetics involved (English isn't my first language). Still, I've grown attached to "Sir Kazum" over time, I've got this image in my head of a scruffy, boisterous, rude knight who was knighted only because the local lord is his cousin or something.

[PallElendro]

First D&D character class and first RuneScape character name. I've been meaning to change it to just my name for the past five years and never got around to it.

[The Outsider]

I chose this one based on a dumb song that a younger me used to enjoy and I still have a soft spot for.
Also, my first choice, Caesar Hagfinger the Unicorn Slayer, was far too long.

[Kobold-Bard]

I saw a picture of Deekin, but had no idea who Deekin was. Just liked the idea of a Kobold Bard. I almost changed it, but never did for some reason.

[Imbalance]

I didn't. Come up with it, I mean. It seems it always was... (https://www.hostboard.com/forums/f124/28007-imbalance.html)
It's been with me for thirty years, and in the early 90's when the dreams were most fervent it was the first thing I thought to identify as when venturing online.

[Metastachydium]

Mesembryanthemum was one letter too long, so I had to improvise.

[3SecondCultist]

My username came out of a conversation with a close friend of mine, back when the two of us were in high school.

We were running the RPG / board games club there, and were on our way home (we both walked the same way). The two of us were bandying about ideas for different games, settings, and characters, and I got excited - as one does, when really exploring D&D for the first time.

My friend semi-jokingly called me a zealous creative, but the words he used were “some kind of momentary cultist”, jumping from idea to idea. They weren’t meant to be rude or insulting, but neither were they a compliment: they were a simple statement of fact, a commentary on the nature of my thinking.

So, when I decided to join these forums - coming up on a decade now, wow - in a fit of pique I decided to own that monicker. ‘3 seconds’ seemed to roll off of the tongue, and the number 3 has a great deal of symbolic significance in a number of cultures, so that was that. :smallbiggrin:

[Gluteus_Maximus]

My name is from my first D&D character. Originally a dwarf ranger, turned cleric because the party needed a healer more than anything else. He worshiped Gruumsh because his eye was removed by a dwarf lich and then he was found by orcs who raised him as a sign from their deity.

[Shirow]

I used one of those name rating/divination websites to see what would be a super lucky first name to my supposed great great great great great grandfather's last name would be. Other options were Rikimaru and Jyuzow.

[Homentashen]

It's a Jewish cookie. It's shaped like a triangle, meant to represent the hat of Haman, a man who conspired against Jews. We eat them on Purim, when we celebrate the story of how Miriam & Mordecai worked together to convince the king to go after his advisor, Haman, instead of the Jews.

I used the 'Homentashan' spelling because if I were to call myself Hamantash, a lot of people would call me Haman for short, which is displeasing to me.

[+5 Vorpal Bunny]

Three things:

Obviously, I love Monty Python. I'm totally a sucker for anything funny, and I love reading all the silly memes and jokes (and making a few of my own).

I remember finding a badass vorpal sword in Baldur's Gate as a kid. Gave it to Minsc, laughed out loud as he screamed while chopping heads off. Good times.

And finally I went by Killerkat on Neverwinter Nights servers. Made a lot of friends and had some great adventures.

Put them together, and it all clicked, and that's how I got here.

[MartinWill1989]

In my case, everything is very simple and boring. It's just my first and last name + my year of birth)

[TexasSkiandFish]

I live in texas and like to ski and fish.

[canana]

A banana, but then I took the first letter and shifted it one step forward.

[SZbNAhL]

A banana, but then I took the first letter and shifted it one step forward.

Jnteresting bpproach.

[oldage_best]

there is this era in English literature called old english , the books from this era are my favorite so oldage is the best !

[Caerulea]

I didn't take four years of Latin in high school for nothing!

Well, actually, at this point I think it's pretty safe to say I did.
Nonsense! The only reason to ever take Latin is to make (apparently not obscure) points about language on the internet!

Or, as in my case, to come up with a username. I had tired of my old ones (Gearbox/Gearbot) so I looked up Latin words for random colours and Caerulea looked the nicest. (Probably because the word is mostly blue, and it means blue, and has lots of vowels). Now I'm a little tired of being Caerulea Null and so use Rainbow whenever it's available (which is almost never). It's a bit weird to see Caerulea abbreviated as Cae, because it reads to me as [kay] when it should be [kye], but kye doesn't sound good on its own.

[Edreyn]

Long ago I played with drow character and hence name in drow style: Ed'Reyn.

[Fyraltari]

Probably because the word is mostly blue
Can you explain what you mean by that?

[Peelee]

Now I'm a little tired of being Caerulea Null and so use Rainbow whenever it's available (which is almost never).

I blame Ronnie James Dio.

[Caerulea]

Can you explain what you mean by that?
I have Synesthesia. So because vowels don't change the colour much, and the letter "C" is a lightish blue the whole word is kinda blue.


I blame Ronnie James Dio.
I have never heard of this person. What is their connection to rainbows?

[Fyraltari]

I have Synesthesia. So because vowels don't change the colour much, and the letter "C" is a lightish blue the whole word is kinda blue.
Ah, I understand.


I have never heard of this person. What is their connection to rainbows?
A major heavy metal singer (major as in gave the horn handsign its association with metal). Some of his albums have rainbows in their titles.

[Peelee]

A major heavy metal singer (major as in gave the horn handsign its association with metal). Some of his albums have rainbows in their titles.

That was probably due to the band being named Rainbow. :smallwink:

Also, my mod name is a direct reference to the song The Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow.

[Metastachydium]

Nonsense! The only reason to ever take Latin is to make (apparently not obscure) points about language on the internet!


(Speaking of Latin, nomen is neuter, so that sentence in your signature should have nomen meum instead of nomen meus.)

[Caerulea]

(Speaking of Latin, nomen is neuter, so that sentence in your signature should have nomen meum instead of nomen meus.)
Oh dear. Thank you.

[Millstone85]

I am Pierre Millon, born 1985.

My first name means stone. I didn't even have to look for the etymology, like the common root between Peter and petrification, because the French word for stone is, in fact, pierre.

No clue what my last name means. It might have nothing to do with a mill.

Add a bit of self-deprecation, and voilà.

[SirKazum]

It's a bit weird to see Caerulea abbreviated as Cae, because it reads to me as [kay] when it should be [kye], but kye doesn't sound good on its own.

That's funny, because as I was reading your post I was pronouncing your name in my head with the first syllable as "say". Probably out of influence from my native language (Portuguese). If I was making a more serious effort to sound more authentically Latin, I'd probably pronounce that first syllable as "kay". But there are lots of people who would pronounce it as "kye", and proper Latin pronunciation is a huge can of worms in linguistic circles (largely because the people who actually spoke the language natively died many centuries ago and didn't leave any audio recording or pronunciation guide), so don't worry about that.

[P. G. Macer]

Jumping on the Latin trend, I took Latin as an independent study* course my senior year of high school. My teacher/advisor, in an effort to get me into a “Roman” mentality, had me come up with a Roman name for myself, complete with praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. I chose Publius Gratius Macer, (In Classical Latin, all Cs are hard Cs, so the cognomen is actually pronounced Mah-care, not mace-er), the cognomen meaning “skinny”, as at the time it described me to a tee. I briefly used it as a pseudonym for a college class, and realized that if I initialized the praenomen and nomen, it sounded like a classy, old-money English name, so, having a bit of a pretentious streak, I went with it.


*It was actually mostly guided, but as my high school was tiny and I was the only one interested in Latin, that’s what it showed up as on my transcript.

[GreenDM]

Using the name of my youtube channel. GreenDM itself is a mixture of my inexperience in table top (green) and what I am most often to be in my rpg games (DM).

[me_ow]

mine is simple ! my love for the cats !

[sundernaught]

I thought of it when something broke while playing Subnautica. Just a weird mix of words that sounded like they made sense.

[wheelmaker]

Not real creative here. Last name is Wheeler. went with wheelmaker. Genius.

[SirKazum]

First initial, last name. Easy peasy.

wait, your last name is "Amilahenry"?

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's a bot. Repeating Peelee's post (P. Lee), for the record.

[Hish]

It's supposed to mean being someone's right hand man. The n was left off because I didn't notice it got cut off by the character limit when I was registering my account.
Came up with my username when I was about 12 years old and I've been using it ever since. Although now I'm a little worried it has some weird implications that I just can't see because I've been using it for so long. (If it does, please tell me! I have a backup to switch to.)

[Vizzerdrix]

I had to fight a bear for my user name. His name was Lewis. He was from Oregon. I will always remember the taste of his eyes.