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Member Name Etymology


DonRocks

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I'm always curious about the origins of people's member names.

Way back in the early 1990s, I signed up for AOL, and tried to get the screen name DonRock, but it was taken. So I tried DonRocks as my second choice - it was available, and the rest is history.

Sorry to deflate your tires, but the etymology of DonRocks is really sort of boring. :)

You?

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I was obsessed with Camus' book "The Plague" in high school, and even wrote a college entrance essay about it, based on this quote "I'd come to realize that all our troubles spring from our failure to use plain, clean-cut language. So I resolved always to speak - and to act - quite clearly, as this was the only way of setting myself on the right track." (Still love the book and the existentialist theory in it, but have not re-read it in ages).

One of the main characters is Dr. Rieux, and I thought that Rieux sounded cool and started using it as a screen name. I also like Paneloux, one of the other characters, as a name. Maybe it is the x at the end that I like.

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Remember "Moonlighting" with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepard? Remember their office assistant? It was the 80s and everyone just discovered BMWs and pesto? And if you dressed nice and wore your hair a certain way you could make a lot of money?Allyce Beasley played Ms. DiPesto. Note how all three of these cast members have 2 consecutive 'L's in their names? Coincidence? I think not!

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Me and my faithful miniature huskey. He's turning 15 this year, still very healthy but either going deaf or ignoring me.

Maybe he's turning into a cat?

The cat is actually more human friendly than the dog. Today my daughter decided she should lotion the cat. The cat took it in stride. My wife was more upset.

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Gosh...

I've used this, with the offbeat spelling, since the early 2000s on various message boards.

What can I say? I like books. I miss the days of reading 300-400 books a year... Though, really, if I added up all the children's books I'm probably over that number. So what if my head may explode from listening to Nate the Great for the 5th time this week.

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No mystery here. Banquo is an erstwhile ally of Macbeth, murdered by same. He later appears as a ghost at a feast, making him the ideal dinner companion. I use the Italian spelling because the character is also in Verdi's adaptation of Shakespeare's play, where he has a fine scena right before his murder, a standard audition piece for bass.

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I got my first email address in 1994, and in a dazzling burst of creativity, used my initials. I've been using agm ever since (except that damn gmail).

I got my first email address in 1983. It was on a VM system, for all you old VM folks, and it was my name, HERSCHEL. That was my CMS virtual machine name, and became my email address, first just HERSCHEL and then when we hooked up to BITNET in about 1985 or so, I became HERSCHEL AT AUVM (American University VM). Then we implemented an MVS system, I think in 1987, where TSO userids could typically be only seven characters long, and somebody saddled me with HERSCHL for about two days. I changed it to HERSCH, and then figured I should change my CMS virtual machine name to HERSCH as well, and then became HERSCH at AUVM on BITNET. Then when the Internet came along a few years later, I became hersch@auvm.american.edu, and eventually hersch@american.edu, which was my email address for years and years. Through all of this, my email was based in IBM mainframe systems. Then American University decided to ditch their mainframe computing environment which pretty much meant ditching me, so as I was leaving I set up a Yahoo email account to replace my long-time American University VM email address. I tried to use hersch@yahoo.com, but Yahoo wouldn't let me. It seemed to say that that address was already taken, but I think it didn't like how short it was, as I've never seen any evidence of a hersch@yahoo.com. An old, old friend who had died a few years earlier had used this sort of joke/pet name for me "the hersch", so I became thehersch@yahoo.com, an email address that I have used since 1999. When I created an account on egullet, I used "the hersch", and when I followed Don from egullet to donrockwell, I brought "the hersch" with me. Those of you who never heard of BITNET, well, you missed out on something wonderful, which I wish still existed.

Don: Thanks for starting this topic. This is the kind of subject that really rings my bell. In a way, it's of a piece with my penchant for geographical precision, which I'm sorry seems to annoy you, and of my preoccupation with history, which led me to a graduate history degree. And while I'm at it, thanks for all that you do. Don Rockwell and donrockwell have enriched my life and the life of the city that I love, and I ain't gonna forget it.

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I got my first email address in 1994, and in a dazzling burst of creativity, used my initials. I've been using agm ever since (except that damn gmail).

Mine came the same way, but the company's policy was first initial and first 5 letters of your last name - they thought that having emails going out with Shitco was inappropriate. On other sites I now use a name that honors one of my canine companions.

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My given name is Elizabeth but as a child everyone called me Beth.While nothing wrong with that,,I never understood why my parents gave me a name they never used for me. Finally in grad school i made the transition to being known as Elizabeth. It is a stark divide in my life and a clear indication of when someone met me. Elizabeth has so many nickname possibilities and the one I always detested was Liz (at my local Starbucks, baristas know not to make that assumption).In the mid-late 1980's, some of the economists at my agency (it took us a long time to hire what are now known as IT staff) were setting up the Wang system, and knowing I detested being called Liz, humorously gave me the screen name "Lizzie" and as many above have experienced, it has stuck for many years as a screen name/login etc.

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Elizabeth has so many nickname possibilities and the one I always detested was Liz

No kidding. Every once in awhile a ghost from my past pops up and addresses me as Liz. Makes me squirm. I'll probably regret posting that on the internet.

Porcupine is from an old joke (from the other hobby) that's no longer relevant, but Mr P and I still use "porcupine racing" as our team name. He made business cards for us once as a joke. I was Founder and Team Principal. He was Assistant Minister for Colonization. My hat's off to anyone who gets that reference without googling it.

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I got my first email address in 1994, and in a dazzling burst of creativity, used my initials. I've been using agm ever since (except that damn gmail).

Ditto, but I got my first email address in 1993. Except gmail where I use my full name.

And those damn sites where they require screen names to have at least 4 characters. On those I combine the dazzling creativity that I share with Adam and my love of 80s hip hop to go by "TheRealJPW".

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Mine is totally boring - first name, last three letters of last name. Save for "real name" boards, have been using the same handle since '99 or so.

ETA: it is nice to see some folks with the same username as on the 930 club bb, not that I have been there in years, but still.

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I was "TheMatt" on USENET, BBSs, lots of places in the ol' days. I've mainly transitioned to "Fortran" on most boards and other online ventures mainly because I couldn't get TheMatt at gmail, but I could get "Fortran".

As for why? Well, my name is Matt, and I am "the" Matt. (And I program in Fortran...)

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No kidding. Every once in awhile a ghost from my past pops up and addresses me as Liz. Makes me squirm. I'll probably regret posting that on the internet.

Porcupine is from an old joke (from the other hobby) that's no longer relevant, but Mr P and I still use "porcupine racing" as our team name. He made business cards for us once as a joke. I was Founder and Team Principal. He was Assistant Minister for Colonization. My hat's off to anyone who gets that reference without googling it.

Have you ever seen this amazing sketch from the 90's MTV comedy show "The State"? http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b8a4df31a1/porcupine-racetrack-by-the-state-from-greatest-comedy-sketches Every time I see your username I sing the Porcupine Racetrack song.

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In the early 1500's during the age of Discovery the little known explorer, Kuckold Kockamamian landed in the new world with his family and followers. His group mostly consisted of none too bright but well endowed daughters.

The Kockemamians explored along the new world coast before alighting on the Isle of Manhattan. This verdant isle looked promising to the Kockammians, but the native Indians would have nothing to do with them, and considered their offer to purchase the island with $50 worth of plush silks and high heeled shoes to be worthless. They drove the Kockamamians back on their ship, who quickly sailed south landed on what is now known as New Jersey, settled in, intermarried with the natives, engaged in extensive remarrying among kin and promptly invented the "family idiot strain", shortly followed afterwards by discovering exit 138 on the Garden State Parkway.

The Kockemanians thrived in the new land, though continued to intermarry, thereby multiplying the impact of the family idiot strain. In the late 1600's Kukla Kockamammian traveled West, discovered flea powder, settled in the Great Plains and was thereafter known as Chief No-Itchum. The Kockamammian tribe continued to thrive and intermarry, ever increasing the impact of the idiot strain.

As the White Man invaded Indian lands, and pushed out the natives, so too were the Kockammamians driven from their adopted land. They migrated further West, invented the whoopie cushion and changed their last name to Kardashian.

hence the screen name--> dave0

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Mine is totally boring - first name, last three letters of last name. Save for "real name" boards, have been using the same handle since '99 or so.

ETA: it is nice to see some folks with the same username as on the 930 club bb, not that I have been there in years, but still.

Mine also is pretty boring as one of the other Keiths on the board. I used to use other variations of my first name or random things back in the day on various BBS, board, etc when the internet was still young. These days I don't post on too many other boards, but I joined DR soon after it started coinciding with my foodie evolution (I stopped being picky and skinny, and now I eat and know probably too much about food and should get more exercise than walking to the next restaurant :D ) When the board started, Don suggested that people use their real names and while I wasn't comfortable with being totally transparent, I use my real first name. Yet, I have always had the same avatar which is a clue to my last name.

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KTMoomau is my first two initials and *technically my maiden last name, now part of my last name. I started using that as my name back on Chowhound when it was a black and white very rough message board way back when and AOL Instant Messenger (oh yeah). I then have used it since on foodie sites and other online sites so that anyone who knew me from my past very prolific posting on Chowhound would know it was me. I later graduating from school and entering into working life have thought about changing to something that wasn't quite as recognizable. Now due to the fact that I work in a career based on networking and people remembering you, I am not very worried about it. I find that once people first come across my last name, it is difficult to forget on the next occurrence. There are some Moomaus of various spelling in the Virginia area. And the family has a pretty interesting history of having a lot of lawyers, so I like to use this name.

I know when people met me based on what they call me. Katie they knew me from ages 4-17, Kate 18+, family KT (pronounced differently than Katie), and most people who know me from work call me Katelin, as well as, family friends who knew my Mom never wanted me to have a nickname and could stick with it. I answer to all four, but rarely assume if I hear anyone yelling anything but KT in a crowd that they really mean me. I also find it very funny that my Mother spelled my name phonetically so that people could pronounce it easily and more people say it wrong than the traditional spelling. I also had many years where I tried to insist people call me by my middle name, Taylor, which never worked out, so that is what my blog and personal business are called Kate Taylor.

*My married name is Briney, but it's so English... And I am not English at all. Plus people spell and pronounce it wrong as often as my maiden name, yet there is no intrigue into the origin of the name or memorization after first learning it. I like my hard to pronounce and spell French last name because it is memorable and catchy. I always tell people just think cows and your Ma.

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It should be painfully obvious that my username is a shortened version of my actual name, but it specifically comes from the AOL email address that my father set up for me back in the days when connecting to the Internet involved a telephone (my father's account is the same without the "Jr"). I actually still use that AOL address as my personal account, which people occasionally make fun of. I maintain that an AOL address is "retro cool," like driving an old car, but without the safety concerns.

Also, I am a superhero.

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Betty is my first name and Joan is my middle name. Well, correction - Joan *was* my middle name, before I got married and legally changed my middle name to my maiden name. However, in Jewish tradition, I am named after a beloved deceased relative - my maternal grandmother - so both names are very special to me.

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Ender's Game?

Close. Very close.

Have you ever seen this amazing sketch from the 90's MTV comedy show "The State"? http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b8a4df31a1/porcupine-racetrack-by-the-state-from-greatest-comedy-sketches Every time I see your username I sing the Porcupine Racetrack song.

:D Nope, never saw that. I have to admit I never wondered about your screen name, but I have wondered why Speed Racer is your avatar. (When I was a wee lass I wanted to be Speed Racer when I grew up. Except I didn't want to be a guy.. I wanted to be Trixie in his role. Trixie was cool: not only could she drive the Mach 5, she flew the helicopter!)

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Mine's obvious. Louise is my name, Weezy is my nickname and has been since I can remember. Any message board I sign up on, I try to get Weezy as my screen name; if I can't, I add the first 3 letters of my last name and use weezycom. And I am not a superhero.....it's just too much trouble trying to get those bomb explosion stains out of the cape.

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It should be painfully obvious that my username is a shortened version of my actual name, but it specifically comes from the AOL email address that my father set up for me back in the days when connecting to the Internet involved a telephone (my father's account is the same without the "Jr"). I actually still use that AOL address as my personal account, which people occasionally make fun of. I maintain that an AOL address is "retro cool," like driving an old car, but without the safety concerns.

Also, I am a superhero.

I've had one AOL address since1994 and the other since 1995. I do think my co-workers who won't give up AOL for work stuff are a bit loony (in fact, I think we still PAY for those accounts) but I do use the personal one a lot. Shortened version of first name, middle initial, last initial plus my birthday. The irony is that as a Jennifer, I almost always prefer Jennifer to Jen and I'm always surprised when casual acquaintances call me Jen since I never refer to myself that way. I will say that family and close friends call me Jen, and people from high school call me Jenny even though I refused to answer to it for 4 years...

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Well the origin of my name is not from food, actually. It's my nickname given to be by my husband. He's been calling me an iteration of "squids" or "squidly" ever since I don't know when. We grew up in the same neighborhood, have known each other since Jr. High yet did not date (save for the one date in Jr. High) until after high school.. He jokes that I know all is old girlfriends, and, well, I do. :rolleyes: We've been officially together 33 years, and married 27 yrs this year.

It evolved from the toe-tapping, waiting around for me to get ready when we started commuting to work together I don't know how many years ago--possibly 24 or so. "Quit diddling around" became "squidly diddly" (from the cartoon) which was shortened to "squids"

So now I answer to the squid, squidster, squid-bear, squiddles, squidgy, and many other names with the origin thereof...and it has been my screen moniker ever since. If you see me and call out hey squid, I will definitely turn and answer!

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My given name is Elizabeth but as a child everyone called me Beth.While nothing wrong with that,,I never understood why my parents gave me a name they never used for me. Finally in grad school i made the transition to being known as Elizabeth. It is a stark divide in my life and a clear indication of when someone met me. Elizabeth has so many nickname possibilities and the one I always detested was Liz (at my local Starbucks, baristas know not to make that assumption).In the mid-late 1980's, some of the economists at my agency (it took us a long time to hire what are now known as IT staff) were setting up the Wang system, and knowing I detested being called Liz, humorously gave me the screen name "Lizzie" and as many above have experienced, it has stuck for many years as a screen name/login etc.

Interesting. My daughter is named Elizabeth Kathryn (my father's initials) and we always just called her Elizabeth, (or Kiddo as I still do). Between her first and middle names she clearly had the possibility of hundreds of nicknames, but she chose Liz. To each her own.

As to mine, When I joined my final employer (I'm long retired now), they had just set up their internal email system and their practice was to assign aliases by using the full first name and the initial of the last name, so I became johnb. That was in 1990 or so just when I started joining various internet sites so I sort of adopted it as my handle for food-related boards, and have it on all that I have ever signed up for; 99.9% of my posting is on Chowhound and DR, but I have it on eGullet and some others that I seldom visit any longer, including 285foodies (Atlanta) and LTH (Chicago). Of course, there are many johnb's out there so I seldom can get it on websites with large memberships; I got it on CH the first day they went to the new software and on DR shortly after it started -- I think I'm member # 78 or something like that.

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I picked my handle based on my Curious George avatar, which has been a favorite of mine ever since I stole my college(!) boyfriend's T-shirt (with the same picture) to sleep in. I've always loved Sondheim, so even though Sunday in the Park with George isn't exactly a great show, I thought it'd make a good, albeit long screen name for using this picture. And then changed it to Sundae, for food, since that's what we're all about!

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If you see me and call out hey squid, I will definitely turn and answer!

I was in a very seedy bar once long, long ago, and I heard someone call out "Herschel!". I turned to discover they were hailing someone who wasn't me. This has happened only that one time.

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Mine is pretty self-explanatory. :D

My American mom met my Canadian dad because of hockey. I was born and raised in Canada, so I've been watching (and talking) hockey all of my life. Santa pays for my NHL Center Ice subscription.

I'm typing this while watching Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The NHL should not be playing in June.

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so even though Sunday in the Park with George isn't exactly a great show,

Boy Howdy, do I have to disagree! I have a DVD of this show--which was taped for showing on PBS--with Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin, when they were young and at their very most beautifulness. Just astonishing! The theme song runs through my mind on many occasions. An ear-worm that is quite welcome.

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Boy Howdy, do I have to disagree! I have a DVD of this show--which was taped for showing on PBS--with Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin, when they were young and at their very most beautifulness. Just astonishing! The theme song runs through my mind on many occasions. An ear-worm that is quite welcome.

If you ever want a spare CD of it, you can have mine (which I bought at the play itself).

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I posted as plain old Deb on Chowhound when they didn't require login. When they changed, Deb was already taken so I had to add the DC. Boring, I know.

In real life, I actually prefer Deborah--especially at work. In my old profession (HR), I met many job candidates and employees. If I ran into someone in public and they called me Deborah, I knew it was a work connection. Over time, I just got used to it. Now, only old friends and family call me Deb/Debbie.

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Remember "Moonlighting" with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepard? Remember their office assistant? It was the 80s and everyone just discovered BMWs and pesto? And if you dressed nice and wore your hair a certain way you could make a lot of money?Allyce Beasley played Ms. DiPesto. Note how all three of these cast members have 2 consecutive 'L's in their names? Coincidence? I think not!

Hence, the introduction of the word "boinking" and the use of very, very foggy lenses.

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I was "Busboy" on eGullet. Since eGullet's relationship with other food websites tends to be tinged with hostile paranoia (particularly if said websites were founded by a dissident former Senior Official and populated by Known Malcontents) and since I had agreed to become a Senior Official for eGullet in the wake of my predecessor's self-imposed exile, I thought I'd low-key it by taking on a different name for DR. Being uncreative about these things, I inflated my former syllables -- bussing becoming waiting, boy becoming man. And am now stuck with a handle I have hated almost since the instant I typed it in.

This gnawing resentment over my name (as with that boy named "Sue") is why I am such an asshole.

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I was "Busboy" on eGullet. Since eGullet's relationship with other food websites tends to be tinged with hostile paranoia (particularly if said websites were founded by a dissident former Senior Official and populated by Known Malcontents) and since I had agreed to become a Senior Official for eGullet in the wake of my predecessor's self-imposed exile, I thought I'd low-key it by taking on a different name for DR. Being uncreative about these things, I inflated my former syllables -- bussing becoming waiting, boy becoming man. And am now stuck with a handle I have hated almost since the instant I typed it in.

This gnawing resentment over my name (as with that boy named "Sue") is why I am such an asshole.

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I refuse to surrender my excuse for being a sick, spiteful, unattractive man who believes his liver is diseased.



Besides, I seem to recall from the earliest days of the site, an official diktat proclaiming that names could be changed only in the direst circumstances.

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I refuse to surrender my excuse for being a sick, spiteful, unattractive man who believes his liver is diseased.

Besides, I seem to recall from the earliest days of the site, an official diktat proclaiming that names could be changed only in the direst circumstances.

[i've probably changed 3-4 people's member names in the past couple of weeks! It's not a big deal.]

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