User names origins (Slightly OT)

[Prins Willem]

Yesterday at the event our club was attending I was talking to fellow member Chuck Steffen. Many of you know of him as a provider of quality fiberglass hulls. He was telling me about some of the phone calls he gets. As WSBA website administrator I handle the club e-mail account and I also field queries from RC Groups forum members. Chuck is techno challenged (i.e. not online, no e-mail) so I receive inquiries and pass along his contact info. Chuck told me that more than once a caller has asked about me in terms of my user name "Prins Willem". They wonder if perhaps I have delusions of grandeur (Prins), or am I living an alternate lifestyle (also Prins). We had a good chuckle over this but it got me thinking about user names. Some are obvious, some not so much. Here is the background on my choice.

The Prins Willem V is Dutch motor freighter which sunk outside Milwaukee harbor Oct. 14, 1954 after it tried to take a shortcut between the tug Sinclair Chicago and her barge Sinclair XII. This was the second sinking for the Willem. She was scuttled in 1940 at Rotterdam by the Netherlands Army to block the New Waterway River and deny its use by the Germans.

The Milwaukee sinking played a prominent role in the life of one of the principal founders of the company I work for. In compiling historical information on our company I became familiar with this ship. there is also a very nice model of her in the Humanities dept. of Milwaukee's Main Library. I half kidding tell people I chose the name because we're both 50+ year old wrecks in Milwaukee.

http://www.pcdiving.com/survey_shipwreck_history_willie.htm
http://descocorp.com/company_history.htm

If any of you have a good story about your user name lets hear it.

[joe31hat]

Not sure of it's a good story, but it mine. Joe31hat: After 20 years of not owning a boat I bought a 1971 31' Hatteras. We have moved to 38' but I just can't change my username. We had far too much fun on that 31. So that's the story. :)
Joe

[amdaylight]

Mine is after a favorite train, The Morning Daylight that ran between LA and San Fransisco every morning. One of the best looking trains in North America.

Amdaylight

[Hoghappy]

Pic says it all. :D

[CG Bob]

My name is Bob, and I served 27 years in the Coast Guard. I picked up the nickname CG Bob when I was stationed in Florida and there are two versions to the story, both are true.
1. When I joined the Bay Area Electric Boaters, I was the second Bob to attend meetings regularly. To tell the bifference between us, some of the club members would say that's Coast Guard Bob. Later we had another Bob jointhe club and he ran a carpet cleaning business - Carpet Bob.
2. I did some volunteer work with Pinellas Habitat for Humanity, and some of the old timers would say "that's Bob and he's in the Coast Guard". Two of the sote supervisors started calling me CG Bob.

[Kmot]

I own a television station.

http://www.kmot.com/

[jdcanadian]

mine's not so original but my name is Jerome D*****, and i'm a Canadian(although i live in Dallas). I've also done some pseudo(?) research on the origines of user names and have realised that you can really learn alot about a person from it... my fav is the pot-heads that always seem to have "420" in their names...

[capt_redde]

I like Walter Matthou movies, watched his movie Pirates, later on I was modding Sid Meier's Pirates pc game an remembered Captain Redde, Walters character, chose it as my user name, aarrrrrr mateys.

[785boats]

I too have often thought that knowing the reasons for the selections of tags would be interesting.
Mine's pretty basic. When I joined R/C Groups all my boats were powered by Johnson 785 motors.
I also remember one of the old salts at our club ask the question when I turned up with my latest creation for a test run "Is that another 785 boat?"
I guess it just stuck.
A 785 motor is still my brushed motor of choice.
Cheers.
Paul.

[jz78817]

it was my student ID at university, I use it online 'cos it's never already taken ;)

[420TEE]

my fav is the pot-heads that always seem to have "420" in their names...
SAY WHAT? 420TEE happens to be the model of my 52 year old John Deere tractor. 420 also happens to be the model of my aluminum TREK bicycle. Pot-head my ass. :censored:

[Swift16]

SWIFT16 is easy, too. It is the name of the type of boat and its hull number of my first US Navy command, a 50 foot Swift boat in 'Nam.

John

PS: I thought that KMOT was really Tom K backwards.....silly me! :D

[capt. spauldin]

What prompted my choise of user name and avatar? When I was a kid, I spent way too much time watching Marx Brothers movies. And if I'm going to steal material, I always like to steal from the best.

Cheers,
Capt. Spaulding

[nocal707]

From Northern California, tha 707 specifically

[Ghost 2501]

mine comes from Ghost in the shell, the 2501 reffering to "projoject 2501", to which Ghost in the shell revolves around, reason for ghost 2501 was made because the java-chat stream on this site shortens my name to "ghost in the sh", however my avatar is actually from Appleseed. its dunan, cant get any good ones of batou from ghost in the shell or major kusanagi.

[jerryj98501]

Jerryj98501 Nothing special, just first name, last initial and zip code. Jerryj98501

[420TEE]

mine comes from Ghost in the shell, the 2501 reffering to "projoject 2501", to which Ghost in the shell revolves around, reason for ghost 2501 was made because the java-chat stream on this site shortens my name to "ghost in the sh", however my avatar is actually from Appleseed. its dunan, cant get any good ones of batou from ghost in the shell or major kusanagi.
Oh, that makes everything crystal clear. :confused: :confused: :confused: ;)

[Kmot]

Oh, that makes everything crystal clear. :confused: :confused: :confused: ;)
hahahahahahahaha! Yep, it sure does! :D :D

[fuzzmonkey11]

lol mine comes from playing halo 2, all of my( friends had names refering to either monkeys of chimps, So when it came time to make a name it had monkey in it and the fuzz comes from the fact that when my hair grows out it gets a fuzzy look. Its a little strange but thats what usernames are for. The avatar is a destroyer because i recently visited Bath Iron Works and loved the Arleigh Burkes. Oh and the 11 on my username comes from my college grad year (2011)

[tweety777]

Mine is pretty simple, my bird is called Tweety, and 7 means (in the bible) something like perfection, but then the much better way (not that i'm perfect, i like to be perfect, but will probebly never be), and as a sort of response to 66'6 i've decided to go for 3 7's.

Greetings Josse

[arrow5]

HMS Invicible, pennant number RO5 .........Arrow5. Named after my other model that isnt a Springer ! Ghosty, we need more info, I havent a clue what you were on about. :confused: :confused: :confused:

[seaphoto]

SeaPhoto is the name of my company, I tend to take photos of things that float on the sea LOL

Kurt

[tsenecal]

mine is a dull, uninspired reason.

every since the dawn of time, my account name on almost all sites has been my first initial and last name. "Tim Senecal" becomes "tsenecal"

for me, the dawn of time was an apple-link email account i started with as a student rep for Apple while in college back in 1986.


the only account I have that doesn't follow that convention is my email on comcast.

bastards :)

[more coffee]

mine just says it all ..

[norgale]

In 1947 Grandpa McGill bought a new Garwood 16 foot speed boat. He named it after me and my sister,Norman and Gale. Norgale. "Has a kinda nautical ring to it" he said.

[ropanach]

Mine came about through frustration, when setting up the family's very first Email account, every thing we tried for two day's ( because the system would time out )
was being used by someone, so I took the first two letters of the names of each person in the family that was on the account, RO-PA-NA-CH, and it's been that way starting in 1986. My avatar is my face cut and pasted on a knight that has just killed a dragon, don't know why looked good so I used it.

[drakonis]

hey guys still check in. just taking break from playing. so mine was supposed to be named after the constelation of drako. the last dragon. i got it wrong. but it still works although some people think its a harry potter reference. in which it is NOT! sure the movies are good but im not a fan of potter. im a dragon freak. black dragons are my fav. i have a few dragon statues around and waiting for the inheritance (5 yrs afrter dad passed and still nothing, stepmom sucks) for the rest.

[RhumbLine]

I have to admit that of the MANY things that I was/am called Rhumb Line was the nicest moniker anyone ever hung on me. "Rhumb Line - A method of navigation that is a straight line between two points on the globe. Mostly used for short or often traveled routes. Best results are achieved using Mercator Projection charts." I was stationed in the Caribbean on an Island Class Patrol Boat, CGC CUSHING (WPB-1321). It never failed that several times during our patrols we would get that ever so important 5 "O" clock intelligence report and have to "get up on the wood" quick to try and intercept the latest ghost target. As the OOD I was either on the radio or listening closely and would then order up both main engines, direct the navigator to take a fix and lay out our plot, then I would announce what course and speed I had settled in on. After the new Captain (LT) saw this a few times he asked if I knew every Rhumb Line in the Caribbean? I told him no but I always know where I am, where all the islands and channel entrances are, and navigation is simply applied geometry. I jokingly licked both of my thumbs and held them up to eye level as to look down and line them up to take a bearing. That particular sortie was a shade under 200 NM and we had to move to get there before daylight. Almost immediatley after making the joke with my thumbs the navigator annouced that my stated course was good and we were on track, but I may want to correct one or two degrees to the right to correct for set and drift. :rolleyes:

Rhumbline
Scott (USCG, Ret)

[MILLERTIME]

It's Millertime!!!

[green-boat]

Mine comes from the first boat I entered in a regatta, it was a green Dumas Mucho Macho. On the entry form it asked for the boats name, my boat not having a name I just wrote in green boat.

[Ironman929]

I got the ironman(yes the cartoon) nickname after a couple of motorcycle accidents(both not my fault), a head on at 50km/h-resulting in a bruised ankle. A 160km/h broad siding a deer(can you say POP goes the weasel), flying off the bike, sliding for 100 yards and only getting a bruised wrist. WOW, you must be made of iron! :D

[toesup]

Mine?

In my 'other' pass time as a pirate re-enactor, anyone who joins the group has to have a pirate name.. and by their actions (at a later stage) is given a 'nick name' by the rest of the group.

When i joined, i had neither name...

On the first evening, around the campfire (and a few ethanol beverages) i was offered some 'cordial' (strong alcohol). Back in Great Britain, a cordial is a concentrate fruit drink diluted with water.
I asked, and got half a tankard full.. and promptly swigged the whole lot down in one gulp.

.. at this point, i fell backwards off of the bench...

"Oh.. look, its a Limey Toes-up" someone shouted..

Toesup has stuck :o

[SilentHunter]

When I made my account in 2003, I was playing the awesome {at the time} Silent Hunter II sub sim, and making my first U-boat for RC.

[Trakka]

Some of you might be thinking campervans (haha!)...but no!

I used to lead a team of security personnel tracking stolen vehicles.

Great fun! 300 recoveries, 75 arrests.

[thorsail]

Hi . Mine is simple also - part is from my last name ( Thorsen ) and I have
been crazy about any kinda boats since I was a kid - but especially sailing .
The Viking avatar was a simple choice too , although it does bug me the
little fellow doesn't have any eyes......I looked at a lot of norse longboat type
images but they either lost detail in fitting size wise or were too cartoonish.
Here's what I have so far......

[herrmill]

Herrmill is my first username from when I signed up with AOL upteen years ago in the day of 2400 baud modems & comes from the first 4 letters of my former wife's surname combined with my own. As is typically the case in that major life changing experience called D-I-V-O-R-C-E, she got the house, car, dog, etc... & all I got to keep was this lousy screen name.

And you guys probably thought I was German... ;)

[Aerominded]

My other 'passion', besides boats is aircraft... Although lately, it's been all boats. :)

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Umi Ryuzuki is translated as it states under my avatar.
She is a charactor from the Japanese manga, Magic Knight Rayearth.
The books were written by the artists know as "Clamp".

And I understood everthing Ghost2501 said... :rolleyes:

[nick_75au]

Nick, obvious, 75, year I was born, au, Australia, for some reason Ive never had a sign up where another was using it :D
Nick

[Ghost 2501]

incidentally, when I joined the internet forums, i needed a name, and the sound track box was right infront of me, so thats what i used


Nick, obvious, 75, year I was born, au, Australia, for some reason Ive never had a sign up where another was using it :D
Nick
And theres me thinking you were 75 when you joined :p :D

[AndyKunz]

My name? I dunno, I'll have to ask my parents.

Andy

[norgale]

These explanations are really interesting. I've often wondered where some of these names come from and now I know. I'll take "Millertime" as being the simplest reason for a name and Umi and Ghost for the most complicated--that being because I never heard of the books and characters that they are talking about. Must be something to do with the younger generations. Ha! Pete

[Greysquirrel]

Greysquirrel was a cat I had for 15 yrs. When I started a couple of small businesses I used the name Greysquirrel-Enterprises and Greysquirrel for all the forums I belong to so I don't forget it and use the name of the first dog my wife and I had for a password for all forums and websites that are not financial in nature so I don't forget what it is. Not that I forget anything.
What was the question again?

[norgale]

Hahahahahah! Good one GS. I have the same problem and the same solution. Pete

[charlie eaton]

Mine is very simple,my name plus the cruiser for my former employment (couldn't find a HUEY at the time)

[785boats]

I knew this would be interesting.
This will be a long thread if everyone posts.

[mrbassman]

Ex-bass guitarist (and acoustic upright) from when I lived in NYC. Had it so long I can't change it now.

Ken

[Habanero]

Oh, that makes everything crystal clear. :confused: :confused: :confused: ;)He got me hooked, really good series similar to the movie Blade Runner.

My avatar is my face cut and pasted on a knight that has just killed a dragon, don't know why looked good so I used it.LOL I always thought it was Marilyn Manson. Damn pot-smoking, head banging model boaters!

[large mike]

Mine is the same as a lot of yours, easy to remember logins and passwords. Large Mike is from the Large Scale Planes forum, building 1/32nd and larger plastic airplane and helicopter models. This user name I just carried over from that forum, and I also use it on the Model Tug Forum. (I see many of you do the same).

Large Mike

[Shaun Hendricks]

Yeah... well, I was given my handle at birth. I tend to use my real name in public forums. Occasionally I'll use a handle.

If you see another forum post under the name "Anarion42", that (and just "Anarion") has been my handle since the old BBS days. Anarion is one of the greatest "Kings of Gondor" in the Middle Earth Histories of J.R.R. Tolkein. 42 is, well, the 'Answer to life- the universe- and everything' for you Douglas Adams fans.

Ghost, Umi, I knew your hobby and affinities the moment I saw your names and Avatar's. Comes from watching Anime back before it was fashionable and being introduced to it by Speed Racer and the Space Cruiser Yamato series in the guise of "Starblazers". It might also be related to spending 7 years as the Director of Video and Technical Services for Anime Expo... which gets me nominated for "Stupid Volunteer Masochist of a Decade" award. Big fan of both Shirow and Clamp, though the Clamp girls have taken a couple of strange turns in the last few years.

[Ghost 2501]

oh even to add to the manga, another anime forms part of my email address, Megazone23.

going back to appleseed, has ANYONE got the soundtrack of it? and perhaps megazone23 on DVD? i have it on VHS along with bubblegum crisis.

[heavyhauler]

I thought about (OVERSIZE), but I'm just a little fella.

[woodybob]

I got this handle when trying to get a user name on a web page that rejected dozens of desired names. Out of frustration, I typed in woodybob, it was accepted, so I kept it, (re: Urban Cowboy). Everybody in that movie was some sort of Bob. Had it ever since. :o

[MILLERTIME]

I know what you mean Woodybob.
I’ve got cousins in Texas and Oklahoma.
Billy Bob
Bobby Joe
Joe Bob
Uncle dad Bob
Sue Bob
Johnny Bob
Amp

[keith S]

Mine is a birth right. Easy to remember my first name when meeting people at events if my name and ID are the same. Last name is too long and confusing so the letter S is enough.

[Vince Hoffmann]

Mommy gave me mine :)

[avidjeepr]

I like jeeps. :p

[jeepers1940]

Me too; we have a small fleet of them, so sons came up with my moniker. It is rumored that 1940 might be my birthyear, but I'm not so sure about that. As Pete says, Ha! :D
Bill

[Richard92]

Richard was given and 92 was random...

[capntroy]

I drive boats for a living.

[pops52]

I go by pops in as many forums as I can. When I registered here there was already a pops (although I've never seen a post).

I'm older so pops fits.

Here's me as a young'n

[norgale]

I thought about (OVERSIZE), but I'm just a little fella.

WOW! That's some load there heavyhauler. What kind of a machine is that anyway? Pete

[pkboo]

PkBoo, stands for peek-a-boo (duh!) and was my CB call name way back. I use to show up un-announced or un-invited at parties but was always welcome (or so I thought!) and so got the nickname "kiekeboe". PkBoo came to be because I could get contact with the US in the daytime and tried to CQ to the States. Most would ignore me but I got plenty of postcards in those days! Boo

[charlie eaton]

PKBOO, Mine was 1Q7143 and the best radio units had 4 channels. The cheap ones like Pierce-Simpsons had an external plug for a crystal and you had a box with others in it to change channels

[Ghost 2501]

norgale, its a cat frame steer articulated front end loader, the truck, i think its a Peterbilt 379 :)

[pkboo]

Hey Charlie, I had a 21 channel, don´t remember the name anymore but it came from RadioShack. I had it mounted with a car antenna on an aluminum roof. That roof bounced all kind a signals in the daytime, you could hear the silence when the sun went down :eek: Great and fun times, those were the days :) Boo

[charlie eaton]

Hey Charlie, I had a 21 channel, don´t remember the name anymore but it came from RadioShack. I had it mounted with a car antenna on an aluminum roof. That roof bounced all kind a signals in the daytime, you could hear the silence when the sun went down :eek: Great and fun times, those were the days :) Boo

Yup,that was before the morons and idiots got on the air. My Uncle was on the Motorola design team that came up with the original single channel system. It was intended for use by taxi cabs. It had a very large heavy unit in the trank and a control head in the cab.

[SabreHawk]

I think that anonomity is the key behind some usernames, but I've never felt any reason to be that way. Nothing to hide here. ;)

So, I chose mine long ago when I signed up for a flightsim based online race.
It was called "Battle of the airlines 2003, Mission Moon." The name Sabrehawk was what I ended up with as my forum name for the support forum for the race.
I've always been a big Star Wars fan, and of the Jedi especially. And of course, my love of flight comes in. So, there was also this movie character in "Space Cowboys" I admired played by Tommy lee Jones, that being "Hawk".

Well of course the name Hawk was already taken somewhere on the net, so I just took Sabre, as in lightsabre, and that character's handle of Hawk and married them together and it hit without any changes.
I've stuck with it ever since, and of course now its mine.
I had this picture in my mind of a hawk swooping down to attack with a pair of lightsabres in it's claws, so.............a Sabrehawk. :p

[Boatfox]

I have two handles...one for online gaming (Dogmeat) given due to the fact that my wife left for work one day and said, "if you are still playing that game when I get home you're dogmeat!"....guess what I was doing 8 hours later.

Boatfox from a family nickname and the fact that I am heavily involved in boats. Working, building, repairing and now modeling them.

Avatar = gave the dog a $20 one day and he actually took it. No he wouldn't give it back either, but I managed to get him to pose for the pic. Struck me as very amusing that an animal somehow knew "value" of what daddy gave him. RIP :(

[JerryTodd]

It's, um, my name. Well, Jerry's a nickname for Gerald.
Ever since I used to run a dail-up BBS in the 80's I've been a proponent of using real names. People will spit out some nasty stuff from behind an alias that they won't when their real name is visible.

I do have a couple of user names I use in other places. In reenacting circles I sometimes use SgtTodd. My "callsign" from Red Baron flight sim days was Uhlan and I've used that in paintball stuff online too.

http://mainecav.org/1mecav/uhlan.gif (http://swwisa.net/uhlan)

[der kapitan]

Mine is self-explanatory, isn't it---? ;)

Comes with an affection for beer und bratwurst---. :)

Works for me---. :D

[pick013]

Mine is totally uninspired....Pick for the first four letters of my last name and if I remember correctly I was having trouble setting up an email account and happened to be watching a James Bond movie at the time....Pick007 was taken so I used 13 which has been a bit of a lucky number for me over the years.....

[avidjeepr]

Pops52, That picture is great... :D :D

[heavyhauler]

Sorry for the delay in reply, I've been at my folks house and could not remember my password to log in. That's a Cat 992 loader,150,000 lb striped down as it sits on the trailer. Me and the kids went to the open house at the Soo locks on Friday, will post pics later this week.

[Prins Willem]

heavyhauler, Look forward to seeing the photos. Do thay have you cross the lock gates to get to the admin building? I read someplace that the CG base was holding an open house too. Did you get to check that out?

[heavyhauler]

Yes, you had to cross the gates, gets kind of crowded with two way walkers and folks leaning on the rail. We did get to the open house at the CG base But the camera battery died on the first pic. Got on board the Buckthorn and the Katmi Bay. Working on getting the pics up.

[towboatjoe]

I was raised on the Ohio River and towboats have always been a fascination to me. After I started building models of them, one of the guys at Boggs Landing said here comes Towboat Joe and that's what I've been called ever since.

[fooman2008]

The Fabulous Foo is because of the mustache that can touch the bridge of my nose. Somewhere along the line I discovered that to go by Foo (my real name is Jay) is hard anywhere with a lot of noise; too much hey, OK, eight, or even Dave (had three on my last site want to talk about confusion!), foo is easier to pick out
Foo

[der kapitan]

Ah so then, grasshopper---. Fu Manchu---? ;)

[HYDROJERRY]

hay guys my on line gaming name is phantomlord from the band metallica for those who dont no, my nefue plays in a band and said i was the phantomlord i gess because i love the song, so it just stuck with me, but on here hydrojerry because i love the way hydros look and run in the water and my names jerry i thought it sounded cool to

[fooman2008]

der kapitan
Yes I can can chu?
Fpp

[desron48]

ok.......DESRON48.....all you old salts out there should know what DESRON is....those who don't.....it means DEStroyer squadRON my main interest is destroyers and build them at 1/48th scale there we have it....DESRON48.....joe

[Prins Willem]

This has been a very interesting thread. It gives a small glimpse into the people on this forum. User names have been chosen for practical or whimsical reasons, assigned by friends or associates, or just because they are easy to remember.

It got me thinking more about the folks on this forum and the various interests they have (which is evident in many of the user names). Here is another way to take a peek at what interests you. What photos do you use on your computer desktop? Here are mine from the past couple of years. I change my desktop photo a couple of times a year.

[HYDROJERRY]

i can bairly work the computer. i use my wifes expensive lap top at home and use the shops computer at work, not sapose to, so no pictures yet for me. probly couldnt figure out how to even do that yet. see no avitar yet but hopefully in time.

[der kapitan]

Thanks for posting your local pix, Willem. :)

Always love to see views of the G-tugs---. ;)

Am familiar with the "global warming" photo---. :eek:

[herrmill]

I change desktop photos about as often as my underwear - yes, that's daily & sometimes more often depending on the locals' driving skills - so these are just a few. :)

[MILLERTIME]

"No additional comment needed."

I think he might be kin to my old boss!!!

[herrmill]

Yes, we've all had our share of those. Another reason to hang out your own shingle.

[green-boat]

I second that.

[thorsail]

I started out with a nice shot of the real "J"s Valsheda and Ranger blasting to
weather , then found a nice pic of RC "J" class yachts sailing............

[nick_75au]

This has been mine for a while, these guys travel up the coast each year around this time including Migaloo who makes headlines every time he's spotted

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8126237.stm

My previous desktop was the Wally 118

http://adelto.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/img_118wp_center_0005_pop_1.jpg

Nick

[785boats]

Here's my latest, followed by a couple of previous ones. And yes, Sam is my boy shredding that axe.
Paul.

[tim slocum]

I have three. Ones my name, ones PredreadNut, because I love predreads and Im Santa Fe All the Way on the model RR forums.

[gpzy]

My screen name is from one of my motorcycles. A 1982 Kawasaki GPZ 550. Friends have been calling me GPZY (gypsy) ever since.

[fooman2008]

tim slocum,
You ever build the old Idaho (the one that they sold to Greece)?
Foo

[Prins Willem]

I installed a new avatar photo. It is the propeller off of the Prins Willem V. A local diver took it off many years ago, before the wreck protection laws were put into effect.

[Kcal]

Ha, sorry mine isnt so imaginative Kevin CALley but it was given to me.

[norgale]

785boats what the heck is that green thing in your picture? pete

[Ghost 2501]

norgale, something VERY QUICK he he he.

[785boats]

Hi Pete.
It's called the Anaconda. An outrigger of unknown origin going (as Ghost so clearly & succinctly put it) VERY QUICK. :D
I liked the way that the front sponsons are just breathing on the water.
Paul.