How Did You Pick Your Handle?

A funny story? A random inspiration?

Published on February 4, 2008 By Zoomba In Blogging

Here's a fun question to start everyone's week out:

How did you pick the handle/nickname you use online?

We have an odd collection of names out here. Ranging from Little-Whip and EmperorOfIceCream to Locamama, DrGuy, Frogboy and more. It's always interesting to see what names people pick for themselves when they are given the chance to create a completely new persona for themsleves.

So, how/why did you come up with yours?

Mine? Everyone alwasy figures there's some great story, or weird inspiration behind "Zoomba" but in reality it was almost completely random. About 15 years ago, I had Internet access through my dad's office at Penn State. This was even before the WWW mind you. I was surfing gopher and such one afternoon and joined a chat room. Now, it asked me for my handle, and I'd already been warned against posting my real name so I had to come up with something new. So what did I do?

I made a random noise out loud, and typed that in. Thus "Zoomba" was born!

What's your story?

Comments (Page 2)

SanChonino

on Feb 04, 2008

I am San Chonino, the patron saint of women's underwear.

Long story I wrote about on my blog approximately eight million years ago.

Tova7

on Feb 04, 2008

"Tova" is feminine for "good", as in "shana tova" ("good year") as opposed to "yom tov" ("good day"). The root for "Tova" is TB or TVB.

Awesome. Thanks Leauki for the info. That's interesting!

I think, so you chose the closest equivalent.

Exactly.

Zoologist03

on Feb 04, 2008

I still play the sax (bari is the horn of preference) but sadly music is not my profession

Heh, I'm a sax player myself...alto is my horn of choice. Though you play one you can play'em all.

My name? Zoologist03...Well, I like animals and want to work as a zookeeper...I also like to research and learn about them...which I have, a lot. The 03 was because of the year at the time I made up the name...and I didn't want to change it every year so it stuck. Nowadays I just use Zoo06 for most things I do online...06 being the year I graduated high school. I prefer the shortened "Zoo" for all intents and purposes.

And there ya have it.

~Zoo(plus I like to sign things...cause it's fun)

Island Dog

on Feb 04, 2008

I really don't remember to be honest. I would guess since I love anything tropical and have a tattoo of a big, bad dog on my arms.......makes sense I guess.

Big Fat Daddy

on Feb 04, 2008

In the sixties I had a soldier who was fond of refusing orders by saying,,,"nuh-uhh...not big fat daddy !" In the seventies I was pressed to have a CB handle and told it could not be my name...BFD just seemed to jump into my brain...later realizing that the initals sarcastically described me.

stubbyfinger

on Feb 04, 2008

So many fictitious names so little imagination.

Some of my other creative UN include, Rolaids, Excedrin PM, Dustoffer, Viewsonic and UserName.

just john

on Feb 04, 2008

Dick Gozinya

[silly look on face]

That was you?

[/silly look on face]

lifehappens

on Feb 04, 2008

Well, I didn't want to be too flashy....I didn't want to appear self-righteous or self-aggrandizing and I didn't want something stupid. I also did not want to use my previous handles, medigirl, yogamomma among others.....
At the time, I felt like I was just cruising aimlessly through life....and the line, "well, life just happens, ya'know?" kept running through my head.

Not too flashy, arrogant, bragadocious or self-identifying.... it just is what it is.

singrdave

on Feb 04, 2008

I have been "singrdave" from my first days online, when on a BBS I was forced to choose something called a "User Name". I started with "Davey-doo" but a college friend of mine who worked at AOL suggested that I incorporate singing into the name. But at the time AOL had a nine-character limit, so it became "singrdave" rather than "singerdave". And I've used it ever since, especially good because no one else has used the unique spelling.

Heh, typing that second name is just so foreign -- I've become so adjusted to being identified as singrdave.

Ziggystyles

on Feb 05, 2008

Ziggy has been my nickname since I was a baby. Not sure when I got it but I believe i was fairly young because, according to my mom, I acted like the Ziggy cartoon character...just sittin and watchin the world go by. My dad and brother still call me Zig or Ziggy compared to Ryan and some of my college buds do as well, but nobody else does. I used that as my radio name as well. Ziggystyles came up somehow when I was in college...not sure totally how, but I had lots of variations:
Zig Papa
Notorious Z.I.G.
...etc.

Adventure-Dude

on Feb 05, 2008

At the time when I created an account here I was a professional adventure racer. Also anyone that knows me, I'm always looking for some kind of adventure.

foreverserenity

on Feb 05, 2008

I chose Forever Serenity because at the time I was looking for a little bit of peace, and serene with problems I was facing at the time, my mom was sick...that's actually how I found JU! I credit Seinfeld with George or his dad aksing for "Serenity Now", "Serenity Now"! in those scenes that were really, really funny! I also wanted to have the peace and mental sereness I was seeking forevers, and since "Serenity Now" wasn't available as an email address, I became Forever Serenity (though I had to add numbers after the address, I just wanted the name!

Ravenblack

on Feb 06, 2008

The raven reference is because I'm noisy online, cawing about this and that until no one cares anymore.

Hyun.143

on Feb 06, 2008

Hyun.143? or Hyun-Jung?

Thats not my real name. Its korean name. I have this korean friend, she called me that...dont know why

Shes the only one who call me that, so i decided to use it here. The number 143...i just make it ^^

CariElf

on Feb 07, 2008

Cari is my preferred spelling of Carrie, which is short for Carolyn. My mother used to spell my name Carey, and when I was about 13 I was going through a baby names book looking for character names for a story I was writing, and found that Carey is one of the boy's spelling of the name, along with Cary. That's when I decided that I wanted to change the spelling. I spelled it Carrie for awhile, but then decided that I wanted something more original. I toyed with changing it to Cairi or Caeri for awhile, but settled on Cari as being more pronouncible. I was absolutely crushed when I encountered at least 3 other people that year who also use the spelling Cari. I was threatening to change it for awhile, but since most of my family was still having trouble adjusting to the first spelling change, I decided to leave it. Now I usually get birthday and Christmas cards addressed to Carolyn, but in person I generally am only addressed as Carolyn when I'm in trouble, and then I usually get my middle name too.

In retrospect, I somewhat regret changing from Carey to Cari, but it would seem weird to switch back now.

I first got online when I was in high school, so I was still fairly melodramatic, and my first screen name was LadyImp. Lady because I liked dressing up as a lady for the Renaissance festival and Imp because my online personna was fairly impish. As I got older and less melodramtic, I felt less impish, and so I changed to CariElf (because I like elves), and I've used it ever since.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!