Forums > Social Chat > Why do we give ourselves names?

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
well, mine is an old handle I used to use when I was somewhat addicted to the internet. I had just started reading River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams and I was looking for a new handle. Blu'Fire just seemed right. now it seems more right than ever. although I almost changed it to something in Latin, But I only just passed first year latin and even though I'm about to start second year latin, I don't want someone saying "oh so you know latin,,, what does this mean.." They never ask the easy stuff, and when you do know it, it's not the translation they were told... it's still right but.... they don't understand. ok, ok, I've had my whinge... I'll stop now.

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
this is my nick from irc which I have used for about 4 years now... and it comes from the poem called The Chakan about a guy who battles death and wins but is tricked by death and becomes his slave...Just appealed to me in my goth days... so it kinda stuck with me.I also use nikodemus (secret of nimh) and kether (which is from the tribe of one series)

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
Cantus my man.. 8 is a slight over exaggeration. I have trouble enough finding time to keep up three. ( Traditional Kaishinkai Aikido, Muso-shinden Eishin-ryu Iaido, or Iai for short, and TaiChi style KungFu).ps: wasnt Probe fun, eh..!!??------------------Kato

Kato

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
heh now this is a topic i like i've been on the internet going on 9-10 years now (man i feel old, despite being 21)i used to go by Darkwind which eventually got shortened to Darky (which was really fun cause i'm a skinny white boy). Well by 1997 about 6 other Darkwinds cropped up and started stating that they were the origionals. Very annoying. So i dabbled around with like 60 other names and settled on Xavier Wulff, my pen name for a book i wrote about 300 pages of in high school before abandoning. This, of course, shortened to xwulff and wulff. I almost never put real info on the net so i created this whole other person and a history (i acutally get smail for him, and i think i got a cc offer once). Since I liked the name a few ppl irl found it out and use it, and once i started twirling and going to raves i started using just Wulff.heheheh sorry but yeah... the whole MPD thing.. ryt here... although u know it gets bad when its hard to tell them apart...

wulff

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
Starburst is a name an ex gave to me which I use when RED isnt available, although I'm better known as RED. Similar to Cantus, RED is basically swiped from the Fraggles (she used to run around like a mad woman getting into mischief and generally being neurotic!) Its nice to step into your true persona by using your true name - the one you feel most comfortable with )------------------I have bursts of being a lady...but it doesnt last long

I have bursts of being a lady...but it doesnt last long

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
Opps...I mean ------------------I have bursts of being a lady...but it doesnt last long

I have bursts of being a lady...but it doesnt last long

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
well my name is basicaly my main rule of poi: if you dont wiggle it dont work!!i picked it up as i was learning, when i found out that if you moved out of the way of the poi it dosnt hurt quiet as much and you also add that sexy wiggle!!------------------Awesome. o wow. like totally freak me out. i mean right on. torros sure r number 1

Posted: 14th Jan 2002
I've changed my mind. I now think everything should be called "Bob"...........Exept for poi, that shall remain "Penguin" ------------------If you love something, set it on fire.

Jesus helps me trick people.

Posted: 15th Jan 2002
Cantus, thanks Fire Princess, you're back on hop and alive ? ::cassandra waves at her favourite raspberry jam provider::
Non-Https Image Link
sorry ... I know ... useless post shine oncassandra

"I want brown bread... no, that is diesel oil..."
"So I was raised in Europe, where History comes from ..."
"NON !!! La Plume de mon oncle n est pas Bingibangibungi !!!"

Posted: 15th Jan 2002
i believe the question wasn't "why did you give youself the name you did" but "why do we gice ourselves names".i have one answer, and it is the right one. superhero complex.i'm willing to bet good money most of you know what your powers are too.love it.

Earth my body, water my blood, air my breath, fire my spirit

Posted: 15th Jan 2002
Princess, you forget that i know who you are and well if ever there was gonna be a psycho on here it would probably be me As for my name, well i really couldn't think of anything when i wanted to post. Looking back i may have chosen differently....spoondoctor, or jnr, or maybe even Darkwing Dave (i particualarly like the last one).But living in australia and being a poi twirler and well being male i guess auspoiboy will do. (that may sound not how i intended it to sound)CheersAPB

Good on usGood on us all

Posted: 15th Jan 2002
clare is my name. im sick of stupid online names. and i seriously doubt someone could track me down armed with my 1st name and the city i live in.and dangerboy, in the magical world of superheros, im the amazing ThesaurusGirl. capable of thinking of a synonym in any situation.

Posted: 15th Jan 2002
Superhero complex - maybe. I always wanted to be that Spaghetti-man from the Super Globetrotters cartoon ("Arooga! Arooga! Now dig this!") So I guess Bendy fits in there too.Obviously I think most people's first reason is anonymity, but secondly they often choose either something about themselves, or something they wish about themselves (eg Superman or Auspoi-*boy* just kidding fellas!)

Courage is the man who can stop after only one peanut

Posted: 18th Jan 2002
Give me a synonym for FrugalCheersAPB

Good on usGood on us all

Posted: 18th Jan 2002
I am sticking to my name Zohar which is actually my real name but it does sound as if I made it up does'nt it?...

Zohar

Posted: 18th Jan 2002
Definitly the anonimity.....But this gioves me the opportunity to let ya know I'm changing my HoP name -- soon to be Kahoona (my surname is Colquhoun (phonetic Kolhoon, and I get called Kahoona) --- changing it coz I'm giving up the smokes! :-)~M:-)~Have a good weekend y'all!!

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

Posted: 24th Apr 2002
here ya go, Found it

Posted: 24th Apr 2002
i gotta say i am a way different guy now than i was when i just had the name i was given at birth...i have felt reborn many times, and been reborn a few times, and have taken on alternate handles, none have stck as of yet, so i get called a few different names...the one i use on here is my online handle...earth and fire and an english translation of my surname....

Posted: 24th Apr 2002
As beings we are always evolving and changing.... I've had several different 'names' of sorts. Though I did meet someone once that said calling myself spiral was bigheaded and arogant............

Posted: 25th Apr 2002
Some cool names around here

Jello is my universal internet boards name. Unless some freak already took it I think it started in high school, when I'd write "chicken flavored jello" on peoples notebooks and stuff when they wern't looking, so that later they'd see it and know it was me. The chicken flavored jello thing came about when I surgically combined a jello wrapper with one of the ramen flavor pack wrappers. I droped the chicken flavored part cuase Jello was simpler and at the time I had a thing agains long drawn out names. That and I do like Jello, it's a quality desert. Plus it rhyms with Hello, a quality greeting if there ever was one. Basically it was something I liked and it stuck and now it just is "me".

_________________________________
Fuzzy Dice.......................................

Posted: 12th Oct 2002
Some of the folks on here dont post much now so I thought it would be cool if some of the new generation added their replies to it now.

Meh

Posted: 12th Oct 2002
Like Lunchbox was saying that his name is derived from Kevin Smith films . . .

Meh

Posted: 12th Oct 2002
sparkie came from my favourtite NBL player, and my friend....

brad davidson's (#14 cairns taipans) nickname is sparkie... and my friend was mucking around and called me sparkie one day and i told her that it was my fav b'balls players nick... and she just kept calling me it... and so did everyone else...so it has stuck. real good.

i prefer to be called sparkie rather than my real name, Cass, cos then people call me Cassandra for shits and giggles and i cant stand it.

so sparkie it is. and it suits poi real good.

And wherever you've gone and wherever we might go. It don't seem fair. Today just disappeared.

Posted: 12th Oct 2002
My screen name for everything is Diamond Weapon, but it didn't suit. So I added Poi.

Don't read this, I AM the gibberish.

Posted: 12th Oct 2002

quote:

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Originally posted by Spiral:
Right this is just a variation on cutie poi girlies whats your real name thread, but why do we give ourselves and use other names? I use spiral, because I think a name should mean something to you or about you. I prefer to be called spiral than liam, as I choose it myself it means more... kinda silly maybe, but still hey, other ideas?

---

Well, why have names at all? I mean, why not just walk around and go "hey, you there!"

The reason is because we are all individuals, so each of us needs some sort of symbol attached to us that differentiates us from the other six billion people on the planet. That way, when someone wants to know where I am (because they need ME for whatever reason, not just any person) they say my name and people know who they're talking about.

Ok, so the problem is that our society grants names at birth. Thus, there isn't much in a name. My given name, "Michael" is an archangel in the Bible. Strange, since I'm not particularly religious. And my last name is some town in Germany. It's not like knowing my name tells you anything about me other than my gender. In some societies, you earned a special name after you "earned" it, which did say something about you. But not in ours. The only thing is that in our society, if you achieve a certain level of education, you get to slightly alter your name by putting letters after it (or changing "Mr." or "Ms." to "Dr.")

But a name is such a significant thing. It's pretty permanent (you have to go through a lot of paperwork to change your name) and yet it's so completely random that it's somehow unsatisfying that such a significan attachment to our persons should give no information about who or what we are.

So when we are given an opportunity to make up a name for ourselves, many people feel that this time, it should have some reflection on who we are.

My standard handle, MikeGinny, is my first name, Mike, and a nickname, "Ginny" that was made from my last name, Ginsberg, in elementary school. It stuck through high school, although nobody uses it anymore. Not very creative, huh?

I figure that once I graduate medical school, since I get to change my legal name, I'll change my handle to DocLightning.

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura

Posted: 12th Oct 2002
Names are a form of power as well. In how many fairy tales is someone held captive because the baddies got hold of their name? In how many more are people redeemed by the finding and assuming of their true name, which is an outer expression of their true self?

Names are identity, they 're how we convey our self to others. The first name on my birth certificate is not one i have ever answered to and i've never felt like it was ME.
How many people wind up with nicknames because someone said "you just don't seem like a *****" and called them something else? Nobody i've asked can picture me as Dorothy. It's a very nice name, it's just not mine. I was given the name Jade and i call myself that because i feel like Jade.
How many people start introducing themself by a new name because they don't feel like a Phil or a Susan or a Mike or a Jennifer.

Which brings me to another aspect. There are quite a few Mike's and Michael's and Jennifer's and Jenn's, though few Jenny's these days.
Often when we give ourself a name, or assume as our own one we were given, it it a more unusual name. This helps us differentiate ourselves as individuals. I've met, what, 5 other Jade's my entire life. In any given workplace, fireparty, nightclub, dog training, dance class, whatever i am generally the only Jade in the room. Not tons of people called Cantus, either.

Many people grow up being called one name and earn/choose/are given another as they grow and change and become their adult self. Sometimes the name they choose is what they already are, sometimes it's what they wish to become. As a child, i was called by my middle name, and some of my family still call me by it (which is fine. It's still my name). I think of it as a "milkname", the childhood name, what we are called so there's something to call us until we knew who we are.

Another reason we use various names online is that in different forums, we are letting our different aspects out to play. I am not so different as all that from one to another, but i have a lot of experience keeping my selves intergrated. But i enjoy having different arenas in which my different aspects can come out to play, and it's a delight to have the option of an indivdual name for each aspect...

Jade is my actual legal name (yes, as changed from Dorothy ), Lynx is not but might have been. I, like several in my family, am very much a cat and always have been. My oldest sister is a mountain lion and i think a lynx is a good little sister to a puma.

When i changed my name, I changed my first name, kept my middle name and my last name as my middle names, and added a new last name. My family name is my heritage identity, where i'm from, and i wasn't giving that up. My last name is my personal identity, who i am. I actually really wanted Rhythm for my last name, as it covers everything i wanted covered, conceptually. But part of the point of changing my name was to have it spelled and pronounced correctly, and I can barely spell it myself.

So there's my 172 cents.

We got the MikeZ in the house, woot!Glue the ham, hat baby!

Posted: 12th Oct 2002
I use C@ntus in so many parts of my life now. My Napalm Fairy giggles when folks call me it. It's kinda cool. Lots of people don't know I have a real name.

I get about 2/3 of my mail addressed to C@ntus.

I like it.

Meh

Posted: 13th Oct 2002

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeGinny:
[QUOTE]So when we are given an opportunity to make up a name for ourselves, many people feel that this time, it should have some reflection on who we are.

---

Mike you have said what has been running through my mind as I read this thread.

I started playing in cyberspace when I moved to London going into chat rooms and that.

In Puerto Rico where I was raised people always called me a loca. Anything I did they just said its cool she loca (crazy).

So hence began my internet alter-ego of Loca25 (I needed a number) but then everyone thought I was 25 so it was a bit fucked up... I am now called Loca 1942 (1942 was when ma dad was born and when the second world war began to come near the first peace agreements) on yahoo cause I've had it for so many years that people wont know that I am me unless I have that name.

About 2 years ago this girl started growing and expanding much faster than ever before so loca was no longer appropriate and I knew it. So then HOP came along and I sat in front of the screen for quite a few minutes staring at the 'screen name:' box. I did not know what to put in...

I was also at a point in my life where I had to come up with my party, deco, music, business, etc name by which most people in my industry will know me.

I happened to be quite torn up about getting back to london after three months in Brazil. As there were no decent parties (like those I loved at our venue called the Drome) readily available and most of my favorite nights had been done in by clubbers from ministry... you know glow sticks flailing uncontrolably whilst they poke people cause they arent aware of the way they dance, eight pills a night just because, etc...

I felt like I had been reborn in Brazil and that I was indeed one fluffy pixie (remember tinkerbell?!) and not, contrary to popular opinion a fairy.

The person you see here and in real life was born in the Drome. It was the place where I learned (as many of you mindscapers will know) how to leave my life at the door and just BE for 14 hours or more in peace harmony and respect.

So I felt whilst staring at the 'screen name' box that I had to learn how to be true to who I was and where I come from.

So here I am.

The pixie,
the one who came to be at the Drome.

Hence my name dromepixie.

Much love n hugs to all you lovely people, Drome

JUGGLEwithyourmind!

Posted: 13th Oct 2002
i fall over a lot.

-As angels debate chance and fate-
i was riding through melbourne on a midget giraffe, things were peachy.

Posted: 14th Oct 2002
Spiral is the name which I have named myself (spiritual you could say)
_ko - I added to distinguish myself from other Spirals.
_ko is Japanese for child (used in a girls name) I chose this cause I lived in Japan for 2 years.

My work name is Elizabeth (way too formal)
My name in the Uk is Beth (easy for ppl)
My name in Canada is Beth Anne (way to north american for the uK)

So you can see it is crazy having multipul personalities!!!

L & L
XxSpiral_ko