How did you come by your Nickname/Avatar

By Mumblefratz Posted May 14, 2009 05:15:58

In another thread someone posted the following.

Mumblefratz, I dare you to read your own quote, look at your avatar, and *not* fall off your chair laughing.

It was germane to the conversation in that I had said that I *wasn't* trying to lecture someone while doing precisely that.

In any case it gave me pause to think how random and spurious my choice of nickname and avatar was and also caused me to wonder how other folks end up with the nickname/avatar that they've chosen.

So here's my story, let's hear yours.

look at your avatar, and *not* fall off your chair laughing.

If you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?

As to my choice of avatar and even my nickname both were very spur of the moment choices that at the time I had no idea would turn into such a long term decision. If I had realized that then perhaps I would have put more thought into the matter.

How do most people come by their nicknames/avatars anyway?

In my case up until I bought GalCiv2 close to 3 years ago, I had no real need of either avatars or nicknames. I never really had much interest in the internet as a form of social interaction. To me the internet was simply a convenient source of datasheets for various electronic components as opposed to needing to have bookcases full of databooks, although I have kept some of them simply for historical reasons such as my original TTL Data Book for Design Engineers, 1st edition, 1973.

It was only when I had a question about this new game that I bought and I had to create an account in order to post a question and was part way into the process that I realized I needed a nickname. At the time one of my co-workers had been using the term mumblefratz to indicate a non-specific technical discussion whose precise content was not germane to the current discussion. Sort of like technobabble but not quite. Anyway when faced with having to come up with a nickname I picked mumblefratz simply because it was both random and unique.

As far as my avatar I did put a bit more thought into the matter, after all I did have to search for a suitable picture. I settled on Martin Luther for a number of reasons, none of which are because I'm at all religious although partially out of respect for the Lutheran minister that ran the 1 room K-8 school that I attended throughout my childhood. But probably a bigger reason was that he was a slightly pudgy, pasty faced, aging white guy and that description fit me quite well. Plus who can resist the funny hat.

With that the die was cast and it's not something that I could change even if I wanted to. I am mumblefratz and mumblefratz is me.

+124 Karma 177 Replies 16 Referrals

Interesting back story there Mumble. I had wondered about the name myself on occasion.

As for my Nick...well it could not be simpler. My name is Neil. Through out high school there was a trend to attach an O to the surname/christian name of our friends to create a nickname, or at least an abbreviation of their name.

Heffernen became Heffo..Sutherland became Sutho, Mark = Marko...you get the picture.

Neilo.

I tend to use different nicks on different sites depending on my level of interest/involvement. If not Neilo i tend to use names derived from the movie Pulp Fiction, as many of you also know me as BMF. I could be be found many years ago on the Rise of Nations forums as The_Wolf (Winston Wolf), and on various other sites as Ezekiel.

The avatars i choose though can vary. Usually they will reflect the nick i am using on the site/game in question, but sometimes i will just pick random or cool looking avatars too.

My avatar here in Stardockia ATM reflects my current interest in Demigod (though i would like to have separate avatars for GC2/Demigod) where at ToE.com i use a Jules Winfield (BMF) one and at the core for instance, IIRC i use the superman logo.

So nothing particularly interesting to my story, though i am intrigued as to others choices.

My nickname's origin goes back a decent while. I had recently bought the game Star Wars: Empire At War. After nearly 3 months I found the map editor for the game on http://empireatwar.filefront.com eventually, I decided to put some mods and maps that I created onto the site, but I needed a nickname. I wanted it to be somewhat humorous, but fearful. "Fear" alone looked childish, so I mixed it up a little and ended up with "IrationalFear". That's when you're afraid of something rediculous or simply unusual. And notice it has 1 "r" in Irational when there should be two. I didn't notice this untill later, but nobody ever noticed that, or atleast never said it to me. and it stuck.

My nickname was founded long ago on a little known game called Star Control 2. in it, we were supposed to make a nickname for ourselves. because i wanted to look cool back then i decided on my current username. My Avatar (not pictured here) is called Mr Black from the Madness Combat sereis.

I wanted to download GC2 from Impulse, and it asked me to sign in. I thought I would never use the forums, so I tried not to put too much effort into the nickname. Turns out not putting effort into something is actually a bit hard, and I actually did care about the nickname even though I thought no-one outside of the Stardock web department would ever see it. Then my black lab, Scout, walked past me, and I just though "ScoutDog". Forgot to put thecapital D in it, and it stuck.

The avatar is actually the Silver Legion logo from my still-in-progress Metroid mod. When I decided to scrap the Silver Legion, the logo just sat around on my desktop until I thought "I wanna avatar. Thus, Scoutdog was born.

Mumblefratz... I like that name. Up there with Dr. Awesome, Noobie McNoob, and Kilbo Fraggins.

Me? Warlok is a necessary mispelling from early bulletin board days, when the proper spelling was taken. The name itself was what I gravitated to in my arcade days. My avatar is... me. Probably one of the only decent pictures I have ever taken.

Gabber is referring to a very short hear cut i had once. And Kooij is referring to my last name. 10 years ago some colleagues called me GabberKooij when i entered the office after a hearcut. A few weeks later I had a LAN party with some of them and I used it when playing Duke Nukem 3D / Unreal Tournament.

Gabber is used in several ways in the Netherlands, in my case it is just referring to friendly and not to a music style

I've choosen this avatar because i like Ducks, they play a big role in the creation of my last name. (Kooij here is referring to duck traps)

Ducks are even used in:

van der Kooij wapen

Almost every forum I am on I have a different nickname. It just happened that when I was entering details on the forum I had a little book on my desk that I'd unearthed from a drawer somewhere, which had some scribbles in it from when I was about 9 years old. One page had a whole load of 'secret agent' stuff on it, and the first codename at the top was Astrath. Hmm, that'll do.

The avatar is one of the Elemental ones

Ha, interesting question. My nickname actually comes from the fact that I can never think of anything creative or cool when I need a username. I'm a fan of the NFL, and when a team can't get a first down or score, they punt. I couldn't come up with a creative nickname, so I'm a punter. I just tacked on a number at the end from my high school baseball days. The avatar was just a drawing I found that's in the public domain.

Actually mine comes from the name generator from Everquest 1. When it came out I tried to create a character with names and they were always taken.

Solam was something I never heard of. I never have any problem using it anywhere.

My nickname is because the one I wanted was already taken.

The avatar is me from the late '60s. That's what they tell me anyway.

mine is pretty self-explanatory

My 'user name' happened more or less like Scoutdog's, except I think it happened when I registered GC1. However it happened, I missed the whole forum thing and any UI mention that I should enter a persona name and not my name. It was only a long while later that I started wanting to ask questions on the forums, and a good while after that before I thought to bother with a forum pic.

My first one was a Gangster Psilon I found on the net--I thought it evoked my basic TBS taste for tech superiority and playing nicely until AIs step out of line and get themselves whacked. When Brad posted the first wave of Elemental avatars, I wanted to show booster spirit and the Hand worked for me by both evoking some elemental 'balance' (I like playing neutral in GC2 and am hoping for some neutral factions in Elemental) and because sometimes people should just Talk to the Hand.

I had a real online nickname back in the BBS days, but I don't remember it. I regularly wish I'd known this (these) forum(s) was (are) a nickname context when I set up my account. The real name--well, that and my verbosity--seems to make some folks think I'm far more serious than I actually am.

Well... for more then 10 years i drink Coca Cola, about 2 to 2.5 litters a day
so i assumed i am an addict, and thats my nick.
The avatar is the USSR + the Red Star of USSR, that is because i am socialist/communist

My story isn't nearly as involved as some. Basically it was 1991/1992 and I was using the Internet for the first time from my dad's office at Penn State. I had to create a logon for some system I wanted to check out, and dad told me not to give out my real name. So I sat there thinking about what "nickname" I should use. I made a random sound, and typed that out.

And thus, "Zoomba" was born. I've used Zoomba consistently on almost all sites I visit/services I use for the last 18 years.

My avatar is Richard from the webcomic Looking for Group (http://www.lfgcomic.com/).

My nickname is the product of extreme geekiness and love of Tolkien's books. "Annatar" was a name Sauron used at one point when deceiving the elves. This is way before the Lord of the Rings timeline, and is referenced only in the extra reading (it also shows up in the Encyclopedia of Arda on the web). So, basically, nobody really knows that's what it is. I've been using it since before the movies popularized LoTR, and I chose it because it's somewhat ironic and is not that far from defining my personality.. I can be tricky, devious, and scheming to those who deserve it, so I'm not always a nice guy.

The avatar is a graphic from one of my favorite shirts, and it basically shows off the kind of humor I like and use. It's simple but witty without being stupid

Ragnar is my real name. I think I added the 1 because Ragnar was taken. I wasn't to concerned about an avatar for a while, and then i just went on a google picture search for a Viking.

I played football in college, and I tutored my teammates so they could proceed to the NFL ( There's no way I was big enough to go myself, so why not help others make millions ). My last name is Persell, and one night after practice at a group tutoring session, whatever I was explaining was apparently WAAAAAY over thier heads. One of the guys said "I feel like I'm talking shiznit with Piznit" and the name stuck from there. This was in the late 90's when Snoop Dog was actually relevant. Even the tape across my helmet in practice said "Piznit"

My nickname story is kinda lame. I sometimes like to write ficitional stories using myself as main character. After a while I wanted to change that up but I really like my unusual name of "Tayr"(ta'er), I have yet to find anyone with that name though doing an internet search I came across a ficitional story that invovled a planet called Tayr. So in order to keep my unusual name invovled but no be so egocentric I flipped it to become "Ryat"(Ry'at) and started to use that in all my comp games. Still have not settled on an avatar but then again I kinda like not having one.

Annatar11

reply 15

Lord of Gifts I believe. You may give out wonderous gifts and advice to all good folk of Middle-Stardock, but the wise ones will see through your disguise and refuse your gifts, and are thus safe when you use the One Karma to control all who stand before you. When you have hegemony over almost all Middle-Stardock, the great men come over the sea from Stardock Support and imprison you. You deceive and manipulate them into attacking Stardock itself, who call upon the great Frogboy to cast you all down into the shadows, leaving you a veangeful spirit, determined to rise again to become Lord of the Karma and regain control of Middle-Stardock.

Well, not quite... [e digicons][/e]

Charvel is a brand of guitar owned by Jackson now. I own a Charvel Model 1 hence: Charvel1

The avatar is the album cover from Rush's Fly By Night. Always liked that cover with the owl.

I lol'd And yes, it is Lord of Gifts.

nickname: combined with my first name gives the name of a popular triangular chocolate, given to me in high school.

avatar: random graffiti i found on a garage door in bristol

I got my name because I like samurai. I decided to use that name, but samurai was taken. I didn't want to put a number in it because that would make it look dumb, so I misspelled the last letters and got my name. The avatar was something I found while browsing wikipedia. It is supposed to be the Japanese character for samurai, so I kept it.

Samurye. [e digicons]:ninja:[/e]

Interesting reading

When I was about 19/20 the name I had been using on the internet suddenly became very childish and embarassing, it had to be changed. Upon this realisation I had to think of a new one, it came quickly really, I was eating a bag of Haribo sour mix, so there it was I'm forever more known as Haribo, or so I thought.

When trying to use this name in some games it was obviously blocked as a trade mark and so I shortened it to Hari. In real life, people I knew mostly from online would call me Hari or "Harry" as it is pronounced even though my name is something else.

More and more the name Haribo and even in some cases Hari was already used, so I switched it, a variation on the spelling using the same phonetic, and I became Haree, and it doesn't seem to be used by anyone else, at least not yet. Oh and I was born in 78 so I often use Haree78 to ensure no name clashes.

The Avatar was from an Anime I enjoyed and I thought it was a fairly friendly looking Avatar so why not?

Plus if you actually know what the Avatar means then you wont mind if someone else is using the same avatar too, because it fits the Laughing Man theme.

Miyamiya is a nickname for a character in the show "Bamboo blade" (a kendo anime) since her full name is Miyako Miyazaki. The character herself is very aggressive, and likes to inflict pain to her opponent ^^.

Haruko, my avatar, is different character from FLCL, but it turns out she is rather aggressive and a little bit nuts as well. : P