Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

[dj_ultima_the_great]

So, I'm a foreign language major. As such, words are something that really interest me, and in particular, I'm always curious about the way we name things. We've had threads before about your username's origins, but what about your real names? (Just first names, please. Internet security and all that jazz...)

1. Who named you? Why did they pick that name? Does it mean anything special? Do you like your name? (If not, what would you want to be?)

2. What about nicknames? What do people call you? Do you have any interesting nicknames for anyone else?

3. What about your username(s)? Does anyone call you by a username in "real life"?

As for me...

1. My mom named me. She picked my (Jennifer) and my brother's (Jonathan) name because of two characters in a soap opera that she liked. Although they do have meanings (my brother's is "Gift of God" or something like that), she didn't pick them for that reason. I don't care for my name. I do not and have never felt like a Jennifer, or even a Jenny/Jen, although I have been called all three equally in life. If I could rename myself, I would probably pick Alexandra, or any number of other "A" names, since I seem to have a liking to them.

2. I usually just go by Jen. My brother calls me Chief, although I never really figured out why. I loved my mom's nickname for me when I was little, but it was embarrassing when I got older, because nobody understood it and all interpreted it wrong. (It is less confusing when written.) Piggy Pea. Piggy because I loved and collected various pig memorabilia, and pea because it was play off of "sweet pea." I kind of hate this nickname now, because people just poke fun at me over it. As for other people, I don't really do nicknames. My sister is BD because my brother couldn't say her real name (Brandy) properly when he was little. My brother is "sibling" and that's about it. I do a lot of pet names, though. Babe, love, sweetheart... things like that. I mean, I don't do it to just anyone - if I don't know or like you, I won't do it. So, if I call someone by a pet name, they can usually infer that it has real affection behind it.

3. I use dj_ultima_the_great (with or without "the_great") pretty much everywhere online, and aside from its original conception, no one ever calls me by that name in "real life." Only on the internet does anyone call me DJ or Ultima or Ulty.

So what about all of you? My stories aren't too interesting, but I'm sure some of you have cool origins behind your name(s) and others'.


- Jen

[JaddziaDax]

1. I don't tell people my real first name because people often abuse it (by calling me by it just to piss me off), besides I don't respond to it. (It's not even on my facebook either.) However according to my "baby book" my mother picked it out because she "always liked it". I don't think that there was anything beyond that. She died when I was a kid so there isn't any real way for me to ask her either.

2. Katie is essentially my "nickname" but it might as well be my real name since everyone calls me it, and it's the only name I really respond to. If someone asks me what my name is the answer is Katie. At a job I used to have, they had my real first name on my badge for two weeks, I had to remind myself that they were talking to me every time they called me it, until they finally changed my badge to "Katie". It was even in the roll call at school as Katie.

I don't use pet names for anyone really. I might use "hun" for my husband, but I think that's about it. Both of my sisters go by their nicknames that my mom gave them as well.


3. I use JaddziaDax on just about everything. Most of my friends on the org call me Katie still so there's only a few friends from other forums/games that actually call me any derivative of my screen name.
I have been called Jaddy, Jazzy, Dax and a couple others. Sometimes in real life, usually just online/over voice chat.

On a related note I often switch between Scoob and his real name when referring to scoobinsmdbz, but he's really the only one I do that with.

[CodeZTM]

1. Who named you? Why did they pick that name? Does it mean anything special? Do you like your name? (If not, what would you want to be?)
I was named Zackary. My mother picked it out. It was derived from the popular Saved by the Bell character. I WISH I WAS JOKING. On the whole, I enjoy the name. THE FULL NAME. I'm not fond of just Zack, but I've gotten over it in my years. I've always loved the name Jake/Jacob, and I wish that was my name.

2. What about nicknames? What do people call you? Do you have any interesting nicknames for anyone else?
My nickname is defaulted to Zack. I'm often known as "Code" online, and that hasn't changed over the years. It came from my obsession with the show Code Lyoko. I've also been known as Code_Chrono, which my obsession from Chrono Trigger.

3. What about your username(s)? Does anyone call you by a username in "real life"?
No, and should that time ever come where my internet life and real life meld together, I will destroy the world.

[BasharOfTheAges]

1) I'm pretty sure my mother named me. I'd ask her but she's ash in a box and therefore can't be bothered to return phone calls. I don't know that it means anything special, though my maternal grandmother, her two sisters (my great aunts) and my aunts told a story of my mother having difficulty during labor (1st child) and they exasperatedly tellign her that i was just-in time.... years later and the joke still isn't funny. I don't dislike my name.

2) I've had comedic types that always try to give everyone nicknames try stuff with me but nothing stuck.

3) Out of my editor friends, Wendy still calls me "Bashar" or just "Bash" in real life. A few other friends used to, but don't anymore... though they do use the name when referring to me in the 3rd person to alleviate any confusion I guess. I actually call dokool and LantisEscudo by their screennames in real life some times because I know so many people with their first names that it's just easier - especially in the 3rd person situations.

[Kitsuner]

I don't remember which of my parents chose my name, but I think that partly because my brother has two biblical names, they chose the same for me because patterns are awesome (it's also why my siblings and I were all born roughly two years apart, alternating between boys and girls ). The reason they chose my specific names is because Jonathan and David were best friends, so they combine well. It's a nice name, but I always get weirded out when I see it written.

I've got a lot of nicknames, especially from my family. JD and Jaded are the only really common ones that I can think of right now (except for generic names like Bro, Brother, Dude, etc.), but there are lots of variations. I'm rarely called Jon or Jonny by people who know me (though it's becoming more common since I've moved to Chicago). Actually, that's not true, one of my best friends from high school calls me Jon. Some of my other high school friends call me by my last name too, so I'm pretty versatile when it comes to names.

I like thinking up nicknames for other people. Some of them even catch on with other people, like calling G_Q "Jeeks" or... well, I'm pretty sure there are others, but I don't really keep track of nicknames when I'm not using them. Most of them generally roll out naturally.

When I joined a-m-v.org, I wasn't really thinking long-term with my username, since I avoided the forum for two years. I just tacked a consonant to the name of one of the characters in the manga I was reading at the time (Love Hina, if you're curious). Once I really became part of the community, people shortened it down to Kit, and outside of my family, school, and work, that's how most people I hang out with know me. It works out well, because aside from going by my last name, most of my names overlap with other people in my circle of friends. Of course, I couldn't do that with my family, because believe it or not, one of my uncles is named Kit. I sometimes get confused during holidays and such when I forget that he's the only real Kit in my family.

[dj_ultima_the_great]

I like thinking up nicknames for other people. Some of them even catch on with other people, like calling G_Q "Jeeks" or... well, I'm pretty sure there are others, but I don't really keep track of nicknames when I'm not using them. Most of them generally roll out naturally.

This reminds me... I believe that you (or possibly sto, but I think it was you) are the first person to ever address me as Ulty - it was in IRC, if memory serves.

[8bit_samurai]

1. I'm named after my uncle, which around here everyone usually name their kids after (deceased) family members, whether it be first or middle names or both.

2. My current nickname around here is Ping, which is a shortened and mispronounced version of my last name. One of my friend's nickname was Al (the one who gave me the nickname Ping), out of that it derived into Albow, which then I turned it into Bobo (shortened from Bobobo bobobo bobo, or whatever that show was called), which everyone calls him now and still sticks to this day, though I usually just call him Al.

[Ileia]

1. My dad named me after a character from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Lt Ilia (The bald woman, for those of you who've seen it) but chose to get the spelling from his other favorite movie, Star Wars. So it's spelled like Leia but sounds like Ilia (eye lee uh). Kinda set the tone for how geeky my hobbies and interests would be....I like both Star Trek and Star Wars, though only the original series of Star Trek and the movies (Nothing after The Undiscovered Country, though) and I like the Star Wars books more than the movies, my last count was that I'd read 119 of them. It ended up being a fairly fitting name for me.

2. I don't think I've ever really had a nickname that's been used often, other than the casual Engrish-is-fun "Ireia" or cutesy-voice-speech-impediment "Iweia". I apparently used to have trouble saying my name when I was little and just lopped off the first half of my name and called myself "ee uh". A few people have had their own nicknames for me, I had a friend who called me "I", which confused everyone. "I just left to go to the store." etc.

3. Yes, people call me by my username all the time. But that's what happens when your username is your name IRL. Every panel I've done has had the same joke, when the other panelists are like "I'm *real name* sometimes known as *username*". And I'm like "lulz I'm Ileia sometimes known as Ileia". Most recently used in the NDK opening. ("By Scott 'Pwolf' Grasso and Ileia 'Ileia' Centracchio.") I used to have a palindrome username, but everyone just called me Ileia (because really, how are you gonna pronounce the palindrome? ). There are a few people that I still call by usernames (Kit is my roommate now and I still call him Kit >_>)

[Kitsuner]

I like thinking up nicknames for other people. Some of them even catch on with other people, like calling G_Q "Jeeks" or... well, I'm pretty sure there are others, but I don't really keep track of nicknames when I'm not using them. Most of them generally roll out naturally.

This reminds me... I believe that you (or possibly sto, but I think it was you) are the first person to ever address me as Ulty - it was in IRC, if memory serves.

I'm pretty sure that was me. I like names that end with a long E sound.

[Ileia]

It's always fun when you give people nicknames and they stick....like Nancy and Boob and Eve.....