Your Virtual Name.....Why?

[Medhue Simoni]

The other day, I was in another world, and someone asked how I got my name. After I told my name creation story, everyone else joined in with some even better name creation stories. 

So, I will start. In RL, I have a very common name. Extremely common. When I gave myself my virtual name, it was the very early days of email. I had to give myself an email, and I really hated the name with numbers format, like John256, because having a common name, It felt like I was now just a number. At the time, there were all these suggestions on how to pick your name, and 1 of them was to just look around the room, and something in it could essentially describe you, in a way. Right next to my desk was a basket full of tubes of paint. As I tried to find something in the room that might be a good name for me, nothing even seemed reasonable in the slightest way. Finally, I just thought, I'll just reach into that basket of tubed paint and see what I get. What I grabbed was cadmium orange medium hue. I thought, hmmm, medium hue, that is interesting and kind of suits me. Eventually, I shorten it to Medhue.

Please share your name creation story!

[Lindal Kidd]

I joined under the old system, where you picked from a list of last names and came up with your own first name...and then hoped the combination wasn't already taken.

I tried several last names at the sign up page, but didn't come up with a first name/last name combo that I liked.  Finally tried "Kidd".  I thought about appropriate first names, and for some reason, the Lindal Cedar prefab homes popped into my head.  "Lindal" sounded feminine, and different from the more usual "Linda".  So I tried it with Kidd, and glory be!  I was in.

In RL, Lindal is a most unusual name.  And, much later, I found out that in Scandinavia, it's most usually a male name!

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

Ar Duenn = Celtic for 'The Black', a nickname for the old forest at the eastern Belgian/French border. Schwartzman = German (Yiddish maybe, because of the extra t) for black man. So, Blackie Blackman, I guess.

[Maitimo]

Matty is not short for Matthew, as most people might think. It's actually short for Maitimo, a character from Tolkien's Silmarillion, better known as Maedhros. I've been a Maedhros fanboy for years and years (he's my favourite because, like me, he's missing his right hand, and gay af). He is also the reason why my avatar has always been a red-haired elf.

When I joined I was quite lucky, a new list of names had been recently released so it was relatively easy to get even a common name like Matty with most of them.  Luminos is a reference to the Silmarils themselves; crystals of light.

 

[Garnet Psaltery]

I chose Garnet because I loved the necklace with a garnet gemstone that I had when I was 5.  I chose Psaltery because it was the only name I liked out of the ones available, and I enjoy Early Music.

[Beth Macbain]

My RL first name is Beth and Macbain was the first normal sounding name that came up on the list (after refreshing a few times). 

Beth Macbain is my second avatar. My first one was my RL middle name and the first normal sounding name that came up on the list (after refreshing a few times). 

Beth is an awesome name and I like being me. 

[Alyona Su]

Alyona starts with A and Su is a Chinese surname. Done.  LOL

[Janet Voxel]

There is a Janet Osilio in real life. I’m pretty sure she’s married now and has a different last name though.

Anyway, I always thought it was a cool sounding name. Some names just sound cool when you hear them. To me, it’s a cool sounding name. It’s a Filipino last name, I’m not Filipina either, I’m French Canadian. When you grow up in Quebec, you get used to hearing French sounding names. When I moved to the US about 10 years ago, different sounding names were like music to my ears.

I heard her name and was like....yeah, cool name. When I made this alt everybody got Resident. So I jammed them together JanetOsilio because you couldn’t put the period between the name.

Seemed like a good idea at the time. I get called “Jane” a lot.

[LittleMe Jewell]

"Little Me" - Looking at our avatars on the screen, they look like little people and in many ways Lil is simply a miniature version of the real me.

[Clarre Marques]

The name Clara makes me happy.  I had to add a whole lot of letters and numbers to get there, though.  I simply couldn't commit to a Clara number. Eventually I chose this because I swooped and swirled in longhand my imaginary signature, and I settled when I liked the shape my name makes when handwritten.  

[Eva Knoller]

Eva is my BFF’s name and I’ve always loved it. Knoller was completely random. I don’t think I even scrolled through the list much or I definitely would have picked something else. I honestly did not expect to be on SL for a week, much less 12 years from that moment.

[ChinRey]

The names of my two first accounts, Tess and Lynx, are handles I used in various internet forums before SL even existed. Tess was just some random letters I typed in when registering at a long gone chatroom, it didn't even occur to me until alter that I accidentally hit a genuine name. Lynx is the Norwegian wild cat and I am a Norwegian cat lover.

Renate Isabella - or Bel for short - was a character from a book I started writing but never finished. I can't for my lfie remember where I got the name from.

Chin Rey was an accident. I fell in love with Tokyo Girl's avatars and wanted an Asian-ish alt for them. She was just supposed to be a minor just-for-fun character but then I met a builder who ordered me to go to the Brewery and there I was sent to the Ivory Tower. That got me itnerested in building and only an hour or so after I happened to meet Aley and I was completely sold. If I had known she would end up as my de facto main, I'd have chosen the name more carefully.

I don't really know how Jazz got her name, it just seemed to fit.

Storm got her name when I was desperately trying to come up with one for my new tester alt.I looked out the window and there it was.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Cute word for wolf + this. I was too young.

I mainly go by Nina which was just a name a friend of mine came up with some years ago.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Punky Starchild]

I think the name I have is self explanatory lol

 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

1 hour ago, Medhue Simoni said:

The other day, I was in another world, and someone asked how I got my name. After I told my name creation story, everyone else joined in with some even better name creation stories. 

So, I will start. In RL, I have a very common name. Extremely common. When I gave myself my virtual name, it was the very early days of email. I had to give myself an email, and I really hated the name with numbers format, like John256, because having a common name, It felt like I was now just a number. At the time, there were all these suggestions on how to pick your name, and 1 of them was to just look around the room, and something in it could essentially describe you, in a way. Right next to my desk was a basket full of tubes of paint. As I tried to find something in the room that might be a good name for me, nothing even seemed reasonable in the slightest way. Finally, I just thought, I'll just reach into that basket of tubed paint and see what I get. What I grabbed was cadmium orange medium hue. I thought, hmmm, medium hue, that is interesting and kind of suits me. Eventually, I shorten it to Medhue.

Please share your name creation story!

I do not remember it was like 12 years ago. Not sure what was running through my head. Should have made SexyNymphBondageLVR sewell I might be more popular.

[Love Zhaoying]

Because Love.

[Janet Voxel]

6 minutes ago, Ziggy Starsmith said:

I think the name I have is self explanatory lol

 

Is he like....some cat from japan? You know....screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo?

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, Ziggy Starsmith said:

I think the name I have is self explanatory lol

 

I had the t-shirt with this in the 80's, but his eyes were closed.

[Tari Landar]

Tari is part of the name of one of my old rl businesses, which was, in part, a translation of part of my rl first name in a fake language-complicated, eh? It's also a name I have used in multiple games, just usually with a different last name, or no last name at all. 

Landar I just picked from the list, lmao

My display name is just my name with hubby's last name. I also have a Tari Bravin, who I made both so no one else would take it (was dealing with a turdburger at the time who was being rather...vindictive) and also so I could unghost myself and drive people batty by having both of us side to side-this got way more fun when display names came along. 

[Janet Voxel]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I had the t-shirt with this in the 80's, but his eyes were closed.

Gotta get the heterochromia in the pic man....gotta.

[Rolig Loon]

When I joined in 2007, "Loon" was one of the available options for a last name.  It seemed just offbeat enough to suit me, and it appealed to my love of being alone in the woods and lakes in my part of the world.  "Rolig" is more aspirational.  In Swedish, it means "funny", as in a funny story.  In Danish, it means "calm".  I don't think of myself as either funny or calm in RL, but I have always admired people who can be.  Besides, it's unusual enough that I was pretty sure I would be unique in SL.  As it turns out, a few people have since found ways to incorporate "Rolig" into parts of their names, but I and my alt (Rolig Resident) are the only real Roligs.  That suits me just fine.  

I have found that a lot of people assume that I must have misspelled my name (or maybe they are not careful readers).  I have been called "Rolling," "Roly", "Rolo", and many other things.  I find it all funny.  And I am quite calm about it.

Incidentally, as a tangential bit of history, science fiction author Keith Laumer once wrote a delightful short story in his Retief series that he set on the imaginary world of Roolit. Laumer was a retired member of the US Foreign Service and had been posted in Scandinavia, so was familiar with the languages.  His Roolit world was the sort of quirky place that I have found many times in SL.  I swear that my own name was not derived from his story, which I read some time later, but it's a nice parallel. (BTW, "Rolig" is pronounced Roolig with a very soft g -- almost like an H. When used to modify a masculine noun, it becomes roligt --- hence Laumer's Roolit. )

Edited October 9, 2019 by Rolig Loon

[Rhonda Huntress]

Nothing profound or even interesting for me.  I just like the name.

[Amina Sopwith]

6 minutes ago, Rhonda Huntress said:

Nothing profound or even interesting for me.  I just like the name.

I always think of that Beach Boys song when I see your name. Help me Rhonda, help help me Rhonda...

Sopwith was for Snoopy's Sopwith Camel. Amina has a slightly more personal reason behind it.

[Clarre Marques]

21 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

I find it all funny.  And I am quite calm about it.

This line, and the setup before it, is why I read and relish every word you write! 

[BelindaN]

Well, my practice on other forums was to use my first name and the first letter of my second name.  I came here knowing nothing about gaming protocols, so did the same thing. My name was available. Simple. 

I just never though most people would use aliases.  That was a surprise.

When I discovered that you could have an alt, I made BelindaSalt as my test bed. She was never intended to go out. She became Salty,(what else!!).

Edited October 10, 2019 by BelindaN