this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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This has probably been asked before but I wanted to add another layer/an alternative.

So, I ask, where did your username/pseudonym/nickname originate from? What's the meaning behind it?

Or alternatively, which is the most creative/interesting nickname origin you have come across?

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[–] Gaspar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The Old Man waiting for you at the end of time in Chrono Trigger is Gaspar, the Guru of Time. (At least in the US - in Japan he was called Hash)

I thought it was fitting since I ever so briefly ran my own instance (endofti.me) when I first jumped ship from Reddit.

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[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is a question I was asked all my life, so already in 2004 I wrote a blog post about it: https://paradies.jeena.net/weblog/2004/oct/jeena-paradies but it's in German so I'm posting the translation here:

It was sometime in the year 2000 when I had already been DJing at small parties for a while, playing house, drum’n’bass, big beats, and electro. When people asked who the DJ was, everyone just said, "That’s Richard." Naturally, that didn’t sound very cool for an alternative DJ. Then my cousin, who was also a DJ but played the more mainstream style of techno, chose the name DJ Alec-tron, which put some pressure on me. Since we often DJed together, and I didn’t want to go down in history as "DJ Richard," I needed a proper DJ name.

So I started looking for a suitable artist name for myself as a disc jockey. One day, we took the train to the Love Parade in Berlin. We stocked up on canned beer the day before and opened the first can as early as 3:00 AM (in the middle of the night). The fun and drinking continued merrily. I occasionally glanced out the window, hoping to find inspiration from some distant land (aka eastern Germany).

And then it appeared—like the Holy Grail once revealed itself to King Arthur and his knights—from out of nowhere: the station sign "Jena Paradies." I instantly knew that this would be my new artist name. It was as if the hand of God had guided me along the tracks to Jena Paradies station and bestowed this name upon me.

Jena Paradies train station

A month after the Love Parade, I had my first gig as DJ Jena Paradies. There’s even photographic evidence from that time:

People at a party, a DJ spinning vinyl records

But over time, I didn’t want to be named after a station in eastern Germany anymore, so I started thinking of a new, better version of the name. I realized that if I added an "e," the name would be pronounced like Gina Wild’s first name. That sounded much cooler to me, so it became my stage name to this day.

Pronunciation: First name pronounced like Gina Wild’s first name roughly "Djeena" and last name pronounced like the German word "Paradies" paradise

I now use it almost everywhere related to me as an "artist"—very often online, with my band, and for photography, which I want to do more of in the future.

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[–] RandomStickman@fedia.io 8 points 1 week ago

I first used this name during the "lulz xD so rAnDum" era, and I like to draw. So, RandomStickman

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I literally have a slur for a diagnosis.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago

Glitch from the original Pokemon Red/Blue.

[–] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 week ago

It came from long list of mispronounced words from a Ukrainian girl that came to our country when the war started.

The list is gold mine for usernames, I have to contact my friend who dates her to get it.

Someone submitted a web form with this name.

[–] Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It’s a reference to a more obscure Marx Brother, as in the 30s-40s comedy group. Does not have any special significance to me personally.

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[–] Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Former skydiver.

Performed a lot of Demonstration jumps into everything from airports, race tracks, professional sports stadiums, high school sports stadiums, golf courses, and a few other places that required skill and knowledge to land in safely.

Also, spent a lot of time teaching canopy skills to up and coming jumpers.

I am kind of introverted, am I actually introvert or socially awkward or whatever doesn't matter, but for the simplicity I'm introvert and I like cats.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I read a fantastic book where there was the count Valmond or something.

Best name ever, never taken on forums and such, always free!

Til I learned it was de Valmont, not Valmond 🙃 but here I am!

Funnily it's usually pre-used om platforms nowadays.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hahaha Valmont is a small local grocery chain here.

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[–] fiendishplan@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

A fiend told me I'd make a good scooby-doo villain and it wasn't taken by anyone else.

[–] earphone843@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

I have my email service generate an alias and I use that as my username. I delete my account every few months and make a new one on a different instance.

[–] Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago
[–] kubok@fedia.io 6 points 1 week ago

My username is called after my first home brewed beer. It's a portmanteau of a slur used for people of my city and the type of beer I brewed that day.

[–] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] HarvesterOfEyes@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

Because I always wanted to have my own theme song.

But really, I browsed through my music collection by alphabetical order and it sounded cool. Blue Öyster Cult always delivers, even with the title of their songs.

[–] Tower@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

I'm 6'4" / 193cm, so I'm taller than most.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's norwegian shorthand/slang for "No you" (nei du), in the context of for example "Oh no you don't!". A friend of mine had (for unknown reasons) that as his MSN-status for years before his accidental death, and it kind of stuck in the back of my mind. It popped up when I was registering a lemmy account.

This is my 3rd account:
I forgot the password of neidu. Plus it was on .ml before I learned the implications of .ml so no real loss.
neidu2 was on a good instance. The only downside was that people kept assuming I was dutch. Not too bad, as I've been called worse things, but it is more useful for me to mod from sh.itjust.works instead.

For the record: only the accounts mentioned here are mine. Any other variations that may or may not fit my schema are to be treated as someone else. The ones I interact with regularly know this and have other methods for verifying my identity, so don't bother trying to become a mod through setting up neidu4+.

[–] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago

It's a permutation of a permutation of a pseudo random username.

[–] ladytaters@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

When I was younger, I was crazy about Idaho and wanted to move there. One of my old nicknames was Lil Miss Potatoes. Now I'm a grown ass woman, so I'm Lady Taters. People tend to think it's a nickname related to my chest though.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

My nickname was originally "Stoy On" but over time it got shortend to "Stoy".

"Stoy On" comes from a small Swedish comedy film by "Galenskaparna och After Shave", a fantastic group of theatre actors who has had a very long and successfull carreer of comedy theatre, television and film. They specialized in musicals, with plenty of amazing wordplay and some fantastic songs.

Anyway, the film I am talking about this time is the TV film "The Castle Tour", the summary of it is that a group of Swedish tourists are going on a tour of a castle in Sweden, the guide has them confused with an English tour, and the joke is that the guide just speaks a nonsense language.

Now, one of the nonsense pharses the guide used was "Stoy on!", which is meant to mean "Se upp!" in Swedish, and that experssion has two meanings in Sweden, the normal one "Look out!", and the litteral one "Look up!"

At the same time I was getting annoyed at not having a standard nickname online and when gaming.

And since I thought it was fun to have a nickname that meant "Look out!" in some ways, and I liked the sound of it, I adopted "Stoy On" as my standard nickname, and since it got shortend I mainly go by "Stoy" online, or, if it is taken, "Stoy On".

mine is just my normal name given to me in usual earth custom with my parental units assigning me one and another indicating my placement in a lineage. So boring and typical of the species. I mean our species.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I misspelt it back in yahoo chat days (yea, that was a while ago) and stuck with it because it is unique enough that no one else would accidentally grab it.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

Breakfast the day I made my account

[–] jjagaimo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Means potato / lame

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

I once created a character in a story when I was a child about a Jack Green from the planet Æarth, and named an account on a popular site accordingly as a similarly young person, as I lacked nominative creativity, evidently. People kept getting confused between Æarth and Earth so I just changed it to Earth for future accounts.

[–] ClipperDefiance@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Clipper Defiance was a Boeing 707 operated by Pan Am. Its main claim to fame was when on February 7th, 1964 it brought The Beatles to America for the first time.

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 4 points 1 week ago

it's better than what I had before

[–] EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Quote from Fight Club

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

I can remember the Ace part of AceFuzzLord very well. Comes from me always using Ace whenever a game requires a profile name or a 3 letter initial.

The Fuzz Lord part I don't remember really at all, but I assume the Lord part comes from the fact I think pretty highly of myself despite the fact I'm a nobody.

Oh, and do y'all see AceFuzzLord or do y'all see Dizzy Devil Ducky? I have no idea who sees either. I see Ace and I've had other people see DDD. Either way, DDD comes from the fact that he's my favorite Tiny Toons character.

[–] fahfahfahfah@lemmy.billiam.net 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Was supposed to be the thing the kid says in the “pork chop sandwiches” Gi Joe spoof, but everyone seems to think it’s a reference to Jeff Dunham

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Mine’s a music joke and a reference to a line from the song “Shiny” from Moana.

Though if my great grandfather was a god it was of strawberries which is nice. He’d grow plants and ship them to gardeners all over the east coast

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

Old demo crew I formed with school friends when I was a teenager.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago

Around the time I first started using this username about 7 or so years ago, I was playing through the Megaman Zero games, that take place approximately 100 years after the events of Megaman X, which take place during "year 21xx". So 'Zero22xx' specifically references the version of Zero from the Megaman Zero games.

On top of that, I also just thought it was a cool mix of letters and numbers that can look pretty random if you don't know the games, or if I'm not using a profile pic.

The only annoying thing is that at some point around the time I created this username, I started seeing an anime character called 'ZeroTwo' around. So I guess it could be mistaken that I'm referencing that too.

[–] Nikls94@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

An ex drinking buddy was drunk and high as F and would butcher the name of several people. I couldn’t let this one die.

[–] ethaver@kbin.earth 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

My username is a reference to the Wug test, specifically this question: "This is a man who knows how to gling. Yesterday he glanged. Tomorrow he will _____."

My irl nickname is Lizard. This is the story:

I was at what was supposed to be FNM, but none of us were feeling Magic that day so we decided to play Secret Hitler, mostly because it was my fiancée's best friend's sister's birthday so she ended up picking the game.

If you haven't played Secret Hitler, at the start of the game you get a little envelope secretly telling you whether you are a Liberal, Fascist, or Hitler. Liberals want to pass liberal policies to win the game, the fascists want to pass fascist policies that give players ability to shoot dissidents and eventually get Hitler to win. The relevant thing is that Hitler and the Fascists are lizards; apparently the Liberals are normal people, but I don't know for sure since I've never played as a liberal.

Just to be clear, it's almost statistically impossible for me to have never played as a liberal. In each game I've played in, there was a total of 3 Fascists (including Hitler) and usually about a dozen Liberals. I should have been a liberal at least once by now, considering I got my nickname 2 years ago.

On this particular night, we played about a half dozen games, in which I was Hitler twice. I kept suprising them by doing well! They all know I am autistic and can't lie to save my own skin, so as the games went on they got progressively more tilted each time I was revealed to be a lizard. I was also getting frustrated because I really do not like lying!

At the start of the last game, I opened my envelope, saw a lizard, and I was just so fucking done. I snapped at the shuffler, "Are you even shuffling these cards?" and threw my envelope at him. He responded "Well, now I need to reshuffle. And for that you shall die!" and started chasing me around with the Nerf gun we had been using to shoot dissidents. Eventually he cornered me with me cowering and covering my face with my hands, and with a shout of "Die, Lizard!" he shot the gun.

I somehow caught the bullet in between my hands with my eyes closed! And that's why my name is Lizard.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I just wanted something short and reasonably pronounceable, as that's easier to remember.

In the past, I've used a FIPS-181 pronounceable password generator to generate pronounceable usernames that don't collide with existing usernames. But since the Threadiverse is still young, plus each new instance has its own username space, it's practical to have a very short username.

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[–] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I'm a man that likes neon lights.

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I got named Bizzle in like 2008 because my real name wasn't cool enough, it just stuck

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