How did you come up with your username? Why did you choose it?

[aletheos]

Aletheos, from the greek word for truth αλήθεια(alítheia), changed to have an os‒sounding suffix to turn it into a masculine name(at least that's how I thought it worked at the time I came up with it, years ago. I don't actually know greek).

Why? It represents my ideal self, a truth-seeker and truth-speaker. The person I would like to be.

[AY38910]

It came from General Instrument's iconic soundchip, the AY. Dad had an old ZXS 128K in the attic, which used this chip. He had it since 1986 (I think). I loved making music on that thing, playing classic games...it was also what introduced me to programming. I would often sneak into the attic, plug it into an old portable TV and mess around.

Unfortunately the motherboard broke in many pieces not too long ago, turning the computer into a nice paperweight...

I chose this username as a tribute to it, because that thing was what started it all.

[zeroxmachine]

zerox machine is a lyric from my fave person adam ant's early single zerox ant was inspired by bowie calling himself a human xerox machine & i think the descriptor resonates a bit with me too; not in a plagarism sort of way as the song entails but in the way that everything i create and want to create is a mixture of things that i love.... song's embedded below!

[mychemicalvyvanse]

pun i came up with because i love MCR and i'm on ADHD medication lmao

both are recent developments actually! i didn't get into MCR as a teen because... honestly ppl were really awful to MCR fans online Back In The Day and i was scared of getting made fun of. but CRINGE IS DEAD and i think in my 20s i stopped taking myself so seriously, so i think i was more open to embracing the kind of earnest Angst and Drama as a way of getting thru hard times. in 2019 i went through a really awful breakup with someone who i really bonded with over shared music taste, so every band i liked reminded me of our relationship - and i think i started listening to MCR a lot around that time because that was familiar music that my ex didn't like  also started getting close w my best friend around that time and we kinda bonded over famous last words being our fav song. and then one thing led to another, i went as revenge era gerard for halloween 2019, and then THAT DAY they announced the reunion. ... and then i finally saw them on the reunion tour in 2022 and i cried soooo fucking hard 

and then like many ppl, i got access to ADHD assessment and treatment as telehealth got big and as ppl were starting to sink into the whole 'wow working/completing school from home is doing a number on my ability to focus' thing. i'd been trying to get support for it for years and the doctors in my area didn't believe me, but then i finally moved to a city where the healthcare providers are generally..a bit more progressive than the ones in my hometown. so anyway now i can follow my own train of thought, i'm maybe slightly better at regulating my emotions and coping with distress, and i can prioritize sensory input well enough to uhhh understand how roads work. so that's pretty neato!   

[patchworkgirl]

had many new beginnings in life. am technically covered in patches and stitches. the nickname somehow works well for my case. 

[CosmicRot]

Well, I like Space... I like Zombies... and CosmicRot sounds kind of like Cosmonaut :p
also I really like going by Rot! I think it's fun. 

[haumeaGeth]

Ours is a shortened version of our system tag, Haumea Geth Collective. It also happens to look rather Homestucky, especially when shortened further to HG, which is pleasing to me-

'Haumea' because a number of us like using space and technology as comparisons to help conceptualize how our system, brain, and body functions (and our husband suggested 'Haumea' because it sounds pretty), and 'Geth' because we've always really related to Legion and the Geth in Mass Effect, even before we were made aware of our plurality.

[WynterSkies]

I'm so excited to read through these responses lol

Mine is the name of my first OC I ever made!! At like 11 I think I came up with giving a girl water/snow/storm powers and naming her Wynter, she's just become my online persona ever since ^^

[fawn]

Around five years ago I was staying with my parents over Christmas. It's a really rough time for me like for so many others, and I woke up at about 4am with dread rather than excitement. I was still a smoker at the time so decided I would have a chilly cig to calm my anxieties. For context, this house my parents were in was pretty much in the forest. There was a worn down pathetic excuse of a fence separating the yard from the forest, and then behind that was the cemetery. You could basically step right into the woods and trudge through to the cemetery if you wanted to, very aesthetically pleasing and vibey if you're in to that sort of thing. Anyway, I get my coat on, grab my bad sticks, and head for the back door. This was a Christmas that had blessed us with beautiful snowfall. As soon as I opened the door, no more than ten feet away there was a deer and her fawn. I'm no stranger to deer where I live, and I was ready for them to zip away immediately. That didn't happen though, they just stood there watching me. I closed the door behind me, expecting it to startle them but it still didn't happen. I smoked an entire cigarette with the two of them just watching me while the snow fell softly. I'm not a relgious person, and I don't know what I do believe in, but to me that was a sign to keep going. It was such an emotionally overwhelming experience that I'm still not over. They didn't bolt until I went back inside and through to the kitchen. It's one of my favourite memories and since then I've used Fawn as an identifier for myself in certain spaces online. Fawn is usually taken though, so I've been through a few iterations but have kind of landed on userfawn as my backup. I love getting asked this question because it's one of my favourite memories and one of my favourite stories to tell.

[cynderthekitsune]

i think my current username was because of my online nickname (cynder), and the kinda species i often think of myself as (kitsune)
so i tied them together, so it's "cynderthekitsune" 

though, i have had several usernames in the past that i used, but i don't wanna include them here as there's risk of me being cyberbullied again (tracking me down, potentially identifyable; also for privacy reasons), but yea.

i just thought my current username is unique enough, and so far it hasn't been unavailable in pretty much all the things i've been signing up for with said username! plus it's one of my favourite original usernames, too

[ewomack]

Hello, I'm still fairly new here, but I'm enjoying the discussions I'm seeing.

My username doesn't have a fascinating or gripping tale behind it. It's "Ed" (which is not my real name), melded with the last name of one of my brother's very former girlfriends from eons ago, "womack." I thought it sounded like "wombat." I didn't expect to use it for so long. I used "Ed Womack" and then contracted it to "ewomack" for usernames. I've made tens of thousands of posts on numerous forums with that username over the years. I often wonder how large of a book I typed on the web.

See? I told you it was a story full of intrigue and drama. Though my brother doesn't like being reminded of his very ex girlfriend every time he sees my username (I get the sense the relationship didn't end well). He eventually got over it.

[fawn]

I often wonder how large of a book I typed on the web.

I love this sentiment and often wonder similar things, it would be nice to be presented with a tome of our ramblings over the years. Well. Nice if I can be selective in what eras of my life I want to read from, some things can stay in the vault! 

[KrazyKoen]

My parents bought me my own Minecraft account after me having to share one with my older brother for years. I was trying to pick out a name when either me, my dad, or my brother thought of 'KrazyKoen'. I had never seen the word crazy spelt with a K so this was incredibly novel to me. I still like the name to this day so I haven't changed it.