What does your username represent?

[airsix]

Did we already have a thread about this? If so, I can't find it.
I'm curious what everybody's username means to them. I've been able to figure out a few of them, but many remain a mystery.
Grateful Diver is probably my favorite to wonder about (grateful is how I feel every time I dive in Puget Sound), but there are many others I'm curious about too. So speak up!

My username is actually related to two other hobbies and has nothing to do with diving.

-Ben

[Penopolypants]

Did we already have a thread about this? If so, I can't find it.
I'm curious what everybody's username means to them. I've been able to figure out a few of them, but many remain a mystery.
Grateful Diver is probably my favorite to wonder about (grateful is how I feel every time I dive in Puget Sound), but there are many others I'm curious about too. So speak up!

My username is actually related to two other hobbies and has nothing to do with diving.

-Ben

What hobbies? Air is, uh, rather necessary for diving.

"Penopoly" rhymes with Monopoly, and comes from favorite butchering of my actual name (Penelope) by a telemarketer. Other mispronounciations include Penalope (rhymes with antelope), Penoley (rhymes with...nothing), and Melanie (?).

"pants" stems from my non-diving female friends...most of us attach pants as a term of endearment to our first names (Nancypants, Jazepants, Amandapants).


Oddly enough, my favorite pronunciation of my user name is actually a mispronunciation by my regular dive buddies....Pen-oh-poly-pants.

[Chevayea]

Funny how telemarketers can be the cause of nicknames. ChevaYea is the phoenetic version of my last name "Chevalier". Telemarketers call me Mr. shovel-ear and I have to correct them..."NO...Its CHEVA-YEA!"

[spatman]

when i was growing up, i had two other close friends whose names were Matt, and also a Pat we were friends with as well. so anytime someone said "_at", four of us would answer. so over the years, nicknames, usually based on our last names, developed to help differentiate us within our crew. instead of Matt, Matt, Matt, and Pat. we became Mormeister, Cushy, Spatman, and Patman.

all this time later, we still refer to each other that way...

[Grateful Diver]

Did we already have a thread about this? If so, I can't find it.
I'm curious what everybody's username means to them. I've been able to figure out a few of them, but many remain a mystery.
Grateful Diver is probably my favorite to wonder about (grateful is how I feel every time I dive in Puget Sound), but there are many others I'm curious about too. So speak up!

My username is actually related to two other hobbies and has nothing to do with diving.

-Ben

Actually, my nickname was suggested to me by a non-diving friend. We were both faithful followers of the Grateful Dead for several years, and when she found out I had gotten certified she sent me a Grateful Diver bumper sticker (Jerry Garcia was the original Grateful Diver). Since there are so many Bob's on the internet, I just decided to use it as a way to identify myself.

Oh, and Pen-oh-poly-pants ... I'm one of those people who always mispronunciated (to use one of my favorite GWB words) your username ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Joshua Smith]

Mine's kind of a no brainer. I'm a carpenter. When I first discovered the internets, everybody seemed to have a secret identity......I chose Nailer, and when I tried to register somewhere and found it taken, I added the 99.

[Sounder]

Mine's dumb... Puget SOUND divER, depth SOUNDER, etc. Just came off the top of my head - not nearly as fun as some folks' names.

[Pinkpadigal]

I have had my handle for several years. Pink has been my favorite color forever. So, I bought a lot of pink gear, (and got a lot of crap from everyone about it) but everyone knew it was me in the water. Anyway, I am a PADI instructor and a girl, so my username morphed into "PinkPADIgal".

However, my friends just call me Amy :hello2:

[lamont]

first name.

on BBSes in the 1980s i used to go by either Shadow (due, obviously, to my first name and the radio show), or when that was often taken, The Alaskan Shadow, which just added where I was born + lived at the time.

[jackieg]

hm...first name jackie, middle initial g......far more socially acceptable than other names I am most likely known by (Nailer, no fair telling either)

[WylerBear]

WylerBear was a much loved dog of mine. When I got my first computer and started using the internet, Wyler was sitting at my feet. So she became my screen name and has been wherever I sign on ever since. Wyler died over 13 years ago but it makes me smile to know she's with me all the time. And I used my other dog's name as my password (and still do). She's gone now too but I think of them everytime I have to sign on anywhere. I changed my avatar to show the original photo I used on the boards. That's me with my baby.

[CaptnJack]

Years ago I signed up on NWD2D the same day I got my USCG master's license - thats the "Capt" half. Despite what the telmarketers tell me, Jack is my last name. Although a better fit would be "Ron"

[dwashbur]

Mine's pretty basic: my first initial and the first 7 letters of my last name. I started using the Net back in 1988, when most public-access systems were Unix-based, limited user names to 8 characters, and frequently assigned one to you based on your first and last names. That's how I wound up being dwashbur on nyx, a public access system in Colorado where I cut my Internet teeth. Rather than try to keep track of a bunch of different user names, and since I've had that same one (and the same email) for 20 years now, I just try to set up the same username whenever I sign up on a new system. It's easier to remember than a different one for each place that I go. Boring, but effective

A somewhat humorous side note: at the college in Wyoming where I taught computer applications for several years, the head of the computer department decided to be different. So he reversed the order and made everybody use 7 letters of their last name, followed by their first initial. That meant, of course, that my name came out "washburd." Thanks a bunch!

[Tom Nic]

Hmmm... "Tom". Not very creative. "Nic". Shortened version of Nicodemus. If miss penopolypants thinks people butcher HER name, you should hear folks try and pronounce Nicodemus!

[smike]

it'S Mike - you probably figured that out.
When your name is Mike Wilson, its awfully hard to get a user name unless you make up something ingenious. I'm not so ingenious, at least with inventing names.

S'Mike

[spatman]

If miss penopolypants thinks people butcher HER name, you should hear folks try and pronounce Nicodemus!

just so i don't ever embarrass myself... how do you pronounce your last name, tom?

[airsix]

Hey this is even more fun than I planned!
Penopolypants is now so much easier for me to pronounce! I was trying to say it all wrong. (Penelope is an awesome name, by the way. High cool factor.)
I knew Nailer99 was a carpenter, so I had the nailer part figured out. I thought there was some mystery behind the 99 though... (Burntchef said it was your weight in kilos. KIDDING! He didn't say that).
Grateful Diver. Dohh! I can't believe I didn't figure that out! It was right there in front of me. Can't believe I missed it.
Sounder... Not nearly as fun as some names? Are you kidding? You've got one of the best.
Georgia, thanks for sharing. What a nice tribute to a friend. I love it.
Captnjack, lamont, pinkpadigal, Chevayea, spatman, Scubagirl45 (you could play that up and say .45acp is your pistol caliber of choice ), jackieg (That's got a cool ring to it. Sounds like an action hero name. :smt038 ), thank you all for sharing!

... and everybody else too! They're coming in now faster than I can respond. 3 more just since I started typing...
Keep 'em coming! :smt038 :smt038 :smt038

-Ben (aka airsix)

[spatman]

Keep 'em coming! :smt038 :smt038 :smt038

-Ben (aka airsix)

time you you to pony up, ben. what do the "air" and "six" signify?

[Pez7378]

Oh okay, I'll play too:

Apparently people at work were too lazy to call me "Lopez" so they abbreviated it to PEZ. One day we were Snowboarding and this guy had "PEZPEZ" written on his helmet. I asked him what it meant and he put his fingers up to his mouth as if to smoke a doobie and sounding like Crush the sea turtle said, "you know man, PezPez, the Ganja, it's like Candy man...." . Ever since then they started calling me PezPez, which was again abbreviated to "PEZ". People are Lazy! The 7378 is classified, but it's often mistaken for my DOB. I wish!

[Tom Nic]

If miss penopolypants thinks people butcher HER name, you should hear folks try and pronounce Nicodemus!

just so i don't ever embarrass myself... how do you pronounce your last name, tom?

I'll give you the secret password (shiboleth) next time we dive...

[Sounder]

Oh okay, I'll play too:

Apparently people at work were too lazy to call me "Lopez" so they abbreviated it to PEZ. One day we were Snowboarding and this guy had "PEZPEZ" written on his helmet. I asked him what it meant and he put his fingers up to his mouth as if to smoke a doobie and sounding like Crush the sea turtle said, "you know man, PezPez, the Ganja, it's like Candy man...." . Ever since then they started calling me PezPez, which was again abbreviated to "PEZ". People are Lazy! The 7378 is classified, but it's often mistaken for my DOB. I wish!

Hola Bitchola! I figured you chose "Pez" because that means "fish" in Spanish.

You probably DON'T want to be the other word for fish, "pescado," which is a dead fish which is ready to eat or can also mean "seafood."

[airsix]

time you you to pony up, ben. what do the "air" and "six" signify?

Sorry.... I was enjoying the show and didn't want to get in the way. "Air" is for air cooled and "Six" is for six-cylinder. When I was younger I was in a flying club and sports car club and both my car and plane were powered by horizontally opposed air-cooled 6-cylinder engines, so I got tagged as 'airsix' and it worked with both groups.

[BDub]

I've got a rather plain one...simply the nickname many of my friends call me. Just my initials, shortened....BDub, for BW (Brian Wiederspan)

[airsix]

The 7378 is classified, but it's often mistaken for my DOB. I wish!

Classified? Hmmmm..... How about... It was 1994 and you were dating this girl. She said she was born in '73, but she was actually born in '78. Since then you've been living under an assumed name, and spending as much time underwater as possible. When you can't be underwater you hide in prison because they'd never think to look there. Did I get it?

-Ben

[WylerBear]

Ben,
Thanks for starting this thread. It is really fun.