BS: Why did you choose your nickname?

Subject: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Magpie
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 03:44 PM

Please forgive me for my curiosity, but I've been looking at your nicknames, and I'm wondering what made you choose that particular one? Is it something you've been called since childhood, is it something you think suits your personality?

Me, I chose magpie because that's what my boyfriend calls me (translated from Norwegian, that is). Apparently there is a red magpie up in his part of the country, and he started calling me that after I dyed my hair red.

How about you?

(Red)Magpie

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 03:49 PM

Well, I guessed that Master of the Universe soundeda bit presumptuous...

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 03:49 PM

"Mario" is a character I have been using at ren-faire for 16 years. When I started out on the internet, it seemed a logical choice for a name.

MMario (short for "Master Mario")/aka Benjermin Laudley-Bellows/aka Stavros Splinteri/aka Owain Songster/aka Maleo the dark bard

and people wonder why I complain about "the voices"

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Allan C.
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 03:51 PM

Mine was a birthday present.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:02 PM

Well, I've always thought that "Joseph" was a bit pretentious, and "Joey" too much like a little kid. I chose the name "Joe Offer" at the age of four. It took a while to train my parents to stop calling me "Joey." I still use "Joseph" on checks and affidavits.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:08 PM

Because that's where I live. 'Way back when I first joined the 'Cat, there were several regulars identified by location, and it was a simple, modest solution.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:12 PM

This is going to be interesting. I can't wait for some of them.

Rick Fielding (who is too dull to think of a nickname)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: emily rain
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:18 PM

oh, great. do i get to be the first new-age spiritual weirdo? *smile*
when got my first e-mail account, my pseudonym was "raining". i think i was scared to be leaving home, and the idea of a good cool rain sounded comforting to me. then when i took a class with six other emilies, i told the professor to just call me "rain".

now i keep it because my last name sounds like a barking dog: "grrrrrrrrrOFF! rOFF!"

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: sophocleese
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:19 PM

Sophy - sophocleese, what could be simpler? The fact that I was in therapy at the time I chose it is completely irrelevant and has nothing whatsoever to do with growing up watching Monty Python episodes. Neither does a resemblance that some people have noticed to Jamie Lee Curtis.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:33 PM

When I went to get an email account, I used the first three letters of my first and last names; when I got here, I added the 'ghing and it seems to fit. The "Kat" I have always been accused of being, so it was a natural, too. Besides, some Mudders just didn't want to spell out the whole of it!

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bert
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:36 PM

I know what you mean Joe, It was years before they stopped calling me Bertie. Didn't help that my Dad is Bert also.

When I first started work, it was at the same place that Dad worked, and they called him 'Big Bert'. So when I started work they called me 'Little Bert'; which everyone thought was a great joke, as I was an inch or so taller than him.

Bert.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:44 PM

Bert-- Ain't it strange how that kind of moniker can stick with you. Until Dad died two years ago (at 87), he was Big Bill and I was Little Bill--Even as a passed 50 birthdays and had children grown and married. But I preferred Little Bill to Billy.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Ely
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:04 PM

Well, I'm from Texas, not Minnesota, so it's not that . . . (actually, it's "Eli", with a tweak). My real name is Alethea, which is hard to spell, pronounce, interpret, remember, etc. Somebody suggested before the fact that my parents should name me Elizabeth because it sounded good with our last name, but my mother's family is chock-full of Elizabeths already. "Alethea" lends itself poorly to nicknames if you don't like "Thea" or "Ally", so I picked what I would have been had I been "Elizabeth" instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: wildlone
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:06 PM

As some of you know after my favourite story by R K.
[I refuse to start all those old jokes again]
and I have always been one to walk by myself but as I am quite friendly I can soon make myself at home.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Magpie
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:06 PM

I have this other nickname that my baby brother made up as he couldn't pronounce my real name, Christine. But seeing as this is an English speaking community, Titti doesn't really do the trick.

Magpie

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: bill\sables
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:13 PM

When I first joined mudcat I was Bill Sables but then I installed a new hard drive into my computer and was refused admitance to mudcat and had to re register. I put Bill Sables in but it said that there was already someone using that name ( I wonder who that was) so I had to use bill\sables instead. Cheers bill\sables AKA Bill Sables

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bert
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:18 PM

So Bill, do people now call you 'backslash'?

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:21 PM

Because I was scared and thought if I made myself small then Mudcatters would be compassionate which I must say you are. I wanted to call myself tadpole but it was taken. Can I change my name, as I feel more seasoned like an Elder Mudcatter?

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: skarpi
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:23 PM

My nickname, hmmmmmmm, it is a shortcut from Skarphéðinn to skarpi .

You should try to pronounce my name that is Skarphéðinn, it is hard. bless á meðan skarpi Iceland.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: John Wood
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:27 PM

Hallo Magpie!
Your presence at The Dubliner Sessions has been sorely missed.
Is it something we said?(big grin)

Greetings John.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 05:53 PM

I'm similar to Bill in Alabama. Roger is my given name. Westminster, my real home town, seemed too obscure (and now I know it may have confused our British group. Maryland, my home state, seemed too broad. So I chose the nearest big town and there I was, Roger in Baltimore.

I went to last year's Getaway and Bill D. took some pictures and they were part of the first Mudcat photo album. Well Catspaw saw that and started to refer to me as Big RiB, RiB being short for Roger in Baltimore. I liked it, so I use it to sign off on threads where my intent is not so serious.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 06:09 PM

I've had a boat of one type or another for the past fifty years (primarily sailboats). On one trip to Lake Huron's North Channel the harbor master in Canada's Meldrom Bay referred to me as captain. A friend sailing with me wouldn't let it die, and by the end of the trip I was beginning to like the name. I'm actually the captain of a 22 foot English build Westerly Nomad. Her name is "Aweigh".

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Llanfair
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 06:18 PM

I just wanted people to know that there was a member in Wales, of Welsh descent. Llanfair means "parish of St Mary". I was christened Bronwen Pugh, but serial monogamy has resulted in a succession of surnames!!!! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 06:23 PM

In Celtic patronymics, you get named from the line of your forbears. As I'm baptismally a Robert, and my father was also called Robert, I'm Bobby Bob, which is what a lot of people know me as.

However, on my radio programme, I usually go a bit further to my grandfather, John, and my great grandfather, William, which gives rise to the patronymic string, Bobby Bob John Billy.

Some people, possibly born out of wedlock, had their mother's name as part of the string, like Juan Nan (Juan is a Manx name pronounced JOO-an, not like the Spanish name of the same spelling) which is John the son of Nan, or Billy Paaie, William the son of Peggy.

Shoh slaynt,

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Magpie
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 06:30 PM

Greetings John! I knew you'd figure me out sooner or later. And, no, it isn't something anyone has said(or not said for that matter), I've just been terribly busy with gigs, kids, work and boyfriend.

By the way, are there any other "Dubliners" here? This, of course, would belong to a totally different thread.

Magpie

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: _gargoyle
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 07:14 PM

Like most good things....it was a gift...from friends...

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: poet
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 07:19 PM

I used to be a CB and although our extended family over the water may not realise it AM CB became illegal and FM was the legit way to go. I was fond of AM but to be legal I was on Both My handle On AM was Bouncer(my Job) on AM and Poet(My Secret Hobby) on FM. and I've stuck with them.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 07:27 PM

I use my real name (except Jonathan is shortened to Jon which is what I prefer to be called). I have always prefered to be me (ie Jon Freeman) rather than go by another name.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Banjer
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 07:30 PM

I just took the name of my favorite instrument, dropped the letter O and added JER. Don't ask me why...I just did!

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 07:47 PM

I started out with my real name, then discovered there was another K.C. on the 'cat, so I changed to WyoWoman, but we haven't heard from that other K.C. since. So I don't know if s/he also changed to avoid confusion or what...

But I like WyoWoman -- it lets people know where I'm from (sort of -- although people from outside the U.S., and many from inside -- have no concept of where/what Wyoming actually is. No matter how many times I tell people I live in Wyoming, or I moved to Wyoming, they still ask me how I LIKE Montana. We have a bit of an identity problem here...)

WW

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 08:04 PM

What nickname?

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: bbc
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 08:09 PM

unassuming initials for Barbara Bowen Carr.

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 08:29 PM

Llanfair, white what???

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: BSEED(CharlesKratz)
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 08:36 PM

Since college one of my friends has called me "Bad Seed," or usually just "Seed." When I signed up for AOL, I thought I'd use the name, but Bad Seed was already taken, so I changed it to bseedkratz, not noticing I had hit the caps lock, which made it BSEEDKRATZ. --seed

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: j0_77
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 08:50 PM

like j? in use j1 in use and so on till j0. No data on the rest ... mbee mIRC or something can't recall - 3 years and still the same nick. J=JugBand :)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 09:11 PM

Because no one would believe my name was Reebok J. Plimsole.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: bbelle
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 09:57 PM

Well ... my first nickname was "humdinger folksinger," then I was "chinadoll," then I used my real name for awhile, but had to change that, so I decided on "moonchild." I'm not a moonie and the only time I ever "mooned" anyone was a Capitol police officer in 1968, riding through The Capitol grounds in Washington, DC. Actually, I chose it because that's who/what I am ... a July baby and ruled by the changes in the moon ... moonchild

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 10:09 PM

hmmm...because I know so many here, I just wanted to be ME....and *big grin*..I had ONE attempt at choosing a cute, clever nickname..and it caused too much byplay and remarks.........my name is Bill Day..or B Day.which CAN be written as..ßIÐÉT...can you imagine THAT lasting in here...*grin*

so....Bill D sort of is enough

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Dave Swan
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 10:28 PM

I had wanted a nickname all my life and none stuck to me. It was Catspaw who hung El Swanno on me and I loved it immediately. Sometimes, usually at the end of a goofy posting, you'll see me sign that way. It's nice to be called that around here. pj still doesn't call me that, but I think some of the animals do.

E.S.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Mudjack
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 10:33 PM

I used to be Jack Mostly Folk. I got that from a co-worker some years back. He asked me what kind of music did I play and sing and I answered'"mostly folk". He then said Oh. Jack "Mostly Folk" Roberts.I used that for about 8 years. Jack Mostly Folk was just to much, so some time back I decided to go with Mudjack and it's easier to type in. My given name is Jackie, but like Joe said you can't keep a little kiddies name ad I've been Jack for most of my adult life.
Mudjack

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Susan A-R
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 10:33 PM

Well, I got to be known as Susan A-R at work (where there were three or four other Susans. Seemed as good as anything. Arnowitt-Reid is just too darned long.

Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: sophocleese
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 10:57 PM

You're right Don, I don't believe you. There isn't an "N" for Nike?

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: campfire
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 11:40 PM

I started "Mudcat" life as Dawn, my real given name. Then once I was trying to find one of my old posts (with the user search) and found stuff I never wrote! Guess I'm not the only Dawn in the 'Cat! So I decided that since around a campfire is about the only place I ever really play anymore, I might as well be...

campfire

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: John Hindsill
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 11:51 PM

Actually I don't like nicknames, especially diminutives. And for very personal reasons I will not respond when people call me Jack...a common nn for John. The last time I had a nickname was in Phys Ed class in HiSkool. If you can guess it, like Rumplestiltskin I will make you wealthy beyond dreams.---John

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: escamillo
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 12:44 AM

Since the early times of BBSs I had to choose a nickname, and I decided that it should be an Opera character, the music I love (not all operas). I considered Radames, Calaf, Giovanni, Scarpia, etc. and then winner was.. Escamillo, le torero de Granada ! (from Bizet's CARMEN) There were two reasons: I was already singing as baritone (before my teacher declared me a tenor), and Escamillo was so handsome, so brave, so ridiculously romantic !

(I hate bullfights and hunting and any kind of torture on animals, and would like to see all toreros in jail, but the character was overwhelmingly attractive)

I owe to myself to once get dressed as a "toreador", scan the photo and put it in the front page of my programs (I'm a professional programmer) and see my customers' faces.

Andrés Magré

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: CarlZen
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:11 AM

My last name is Carlsen and the Z slipped in there, looked nice.........

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: _gargoyle
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:15 AM

Dear BBC.....I sincerely hope that YOU and others within this thread were NOT so "trusting" and naive as to reveal you real name.

"Madonna @...." can explain why.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Big Mick
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:18 AM

Real easy. My given name is Mícheál. My Grandmother always called me Mick. I am 6'2 1/2" and about 18 stone (250 lbs). Hence the Big. And in the early days I remember the confusion if I used Mick, because Mick Bracken and Mick Lowe (Hello, fellas) were also on the site.

Big Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: MudGuard
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:33 AM

You see, there was this discussion about whether we are MudCats, MudKittens or MudWhatever...
Then I noticed there are some other members called Mudjack, MudPuppy, MudKat...
So the first part of my nickname had obviously to be Mud.

Now for the second part:
My (German) surname is Waechter, which translates into Guard.

I just put these two parts together resulting in MudGuard.
And some weeks later I learnt there is an English word mudguard (which translates back into German as Schutzblech).

MudGuard

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: roopoo
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:43 AM

I make and sell salt dough models under the name of Mouldy Old Dough, and I have never been what you would call a tidy person. mouldy

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Sourdough
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 02:00 AM

I started using Sourdough as a CB handle when, for a short time, I had a radio mounted on my motorcycle. I liked the name because it fit my interests in both prospecting and in treasure hunting, both of which seem to take me into the bush a lot. It also works for tradiutional music.

The name stuck and my best friend has referred to me as Sourdough now for years so when asked for a nom du Mud, I dug this up.

Sourdough of Sonoma

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Llanfair
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 03:22 AM

Jon. That would be "White...one of my best kept secrets!"
(bloody Welsh speakers!) Ach y fi Bronwen.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 05:00 AM

I started off with an enquiry under my real name, when I began to post regularly in a lighter vein I followed Mudcat tradition to choose a nickname, chose Roger (my given name) the zimmer (a walking frame for the elderly or infirm) because someone on another site had called me "the pelvis" for supplying lyrics to a 50's popular song & I had responded that at my age "the zimmer" would be more appropriate. I changed it recently in case it offended anyone with genuine mobility problems and given I'm a jazz & blues freak, & the skiffle end of the folk spectrum is where I connect with the Mudcat folkies ( and I only play the kazoo) hence "skiffler".
long boring explanation,sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: anahata
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 05:40 AM

My nickname is my business name Anahata. It's Hindi and roughly means 'open heart'....I work with flower essences and healing people spiritually. I noticed later that the letters in my first name and surname come pretty close to forming Anahata which was pretty weird.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 05:44 AM

Well, I am not, but would like to be. My surname is King, and I just came up with the 'king brilliant thing one day and it made me giggle. I use it for all sorts of things, and it always makes me laugh - and then I regret it in case anyone is offended by the implied bad-word, or in case anyone thinks I am horribly arrogant. But I usually sign myself by my real name (so that's OK then...)

Kris

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Tiger
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 07:24 AM

Well, I didn't exactly CHOOSE it, at first anyway. Some kids started calling me that in high school - not sure why 'cause I'm kinda laid back. That was OK with me - when you're a Ralph, it helps to have a nickname.

After April Stevens came out with "Teach Me, Tiger" and everyone started singing it to/with me, it became indelible.

.....Ralph (Tiger) Butts

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 07:39 AM

Geez Mouldy, say no more!!! Interesting that Sourdough posted just after you did. You two should get together.

Big RiB and El Swanno...Glad to be of service. Now if Father Joebro would follow suit........

Rick, you had a fine chance awhile back to go with "Bootsie" which would have kept it in the family, so to speak.

Bobby bob...If you combine both your posting names you could be Bobby Van (and Storage Company) and post up some sappy rock lyrics too.

Come clean there Leej. Are you sure you're from Kaintuck or is it Ellijay, Georgia? And are you really "Lonesome" because you have a Radio Shack 479 miles from nowhere or because of Tennessee Ernie?

Bill D., I think I see your problem. You could have gone with "Bumwash" though.

And Big Mick...I would never have guessed.

Banj, you had to work so hard to attain your exalted 4 star rank.....Don't be modest, General Banj has a nice ring to it......Well, at least better than your banjo does.

WW, if you move are we going to have to swap names again? You can probably get some moving help from the Bobby Van and Storage Co.

Don, with your sense of humor, I'm surprised you didn't opt for "Sawzall"...but I kinda' like the Reebok thingie...Actually, it has a nice Marx bros sound, like Hugo Z. Hackenbush.......yeah...calling Dr. Plimsole....hmmmm....beginning to take shape here.

Bertie!!!! 'Nuff said.

bbc, I really like Rick's take...Beebs....kinda' suits you.

Interesting thread ... Where's Jeri?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 08:07 AM

So, Roger, it really is you!

I chose my name because I'm not really Steve Parkes, but when he finds out I know he'll be r e a l l y mad!

Pete Starkers (but don't tell ... you-know-who)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Vixen
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 08:25 AM

In real life I'm a Victoria, which is fine when I'm feeling imperious, but not so hot when I'm behaving in my usual wild and wooly ways. I gave up Vicki for Vic, because I don't like the "little girlishness" of Vicki. On the other hand, I'm getting tired of being addressed as "Mister" both on the phone (low voice) and in person, (must be my height?). To make a long story interminable, I've felt since I was a child that the red fox and the sugar maple are my kindred spirits. When I used to make greeting cards for my friends, I dubbed them "Vixen Grafix" and when I started writing songs, I called them "Vixen Muzik," so when I found the mudcat, Vixen seemed like a good choice. My monogram, since about the age of 8, is a capital "V" with the dot from the "i" to the right of it, which looks sort of like a pointy nose with an eye, and would pronounce, rebus-fashion, as V-eye, but nobody ever figured that out or called my by that name. Too clever by half, I'm told.

V

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 08:29 AM

What!? Where!? Wh...? Oh yeah, sorry. I'm just Jeri. I'd been posting on Usenet newsgroups for about four years prior to joining Mudcat, and signing my real name. It's hard to break with tradition.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Easy Rider
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 11:06 AM

Easy Rider is a Blues term. I'm into the Country Blues:

1 - The "easy rider", also known as "See See Rider" or "C C Rider" (see also rider), is a blues cliché for the sexual partner, although originally it referred to the guitar hung on the back of the traveling bluesman.;

2 - Southern Louisiana's John "Johnny B" Bradford says: "An easy rider is the husband or significant other of a whore - thus the name. He doesn't work or pay for sex. It's his easily. Thanks to John "Johnny B" Bradford for this contribution to the list.

Sounds like a good life to me!

__________ This phrase can be found in: Big Bill Broonzy, C C Rider (1) Big Bill Broonzy, C C Rider (2) Mississippi John Hurt, See See Rider

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 11:55 AM

Actually, I was looking for a nickname that had a folk sound to it, like Ramblin Jack Elliott, and I've always been a Hank W fan, my favorite of his being I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. EJ = my actual initials. LEJ or Leej, the nickname for my nickname, is a Spaw-ism.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Larry B.
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 12:03 PM

Diminuative of Lawrence, and a useful tool. If someone calls me and asks for Lawrence, I know it is almost certainly someone I do not know conversationally, and who is probably trying to sell me something.

LB

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Margo
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 12:30 PM

Well, boringly simple. My name is Margaret. Margo, which is my common nickname, was taken already. Sooooo, instead of using Margaret, I went with the more exotic version, Margarita.

Shame on you, Catspaw! You commented about everyone else's name, but gave no explanation of your own! Come come, now fess up!

Margarita

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:21 PM

Oh..............Well, catsass49 was already taken so...

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:26 PM

unless we hear differently, I am gonna assume that 'catspaw' refers to some brand of tire tread..*grin*

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jaxon
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:28 PM

My given name is John. Family and friends have called me Jack or Jackie all my life. My father's saloon buddies called me Jackson, it must have been something in the Old T.
I later had a girlfriend who took to calling me Jackson also. I just shortened it to save time.
Jack Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:35 PM

Jaxon: here in Wyoming, home of Jackson Hole, the residents all abbreviate it to Jxn.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: selby
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 02:53 PM

Selby is my home town and it just seemed like a good idea at the time although I usualy add my own name at the end anyway Keith

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 02:55 PM

LMAO here Bumwash....A TIRE TREAD???.....I love it......beats the reality hands down!!!!

Catspaws are wave patterns and as a long time sailor, it was a term I'd been using for years. Then oneday it struck me, some weird corrolary between the sound of a Hammered Dulcimer and the fresh breeze and lightness of a catspaw. When we picked a name for the company 6 years ago, Catspaw Dulcimers seemed kinda' nice. Add this to the fact that our cats are always walking across one (or the piano) and it became even more appropriate. I started making soundholes in the cat's paw design after that. The 49 was both my age when I signed on and the year I was born.

But the tire tread thing is a lot better...and a step up...I could be Tigerpaw!

Spaw - Which is where it finally ended up.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 03:54 PM

Catspaw-- I thought you had taken the name from the very popular brand of shoe heels and soles which shoe shops used to advertise, but then I remembered that my grandfather had a certain kind of carpenter's implement by that name; I would have never associated it with sailing.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Tincap
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 04:41 PM

Tincap is the name of the country crossroads near where I grew up in Eastern Ontario. Since I moved from there 20 years ago its been pretty well swallowed up by urban sprawl. I guess this is my way of keeping the community alive in spirit.

By the way the community got its name from the tin roof on the bell tower of the old one room school house. As the school sat on top of a hill the "tincap" could be seen from quite a distance.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 06:54 PM

Jeri, if you've been using Usenet that long, are you a Jeriatric?

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 08:35 PM

Hahaha - good one!!! I do feel that way sometimes!

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 08:57 PM

Geez Bill ... I had completely forgotten about the heels!!! I don't know how since I was always having "Half-Soles and Heels" done when I was growing up. The athletic shoe society we've moved into has really put a crimp on their business I bet.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Mbo
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 08:59 PM

Weeell...my real name is Matthew, but (don't laugh) thanks to a particular episode of "Home Improvement" I became Mbo, or as it should by written, M-Bo. As a result of this my sisters immediately became Cbo and Kbo. When feeling rather omnipotent (like a cheesewheel) I address my self as "Mbo" or "Ol' Mbo" (though at 20 years of age, the "Ol'" is pushing it a bit. Maybe when I'm older I'll opt for "Mbo Og."

By the way...I just read a Irish folk tale about about a little boy who was 6 feet tall when he was 10 years old. His name was Big Mick (also known as Amadan Mor in Gaelic, but it may prove offensive if translated!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Hummingbird
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 09:02 PM

Well, It's pretty simple, I just love Hummingbirds. Have them hanging around the house, on the wall and wallpaper on the puter. If you look at them, they are just fascinating!!! I've spent hours watching them at my windows and flower beds. Dog's havn't caught one yet either!!!!!! Hummer

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: _gargoyle
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 09:25 PM

Catspaw....I honestly thought you had a daughter named Kat, Cat, (Katherin, Kathy)....

(BTW sic'd the Fed's on your Maw-in-Law's postal annex for purloined mail and lost money orders)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 09:32 PM

G'day,
I posted a couple of times as Alan, then a regular mudcatter at the time, X of Y (only the names have been changed to protect the innocent), slagged Waltzing Matilda, Australia's unofficial national anthem. This DEMANDED a reply from an Aussie, so taking the same middle name I replied as Alan of Australia, sometimes Alan of Oz.

Cheers,
Alan Foster

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: folk1234
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 09:45 PM

Like many of you, I'm sure, I have many, many passwords and user ID's. I've finally found one that hasn't been taken and that I can remember and use in almost ecery cyber-venue.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From:
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 09:56 PM

Allen you are from THE GREAT FAMILY of BREWERS... by the same name?

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: JedMarum
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 10:24 PM

hmmm - if I had known this was a really cool place, I would not have used a pseudonym. But being a fairly inexperinced Web user when I opened my Mudcat account, I presumed anonymity was appropriate ... so I made up a name on the spur of the moment that both fit my heritage and fancy ... Liam Devlin sounds like any one of dozens of names my friends and cousins had in the Boston, where I grew up.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: raredance
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 10:39 PM

Last name's too long to type in all the time. I dropped the caps because all too often when I hit the shift key to cap a word, I also get the second letter capitalized as well. It's bad enough in song lyrics but I didn't want that constant reminder of ineptitude. When I sign my name I only use "R" with the last name. Besides all that "rich r" sound better than "poor r"

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 10:47 PM

G'day,
I have nothing to do with Foster's Lager, but I do play the Foster's Lagerphone.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 11:04 PM

"Spaw,

You is a sailor? Whats your craft? I live in the land of Lightnings but I've sailed every thing from Snipes to Stars and most hulls in berween. Given my druthers I'd take the Snipe over the Lightining and I'd prefere a Sanderling to most anything.

Regards

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: emily rain
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 11:24 PM

banjer, i always thought your name signified "banjo player" or "one who banjes".

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Patrish(inactive)
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 06:18 AM

My dad calls me patrish. real name patricia, but i feel more like a patrish. So its my real name without the "a"

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Big Mick
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 06:19 AM

So, young fella................Amadaun Mor is it? C'mon, let's take a walk out this back door of the pub......Oh don't worry, it's just a nice walk in the woods....What?.......Well, yes, you probably should take a last look at the place.......LOL. I know that story from my Dear aul Gran. For those with no knowledge of Gaelige, Amadaun translates to fool, and mór is big, hence Big Fool. I would prefer Mícheál Mór.

All the best,

Big Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 07:55 AM

Hmmm, I posted yesterday and it said it went through, etc. but I can't find myself (think I'll ask my boss if I can take time off to find myself -- nah).

Anywho, what I said was I had a summertime nursery colony of little brown bats (that's the variety, and also a description) between the bedroom ceiling and the roof. As a result of annual July (usually) bat adventures, I know a lot about little brown bats and bats in general. Oh, and they like me, so Bat Goddess seemed appropriate. I was Linn the Thanatolithologist before I got legal and Jeri sucked me into, I mean "introduced me to" Mudcat by getting me involved in the gravestone symbolism thread.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Wotcha
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 11:45 AM

I grew up in London, and eveyone used to say "wotcha mate" or just plain "wotcha !" which is loosely translated into American as "How's it goin'?"

Cheers, Allahamdalla Brian

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: mariejanis
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 02:21 PM

mariejanis expanded as marie janis was a german spy who seduced a british air-ace in the great war - for those who are not from anglicana that was the 1914-1918 war. I adopted it for personal reasons (I lust after young airmen in flying helmets and goggles and carrying sticks of celery or rhubarb)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Caindawg
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 03:57 PM

12 years ago, whilst snowboarding my favorite local backcountry at Mt Cain, Vancouver Island, I heard some local kids call me that. I guess it had something to do with my particular expression of joy upon finding a patch of pow as yet untouched. The young guys were sort of amazed at this much older dude riding stick and I heard one tell another something like "that's that old Cain dog". I kinda liked it and now it's not only on many lists but is also the name of my production company and my solo acoustic bluesman-act alter-ego.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 05:42 PM

Anima= spirit
terra= earth
mater is hidden in between.
My women's chorus stumbled upon the name early in its existence. I started the group up, feel pretty identified with it- Animaterra even gets its own mail from charity orgs now! So that's me.
Otherwise, Allison-with-2-l's (from New Hampshire, not Australia)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: K~~
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 06:20 PM

It's easy to type.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: thosp
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 01:04 AM

thomas= thos
peter= p
ergo thosp or thosper
a nickname for me used by some members of my since childhood--- ohhhh thomas= first name
peter= middle name

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: ddw
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 01:21 AM

I started on the mudcat with ddw in Windsor (previous explanation for place stands here) but that was a pain to type in all the time. The ddw is my initials and my ID at work (we have to identify our work on every story we write/edit in this business and there was already a dw at the first place I worked), so it's just automatic to type it in.

David Dale Whitaker

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Magpie
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 02:20 AM

My goodness!

I never thought so many would answer to this thread. It's nice, though, I feel I'm getting to know you all a bit better Thanks!

Magpie

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Dinty
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 08:45 AM

Well, as I stared at the registration form I knew that I did not want to use my real name and I had to go back to college and dust off "Dinty." Some of my oldest friends still use it. I used it while bartending through college. People seemed to like being served ale by someone named Dinty Moore. People also seemed to have fun coming up with variations on it... Baron von Dinthoven being one of my personal favorites. It actualy had nothing to do originally with the beefstew but I think that it why it stuck.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Dinty
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 08:45 AM

Well, as I stared at the registration form I knew that I did not want to use my real name and I had to go back to college and dust off "Dinty." Some of my oldest friends still use it. I used it while bartending through college. People seemed to like being served ale by someone named Dinty Moore. People also seemed to have fun coming up with variations on it... Baron von Dinthoven being one of my personal favorites. It actualy had nothing to do originally with the beefstew but I think that is why it stuck.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Allan C.
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 09:00 AM

Dinty, I'll bet you are wondering how your post appeared twice. It often comes from using your "back" button after you enter a post.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: harpgirl
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 09:08 AM

...I like the symmetry of harpgirl when written or typed and it's explanatory since I play autoharp, primarily...I've had a lot of nicknames and surnames through serial monogamy. My current is imposssible to spell but means "smith" in the Swiss language. I'm Abby around the piney woods, which I gave to myself when doing a radio show in Fayetteville, Arkansas. But my given name is Deborah! Call me anything (but the diminutive of the latter)...but not late for music! oh and I also answer to harpy, thanks to various madcat catters!

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Duckboots
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 09:29 AM

Rick felt that the best way to stop me ruining all sorts of footwear tromping through my garden was to get me some serious waterproof wellies, brand-name, DUCKBOOTS.

Heather Fielding

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Allan C.
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 10:03 AM

Harpgirl, I love your "impossible to spell but means "smith" in the Swiss language". I will have to remember that line when trying to describe something intangible to someone;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 06:15 PM

grew out of me shoes

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: DougR
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 11:53 PM

My Mother named me Rayford Douglas. I have been called Doug all my life. If your first name was Rayford, wouldn't you be happy folks called you Doug instead of Rayford?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: BK
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 12:01 AM

2 letters. Easy to type. should've made it lower case. I type all day at work. ALL our records go in an abominably programmed minimal support State computor system. It goes down often. Usually after I've typed a long entry on an important patient encounter - but just before I've done the equivalent of "save to the hard drive." I HATE typing; So initials are ok. Nothing more than "Buzz" is longer...

Cheers, BK (who should be "bk")

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Hutzul
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 03:12 AM

The people of the Carpathian Mts. of Ukraine are call the Hutzuli. Very isolated and rich in folk lore and ritual. Also great music, which I have found in Mt. people everywhere.

It's also the name of my business,Hutzul Graphics. But I guess to be grammatically correct, it should be Hutzulka (fem.)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 08:36 AM

When I first got onto the Mudcat, I thought it best to use a name to indicate what I do. So, Yarnspinner was it. Then, I realized that it was ok to use my real name. I hear it means Ruler of the river Glen in Gaelic. Well, thats good enough for me, 'cause in English, it means motor oil.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Faded Denim
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 08:51 AM

This is the name of our trio. We sing a lot of 60's style folk music. You know ... close harmonies ... PP&M style. Old, well worn and comfortable music that just feels so good. Like an old pair of jeans and a denim shirt. So we all dress in denims when we perform.

Also, Judy and George and I are all 50+... "Old Genes" :o)

Reid

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 09:15 AM

For many years I was called Syd, my middle name, because when someone on the ship shouted "hey Dave" The Bosun Carpenter, Lamptrimmer, three A/B's, the Second Mate and two Engineers, and me! stopped working and said which Dave? I thought that here we could avoid confusion here if I added a short description of which Dave it was.... Bronwen will back me on this one; try going to Wales and asking to see Dai Jones, Is that Jones the Post, Jones the Reverend, Jones the Taxi, Jones the Police, Jones the Butcher or Jones the Baker? etc. etc. etc. Half the bloody village are known by their trade rather than their name.. (No I am not a Taffy, Bronwen) just over the border in Lancashire born in Gracie Fields hometown. Sailed out of Manchester with many a good Welshman though. Should have heard us singing on that ship (especially at Christmas) wonderfull singers the Welsh... Yours, Aye. Dave Lever

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Midchuck
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 10:23 AM

The trio I sing in is Woodchucks' Revenge. One of the other members, my wife, is littler than me. Our partner, Sandy, is bigger than me. So I'm the middle Woodchuck.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 11:36 AM

What's wrong with my name?
Actually, this thread has made me think. You are a good mob
so I'll be honest. I chose a nick because I was not sure
what I might be letting myself in for when I started on the
web, so caution suggested a nickname, which I also use on my
home page. We don't all want to be identified ... and I
didn't mention the Gar ... whoops.
On the other hand, I do not have a problem with attaching my
name to my opinions when appropriate (that is, when it is time
to stand up and be counted. In fact, my name is on an earlier
thread, and also somewhere on the personal profiles (I think
... I've forgotten where to look.
I am a sci-fi fan, and Shimbo Darktree was a god in one of
Roger Zelazny's novels. I have found I am not the only
Shimbo on the net, but there are a hell of a lot more Ian Clarkes.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: longhair
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 03:56 PM

Mine is derived from the 70's. That's what all the old men in town called me w/ a few expletives behind it. I use it on the radio (cb) and it still fits, meaning I still have long hair. So it was just the name I used when I started on the net.... Funny, now those old men ( the ones still alive)and I have a blast jawing and giving each other a hard time! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 04:00 PM

Dave, I have often wonerded whether this "[Surname] the [Occupation]" is just a South Wales thing. I have lived in part of North Wales for 21 years this time round and have rarely come across it.

There are lots of associations but the usual ones in this area work along the lines of "[Firstname] [Assocaition]". Occupations are used e.g. Dei Plumber, place names e.g. Davey Bangor, House names eg I am still known as Jon Skerryvore, Other things e.g. I am most commonly known as Jon Banjo.... The only person I can thing of with a "the" in it at the moment is Pete the Box - one of the local undertakers.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: reeebop
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 04:19 PM

ree is the name i've had my whole life---it's actually short for mariemma but only my mother is allowed to call me that.

and then a alot of people started calling me reebop when i started kindergarten because i was always bopping around i guess...

and the extra e got added in because when i signed up for hotmail i wanted to use sugaree (another of my long list of names for people who can't pronounce my name to call me) but someone was already using it and so i added the extra e and i've been using it for eveything....i even sign my test papers for school reee....

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Dave Swan
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 04:29 PM

Jon,

Some years ago I met one of the regulars in a friend's local. He was an undertaker and known, predictably, as Dave the Grave. It suited him in all ways.

E.S.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: MamaTamba
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 04:45 PM

I don't know how this thread became reactivated...but I'm love'n it. My name (also my e-name) is a corruption of Mama Tambo from the John Wayne movie "Hatari". Elsa Martinelli played the part of a woman who becomes adoptive mother to two baby elephants...who then follow her EVERYWHERE. The natives named her Elephant Mother/MamaTambo. I haven't adopted any elephants...but that's about the only animal I haven't taken into my home. MamaTamba is a better nickname than "Crazy old animal lady" and it's easier to type.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Paul G.
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 05:11 PM

Well, Paul is my given name, and G. is the last initial...the day I found the Mudcat, almost exactly one year ago (happy anniversary to me), I was so eager to join and become part of the community that I didn't want to take the time to come up with something more creative --something I've occassionally regretted since...

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: JenEllen
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 05:26 PM

Sorry, but mine was a birthday present as well. Named after Scottish gramma Jennie, and Irish gramma Ellen. Depends on what family I'm talking to as to what I'm called. Wee Jenna, Jen, Elle, Your Irish (in fits of temper)...;) Elle

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Little Dorritt
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 05:37 PM

a character from Dickens as you probably are all aware. a few years ago i travelled around the USA and Europe on my own. This book was my comfort blanket, I have read it many many times and have just finished reading it again.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: JamesJimFolk
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 05:41 PM

It was by pure accident. I mean, my name really is James and I'm called Jim (or Jimmy, by some in my family), but when I was asked to identify myself with a web name, I chose JimFolk. I should have known - that name was already taken. Funny, I haven't seen it in Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: charcloth
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 05:42 PM

while camping at a living history event I used a kerosine heater,well something didn't work right & we all(wife & kids)woke up blackened from the soot. Because of that, I got dubbed "Charcloth" for a material used to start fires back 100 years or so. Any way that's a handel I wear at these events now & the name of my of my recording. Jeff Stugill

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 08:03 PM

Hello JamesJimFolk,

I tried to send you a personal message a couple of weeks ago, but you must not be registered. I may have some close relatives living near you in Holly Springs!

Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bugsy
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 08:10 PM

At school I was Buggy. I always liked Bugsy better so Bugsy it is.

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Rosebrook
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 08:56 PM

I'm Rose and my sweetie is Brook. We each use the combined name for on-line stuff.

Rose

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 09:08 PM

It's a lot of fun to hear where you all came up with your names, natal or not! PaulG..I just had my first anni. here, too! MamaTamba..I love it! I am one of those animal ladies, too. Have you read Elephants in the Living Room, Bears in the Canoe? Excellent book, I am sure you would like it; people actually raised a baby elephant in their home, until she grew too big and had to move to the barn. Rosebrook has always conjured up beautiful imagery, for me, of peaceful running water, in a glade of trees, filled with rose petals floating atop it, scenting the air with sweet perfume.

Thanks ya'll.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Caitrin
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 09:21 PM

Caitrin is reportedly the Welsh translation of my real name, Kathryn. I liked the sound of it so much that I appropriated it as a nickname. (I also get called Katja or Katusha, which is the Slovak translation of my name, but only by my grandfather and father.)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 09:47 PM

I drew a blank at a rather inopportune moment during an intriductory name-game at a voice workshop at a filk con in Toronto. Several of my dear friends suggested the above appellation...and I decided it was better to run with it than argue...

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 02 Jan 00 - 10:01 PM

Not very imaginative of me, I suppose, but I'm a woman and I live in Wyoming. (I used KC for the first couple of weeks I was on the 'Cat, but then another KC surfaced and I switched. Haven't seen her in these parts since, but I like WyoWoman, so it's actually better this way.)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: arkie
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 12:15 AM

I started out with my real name, Elliott Hancock, but that took too long to type, not creative enough to think of something clever, so settled on Arkie, since I now reside in Arkansas, and finally arkie and I don't have to use the shift key.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: JedMarum
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 12:36 AM

Thanks to Kendall for reactivating this thread. It has been fun!

Shimbo - you will find those Mudcat profiles here but I didn't find one for you there, unless it is under yet another name. You will find, Kendall, and Kat, Rick Feilding and lots of others ....

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 01:47 AM

Caitrin, that is too cool. I was the only one in my family not born in Colorado. Mom and dad had me up north in norwegian country of North Dakota. Sometimes, usually when mom was mad, if she didn't call me Kathleen, it was "Katrinka".**BG** I think all of the kath names sound so pretty in almost any language. When Rog worked in Venezuela, I became Katalina.

Now I am distilled to kat

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 05:31 AM

Looks like a name, but is a "nick". Never did like the sound of "Gerald". "Jeremiah" comes from the Three Dog Night song "Joy to the World". I was working in the photo studio at Sheridan College one evening doing a class assignment with one of the modelling students. We hit it off bigtime; kidding around, singing Gershwin show tunes "S'Wonderful") & stuff. At one point Sonja pointed at me & started to sing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog". It became my nickname at the time, and considering some of the nicknames I've had in my life, I figured this was one to stay with. When I got re-involved in folk music, I stuck with it. When I got involved with Mudcat, I had to add to it on accounta just the single name wasn't accepted for logon. Well, I've never been comfortable with "Budnark" either and it just didn't seem to flow with "Jeremiah", so I added my birth mother's maiden name. And now ya know the whole sordid story!

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 12:23 PM

Wincing Devil is an anagram of my name.

Anagrams are kifty!

MONICA LEWINSKY is an anagram of SLICK MAY WIN ONE

http://www.anagramfun.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Danlbear
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 12:33 PM

They wouldn't accept my other nickname, but I haven't seen a post by "folksinger" yet. I still can't believe in this particular forum, someone would actually pick that as a nic.....;-> dan

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Hagbardr
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 01:34 PM

Named myself after a character in R. A. Wilson's Illuminatus Trilogy

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Sean Belt
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 03:10 PM

This isn't a nickname, but my own real one. When I first came on line (at a BB other than Mudcat), I felt it was important to give out my real name as a way of standing behind whatever opinions I posted. Particularly as a lot of the other posters in that place seemed to hide behind misnomers to feel safe when being snotty or giving grief to those who didn't deserve it. Since then, using my real name's gotten to be a habit.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Jack The Lad
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 03:24 PM

I run a folk festival named Jacob's Ladder- why it's called Jacob's Ladder is a longer story.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: JamesJim
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 05:06 PM

Hello Mary in Kentucky. I am new at this - you're right, I had not registered. Now I've taken care of that. A friend told me about this site and I just jumped in with both feet. Let me know where your friend(s) live. Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: vikinglass
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 09:10 PM

I chose mine because I have red hair and blue eyes. Indicitive of Viking blood...or so I've been told.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Willie-O
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 11:17 AM

Just about everyone here knows the real Willie-O, of course, the shady character inhabiting many folk songs who is usually found stabbing his lover, or at best running off to sea to get away from her.

He is sometimes accompanied in these endeavours by his brother, Johnny-O.

As someone once said in a movie, "hey, relax, I'm not really like that (except when I am)" No, really, I'm not. I am the morbid brooding type though, and decided to celebrate or at least accept this side of my nature through adopting the Willie-O alter ego.

The real joke is that this Willie-O actually married Molly-O, who civilized him somewhat, and they built a house in the hills and had a couple of younguns and are still there fifteen years later. Johnnie-O, my brothers real name, is also avoiding trouble and enjoying his new career as a museum technician at the Canadian War Museum, where he gets to sort through their huge collection of cannon balls (I presume), other weaponry, and militaria of all types, without hurting anyone.

Glad someone asked...

Willie-O

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 03:01 AM

I've been away for a week or so, I'll just tack this on the end. Metchosin's where I live,.... means "stinking whale",..... wanna make something of it, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 04:14 AM

Happy New Year, back at the ol' PC & no bugs!
I've already explained my original nickname on this thread, I changed to skiffler to avoid offending anyone who really needed a walking frame ( I don't like to offend anyone, no, really!) and chose the new one to reflect the sort of folk music I listen to most.
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Bob Jovi
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 07:36 PM

Bob Jovi is not my nickname. I've been called Spanky (in Ithaca NY), Putt (other New York locales), Diesel (in Vermont), Lucky (the Boston area), and Doctor J (my current handle). I've probably forgotten a few.

I adopted Bob Jovi to baffle Animaterra when were were swopping locales a while back. We live in the same town, but I didn't want to tip my hat too soon.

Some people must believe that it is my real name. Alas, neither do I rock, or hail from New jersey.

Lucius

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 02:31 AM

RATED BEST OLD THREAD by this old newbie

Refresh for the benefit of all the new newbies!

Great snapshots of all the wacky wild ones in here!

Now when I see your photos I will think of your posts in the thread like it's a Dragnet wanted poster/BOLO.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: pastorpest
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 08:28 AM

I am nearly computer illiterate. I needed my son to help me join the Mudcat. When my name "John" was taken I was stumped. My son said to use "pastorpest". "I am sure no one will have that one", he said. I use the term because as a clergy person I am always working with volunteers. When I am phoning a volunteer for the umpteenth time on a project we are working on I will identify myself on the phone as "pastorpest". It is a humorous way of acknowledging how much time and effort that volunteer has already given and is still being asked to give.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Callie
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 09:20 AM

I've named myself after the character in Monica Dickens' "House at World's End" series about a family of children whose house is overrun with stray animals. Callie was always determined to give her animals real names. She called her horse "John" because she thought names like "Starlight" were undignified. She has stayed with me! -Callie

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 09:23 AM

My mother gave it to me more years ago than I want to think about, and it is short and quick to ype.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: jeffp
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 10:58 AM

Not much to explain here - my first name and last initial. All lower case because I'm basically lazy.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Troll
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 11:53 AM

Back when I was 90% muscle and the rest pure fool, A young lady in whom I had an interest told me that I had the manners and disposition of a troll and that she was most emphatically NOT interested in me!

I took the nickname troll to remind me to be kind to people regardless of what I thought of them. It's stood me in good stead over the years.

troll is lower case because I'm too lazy to hit the shift key.(Pretentios? Moi?)

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: annamill
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 12:42 PM

Gee. It was long ago I can't remember... ;-)

Love, annap

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 01:01 PM

Mine is from my initials: EB. Thought it was better than eeebee. IBI might have worked.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 01:14 PM

There's no better place to relax and clear my mind than at the top of a very tall conifer. One of my favourites is beside the dusk-time gathering place of scores of these talkers. An affectionate attitude was my only choice, for I find the yellow beaked blackies can sound so opinionated, as am I once I get going. Kindred stuff, you know? Crows take excellent care of their young and the work is evenly shared between mom and pop, quite unlike the human persuasion. They are valuable contributors to a cleaner environment, and wear the most exquisite cape of colours that dance wildly in the sinking sunlight.

So it seemed like a good idea to me. Still does.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 02:45 PM

Say, this isn't the outpatient wing of the Neil Young center, is it? You tricked me here!

"Why do you say that?"

"How do you feel about that?"

"Tell me more...."

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Molly Malone
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 03:27 PM

Nothing exciting...name of my band.

And Caitlyn was too close to Caitrin. Didn't want things to be too confusing. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: GUEST,hollowfox
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 03:40 PM

Well, I thought you were supposed to use a nickname instead of your given one. Since I linked up with the folkie network through the (late, lamented) Fox Hollow folk festival, this seemed like a good name and a signal to some 'catters as to where my tastes lie.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: cujimmy
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 05:01 PM

See You Jimmy, well Jimmy is a very popular name in the Glasgow area of Scotland, so much so that when people address a stranger or someone whose name they dont know, they just refer to them as " Jimmy ". ie Haw (Hey) Jimmy have you got the time, or Haw Jimmy where's the bus station, or Haw Jimmy geeza swiggathebuck - ( a very popular wine in the West of Scotland ). Billy Connolly and Russ Abbot made the Phrase " see you Jimmy ", popular in their comedy sketches and hence cujimmy, I sometimes use " Jimmy the Moonlight ", ( gimme the moonlight ) as in the song but cujimmy here.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: simon-pierre
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 05:10 PM

I'm so familiar with those internet things that i never even thought that I should have a nickname, as it is usual...

So here it is: My name is Simon-Pierre.

Nice to meet you!

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Mbo
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 05:51 PM

Moly, you might want to go with you're real name. I'm not sure we have a Caitrin anymore.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Callie
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 06:07 PM

Yes - Caitrin has posted to this thread! -Callie

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Magpie
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 06:09 PM

Gee! And to think I started it all! Thank y'all for posting.

Magpie (who's real name is Christine and I really don't chat all that much, except when something really interests me or I can't think of anything better to do , or when I'm not asleep, or even sometimes when I am asleep, according to my boyfriend who gave me the nickname in the first place)

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Mbo
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 06:17 PM

Callie--that was ages ago (at least to me)...

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 07:15 PM

At the time I signed on I was on a net at work, and that net assigned the code names based on the employee's real name. As you may observe, it's the first letter of my given name and the first seven of my last name. I believe I was still there when I first registered with MC, and to avoid remembering multiple names I just kept the assigned name (even though I no longer work there), and use it whenever I sign onto a website. I tried using "Daverino", which I'd used to refer to myself in some other circumstances (I used to make wine with the label name "Chateau Daverino), but was told it was in use. Haven't seen Daverino here. .... Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Sheye
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 10:47 PM

Hi y'all... It's been awhile.
The name, the name...

Shortly before confirmation, I decided that I had had enough of catholisicm thankyouverymuch! The priest badgered me to go through with the ceremony and my ears perked up when he said I could change my name. (Turned out it was just a little white lie on his part, but all for the good of my soul didn't I know. Lucky me). Anyway, I picked Shylo.
Years later, I went to get a hotmail address and Shylo was taken so I tweaked the name a bit until I got something unique so that I didn't have to attach numbers to it.
I use the name quite regularly now, especially when travelling.

Kinda fits with several tribal traditions of finding your own name as you come of age.

Nice to see so many oldtimers still around!
Warmest regards,
Sheye

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Callie
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:08 AM

Caitrin posted to this thread on 2 January, so 'she' definitely exists as a recent entity! -Callie

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Mbo
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:26 AM

**sigh** It's too difficult to explain.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 01:34 AM

Caitrin, calling Ms. Caitrin, please pick up the white courtesy modem, your party is waiting....

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: canoer
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 03:04 AM

OK, Praise, haven't heard you 'fess up yet ...

Canoeing is my total first love. If only I could stroke a guitar even ten percent as well ... anyway, I use the name because it carries a lot of my identity, and also, it's a way of trolling for other paddlers (got one! Joe in Sacr'mo!). -- Larry C.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Spider Tom
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 05:53 AM

My nick name, was nicked from the tragic balled "Thomas the thrillseeking spider" Truely,Thomas once surfed a much smaller web than Spider Tom does, in his memory. Watch out for the wasps!

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Mbo
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 08:12 AM

Just be glad you're not Boris the Spider! He gets squashed by a book! Thomas the Thrill-seeking Spider, eh? That's hilarious! Now where can I get that song?

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:57 PM

CANOER--

I was hoping no one would not notice that I had not 'fessed up because I knew the answer would be way too long, but now I've been asked and since I refreshed this thread it would be rude not to reply.

I joined upon my second visit to the Café and in many respects had no idea what I was signing up for, but it seemed like an obvious good idea. Choosing my nickname here was a real strange moment. It made me catch up with myself when I hadn't done so in quite awhile. I think when I decided to join I was in a state of sort of automatic pilot and intensely in the here and now, and I must have thought subconsciously that joining would take me through a series of web forms or Windows wizards like many I have filled out. Although I expected to give a password, instead I was asked to name myself. Nothing in the sign-up process prepared me for that. It just had not occurred to me that I would not be here under my own name. (Of course I quickly grasped the concept that the 'cat name affords a level of safety we all seem to enjoy having here to some extent.)

So when my 'puter asked me my Mudcat name, I was struck dumb and frozen for a long while. "Who am I right now? Who have I become? What do I wish others to see when I come here? What do I wish to remind myself about who I am at my best?" Thoughts like that…..

As I began to recollect, a similar thing had occurred when I finally figured out how to ergonomi-cize my autoharp so I could physically play it within my physical limitations. I was so grateful, to be able to let loose all the years' songs stored in my head, that I spent the first year just playing hymns. It was clear to me that there would be a ministry flowing out of this gift of music and the ability to finally make it. From the start, I dedicated my playing to the service of Christ, and have not regretted it or felt musically limited at all-- I play, from every genre, that which lifts us up. I play the songs that focus our attention upwards. I play that which praises Him specifically or by giving a picture of the good I know He created.

I felt that same, soul-deep sense of gratitude and humility at the resources that are the Mudcat Café and its community. I wanted to give every time I took, and to give more than I took. Finally I realized that Praise, one of the genres I play often, would fit. It's what I intend to be doing, although I frequently fall short. It's what I believe many of us need to hear, whether specifically Christian in content or not, because people are where they are and that is important to respect.

So when I call myself Praise I am saying "I praise" and I am also exhorting others to praise-- to praise whatever is praiseworthy.

When I found this old thread I loved it, because I wondered what the naming of each of you had meant to you. I have loved reading all of the contributions. And it is a great way for Newbies to meet habitues, and get a glimpse of what they may have been thinking when Newbies themselves. If the contributions could be matched to the photos at bbc it would be great, but it doesn't matter that they are in the Forum, they can be found and renewed anytime there are a lot of Newbies.

Do you veterans miss the ones who contributed and are not currently active in the site? Do Max's magical methods include a capability of contacting them thru their personal e-mails to invite them back or give an update on what's new at the 'cat? Would it be intrusive of us to do it? Some great ones there, that I don't see here now. (I do know some of why this is.) Is there a way anyone is tracking who visits without posting so we at least know they are looking in and may return when the time is right?

Anyway, that's the 'fession…

If I picked the right name and am doing it any honor, the long answer probably was not really necessary.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: BlueJay
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 04:24 PM

Interesting how this thread keeps popping up, and with far greater replys than other threads. My name is Jay, and I got stuck with BlueJay years ago, from an old-head railroader I worked with. It stuck in the railroad yards, and I kind of like it. I haven't used this "handle" for ten years or so, but it popped in my head when asked for a nickname. It's nice to see some other derivative names, makes me feel like I know you all a little better, but I wish GUEST would come up with a better name.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: GUEST,Mbo
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 04:57 PM

Praise, that would be a most excellent idea. I believe Jon Freeman would be the man to ask about it.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 05:04 PM

This thread is WAAAAY too long. I am posting mine in a new thread. See ya there.

Subject: RE: BS: Why did you choose your nickname?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 05:51 PM

THIS THREAD HAS BEEN SNIPPED AND TIED OFF AS OF 17 FEB 00.

THIS THREAD HAS BEEN SNIPPED AND TIED OFF AS OF 17 FEB 00.

THIS THREAD HAS BEEN SNIPPED AND TIED OFF AS OF 17 FEB 00.

Click here

to continue this topic in a shorter, easier-to-load thread.

See you there!