Mine derives from our group name, Woodchucks' Revenge, and the fact that, size-wise, I'm the middle one of the three.

Sometimes, as others have indicated, Mudcat names are necessary to avoid confusion. Kris's and my partner, Sandy Morse (actually William S., Jr., but he hasn't used that for so long that most people don't even know it) uses the Mudcat name, bigchuck. If I were to refer to him here as Sandy, people would think I meant Paton. And if I were to refer to him as "Poor Besotted Old Morse," everyone would, naturally, immediately assume I was talking about Kendall.

Peter