Screen names and first impressions

[Sound of Azure]

Are you actually buddhist? I was kinda wondering - your username has that sort of flair to it.

Not quite. I don't really have any religion that I'm completely comfortable in describing myself as. It is the closest approximation I can make to a mainstream religion. I am drifting more and more into buddhist thought as my studies (I'm undertaking some classes at university in theology and theological anthropology at the moment) continue. I'm glad my parents raised me in a largely religiously unbiased household, it's allowed me to keep my mind open about things like that.

My user name was the name of a Daoist psychic warrior I played a couple of years ago. He was kinda like Li Mu Bai of Crouching Tiger fame. He was very fond of the Synaesthete power.

That name was in turn inspired by the character Sound of White, from the japanese film Onmyoji.
[/tangent]

Funny story about my name, which I always forget. I knew a guy from my neighbourhood since he and I were in kindergarten and up to high school; he was chinese. His name was Tychicus, pronounced "tich-i-cus" or somesuch. Not really roman at all.

I was sorta friends with him back in the day, but by the time I was in highschool, I didn't even know the guy. Around that time, I was really getting into creating my homebrew D&D campaign setting, and I started to scramble up peoples names and other random words to get names and such - and I scrambled my own for a diety. Ironically enough, it's ending is the same as I guy I'd known for over 10 years. Go figure.

cheers,
--N

Wow, that's unexpected. A number of east asian people I've met take interesting and old fashioned "english" names.

It is only when I see names like "Drizzt Pwns!!!" or "1337Ninja" or something like that where I form more of an opinion of someone based on their name. Even still, posting in ALL CAPS, withoutabreakbetweenwords or as though u r ritn a msg 2 sum1 has a greater effect on me than someone's name.

Names of that kind give me headaches at times. Then again, I have a tendency of writing in full sentences in my text messages. Maybe it's a personality thing?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As for my username, like many others here, it is the name of one of my characters (actually, the first D&D character I ever created myself, hence the very unoriginal name! ).

Pfft, it's a better character name than most. Much more plausible and, frankly, more memorable than something with a baker's dozen of apostrophes and vowels slammed up against one another like sardines.

 

[Arkhandus]

Well, I only think something of it if the screen name is something crude/horribly tasteless. In which case of course I assume that person's an immature loser. -_-

Thankfully most EN Worlders don't have such screen names so there are few I jump to that (probably accurate, in the case of those who do use such pseudonyms) conclusion toward.



I dunno what my own screen name would infer. I always go by Arkhandus (originated as a renaming of...) or Mist Phantom (character/name I threw together for the Beyond Dominia Roleplaying Mill and Beyond Dominia Rumor Mill (forums), based on the kinda unusual and random names used by other posters there, some of whom just used the names of novel characters or Magic: The Gathering cards/characters).

 

[BOZ]

Pfft, it's a better character name than most. Much more plausible and, frankly, more memorable than something with a baker's dozen of apostrophes and vowels slammed up against one another like sardines.

i am Fraz-urb'luu!!!! phear me!!!

 

[awayfarer]

I thought Bullgrit was a Discworld reference.

<---- EQ1 character name

Ditto on the Discworld reference....millenium hand and shrimp!

Occasionally there is something in a name that gives you a clue about that person or thing. They say a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but what if they were called Crapweeds? Now, I grant you that a rose, upon being found by someone who has never seen or smelled one before, will not likely be dubbed as such. But there COULD be some plant out there that gets the name Crapweed, and generally things do end up with names that they deserve.

Of course in the case of a person's screen name, it's tougher because presumably no one wants to be the Crapweed. We'll generally go with something closer to positive. Some folks actually might settle on Crapweed as a screen name and that tells you something about them. One could suggest that it just raises questions ("Why such an unflattering name?") but the kinds of questions it raises also tell you something or at least suggest things in a certain direction.

Personally, I tend to get a bit of a vibe from the combo of a persons name and avatar. I think it's tougher to make an educated guess without a pic.

 

[Kurashu]

I was thinking it was Engrish for "Crash"... or what Nyaricus said.

That's pretty much right. The first part. I'm neither asian nor obessed with their culture (though, I'll admit, I was almost a japanophile once).

Bascially, I have an obession with a boss from Megaman 2. Crashman. Easily the coolest boss ever. He has bombs for hands. What's not to love? And for a while I was really upset that Capcom hadn't placed Crashman into their Megaman.EXE series. So I got my friend, who said she spoke fluent Japanese, to translate it into japanese. So for a while I was KurashuOtoko.EXE, or KOE for short (which apparently means dirt or stinky or something to that affect in Japanese roflcopter).

Then I got bored with the big long name and stopped playing the Megaman.EXE games. So I just shortened it to Kurashu. At TDottle, most people call me Crashu. And by most people...I mean three. Of the twelve that actually post. lollerskates


I've had a plethora of different names. Often times weird ones. MrGoodyGoody was my first...I shun that one. Then it was ZeroXCrystal. Then....Agent Jay I think. Jupiter (And Jupiter.EXE, again Megaman) came next. After that it was Crashman, which became KOE. And now Kurashu. Those are just the ones I remember.

At TDottle, I've gone by several names just depending on what I felt like at the time. Josh Scogin, Chocolate Truffle, some random russian letter, The True 3.14159 (though, that was part of everyone making joke Pi names), Xi (the letter and the word), Zerg Overlord, and more I'm forgetting. I also registered a fake profile using my friend's name spelled backwards.

 

[Mark Hope]

Yeah, I'd say that a screen name makes an impression - a particularly funny one tends to make me think that its owner is a witty sort, for example, just as a name like GreyhawkJunkee (or whatever) might cause one to make certain assumptions about the poster

My screen name is my real name, so I'm not sure what kind of impression that makes, lol. I chose to use my real name as I originally joined Enworld to help publicise some athas.org releases and figured that I should use the same name that appeared on our products and website. I've since moved on from working with the DS crew, but the screen name has stayed. My avatar is my beloved Kubicki Ex-Factor bass, which does say something about me and my interests

I post elsewhere as Kamelion, but I can't for the life of me remember why I picked that name. Nothing to do with Doctor Who, though. Seems a bit of an odd choice when I think about it, but there you go.

 

[Mycanid]

...Funny story about my name, which I always forget. I knew a guy from my neighbourhood since he and I were in kindergarten and up to high school; he was chinese. His name was Tychicus, pronounced "tich-i-cus" or somesuch. Not really roman at all....

On the contrary, Tychicus IS in fact an old Roman name.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Names of that kind give me headaches at times. Then again, I have a tendency of writing in full sentences in my text messages. Maybe it's a personality thing?

I also write in full sentences when I send text messages, unless I need some extra characters to finish off my message. When that happens I go back and change the "to's" to "2" and the "for's" to 4, etc., (all the really obvious ones). I also use proper punctuation. But I guess I'm just anal like that!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Piratecat]

It's why I don't text; it annoys me to abbreviate a three letter word down to one.

And I'll tell you, if I had known screen names led to impressions, I'd have totally named myself "Musclesmart Niftyrich." It just has this ring to it, don't you think?