You can blame G-Force (the
anime, NOT the guinea pig movie) for my username. G-Force was an old Japanese cartoon featuring a group of five people protecting the earth and stuff (kind of like the Power Rangers, but less campy). Among the vehicles they piloted was this massive airplane/spaceship that could turn into a fiery phoenix-like blast of energy. Many episodes ended with them using this ability to blast through and destroy the threat of the day.
That image kind of stuck in my mind, and when I needed to name a phoenix NPC for a 1e D&D game, I used "Firelance". Since then, every time I needed to use a phoenix in the game, I would call it "Firelance". During 2e, I started creating a homebrew inspired by elements of the Death Gate Cycle, the Dark Sun setting and the Birthright setting. The basic idea behind the setting was that the world had been split into eight pieces because of a massive struggle between good and evil. Firelance became a hero of the old world who had best embodied the philosophy of Fire. Formerly human, he had evolved into a phoenix. His weapon, also called the Fire Lance, was what would be a holy, flaming lance in 3e terms. In 4e terms, it would be a spear that could convert the damage it deals to fire and radiant damage (and in line with 4e philosophy, since there's no official magic item that does this, I decided to create my own).
I have long abandoned that setting, but I'm still fond of the name and the (NPC) character and weapon who bore it. So, I've been using it as my user name on ENWorld and a few other forums I frequent.
And in case it isn't obvious, my avatar depicts both the phoenix and the weapon that shared his name. It was done by Sialia (also from ENWorld).