h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I like Dragons so I often use the same nickname on the Internet but I sometimes feel that I should come up with something witty or more applicable to the site I am in. Also, I find it does not help my feelings of doubt when I am constantly told 'Nickname:Dragonesque (You can change this from your home page)'. I know this is a standard message at h2g2 and is meant as friendly and helpful but it often just makes me feel inadequate in my search for a good name. Is there a standard formula or any suggestions on how people out there come up with interesting and appropriate nicknames?

You think you have it bad? i am still using my real name! I will watch this space with interest

Somebody, somewhere on H2G2 offered the following suggestion in another forum:-
Try picking letters at random out of a Scrabble bag. I think the researcher in question came up with Eomando.

My feeling is that you don't need to make your nickname relate directly to h2g2 - if for no reason that there are lots of Zaphods out there already.

How about taking two television/book/movie characters that not too many people have heard of, and combining them into one name that no one has heard of? For example, TV's Frink.............

Stick with the dragons. We are just about to enter the Year of the Golden Dragon (the best type there is.You seem to be in good company on h2g2 (unless those are all you under aliases)Have a really happy (Chinese) New Year.

No, no alias', just one part of a big family of cousins.

mine came from many many variations of derivations of my surname over a long period of time. If i told you my name you would say 'how the #@%$#^ did you end up with Linus?'

Many years and many variations later..........

Not that this helps you out much.

Linus

BTW, i can't see anything wrong with Dragonesque

I came up with Hipskitch by doing the following
Take two words that mean nothing together: Hip sketch
Put them together Hipsketch
Change letters to suit: Hipskitch
End up with something original and subliminally describing yourself (because of your choice of words/new letters)

I always have a horrible time trying to think up nicknames. I picked mine, because once when my almost-boyfriend was trying to guess my middle name, he said Rose (and he has called me that again on purpose). And at the time I was picking my name I was wearing a grey sweater with roses on it. It's an ok name, I like it.

My best friend always thinks up the best names. One of hers is "plumrose" except she spells it "plomrows". And hers for h2g2 is "fool" except it's spelled "Phul*". I don't know how she thinks them up.

Oh yeah, TV's Frink, I'm guessing that the "TV's" is from MST3K, and I know I've heard "frink" before, and it's driving me crazy that I cna't remember. Would you enlighten me?

Try :

http://www.snpp.com/guides/prof.frink.html

http://www.internerd.com/frinky/

(found by searching for 'frink' on www.google.com)

I guess that's where the name came from (Unless TV's frink is a massive sculpture fan)

Thanks Potholer!

I'm on to you now Frink! (I love this place, people here have the best taste.)

I found mine in an old Donald Duck comic, where the danish translator had wrote "sbonk" when one of the caracters hit another (I think one of them was Donald) in the head with something I also don't remember. (It was a long time ago and my memory is not very good)

I'm really getting tired of it, but as I can't come up with another, I just keep using it! Anyway, its a good way to come up with names.

A slant on the suggestion made by Hipskitch, could be to look at random pages from a dictionary, there must be SOME inspiring words there. Maybe I should have a go myself, I've been here almost a week now and using a normal name seems to put me in a minority.

I've never really bothered with interesting nicknames. 26199 is hardly the most eye-catching of names... but that's okay. If people notice me I want it to be sure it's because I've said something interesting, and not because I've got the most imaginative nickname.

Then there's the idea that your nickname should say something about you... I have great faith in the idea that you should avoid trying to guess what someone's like until you actually know them, and having pretty anonymous nickname works well with that idea.

*grin* Don't take any of the above too seriously, they're simply the best excuses I've managed to come up with so far for my immensely dull name...

Here are some nicknames you are free to use:

MacHine
XTC
3lite
]\/[akron
GrandJester
La Grande Fromage
Chex
FRooT LooP
Klear Sky
H8-2-SK8

I'll think of more...
Ciao

Back to the question about my name:

Yes, TV's Frink is a combination of TV's Frank (from Mystery Science Theater 3000) and Professor John Frink (from the Simpsons).

When I started here my name was just Frink. Some time ago I was having a discussion with Zach Garland about MST3K and he suggested TV's Frink.

*end of storytime*

BTW, the Definitive Frink site mentioned above is fantastic!

I took mine from the legendary Python sketch as it sticks in my head (for reasons only my brain-surgeon knows about). Other possible references are the names from Dr. Strangelove, books, t.v., etc. I also like double-meaning words, or words and phrases that I've either read or heard badly and so think they're something else.

What would your name be if you were a candidate on the Twit of the Year show? Besides that of a politician, I mean.
What sort of cruel knickname would your schoolmates give you if your father/mother was a professional game-show contestant that everyone knew?

Answering those questions may give you some food for thought.

Fruitbat

I just realized something interesting the other day. The capital letters in my nickname, G and R, are my first and second inital, except backwards. I didn't do this on purpose. Maybe this is like what Hipskitch was talking about, subliminally describing yourself.

GreyRose

In the words of Wayne "Whoooa, that's deep"

My nickname came about through the avoidance of coming up with an interesting nickname.

While playing Quake (the frist one) on a College LAN, I got sick of being called 'Player' so I threw 'ed' in the box.

Then I tried to get on IRC. Go ahead, try to get on IRC with 'ed'. It doesn't work. It seems to always be taken.

Then I was playing a windling, and I had to come up with a name. Don't ask me where 'Dalethni' came from, but it was my character's last name.

By this time I had several friends who calle dme 'ed' regularly, so I tried to incorporate it.

That gave me the contraction 'E'dalethni', which I have since lengthened to 'Eddissen Dalethni', but I still exstensively use the contraction.

The 'II' is just there for technical reasons involving a format of my hard drive and a failed attempt to retreive my researcher account on H2G2.

The upshot of this entire convolution is that I have yet to find any reference to 'dalethni' anywhere on the internet that I didn't put there, and I now can tell when people are talking about me.