How does one decide on a new internet handle?

[Raziaar]

I mean seriously, other than the people who are just capable of throwing together random words and numbers and be fine with it.

I've thought about changing my internet handle for some time now. I don't know how serious I am about it, but I've certainly pondered it.

It seems like such a daunting task to me. I've been using this one since 1999. A whole decade.

It's amazing how attached one becomes to it, and how attached even the people around you become to it.

I know some of you on here have completely changed your internet name, though not without fuss from the people around you, including us.

How did you manage it? Or are you just not all that attached to your previous ones to begin with?

For me, it seriously seems like it would be as emotionally difficult for me as it would be to change my actual name, given to me by my parents.

 

[Vegeta897]

Why would you want to? Your name is original, good, and everyone is used to it.

You say you've been thinking about it but list nothing but reasons not to.

 

[Raziaar]

Why would you want to? Your name is original, good, and everyone is used to it.

You say you've been thinking about it but list nothing but reasons not to.

Well, it's something I struggle with. Part of me wants to change it to something fresh and new. Not particularly for HL2.net, but for the internet in general.

And not necessarily retroactively changing it for everything, but rather assigning myself a new name for future things that I do.

 

[Lucid]

I used to use sup3rsnail a helluva lot but I found it sounded far too juvenile and just stupid so I wanted to change it.
I was watching Donnie Darko one day and saw "Lucid Assembly" as a song in the credits, thought it sounded cool but since most websites don't allow spaces in names I added the x's.
Eventually shortened it to just Lucid... which is of course a very widely used user name so the x's usually get thrown in for uniqueness.
Lately though, I've been experimenting with the name turned backwards Dicul, but spelled like how it would be pronounced: Deakull.
I think it has a sort of tribal look to it.

 

[L3N!N]

I have FiOS. Not sure about the price, it should be somewhere around $50 a month. It's blazing fast, and totally worth it.

 

[Rico]

Raziaar1999


Now, go forth into the internets.

 

[Dumb Dude]

I don't like mine and only registered with it because I never figured I'd actually end up sticking around here. It is a pretty dumb user name no doubt. I now usually go by the even less original username: Sonickers.

It's something I don't like putting much thought into because it doesn't seem all that important to me. And it beats using real names.

 

[CyberPitz]

Eh, as a little kid, I had a weird love for Cyborgs and robots and such, so I figured I'd tack the word "Cyber" onto it. Well, since I was watching DBZ at the time, I put one of the characters afterwards. I ran with it for a while, but hated it in the end. My father used Pitz when he would do games and what not online. So, I figured it would be cool to take that and add it to the end of my name. Like father, Like son!

That was forever and a half ago. Probably when I was 14 or 15....god, 10 years ago D:

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Don't you dare change your name... on hl2.net anyways. If you have to change it for something else just do "Mr Raziaar" or something.

I think what numbers did was cool, making a lambda on the keypad.

 

[Raziaar]

Raziaar1999


Now, go forth into the internets.

Hahahahahaha... no.

 

[Sulkdodds]

I've forgotten all of them in short order, but sometimes I see or think of names that would just be amazing, and that I'd call myself in a snap if I had to make a new internet identity. But I'm way too attached to my current one, crummy as it is. So I know the feeling.

This name was always just a temporary portmanteau for my first ever email address (CS moniker: The Incredible Sulk. Surname: Dodds. Ey wallah) but, largely because of its use here, it became, for many people I 'know' and respect, me. I'm pretty happy with it. Even if I wasn't, I wouldn't bother changing. The name itself is now far less important than the identity people attach to it.

Actually, I have a dual identity because I'm quite well known on my WoW server under the surname of my primary character. But that's unlikely to catch on anywhere outside the game and its community.

Tangent: if I ever publish a book or get a job as a journalist, I might ask to be credited as Frank Dodds. 'Francis' is my middle name and its short form, Frank, was the name of my grandad.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

I used to go by the name Nexus when I played Starcraft. Everyone thought I had named myself after the Protoss building, but actually I had lifted the name from Warzone 2100.

I'm not entirely sure when farrowlesparrow was born. I think the forum just before this one. Embarrassing days they were. I honestly don't recall how I came up with the name. I used to say that Farrow was a name in the bible, but I don't think that's where I got it from. Sparrows are sort of my mascot now, but not because I ever had any special love for sparrows, but rather because I thought "Might as well choose something." And at least it's not something horribly clichéd. Sparrows are pleasant little birds.

I actually started using a different name some time ago. I've tried to largely disassociate myself from FarrowleSparrow in the last couple of years. Like you say in your post, I won't go replacing the name on old forums, but I use a new one in other places now.

I'm not telling any of you what it is :arms:

I also tend to just use my real name for a lot of things. Mostly Steam though.

 

[Laivasse]

When I was much younger and even more incredibly emo than I am now, I used the monicker 'DeadSummer' exclusively. At a certain point I grew increasingly self-conscious of how juvenile that sounded so I made an attempt to come up with a new name - not one that was just a bunch of words jammed together, but an actual unique name with cool sounding syllables. Something like 'Raziaar', in fact...! *shakeyfistey*

I failed utterly. Laivasse (pronounced 'lie-vass') was the best of a bad bunch. I created it by adding an 'L' onto part of an occult sounding incantation from some thelemic musicians. I used it for a while in the absence of anything better, but then I had used it too much to stop. Pain in the arse now when I'm called Lavaysse, Lavarse, Lavassey, Laviass...

 

[Sulkdodds]

I quite like your name; I always thought it sounded like some kind of delicious pasta.

 

[Qonfused]

I have FiOS. Not sure about the price, it should be somewhere around $50 a month. It's blazing fast, and totally worth it.

Lol'd. I thought the same thing.

I've had a load of names before I settled on Qonfused. My first real handle would be Sorcerxo, a name I came up with when trying to make up a handle for Neopets. That's right: Neopets. Sorcerer was obviously already taken and I thought Xs were cool, so there you have it. Then I came up with Q_onfused when I was 13 or so. I noticed I liked the shape of the question mark this one font I downloaded had and began brainstorming. The Q_o part of the name looked like a confused face () so I thought that was clever. After awhile, I changed it to Qonfused because people kept pronouncing it "Cue-un-fused" and other dumbshit variations. My Steam account name is still actually Q_onfused.

There are probably other names in the timeline I have forgotten, but those are really only the three that have stayed for any amount of time.

 

[Laivasse]

I quite like your name; I always thought it sounded like some kind of delicious pasta.

You're just remembering the time you slurped all that carbonara sauce off my neck.

BTW UR name is kewl too, bro /high five

 

[Sulkdodds]

Oh my god, carbonara totally is my favourite kind of pasta! Clearly we were made for each other.

 

[Raziaar]

I quite like your name; I always thought it sounded like some kind of delicious pasta.

Only sounds like? Go ahead, give it a lick... you'll see.


You guys have had some weird names in the past. I'm honestly glad you don't have those anymore because they suck compared to your awesome current names!

Maybe I'm just biased though.

I have FiOS. Not sure about the price, it should be somewhere around $50 a month. It's blazing fast, and totally worth it.

Oh and back on Pasta... I once had this pasta with this vodka sauce, and it was the best pasta I have ever tasted. I can't remember what it was called.

 

[Jintor]

I'm going to be Jintor forever. It's a comfortable name.

 

[Raziaar]

I'm going to be Jintor forever. It's a comfortable name.

I'm comfortable with it. Very comfortable.

 

[lefty]

I've always had this name.

 

[Raziaar]

I've always had this name.

I hate your new name. Honestly. Well, at least compared to the original.

You are one of the people I meant when I said others here have changed their names.

How can you go from Que-Ever to lefty?

Does lefty have significance to you?

 

[kupocake]

Don't change your name unless you think it really makes you sound like an arsehole. That's why I changed mine anyway... I just thought it made me sound really up myself. I wouldn't want people to know the content of my posts before they've read them.

 

[lefty]

Yeah, a song by a band I like. I mean I liked them significantly more a year ago or whatever, but lefty is still an ok name I think. Que-ever is good, but old. I just get tired of my internet names every couple of years.

 

[Vegeta897]

Don't change your name unless you think it really makes you sound like an arsehole. That's why I changed mine anyway... I just thought it made me sound really up myself. I wouldn't want people to know the content of my posts before they've read them.

Remind me what was your old name please?

Edit: Oh Kupo Artist or something like that? Haha.

 

[arch5]

Go into the internets as the Sexy Taco.

 

[delusional]

I'm quite happy with delusional, but I'll use Angra Mania from time to time (its unique). I actually almost changed my name to that here, but decided against it.

 

[Sloth]

I've actually always had Sloth / evilsloth - when I was registering my gmail account my brother said that I couldn't have an email address that was just my name, he suggested that I was bloody lazy thus sloth and the evil got attached.

I dropped the evil from it a while back cause it did just sound stupid, I also use 'deeSloth' for the Writer's Collective I'm part of 'Dee Colon.'

I guess we all get attached to our internet names and they tend to follow us over the internet, from forum to forum.

 

[Escaep]

I've tried numerous times to try different handles. But I can never get used to new names. I've had Escape for about 4-5 years now. It evolved from *|No3sc4p3|* to No3sc4p3 to 3sc4p3 then finally to Escape.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I wasn't even a huge fan of Smash TV when I decided to use this name. I don't know if it was really the cause but I tended to go with names that started with M because my first name is Mike. Megatron, etc., in fact I registered as Megatron on this very site. I'm going to use this name until no one even remembers Smash TV.

Poor big, green, misunderstood robot ;(

 

[knut]

I use a few different names, usually song titles or something, so I'm not really attached to anything. I think my first name here was some death metal album (which is reflective of the time I signed up) and now it's a Primus album which seems to have garnered some pretty bad comments from people who think I am actually anti-popular, so I'm thinking of changing it. I'm not even much of a Primus fan anymore.

It's not all that big a deal to me, though. A quick google of someones username can often come up with them as users on other forums and I'm hesitant to anyone seeing how much of a whining jerk I am here aswell as I am on other forums so the more names, the better.

 

[Raziaar]

I've tried numerous times to try different handles. But I can never get used to new names. I've had Escape for about 4-5 years now. It evolved from *|No3sc4p3|* to No3sc4p3 to 3sc4p3 then finally to Escape.

You got less and less l335.

EDIT: I meant l33t. Typo.

It's not all that big a deal to me, though. A quick google of someones username can often come up with them as users on other forums and I'm hesitant to anyone seeing how much of a whining jerk I am here aswell as I am on other forums so the more names, the better.

haha that's actually partially the reason why I would want to change my name if I did.

Worried about people searching my user name, coming up with these forums and wanting to disassociate themselves with me immediately.

 

[Steel.Inferno]

Mine name here is from the title of a book I read ages ago. I only use the full name here and on xfire, though I have become attached to the SI abbreviation. I have different aliases for most communities, depending on when I joined or just because I want a new one. Since I tend to be only sporadically active, but for over a very long period of time its hard to change. I don't like the Inferno abbreviation but all my attempts to change it have ended in me giving up and reverting it.

My current preference for new names is to use a somewhat obscure or archaic adjective, or the old standby of a character name from one of my novels, which is what all my RPG/MMO characters get their names from.

Anyway. I don't recommend changing your name for a long-standing community... too much trouble and everyone will call you by the old name anyway, so not much is achieved.

 

[Vegeta897]

You got less and less l335.

l335?

5????

 

[Raziaar]

l335?

5????

Typo. 5 is next to t.

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

Well, it's something I struggle with. Part of me wants to change it to something fresh and new. Not particularly for HL2.net, but for the internet in general.

And not necessarily retroactively changing it for everything, but rather assigning myself a new name for future things that I do.

Jesus christ.... bout 3 years ago I had the STUPIDEST internet name... I'm not even gonna say it. Yours on the other hand, again, is original and not stupid. Look at me! Tacoeaterguy? WHAT THE F***?

 

[Cpt Tenacious]

Once I was at my friends house and for some reason we were watching the new Yugioh show for like five minutes, then the guy played this card.

Then I was like, "start calling me that from now on".

 

[Yorick]

I picked up Yorick from Hamlet when I was 12 or so. I had my first real experience with someone close to me dying, (which is what happens in the play) so it felt appropriate. In the event that it's taken I get pissed off, and divert to MPYorick (MP being my initials) or YoricksRequiem.

I've used it in real life on occasion, because both my first and last name are pretty incredibly popular.

 

[Raziaar]

Once I was at my friends house and for some reason we were watching the new Yugioh show for like five minutes, then the guy played this card.


Then I was like, "start calling me that from now on".

I always thought it was because of like... Tenacious D or something.

 

[Vegeta897]

Once I was at my friends house and for some reason we were watching the new Yugioh show for like five minutes, then the guy played this card.
Then I was like, "start calling me that from now on".

This is the greatest name origin ever and I wish I could have witnessed it.