Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Where did you get your nick?

My post was also delayed by the crash and is also not very exciting. My real name (the one on my birth and marriage certificates) is Anna, which I completely hated growing up...yes, I was called "Anna Banana", too.

Anyway, when choosing names in French class, I decided on the French version of my own name...Anne. When we moved and I starting attending a new school, I just told everyone that my name was Anne.

Flashback - twelve years:
When I was born, a friend of my grandmother gave me a Raggedy Ann doll which she hand made. I still have it and, as I got older, I decided to collect Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. I now have about 15 pairs of dolls, ranging in sizes from 2" to 2' tall.

So, when I needed an online nickname for a chatroom (the old Q.com, if anyone remembers), I decided to use RaggedyAnne but added the 'e' like I did back in junior high.

That's it...y'all can wake up now.

LOL! You have a good memory. Yes, I have said that. People have expressed concerns about using their real names online -- understandably so -- and I've mentioned that I didn't have to worry about that because I once did a websearch on Kathy Brown and it came up with like 10,000 and none of them were me. <g> Well, at least not the first few hundred that I went through ... after that many pages, I got bored and figured anyone else looking for me would too. <g>

Though I do remember someone from work framing a magazine cover for me in my 'Corporate America' days. The headline was "Kathleen Brown For President". They were talking about the California politician, but it was kind of cool to have.

Kathy (who has joked before that Kathy Brown is actually a pen name because her real name -- Wendy Richards -- was already taken. <vbg>)

I have no imagination...especially when it comes to names...so I used my real name. I guess you could say my mother had imagination, but actually she picked it up from a co-worker, many moons ago

I have so little imagination when it comes to names, my new kitten (pictured in my avatar) is named Chang after a previous favored pet. (Actually my husband named him that, I was going to call him Tanaka, but got overruled )

hey, we're just playing. (at least, i am. ). besides, labby and i haven't been leapfrogging. i was ahead by a few posts, now she's ahead, and will stay that way for the forseeable future. these days, i've been dueling with anna for second place. (shh... don't tell her. it'll be easier to win if she doesn't know. ).

of course, i don't let myself post just to post (which is why i didn't respond to anna's accusation before, unlike some rats i know... :p ).

the main reason i'm posting this time, actually, is to remind loriel to explain the definition of "kal el" again. i thought that was hilarious last time, and i'm not sure if everyone saw it.

Paul

Well, my nick origin is boring... but then there's the irony.
Rivka is my first name. It's Hebrew for Rebecca. The ironic thing is that when I was in school (elementary thru HS), I was one of _four_ Rivkas. (Religious school, obviously.) But online, I can almost always use rivka, or at least rivkag. (My middle name is Gila, which means joy. So a translation of my name would be Rebecca Joy. )

Snork. (Hey, we need a snork graemlin <G>) Embarrassingly enough, I didn't actually think I'd posted that often yesterday. So I reckon Paul's been hacking into the forum and artificially raising my post counter. There ain't no way I made it to 30 yesterday all by myself. Coz that would mean I was addicted and I'd have to go seek help.... So HackerPaul seems a much more logical reason to me.

Okay, let's see....how I got my nick. Reprise:

Well, first of all, I come from a tradition of people using nicks just because they're fun. Started with the old CB radio culture, I guess (used to use the handle Whisper - because I had a sore throat and a cold the day I first went on the air <g> Hey, two explanations for the price of one!).

The Doc Klein's LabRat nick was, strangely enough, initially chosen for a forum that had nothing to do with Lois and Clark. The Paramount Comedy channel, here in the UK, used to have/still might have a little forum on its teletext service which had developed into something of a thriving and fun community, with a lot of regulars who mailed in letters about everything from Paramount shows to events in their lives - and other things. <g> There was a whole 'thread' at one point about someone having a phobia about gnus. <g>
Which was more hilarious than it sounds.

Anyway, I had a question I wanted to ask about a particular Frasier episode at the time and wanted to mail and ask for the answer. Everyone in the forum used nicks as a matter of course. As I'd just discovered LNC I decided I needed a nick to reflect my interest. I have no real idea why Doc Klein's LabRat popped into my head. I have no memory that I'd watched a Klein heavy episode shortly beforehand. But the fourth season was halfway through its first run on UK TV at that particular time, so it's always possible that I did. Besides I'd always enjoyed the Klein character, so it was probably a combination of elements that brought it to mind. There is, of course, an indication in the show itself that Bernie belonged to the LabRats Motorcycle Club, so that could have worked its way into the mix too.

For whatever reason, I thought of it, I liked it, I used it when I mailed my question to the forum. Later, when I got hooked up to the net and found FoLCdom, the first postings I made were to post nfic to the original mbs. For various reasons - even longer and even more boring story, so won't go into that - this spooked me enormously, so there was no way I was doing it under my own name. So I shifted the DKL nick over to this fandom and used that. Made life easier and was less taxing on the brain to think up another. Over time, of course, it got shortened to LabRat (or Lab or Labby or just plain Rat <g>). There was a time when I had problems with that and got lots of email asking me if I was a/ a scientist or b/ making a philosophical statement on the nature of the futility of life and I'd have to explain it was actually attached to Doc. Klein. <g> But haven't had any of those for some years now.


LabRat

Visualizing twelve-step program... Hi, I'm Rivka, and I'm a rabid FoLC.

Hmm, maybe I need to get FARCE started up again... the Fanfic Addicts Recovery Codependent E-group <g> We had a 12-step program and everything. It was just that the meetings never lasted more than a few minutes before new fanfic was posted and we all trooped off to read it

PJ

Oooh, support group. Sounds like you did the meetings wrong, tho. Group readings and discussions!!!

Very interesting stories! I just have to say, always be careful with real names on the net. I met a guy on the net once who said he could find my phone number without too much information, and he'd call me. This was back when Penn State had public student directories, silly them. He did find it, and he did call me that night. Granted, I did eventually marry him, so maybe that's not a bad thing....

Now see, I found this hilarious, and I'm not sure why... I don't even get Paramount... maybe it's because of that song... was it by The Goons? "I'm a gnu..."

Anyway back to my nick...

For those that haven't met me... No. I'm not German.

My real name isn't Helga, but it's similar to Helga, and there are several of them already on these boards... Besides, Helga is a sometimes nickname in real life so it's not that confusing for people who've actually met me.

There's a story about where Helga came from, it involves a holiday in Wales and a wok, so really, I'll do you all a favour and spare you the details

Oh yes, and in the original thread, I mentioned the radio advert which was highly ironic when I was a archaeologist...

"My name is Princess Helga. I shall not be valking on ze mud...."

Helga

P.S. I hope you all realise, with all this talk of support groups, that the first step towards recovery is recognising that you have a problem....

Reminds me of a series of fic on the Archive by Sara Kraft about the continuing adventures of 'a reality-challenged FoLC'. They're a lot of fun.

No way! You can't just leave us hanging with that tease, Helga! Come on - fess up.

LabRat

Okay, I never posted my story about my nick before the crash, so will do so now. LnC and XF were my first fandoms I ever joined online - I can't now remember which list I joined first, the LnC ficlist, back when it was on indiana.edu, or the XFilesMature list on Yahoo. (I had gone to a couple of Star Trek conventions before I discovered all the fun stuff one can do on the computer, so I'd have to say that was my first fandom ever...) Anyway, older FoLCs may remember that I joined the fic list using my real name, but they have all sworn never to reveal it to anyone else - you remember that, don't you, oldies? But along came the first Kerth award ceremony they held since I joined the fandom, and I had to learn how to use IRC. Anne Ciotola (I think it was you - thank you again, hon!) held IRC tutorials a week or so before, and I, having just moved to Vancouver, managed to find an internet cafe - not having my own computer yet; was spending 18 hours a day in the internet cafes or library or employment agencies, surfing the web, looking for work, or just wasting time - and attended. First thing they told us was, you have to have a nickname. But other people can see it until you learn to block it, so best not to use your real name. I had had to take my cats to the shelter when I moved to Vancouver, because my little girl cat was a BAD traveller, and my little boy cat got too lonely without her. And I was really lonely without them! Their names were Melisma (her) and Spot (him) - he was named after Data's cat on TNG, because he was the same coloring, yellow with the odd faint white stripe (no spots, lol), and of course I was still putting the finishing touches on Through a Glass Darkly, my first (TNG) fic, so I had to show my Trek-ness somehow... She was named after a cat that my college sophomore music theory professor had had, and I had thought the name was neat and if I ever got a cat of my own, I would name her Melisma - so I did. (A melisma is a device in Gregorian chant; chant is syllabic, one note per syllable. But if you want to emphasis a syllable, you lengthen it by adding one or more extra notes to it - that figure is called a melisma. Passages with lots of melismas in them are called melismatic passages...) Anyway, that's how I got the nick you all know me as. But sometimes I have to have a last name for site registration purposes, and I'm sure not gonna use my real last name. So I cribbed the last name that I called my Mary Sue character in Through a Glass Darkly, McGregor, and my full online nick is now Melisma McGregor.

Long boring story, and now you know more about me than you ever wanted to, huh? (Except perhaps my real name, unless you've met me in person, or knew me the first few months before I got on IRC...)

Melisma (shutting up, finally, here under her Rock )

It's ok Tracey, I normally go with Breanna Kay for my nick...but I wanted something LC related for mine this time.

Am reposting cause was lost, so will be brief. Wanted something LC related, but not the actual name of a character... and I've always loved the town of Smallville (and Lois just looks so cute and relaxed in her 'country dress'). So I chose Smallville Girl. And I DID choose this before the show "Smallville" premiered. :p

Bad Paul! I told you to hack it so that, no matter how many times she posts, it stays at 29!

The new boards have been open for just under 45 hours and Labby, you are alreay up to 47 posts. idea!
/me rushes off to the polls.

Meet me here!

-Breanna

Fascinating stories, all! I've enjoyed seeing where everyone's nick comes from, also from those who posted before "the big crash".

Didn't get around to explaining where my nick comes from before, so here goes. I suppose I ought to explain even more now that I've asked people to call me Kaethel on the boards/ficlist and not mix it up with my real name. [bg]

I've been using Kaethel as a nickname since I was 17 (I'm 24 now -- you do the maths ). Back then, I was a huge fan of a national radio talk show, and I called the host quite regularly (it was one of those shows where listeners call to suggest a topic of discussion or talk about something funny they had seen).

Anyway, when I first called, I used my real name, and I felt kind of uncomfortable to be so easily recognisable. All right, most of my friends knew the next day that I'd called (I was so excited that I couldn't shut up about it ), but the next time I did it, I decided that it would be best to use a nick.

In the meantime, the talk show in question had once a topic (I can't remember how it came up) where the host said (jokingly) that his guardian angel (according to his name and personal details that he'd entered into a database) was called "Kaethel". He didn't spell it, and the topic was never broached again. But I'd heard the name and for some reason, the sonority of it appealed enormously. I invented a spelling to go with it almost immediately. Actually, back then the spelling I used was "Kaëthel" (for those whose computer gets this mangled, there's a little sign (2 dots) on the first "e").

I used this nick to call the radio, and most of my friends at school knew I wanted to be called that way. Most of them still called me by my real name, though. Or occasionally "crinière de feu" ("fire hair") because it's at the age 17 that I started to dye my hair red. Anyway... where was I? Oh yes, Kaethel.

Well, I went so far as using it officially once. I was on a ski trip in the Pyrenees that year, and I took some ski lessons. And I told my group (including our teacher - who was gorgeous, by the way, but I digress, sorry ) that my name was Kaethel. For a whole week I got called this way - I was ecstatic!

Then things moved on and almost everyone around me forgot about Kaethel, even though I was always wearing a bracelet with the nick engraved on it: first a leather bracelet - the kind of thing you find in touristic places and get specially engraved to your name - then a silver one - which I still wear now - when I lost the leather one a few years ago. Even though it wasn't used by anyone, the nick Kaethel sort of followed me.

When my parents finally got a computer and internet access, we had to decide what name we would use for an email address. Thankfully our ISP back then didn't impose anything onto us, and asked us to give them whatever name/nick we wanted. Since the internet access was mostly for me, my folks told me to go ahead with whatever I preferred - of course Kaethel was the first thing I thought about, and so the two dots on the first "e" that I talked about earlier were dropped, since email addresses don't support special characters.

It still wasn't a definite thing until the first time I joined IRC (Kerth Ceremony 1999). I had told mIRC to use "FlyGirl" as a first nick (I had wanted to use it because it looked sort of related to Lois & Clark), but it was already taken, so it used my alternate: Kaethel. I have no idea who was using FlyGirl that night, but if I knew I would like to thank her! Thanks to her, I used Kaethel right away, and I'm very glad I did. I got very attached to the nick over the years.

Again, when I sent my first fanfic to the archive came the time to wonder what name I would post it under. I almost used my real name then, but decided that since I was very much a closet folc (still am, actually - not so much a closet folc than a closet author), it might be better to use a nick. Mind you, it doesn't make much sense since all my friends know my nick through my email address, and typing "Kaethel" in google gives you a lot more matches for me than my real name does. But oh well.

Anyway, that's my story.

Kaethel

Lol! Now that's a nice story Kaethel. Have you ever figured out if it means something? Other than that you gave to it?

Saskia

Nope, Saskia. I never even stopped to wonder if it means anything, especially since the spelling comes from me. In any case, it was just a name once mentioned, so I'm not sure it means anything at all. And I've been using it for so long now that I tend to forget where it comes from. These days the nick in my mind is a lot more associated to FoLCdom than to that old talk show.

Kaethel

Paul reminded me I had almost forgotten about poor Clark! And believe it or not I had to go and get my copy of The Sillmarillion again. So here goes...

kal means 'shine' and -el means maiden thus we have

Kal El - Shining maiden!

Poor Clark, its really not good for his image!

Loriel

Kaethel, how do you pronounce your name?

I've always imagined, Kaethel, similar to Kal El, or is it Kay Ethel?

I'm not familiar with what the little dots over the E do to the pronounciation

Loriel, I had also found out (and posted then) that Kal-El means "Star Child" in Kryptonian.

Very interesting... Shining/star Maiden/child...

-Breanna

I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that Clark would probably prefer Star Child! Its infinitely more suitable.

Loriel