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"a pile of poo by any other name / still smells like poo," Shakespeare wrote in a little-known rought draft of Romeo & Juliet. the line was, of course, changed to, "a rose by any other name / still smells as sweet" (or something to that affect) :-] anyway, this thread's idea is to share the reasoning(s), if any, behind your chosen avatar name(s). obviously several are based in a Peter Gabriel song or idea whereas others, well, we have no idea. as for me, no big revelation or interesting fact. just that my name begins with L, i like the name Eliot, and i wanted to make it a bit feminine (and french). i've considered also Elias, which sounds a bit like my initials, LIS. meh. hope this is interesting and fun for you. if not, let it die quietly. and, as always, BE NICE.

Hi, I'm Lily . . .and i'm a vampire. no, really.

Obviously my reason is this: http://soundcloud.com/the-soil :-]

Well, I have a horse named Zen (registered name BJK's Zentetta) and I ride him. http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv348/yzenrider/Oct%202010%20Trail%20Rides/DSCN0670.jpg :-]

Mine is because I am a guy with no clue at all. Wait, what is this thread about anyway? :-]

Once upon a time, there was a PG fan website called And Through the Wire by John Underwood. That had a very slow chat room for PG fans. One day in 1997 or 1998, I logged in and picked the nickname "raven." First thing I was told, was "You can't be raven! I'M RAVEN." So I logged back out, then logged back in as "rraven." This really pissed off Raven. I realized I was on to a good thing and kept "rraven" ever since. As to where the Take A Wild Guess part came from, I'd have to get back to you on that. There probably was a good reason at the time.

I am progressive in my politics, my name is Jennifer but almost everyone calls me Jen. Guess I wasn't feeling too creative at the time

Great thread, Linda, and I'm curious about several names here. Soil, loved your link, but I was surprised not to recognize to what song belongs one of the times he said Soil.( the long one after the ones of supper's ready) I had a brother slightly older than me, they said he was the one who called me Memé, and my whole childhood I was named like that or it's variations( memeti, memy,me, etc) by family and friends. on the post teenage days I went back to Maria Marta, and only childhood friends and family knew my old nick. Till one day when hubby opened me a hotmail account and put Memé as my name,so all the parents of the friends of my kids, and new friends, started calling me like that , again. So I decided to embrace my old nick ( it is , after all, another way of remembering my brother) and now, I find strange when somebody calls me for by my real name and not my nickname, on the web, and on real life too.

This is a great idea for a thread - I've often been curious as to why certain folks have certain nicknames here. I do know the history of some, but would love to learn more about others. Well, as you can see, I use my name Pat Parker as my name - always have, really. My name Pat is short for Patricia, so that is a nickname. All of my life, growing up, I was known by my family and friends as "Patsy" (my dad loved Patsy Cline, so I think that's where it came from, but oddly enough, my dad always called me "Pats" (leaving out the "y" all the time). So, for the most part, most of my family and friends from long ago referred to me as "Patsy" - then, as I grew older (teenager years, no doubt), I did not want to be called "Patsy" (it sounded like I should have pig-tails and jumping rope (which was fun for a 7 year old :-]). I didn't like being called, "Patty" (still not really fond of it but if people say it by mistake, it's okay, I don't freak out on them). I had several friends named, "Patty" so my being called "Pat" was easier to distinguish us all. For the most part, as strange as it sounds, most of my good friends now refer to me as "Pat Parker" (again, maybe this is because there are others known as Pat or Patty). So, I don't get upset if I hear someone say, "Hey Pat Parker" (in fact, "Hey Pat" is really my name - people cannot just say Pat; it's either Hey Pat or Hey Pat Parker). Some of my friends from the concert business just call me Parker because they tend to call everyone by their last names - it's easier that way, especially if you have 5-6 Johns working! So, all this to say, that my preferred nick name is: Pat Parker (with or without the Parker). If you call me Patty, it might just take a bit longer to respond - I tend to not listen to "Patty" until @ the 3rd time, then I might look around to see if you mean me. Kind regards, Pat Parker :-]

I'm small but, well yea. I was going to put big time ideas, but I didn't. Guess i still could-

It's never too late

That's true!

Guess I could take it for a test drive-

Look's good BTI! My nickname speaks for itself and is one of my favourite PG songs. My real name is Iain.

Thanks Shock- I like your real name, too

The fact, of fact. Latin-y stuff. Actually, my Dad initially came up with it for a username when I used to have to use his computer for internet uses, and so made me my own user with that name and it just kinda stuck with me years later. I initially wanted to go with "Glitch" but either the system said I couldn't or I decided not to. I don't remember. That name itself came from my preteen loner-y uppity emo-y attitude of "Being a glitch in the system". I also contemplated using "Silent Sorrow", but the system said "Nope, no Genesis fun for you." And thus I am once again DeFacto. De one and only. My real name, as I've mentioned, is LeeAnn. I'm not a fan. It sounds hick-y to me. Leander, on the other hand, or Leigh, would be cooler(though I hate being called "Lee" more than "LeeAnn" itself). Now I'm taking this a slightly different direction, into Writeyland: I like to use names that are somewhat mainstream and names that are somewhat obscurer in this day-and-age(and I just love older names like "Roderick"). I don't name characters after people I know, per se(if the name is mainstream enough, it'll be coincidental). I also never, ever look at name meanings when coming up with names. I don't really believe in it unless it describes physical traits. *Shrug*

Clothy started out as Clothears because that's what I've got! Vikki's always shouting up the stairs "Oy Clothears your dinners ready" so it stuck. Iusedtobeclothybutnowi'msomeone I picked up on my recent trip to Colorado when Mercy picked up on the way that Vikki always seems to refer to me as "Someone" But Linda you know all that lol!! :-] :-] :-]

but try typing iusedtobeclothybutnowi'msomeone without hitting the space button it's damn hard lol :-] :-] :-]

Clothy, is that like, "Someone left the toilet seat up." "Someone left the gate open." etc.

Caste is short for my family name Castellini. That's what my friends used to call me when I was a kid. Now I have more *refined* friends who call me by my first name - which I don't like, with that extra -e at the end of the venerable name David, as written in that old scienfe-fiction book and found everywhere else in the world. I hate that, I really hate that. All because Tuscans can't apparently tolerate a word which doesn't end with a vowel, and they are said to have invented Italian language so that became the norm. All the while here in the North we speak a wide range of dialects whyich don't suffer from final consonant-phobia, and we're perfectly fine with that. Thinking of legally changing my name to David. [Excuse my rant, but that really drives me mad]. My dad is a Caste too BTW, and so was my granddad.