What's in a Name?

[FrozenFlash]

So, people. What's the story behind your username(s)?

 

For me, my first username was FrozenFlash. The "frozen" part came from the fact that Kopaka was my favorite Bionicle character. So, when I was about to first join this site, I wanted my username to have to do something with ice. The "flash" part was just added in an attempt to sound "cool and unique" at the time .

 

My second username, Veigar's Shadow, was just based off of a character from the game League of Legends.

 

As for this "Fluorescent Flowers" username... it was based off of an interesting story topic from before.

[Toa Smoke Monster]

My original username was 'The Smoke Monster.' It was based off of The Smoke Monster from the TV show Lost. I thought it was really cool, so I took its name as my username.

 

After some time, I changed it to Toa Smoke Monster. I did this because I wanted to add something Bionicle related to my username, and Toa fit that bill really well IMO. I kept that username since, except for the times I changed it to 'I Am A Walrus' and 'The Master Sword.' I even use it on Twitter, Discord, and other sites that I've joined. I like it that much.

[Pohaturon]

Pohaturon is something I've used on and off as an online persona since 2001. I was a fan of Lego prior to Bionicle already, though not in any serious capacity (partially due to how young I was at the time) however seeing the line advertised before initial release in catalogues made me really excited for it. Pohatu was by first set, and my favorite ever since. 

As my interest for Bionicle grew, I went on and created my very first online account for the Bionicle website, though I don't rightly remember if that was tied to the then-current equivalent of the Lego ID. Anyway, I was stumped on what username I should pick for a while, but then I thought "hey, I'm doing this just for Bionicle anyway, so it might as well be related". And if it was Bionicle related, to my younger self it was obvious it had to be Pohatu related too. Lacking further creativity, I took his name and slapped the last three letters of my own name to it. 

Over the years I've periodically used other usernames on various sites, but somehow I keep coming back to "Pohaturon". I recently used my sole free Battle.Net name change to switch it to Pohaturon, for example. It's just too iconic for myself to change. 

 

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

Okay, well. I've had a number of (far too many) usernames over the years, so this is gonna take a while.

 

I started off my BZP life in 2004 as the incredibly generic 'supertahu29'. I have no good explanation for that; Tahu wasn't my favourite by any means, and the number had no significance... it was quite literally just the first thing that came into my head when I saw there was a username field, so I ran with it. That may have been a mistake; but I was new to forum sites at the time, so I didn't know any better.

 

I stuck with that for a while, I believe, before I came up with an original Bionicle character of my own (read: awful self-insert oc) and decided to change to his name instead, so I became 'Gurak the Trader'. Originally, he was intended to be a travelling trader on Mata Nui, hence the name; but that only lasted for as long as it took me to realise that on BZP it could be misleading, since I didn't participate in the B/S/T forum at all. I still wanted to stick to Gurak's name, though; and in the story I was composing for him I'd just reached the point where he (for SOME REASON, apparently?) became sympathetic to the Bohrok-Kal. So, 'Gurak Bohrok-Kal', I became.

 

I believe that one lasted for a while? Though, I got bored of it eventually. In the style of Takua, I'd already decided that my matoran needed to become a pseudo-Nuva (but with a different name? Because why not I guess?), and so I changed my username to match that as 'Toa LehuNuva'.

 

That lasted me until 2007, where a combination of changing the character's name to the more simple Lehu and a massive Star Wars kick prompted a switch to the non-Bionicle-relevant 'Hochewa - The Wookiee Jedi', after a different original character of mine. Later the same year, I decided to revive the Lehu name, but not drop the Star Wars reference, so I became 'Lehu - The Jedi Toa' instead. Because mixing fandoms is NEVER a bad idea...

 

From there, I would simplify to 'Toa Lehu' in the August of that year, when my interest in Bionicle picked up again, and that lasted until the end of the year when I decided to undertake a, *ahem*, project.

 

And out of that project, which was a wild mess of force powers, lightsabers and Star Wars references existing in an alternate Bionicle universe, the name and concept of 'Darth Jaller' was born. Both because it was a distinctive name, and because (matoran) Jaller had always been a favourite character of mine, I decided to wear the name myself for a while, too.

 

And? Aside from a brief change in 2010 to the name of an obscure character from an old Disney TV show - just to see if anyone got the reference - I've been 'Darth Jaller' ever since. The project idea in question is long dead, never seeing the light of day thankfully, but the name remains. Occasionally, I think of changing it, but I think it's stuck by now; and quite honestly, I have no idea what I'd change to, anyway.

[ToaTImeLord]

Well the Name ToaTimeLord is my original persona.

It was created out of randomness.

I like Doctor Who and thought "lets slap Toa to that and call it a day."

 

A year and a half later I've changed it to some variation of TimeLord but The name just stuck with me. So why come up with a new one.

 

Funny story.

I had my self MOC made just after I joined and never named him. Slowly over time that MOC has become the crazy persona known as TimeLord.

 

TTL forever!

[Ta-metru_defender]

Metru-Nui was cool once. Especially in late-December 2003.

[The 1st Shadow]

Geez, it feels like I've been The 1st Shadow forever, but that's not the case. In the time before time.....

 

I joined BZP in 2010, after lurking for a few years, and I didn't feel like using my LEGO ID (which was just my first name and a random set of numbers). Instead, I wanted to go for something a little bit out there but still fitting for myself. At the time, I'd been experimenting with writing short stories, and found that third-person view was best at the time. At one point, I decided that I filled a sort of third-person role in the general high school scene--I was never a main character, but I still looked in and knew who the other characters were and what was going on. I liked it. It gave me some inspiration when writing my stories. So, I adopted a sort of narrator title, The 3rd Person. It was cool, it was unique, and it stuck pretty quickly.

 

Shortly afterwards, another member by name of Lewa Krom started up what he called the "Krom Club," comprised of members who had "Krom" in their name. I became The 3rd Krom, and it lasted for a few months. 

 

Around that time, I started working on an epic, centered around a sort of mystery character that ran around and did stuff behind the scenes in the Matoran Universe, never getting involved in major events but often starting them. Like, he wasn't involved in the Matoran Civil War in Metru Nui, but he and one of his companions were part of what got the conflict started. That sort of thing. Also around this time, I started to learn more about some show called "Doctor Who." I decided to make the character a shapeshifter, but he couldn't control the changes. They happened on a monthly basis (the title of the epic was "When The Month Ends"), and each form had a specific set of powers and abilities, and some differences in personality. I named each of these forms in advance, using the same name scheme as before (The # Title), and planned to rename myself as the epic went on, adopting the same name as the character as the story progressed. However, I never got past The 1st Shadow, so that one kinda stuck with me, especially after BZPower fell into the Great Dataclysm of 2011.

 

When BZPower came back, I jumped right back into the epic. But the downtime had killed off too many active members, and the few that had been following my work seemed to have vanished. Since then, I've been using variations of The 1st Shadow, such as T1S, T1Shadow, Shadow, etc.

 

I've often thought of changing it, but at this point, I don't feel like I can. It's who I am now, and I use it on other sites as well as Skype and Discord. I am The 1st Shadow, and I'm apparently not going anywhere.

[(Daedalus)]

I like Deus Ex.

 

Really, though. At the time I joined BZP I was especially in love with the game, mainly because I had just recently obtained the full game after playing the preview a dozen times over. I took an instant liking to the character of Daedalus. I still don't know why. I liked the way the name sounded and the mystery behind him intrigued me, I guess.

 

One of the reasons I chose that, too, was for what I thought was a cool idea: I opened every post with *Incoming Transmission* and closed every post with *End Transmission.* I even had this crazy plan to one day change my username to Icarus and then to Helios, but I never got around to it.

 

Oh, and the parentheses are there only because Daedalus had already been taken.

[Electric Light Gunhaver]

 

Really. I've loved Homestar Runner since I discovered it back in '07, around a year after my initial exposure to Bionicle. The name "Gunhaver" just really stood out to me. So when it came time to make an account so I could PM my friend who didn't have a phone, I decided to go with his name. I added "Nuva"  to get more into the spirit of things, but that fell off my name very quickly. "Gunhaver" stuck, and that's what a lot of people call me now, regardless of my display name. 

 

Then I made a strange name change, to "Godkarmachine O Inary", a mouthful of a word, and a heck of a boss from Megaman X3. Why his name? It was catchy and weird enough to me. And then "Inary" stuck.

 

Another 90 or so days passed and the pull of Earhtbound was like an itch I couldn't scratch. "New Age Retro Gunhaver", a reference to "New Age Retro Hippie" was here to stay for a while!

 

Then Inary came back to team up with Gunhaver for a while. Inary the Gunhaver was locked and loaded! I believe it was my longest name change yet. 

 

Then something bizarre happened. I changed my profile picture to Josuke Higashikata from Diamond is Unbreakable, and after my friend picked one of JoJolion Josuke and changed his name to suit it, I decided to follow in his footsteps and now there are two Josukes.

Sorry for the extra-long post and many "Enters", but I wanted to include them all.

[Dane-gerous]

Vahkidane was originally just because at the time I really liked the Vahki and my name was indeed Dane.

 

Everything after that was just sort of relevant to whatever was happening at the time - My current name is because I've been watching JoJo finally and I like the character of Okuyasu a lot.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

My original name was Tahuzilla, as at the time as a middle-schooler I loved Tahu and Godzilla. I still use this name on some websites. After a myriad of stupid name changes, I ended with RC-1505 OMEGA, it later being shortened to RC15O5. That was my name for a long time.

 

I grew out of BZPower for a couple of years, and when I came back I had since become fascinated with the medieval period of the Roman Empire, which at that time they had lost Italy and abandoned Latin for Greek with Latin influence. As such, I hellenized (made into being Greek or Greek-like) my real first name, Jared, in the form of Iaredios (replace j with an i and it becomes obvious). I often use 'dude' and 'man' in my vocabulary, and with my interest in history, I added the title, Iaredios "the Hip Historian".

 

I am currently donning the name of my overzealous character from the game BZP Bara Magna, Hyethut, whose name is a complete fabrication and its only influence and goal is to sound foreign. After the game ends I am going back to being the Hip Historian.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Hyethut (Iaredios)

[25K Now!]

So how about that fifty posts per day posting rate, huh?

Edited August 30, 2017 by 25K When?

[Wiriamu]

And? Aside from a brief change in 2010 to the name of an obscure character from an old Disney TV show - just to see if anyone got the reference - I've been 'Darth Jaller' ever since. The project idea in question is long dead, never seeing the light of day thankfully, but the name remains. Occasionally, I think of changing it, but I think it's stuck by now; and quite honestly, I have no idea what I'd change to, anyway.

What was the name? I'd like to see if it's one I know.

 

Unless I had an account I forgot about, the earliest username I had was Pachacamac. It originally comes from a mythological Central or South American deity...though that's not why I chose it. I subsequently changed to Wiriamu, which is the Japanese version-at least according to a translation site I used ages ago-for William.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Wiriamu

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

 

And? Aside from a brief change in 2010 to the name of an obscure character from an old Disney TV show - just to see if anyone got the reference - I've been 'Darth Jaller' ever since. The project idea in question is long dead, never seeing the light of day thankfully, but the name remains. Occasionally, I think of changing it, but I think it's stuck by now; and quite honestly, I have no idea what I'd change to, anyway.

What was the name? I'd like to see if it's one I know.

 

It was Tripod, who was from the old 101 Dalmatians TV series which, at the time, I'd not long known the existence of. I went all-out, changing my icon and banner to be of the character, too... heh, it was fun at the time, but I don't think it really paid off xD

Edited August 31, 2017 by Darth Jaller

[Toatapio Nuva]

When I first joined Bzpower, I just came up with Toatapio on the spot. Cause, you know, Toa + [insert real name here] makes for the perfect username on a Bionicle site, am I right?

 

Anyway, I created lots of stories with my friend about our self-made characters in the Bionicle world, mine being a Matoran named Tapio. At some point in these stories, he became a Toa, justifying the "Toa"-part in my username. He later became a Matoran again, but fell into Energized Protodermis and became a Matoran Nuva. That's when I changed my username to Toatapio Nuva, and I've used that name ever since, not the least cause my character didn't go through another transformation again.

 

I don't only use this name on Bzpower though - it's become my standard alter ego in many other places on the internet as well.

[Taka Nuvia]

Originally, way back in 2007 I chose a name that was essentially a feminine version of my all-time favourite Toa (guess who ;D). And that kind of stuck with me, although there were one or two 'alter egos', namely the Fairy Knight who eventually upgraded to Fairy Paladin, and the much older Demon Jester (that was around the end of high school. The memories!).

 

Eventually I always went back to the original name though, even if only out of habit.

[Sumiki]

I made the name up in 2004 and I thought it sounded cool

[-Windrider-]

Did you honestly expect anything else from me at this point?

[Voltex]

So, people. What's the story behind your username(s)?

 

For me, my first username was FrozenFlash. The "frozen" part came from the fact that Kopaka was my favorite Bionicle character. So, when I was about to first join this site, I wanted my username to have to do something with ice. The "flash" part was just added in an attempt to sound "cool and unique" at the time .

 

My second username, Veigar's Shadow, was just based off of a character from the game League of Legends.

 

As for this "Fluorescent Flowers" username... it was based off of an interesting story topic from before.

 

woops

 

Part 3 will come eventually, I assure you

 

-

 

Gosh. I could say quite a bit about all of my names. Let's go over some of the highlights and low points.

 

007lewa - I was a dinky 12 year old and I thought it sounded cool.

ibrow - The 'brow' bit sounds kinda like the first half of my last name, except obviously spelled differently? I turned it into "Brow" on my Wii, and one of my friends here on BZP (who is, I believe, long gone; his name was "mrepic") convinced me to add the 'i' onto it to parody Apple.

Globin - I was playing the third Mario & Luigi game, and liked the various emoglobins.

Freelancer iBrow - I had recently discovered Red vs. Blue. You can figure it out from there.

The iBrow Classic - Taking the Apple parody another step further.

iBrony/iBrow Hearts Luna/iBrow Hearts Rarity - Let's pretend these don't exist. That's what I do.

Kermit the Pyro - I wanted a name relating to the Pyro from TF2 that wasn't a stupid pun, but also had a bit of humor to it. Cue adding Kermit.

Voltex/Tex - I did a month long LIT camp where the LITs and Staff are given special, unique camp names. My group called me 'King' after King Duncan, and we moved from that to Volio. I eventually combined Volio and Vortex, creating the name I've had for the past five years. 'Tex' is an obvious shortform that I quite like.

iBrow Voltex - A combo of the two names, before I decided to cast aside the mantle of "ibrow" entirely.

Gavroche - I was obsessed with Les Miserables for a little while.

YO YO YO YO HOME SKILLET - It won a name change contest on my blog.

Hurricane iBrow - The last time I used the 'ibrow' name.

Iron Voltex - Burnmad had a Minecraft server, where myself and a bunch of friends built ourselves a base inside a mountain. We started crafting multiple armor sets, and I eventually assumed the title of 'Iron Voltex' to parody Iron Man. Good times.

Freelancer Tex - A special name change for my 5th anniversary on the site. I partially took on the name "Voltex" so that Tex from RvB would be referenced, so this was an obvious name change to make.

Agnes Oblige - The first of two group name changes I took part in, celebrating the highly addicting 3DS RPG Bravely Default.

Sir Voltex the Blue - Thanks to Windrider I achieved Outstanding status, meaning I am now a bold orange. I named myself to make people ask why I had named myself blue instead of orange.

CHRIS PRATT - He's sexy.

Strange Festive Voltex - The second group name change I took part in.

Lucina - I played Fire Emblem: Awakening for the first time in early 2015, and quickly became obsessed with it. Lucina was my favorite character, so I took her name... and then challenged myself not to change my name until I had beaten my record for holding onto a single name. I succeeded in breaking the record.

Stark - I wanted to name myself 'Snow' for Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, but it was taken. Stark was the next best thing.

Breath of the Wild - I originally wanted to call myself 'Zelda' for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (another game I became obsessed with) but it was taken. So I named myself after the game, and got a bunch of other members to name themselves after Switch games too.

 

And that's about it. No new names since, and there won't be any for awhile. My next name change will be going back to another that I've used before.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Stark

[Rahkshi Guurahk]

Basically young me was bad at naming, and I was kind of inspired by Electric Turahk.

And basically all my other names are variations upon that...

[squidmaster]

my first username was bioniclemahat this was because my friends called me mahat but it then changed to gadunka101 and morakthehydruka because the hudruka and gudunka were my favorite sets now my name is squidmaster and that is because in real life I am a weapons technician and my first prototype weapon was called the squid that paired with my love of bionicle 2007 and I got myself the perfect username. 

[SPIRIT]

Let me try to access my 13 year old brain here.

 

Basically there were spirits in Bionicle, plus it kind of embodied the sort of persona I wanted to have online.  There one minute, gone the next.  Kind of a watcher from the shadows as I had been lurking on BZPower for a few months prior to joining.  And yet despite this desire for anonymity, I chose to make my name in all capital letters to help it stand out.  To be seen, yet unseen.  Very poetic in hindsight...

 

And yet impossible to use on any other website.  Pro tip, kids.  If you're building an online persona, avoid real words.

[You just lost the game]

Hmmmm, that was some time ago. My original username was toalewa850, which happened to be my Lego.com message board name as well. After some time of switching my username, I landed on this one as a joke. It just kinda stuck after someone gave me this avatar I'm using.

 

Sidenote: I can't believe it's almost been 10 years since I've joined.

Edited September 12, 2017 by You just lost the game

[Steampunk Tahu]

A moc that I will be posting once I'm done moving.

[Valendale]

Well, I've discussed my various names many times in the past, and I'm sure I will again in in the future the next time this topic comes up, but I thought I would cover my recent name change now. It's literally my last name, but with the first letter replaced by a B.

[evil_jaga_genius]

So Eleventyseven has a song called "Evil Genius".  My sister put it on a cheap MP3 player we found lying outside one day, I heard it and fell in love with the song.  So I started acting like an evil genius, trying to use my brain more, trying to plan things ahead, teaching myself how to program because all evil geniuses are hackers, right?  And I like Nui-Jagas too.  So from that I came up with Evil Jaga Genius.  Most of the time, when I don't want to sound completely edgy to people, I prefer going by Jaga.