What's in a name?

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Waluy

Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2013
Messages
285
Location
Olathe, KS 66061
I always find it interesting when I am on a forum to find out how people came up with their display names. Some are fairly obvious but others tend to be more unique.

So here is my question.
How did you come up with your forum name? Also where did your company name come from?

I'll start.
My display name came from a game I used to play (Ultima online). I needed a screen name that was unique and had just watched the movie "The One" whose main character's name was Yulaw. So I thought sure why not I'll reverse it and be Waluy. After playing that game for over a year people started calling me Wally because they couldn't pronounce my screen name and Wally just kind of stuck.

As for company name it just made sense that I call my company Wally's Custom Designs because I make chainmaille, pens, other woodworking items and custom one of a kind non reproducible works of art. With VERY few of my pieces not being custom tailored to the customer.
 
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That's easy on mine. Look at my Avatar.

Mike B
59 AH 3000 BT7

That's a good looking Austin Healey. I used to work for a company that sold parts for "British Sports cars" including the AH, MG, Sunbeam and Triumph. I must say I never really understood the appeal but seeing the one in your Avatar I begin to see it. :smile:
 
I design and engrave tombstones for a living. My handle is a play on my profession.
I also make yard signs, pet markers, wedding gifts, and engrave boulders on site.
Granite is what I love but I also engrave glass, wood, mirrors, etc.

Everything I make is one of a kind. I will use ideas from other things I have made but I always change it for each person. The only time I make matches is if it is ordered that way.
 
That's easy on mine. Look at my Avatar.

Mike B
59 AH 3000 BT7

That's a good looking Austin Healey. I used to work for a company that sold parts for "British Sports cars" including the AH, MG, Sunbeam and Triumph. I must say I never really understood the appeal but seeing the one in your Avatar I begin to see it. :smile:

It's all about the drive. Nothing like driving down a winding road with the top down and a sweet engine sound coming from the pipes.
 
I have been involved with fire and EMS since 1991. And currently work dispatch. I have always been told that I have a bit humorous side also. So on scene one day when someone asked did you see that fire I said Fire. what fire? Been attached to m ever since.
 
I decided on mine when I joined a scuba forum. I wanted something easy to remember, and somewhat aquatic sounding. I also was just turning 50, and I recalled my brother-in-laws 50th party. Someone asked him what year he was born (after a few drinks, I guess they couldn't do the math:rolleyes:). Anyway, he said 49. Then someone else asked "AD or BC?" Everyone laughed. Ever notice how things are so much funnier after a few? Anyway, I remembered that story for some reason, and decided BSea instead of BC. And I've used it for every forum I've joined since.
 
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My avatar, love to chase those turkeys. One of the first things you do is check to see
how long his beard is and how long his spurs are.
 
PTownSubbie

I live in Portsmouth, VA which is nicknamed P-Town

I have been a Navy Submariner for the last 28 years....Subbie

I guess I could have been more creative.....:biggrin:
 
Well, after 10 knee surgeries on the same knee, 3 of them being replacements, it was pretty easy, as my son started calling me Gimpy back in the 80's, And yes, that is my business name also.......thanks for asking
 
I'm actually a real live rat ( but a nice fluffy cuddly one) and I forage for stuff and live in a skip. (Dumpster, for you guys that need a brand name) :)

My favourite member 'handle' here on IAP is Bitshird's. My foreman used to tell me that was how I welded !!!! (Figure it out ) :)
 
I don't remember how I came up with mine :rolleyes:, but for the sake of a story I'm going to say it involved a bottle of grey goose and a german enigma machine!
 
There was a time that I wasn't so....... good, I guess. I got into a few issues and had to go "away" for a few years. Anyway, when I came home I turned my life around. Stopped getting into trouble. This was one of the hobbies I picked up during this little chapter in my life, so I thought "Turned Around" was fitting for how I started this stuff and for the fact it's all done on a lathe. A bit of a double meaning, if you will.

It was either that or "Nic's Awesome Must-Have Pens Made With Pride in the Texas Heat". The former was shorter......
 
When I started making pens I worked for a company called Timeless Timber. People that worked there called it TT so I became ttpenman. Don't work there anymore but never bothered changing it.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin
 
I got mine while in the Army. This was before any movie LOL I was working with some of my Russian counterparts and one day while talking about what we used to do before the military, I said I did a lot of shark fishing. The Russians had just put out some of their Shchuka subs. The name stuck.
 
When I started making pens I worked for a company called Timeless Timber. People that worked there called it TT so I became ttpenman. Don't work there anymore but never bothered changing it.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

Isn't it funny how things that are no longer exactly relevant play into screen names. I know the game server I was on when I originally created Waluy is no longer around (hasn't been for over 5 years) but the name stuck with all my friends. And as such has made its way to most every forum I have ever been on (its always available). Chances are if you are on any forum and the name Waluy shows up its me. And I have so many hobbies its on a LOT of forums.

This has always been one of my favorite "get to know each other" topics.
 
I always referred to my 3 daughters as Toad, Toadette and The Lovely Toadella.

When asked by my ex-wife how I felt about my youngest shaving her head and wearing bicycle spokes for earings I replied The Lovely Toadella Has Warts.

It has been my internet ID for 16 years now.
 
I've actually changed my name here.. or Jeff did it for me at my request... I started out as ozmandus which was an artificial intelligence in a sci-fi book I read...only I misspelled it when I first set it up...so I was stuck with the misspell... when I set up my hobby turning business my step son suggested TellicoTurnings... I liked it and changed.... I live in East TN in the Cherokee National forest in a little town called Tellico Plains.... as a side note: Tellico is Cherokee for plains... hence I actually live in Plains Plains....:biggrin::biggrin:
 
If you ever played the video game Whiplash you'd know Spanx (the weasel).His sideffect from electrocution testing is random jolts through his body.I have a similar but not as extreme side effect,though mine is probably from mild head injuries.I feel he makes a good avater.

My cards that I give out (I'm not a business) are titled Blackbelt Woodworks.I have a 3rd Degree BB in Hapkido.
 
Congratulations, Nic, on "turning around" ! :cool:

There was a time that I wasn't so....... good, I guess. I got into a few issues and had to go "away" for a few years. Anyway, when I came home I turned my life around. Stopped getting into trouble. This was one of the hobbies I picked up during this little chapter in my life, so I thought "Turned Around" was fitting for how I started this stuff and for the fact it's all done on a lathe. A bit of a double meaning, if you will.

It was either that or "Nic's Awesome Must-Have Pens Made With Pride in the Texas Heat". The former was shorter......
 
Some 33 years ago while playing football in jr high, The coach said my neck was too long to play tackle. Said it looked like a goose. It stuck all through grade school and My army time too. Now I work in the oil and gas industry and my friends call me goose. The dusty part is when my wife and I started doing wood working. We do scroll work and turnings of all kinds. So... Dustygoose I became.
 
I got my nickname in college. Several of my friends started calling me wraith because I was so quiet when I walked. It was like I would just appear out of thin air. We all played AD&D, thus the choice of wraith. I told them it wasn't me being so quiet, it was them being so loud that they couldn't hear me coming.
 
When I was stationed in Germany, our little RADAR site was called Alzey Air Station. Years later I started playing on-line games and used that name. I now use it on several forum and had it through multiple games and servers.
 
The very first forum I joined was a theology forum. I hadn't started turning yet so I was still doing mostly flat work as a hobby. When I joined the forum I wanted a screen name that reflected my love of wood working. I also kinda liked the tie in to a certain Jewish Carpenter.
 
After Using such things as "Nightlife" and "Yesterday's Wine" (both are titles to songs that I happen to like the first by BJ Thomas and the second by Willie Nelson) some other places I decided to keep it simple here.."Smitty37" Smitty is what folks have called me since '37 when I was born. Business name Smitty's Pen Works is obvious.
 
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Mine is a a pure coincidence.

I always wanted to be (still do if I'm honest) a movie prop/model maker when I was a kid. Amongst others, I really loved the Jerry Anderson TV shows, so when my ISP suggested my email should have 90 in it, shortening it to Si90 for a user name (as in Joe90) just jumped right out.

Si90
 
Wood-of-1kind is a play on words..."one-of-a-kind". I work with wood as my preferred medium and I only make "one of" pen, pen case or any other item that I choose to make.
 
As I toodled around the sky in a Cessna 150, I always had a dream while watching the other big birds zoom by. :eek:
After flying into a headwind one day and watching the cars below me going faster than I was, I decided it wasn't fast enuf. :confused:
Never got much faster, but there is always hope............... the P-51 is the ultimate!
gordon
 
Can't imagine why OKLAHOMAN,for my forum name and had the computer locked on caps when I joined. As to Classic Nib, that was because of the first item the we sold. My retail site is Bella-Penna which in Italian means beautiful pen and all my pens are named after Italian cities and sections of Italy.
 
No! I do not have a saggy rear end :biggrin: ... Bootie shortened from Bootneck, an Inter service nickname for a Royal Marine (just like your US Marines and Leatherneck) Wobbly ... 'cos that's the way I walk (when I'm not wheeling myself around in my chair) after injuries sustained during the best 16 years of my life!! Would I change anything ?? Not a Chance!!
 
My last name is Faris, so as a child of the 80's I played on the nostalgia card.

As for the business name, I was having trouble coming up with one, and one day mentioned I was making saw dust in the shop. My Aunt suggested SawDustin' Creations. My first name is Dustin. So it stuck and thats what I ran with.
 
My name came from NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki. He was a favorite of mine until he died in a plane crash in 1993. When I started selling on eBay, my screen name was alankulwicki7 and it's been with me ever since...
 
Mine's fairly simple. Last name is Brooks and I live in area code 803.

One of the best things that's come from my username is I get called Brooks by everyone. Which has a special meaning for me bc that's what everyone called my Grandfather. He was my inspiration to get into wood working. So I enjoy having that moniker like he once did.
 
I do some leather working (not as much since I started turning) and 1998 is my birth year. Woodard is my last name so Woodardwoodworks is pretty self explanatory. One other screen name I have thought about using is CAPmember1998 because I am a Civil Air Patrol member.

BTW my avatar is me and my dad at Ellsworth AFB for a CAP banquet.

Levi Woodard
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Forum Runner
 
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Um...it's my name, sort of. My grandfather was named Reynolds (first name) and his friends called him Rink. By the time I came along nobody knew where, how or when he had picked up that nickname. When I was born, against my mother's wishes and while she was unconscious, I was named Reynolds after my grandfather. So I, too, picked up the nickname of Rink. It's funny...I've been called Rick, Rex, rock, Ron, rod...you name it, but nobody quite seems comfortable using "rink" until they get to know me. Never met another Reynolds or another Rink and glad of it!
 
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