Why do people use nicks?

[BlueMage]

There's a funny story attached to mine.  Mate of mine was running a D20 Slayers campaign, where he'd made classes based loosely on the early Final Fantasy games (think nuklear power ) but unfortunately, he already had a BlackMage!  But not a BlueMage.  I turned out being a half-Dragon, dual-wielding BlueMage (named BlueMage) whose most powerful ability was his acid wit (able to inflict physical damage with taunts) and succeeded in critically failing to teach another party member a spell, but they critically succeeded in learning.  Hence, when they cast it, the DM would just toss every die he had to determine damage.  And from that awesome incident forward, I was forever BlueMage.

Oh yeah, I successfully taunted the DM and got away with it.  After that, he realised that DM is God

Besides, my real name is stupidly long for an Anglo-Saxon name.  BlueMage is so much less to type.

[Freston]

I DM'ed a campaign where one of the recurring villains was called Freston the Necromancer. I took that from Don Quixote de la Mancha... where the evil Necromancer Freston (sometimes called Ferton or similar variations) was blamed for transforming the well known giants into windmills.

At the time I felt that was funny. It just stuck.


On a related note, my real name means 'war sword' in ancient Frisian. But don't tell the dragons

[Triarius Fidelis]

On a related note, my real name means 'war sword' in ancient Frisian. But don't tell the dragons

I always LOL when I see some public official or sports commentator or whatever today whose name means (taking real examples) 'Wolf-bow' or 'Hammer-shield' or something along those lines. It's so archaic.

[Freston]

I always LOL when I see some public official or sports commentator or whatever today whose name means (taking real examples) 'Wolf-bow' or 'Hammer-shield' or something along those lines. It's so archaic.

Well, I kindly disagree. Or rather, I do not disagree per se based on personal opinion but it's rather difficult NOT to choose a name with such derivation. Nobody today speaks ancient Frisian, and even the Frisians today recognize my name as one of theirs when I go there (which gives me a welcome edge, because they tend to close ranks when confronted with a Hollander, such as me) ... but they don't know what it means either.

But other very popular names are all references to the time we where in bearskins fighting dragons and needed something cool sounding. Either that or our names are biblical references. If you study names and what they mean, you will find even the most if not all common male names fall in either of these two categories. * Not that I studied names, but it took me a long time to find out what my own name means.... it's not that common. In fact, I think if you only new my first name and my year of birth, you would be able to find out everything about me. Hence, my need for a nick.

[Triarius Fidelis]

But other very popular names are all references to the time we where in bearskins fighting dragons and needed something cool sounding. Either that or our names are biblical references. If you study names and what they mean, you will find even the most if not all common male names fall in either of these two categories.

OK, but the Old Frisian for 'war-sword' is most likely awesome than, I think, Greek for 'bearer of Christ' (which is what my current first name means).

[Freston]

O, Christopher

*Bows deeply*

EDIT: Current first name?? I'm catching you on words here. Current?? You change your real name a lot??

[Triarius Fidelis]

O, Christopher

*Bows deeply*

EDIT: Current first name?? I'm catching you on words here. Current?? You change your real name a lot??

No, but I intend to. I want something awesome like 'Ragnvald de Hever' to be my legal name.

[Freston]

No, but I intend to. I want something awesomecan putmedown as areference like 'Ragnvald de Hever' to be my legal name.

You should!!! If you'd change your nick to that, you can argue that anyone from your RL (ie /vectorlinux.com/forum2) knows you as such. You can put me down as a reference.



EDIT: I earn a fair share of my rent bullshitting authorities, legally. This is how it works (keep in mind that I have seen die Kneipe today :p)

[BlueMage]

O, Christopher

*Bows deeply*

EDIT: Current first name?? I'm catching you on words here. Current?? You change your real name a lot??

No, but I intend to. I want something awesome like 'Ragnvald de Hever' to be my legal name.

No dude!  You and me, we share an awesome name!

[Triarius Fidelis]

No dude!  You and me, we share an awesome name!

First or last? I know there are other Hevers living in the British Isles.

[BlueMage]

First.

[Triarius Fidelis]

First.

There's too many of us. Not many Hevers (descendants of a family of Norman nobles, the de Hevers, who settled in England), so I'm holding on to that even if I don't intend to have kids. I would prefer to bear a Germanic first name because I like how they sound and what they mean.

[SuSE-Refugee]

I think if you only new my first name and my year of birth, you would be able to find out everything about me. Hence, my need for a nick.

Same here, especially if you add in my nationality; I have yet to find another Dutch with the same first name.

Plus: My nick here states exactly where I'm coming from....

[Colonel Panic]

I just found mine funny, it's a pun. "Kernel panic" is a well known error message in Linux which I've seen more than once, and "Kernel" and "Colonel" (the name of an officer rank in the British Army) sound the same.

I only use my real name on my old school's forum, where everyone else does too and it's important to know who everyone else is so you can tell if you knew them or not.

[Sivatheja]

This is my real  name!