The other day - while discussing the letter w, I believe - WillowZ revealed the origin of her Second Life name over on her blog. She chose both halves for personal meaning, which got me to wondering whether we all do the same.
For those who've never had the pleasure, when you make a Second Life account you are given free rein to pick a first name, but a finite number of surnames to choose from. The list changes regularly, the original idea being, common wisdom says, to bond people into 'families' within the world.
I picked my own name equally carefully. Willow, as I suspect will surprise nobody, came from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer character of the same name, just as WillowZ's did.
Caldera I picked because it was the name of a little town in Morrowind, my all-time favourite pc game - I might well still be playing it now if my hard drive hadn't crashed, burned and dissolved, taking with it 3 years of saved games. My little dark elf really did kick some arse by the time I was done, but that didn't save her from silicon hell.
So what made you pick your name, was it random or did you have your reasons?
14 comments:
Canimal was my nickname for a while its also buffy related (no wonder the 3 of us get along so well) but I wont tell you HOW its related cos its stupid.
zephyr was the name of my fave spot in 'there' it was where people went to skate on hoverboards. I had one shaped like a dragon :))
funnily enough when i had to choose a surname I narrowed it down to zephyr or manimal.. (manimal! what are the odds!!) but i thought canimal manimal sounded stupid. like marci darcy from maried w/ children or something..
I was so horrified by my spelling when I read over the post, that I had to repost it. lol
I chose my name because it's a RL nickname of mine. (Backseat Betty...LOL...don't ask :P )And I picked my last name, because I was looking for something Irish. I loved the sound of them together. Names are huge and I sometimes wonder about the people who wander in with "F137BOD" or some such over their heads!
Mine is inspired by my favorite character in my favorite series of book, CeNedra. In the books she ended up being the Queen of Riva, hence Rivera.
If I had it to do over, I may have picked something easier to pronounce, or shorter, but since most people call me Cen anyway it doesn't matter much anymore.
My favorite are people who use numbers in their name, especially a number that is probably the year of their birth (JohnDoe1971). There should be a big disclaimer when you start an account letting you know it can't be changed.
I really liked this question, until I really thought about my name.
I used to play Barbies like ALL the time and I would ALWAYS refer to my mom's old baby name book to pick out the perfect names. Well I obviously didn't use my normal name-generator when choosing "Hallie" because it means "from the hall" or "home ruler". Real boring.
I first heard it on the remake of the Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan. I've loved it ever since.
Greenstein was a complete mistake. I meant to choose Gardner because I came in with a family from TSO. I hit the wrong name and attempted to sign on as Hallie Gardner. I was not happy after I found out. Greenstein isn't a really glamorous last name. But I think I'm over it now and in some way it just fits now.
I chose Blondie because I am a blondie-haired girl and also love the band Blondie (I am boringly straightforward lol!). Dagger just sounded very exotic and dangerous -like a criminal heroine who turns out to be working for the good guys all along. Or a stripper or something. Glam anyway!
I toyed with the name Chelsea Dagger after that song that was in the charts by the Fratellis but was more drawn to Blondie in the end.
The only thing that bugs me is the way you trip over it when you say it out loud (dental plosions of the d sounds placed too close together if I'm to get geeky and remember my English de-de-degree).
Shockwave comes from the novel "The Shockwave Rider" and Plasma I choose as it's the 4th state of matter.
Damn you people naming yourself after clever and cultural things....
*clears throat*
I came up with Kitty at the tender age of 7, I hated my RL name (still do really) and upon pwning the world of 48k spectrum games I was required to put a name to show my achievements. So I picked Kitty. Sadly, no one ever told me that 20 years later it would be common as muck in the virtual world... *Sighs*
Oh and Cani, you've not met Animal Manimal then?
My silly excuse for choosing such a looong name is available here
Mine was pretty simple. Meara means "mirth" in Gaelic, and I was hoping to make my av in SL to find some happiness during a rough time in my life. Deschanel...I had just seen "Elf" which Zooey Deschanel stars in, and the two seemed to fit. So I became Meara Deschanel, and have remained so ever since. :)
Well mines on my blawg, but cut a long story short... Willow = Buffy and pretty and Zander is for Xander out of Buffy too... sooooo pretty much Buffy related all around huh?
I thought Buffy Zander would be too sad :P
Oh gawd, this just goes to show how utterly unimaginative I am.
Laura - because my name in rl is... Laura -.-
Leandros - because it begins with an L like Laura -.-
Note to self: BE LESS BORING
@Cani - I'm intrigued now and demand to know the Buffy connection.
@Bettye and @Cen - LOL I quite agree, I always feel a bit sorry for them because clearly nobody told them that "name" really did mean "name"!
@Amanda - why am I not surprised :P
@SylvieGirl - I quite like it, my tongue skips over it. Is my tongue more skippity than yours?
@Shockwave - that's just ridiculously cool!
*sniggers at the idea of a little teeny Kitty*
@Tim - But it's a cute one :)
@Meara - that's such a lovely reason! And meaning, too :)
@Willis - and this, my dear, is why we're twins.
@Laura - LMAO! Oh my god woman!
Don't worry Laura, I'm in the same boat as you.
My RL name is Jessica, but since high school I've always spelled it Jessyka.
My surname is very similar to my Second Life surname in spelling and rhythm to the point where I sometimes mix them up by accident.
My avatar is basically me so I wanted a name that was basically mine.
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