What's in a name?

[Legacy_Alleyslink]

               

that which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.

 

I have an inquiring mind, a subject which has always interested me is etymology, particularly regarding pseudonyms. Therefore,  I pose these questions in the interest of fluff topics and curiosity.

 

There is also a possible benefit, perchance an encounter on a VoIP, no embarrassing mispronunciations. For years I understood the meaning of hyperbole but apparently I was putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable (watch from 1:35), and a good laugh was had at my expense when first I ventured to use that word in conversation. The Hyper-Bowl, you know it's like ten Superbowls in one.

 

1. How do you pronounce your Profile Name?

 

Compound word Alley+slink (Al-ley + sliNGk)

 

alley - al·ley

noun

1. a narrow passageway between or behind buildings.

2. a path lined with trees, bushes, or stones.

3. a long, narrow area in which games such as bowling are played.

 

 

slink -sliNGk

verb

1. move smoothly and quietly with gliding steps, in a stealthy or sensuous manner.

noun

1. a slinking movement or walk.

 

2. What are the origins of your Profile Name?

 

The fantasy and science fiction author Fritz Leiber wrote a story in Swords in the Mist which makes references there and other stories to the created word alleybasher. Quote "The twin brothers Kreshmar and Skel, assassins and alleybashers by trade,were menacing a miser in his hovel". I always admired the word because it's simplicity strongly evokes an image.

 

Time came to make my first character in, then brand spanking new, Baldur's Gate and as usual I made a fighter first. The name which first came to mind was Alleybasher, and so it was. Second pass through the game and I wanted a thief, needed a name, just changed the verb from basher to slink. Thus a legend was born.

 

In hindsight I wonder if the "slink" part came from Samwise Gamgee's personal names for Smeagol, "Slinker and Stinker". Long time ago and I am not sure but I didn't want to be "Alleystink.".

 

3. Does you nickname have a nickname? If so, what?

 

Call me anything you want, but don't call me Francis.

 

4. Is there anything else you want people to know about your Profile Name?

 

People have wondered why my avatar is a female when I am a male. Hmm, game like this, the element you will see most, beside GUI, is the backside of your character, I guess it is all about the view. Also, I am secure enough in my sexual identity that I am not compelled to only play male characters.

 

It's alright if you love me, it's alright if you don't. I am taking cold and flu medicine and can't seem to concentrate on Gmax today, so I spent the morning writing this post, and that was good fun. But I am truly curious as well, I mean I am a Bakshi fan.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               

<working hard...>

 

1. How do you pronounce your Profile Name?

 

2. What are the origins of your Profile Name?

 

3. Does you nickname have a nickname? If so, what?

 

4. Is there anything else you want people to know about your Profile Name?

 

 

 

1. Roll-oh - sounding like some rich chocolate and caramel confection with the R rolled and the L trilled.

Kipp - sounding a bit like my Lady when I sneak up behind her and tweak something... <goddess save us from twitterpated fools>.

 

2. IG - Rolo Kipp is short for Rolan de Kip pen Han (Rolan the favorite (or last surviving) son of the imperial (outcast) house of Han).

IRL - Rolo Kipp is homage to my first DM, the immensely talented Roland Kippenhan (though I'm sure I don't remember how to spell it anymore... That *was* 30 years ago)

 

3. Rollo. Don't know why. People who've known me for years still sometimes spell it with two Ls. Weird :-)

 

4. If my name, my avatar or my posts don't make you smile... I'm a miserable failure :-(

But I have an avatar for that! =)

 

Editing because it's sneaky and Bother doesn't get her own post <miser!>

My familiar Bother, a, er, *healthy* raven of extraordinary beauty <you just called me fat. again. i noticed>

1. Baa-thur. Like a lisping sheep addressing a knight.

2. Bother is actually the nick name of Lady Stormshadow which is the call name of Shadow of Wings Beneath the Vanguard of Storms, a royal elemental from the Venn domain of Storm.

3. Black Beauty <nice try, still mad> 

4. Upon Amethyst, familiars are formed of contracted spirits bound into animals... <...and it was only supposed to be a century!> 

Except you said "until Death takes you"... <...and the fool wont touch you. cheat>

Not my fault <how'd you like a snail down your robe?>

Hey! I wrote you up like you asked! <and called me fat>

Healthy! I said "Healthy!" <mmm-hmm. snail.>

 

<...at hardly working>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Berliad]

               

Hmm....  I'll bite!

 

1. I used to pronounce it Bear-Lee-Add.  But then, a couple of years ago, I wrote into a podcast somewhere and the host pronounced it "Berr-Lee-Id," which makes a lot of sense.  Sort of like Iliad (as in Odysseys)?  So, there you go: I might have been pronouncing it wrong for years.

 

2. I think I got it from a book.  Maybe the Once and Future King?  Or maybe that was Brandiles, which I went by for a time on the old vault.  I might have just thrown some letters together and liked it well enough.  I do know for certain that I first used the name for a Diablo character.  Or maybe it was Diablo II?

 

3. B!

 

4.  Last name is Helmhorns.  My gmail account says so!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tchos]

               

Alas, Rolo, I've been pronouncing your name wrongly, like Rollo Lee's name in Fierce Creatures.

 

1. I've heard mine pronounced many ways, and often with more than one syllable, or extra letters added, but it's a single-syllable name, pronounced very closely to the English word "chose", but with a hard S on the end instead of a Z-sound.  Somewhere between "chose" and the German word "tschüss".

   
2. That would be telling.

   
3. Many interesting interpretations, possibly due to thinking that it's a contraction or abbreviation for something else instead of its own word.  Not much need for a nickname for a single-syllable word with only 5 letters, though.

   
4. No interesting trivia about it that I can think of.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kamal_]

               

I pronounce mine ka (like father) mal (like malicious), it's a common real world name but with a different pronunciation in the part of the world where it's common.

 

/also, I'm not actually a yeti.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               

Not a yeti? '>


Proleric is a cod Anglo-Saxon name, so I stress the first syllable (like Ethelbert, Elric, Harold etc). "Pro" as in "profile", "ler" as in "butler", "ic" as in "cryptic".


When trying to create an account on the old vault, I couldn't think of a popular historical or fictitious name that wasn't already in use, so I used one of my own invention. Proleric is the military engineer in EI1, who is imprisoned and left to starve by his employer when the work is complete.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Terrorble]

               

1. Pronunciation:  Terr- as in I "tear" up credit card offers and burn them to ignite charcoal for my grill or Dutch Oven. Or- as in if what you're holding isn't a paddle it might be an "oar".  ble- hmm, I don't know.  ble!  Like you're saying the word bull without opening your mouth.

 

2. Origins:  the profile name is a play on the word terrible with several of its meanings, 2 - 4, intended.

adjective

1.

distressing; severe:

a terrible winter.

2.

extremely bad; horrible:

terrible coffee; a terrible movie.

3.

exciting terror, awe, or great fear; dreadful; awful.

4.

formidably great:

a terrible responsibility.

    The name Terrorble first stuck when I played Counter Strike - just before I jumped ship and started NWN. (I know, very different genres, but my wife said I'd shot more bullets than have been shot in all the recorded wars to date and suggested in her suggestive way I find a new game.  And being subjugate to the bat of beautiful eyelashes I was much obliged to change.)  I have always had a penchant for the underdog and the less than obvious methods for winning.  In Counter Strike, it was about winning with a pump shotgun and a knife when everyone else was decked out with sniper rifles and AK-47s.  Or, placing second in the rankings of our LAN party stats by not necessarily topping the kill chart but by noticing how highly the stat system valued accuracy and shooting nearly 60% on the night with a MAC-10 (the guys couldn't believe I beat some of them in the rankings when the server admin posted the stats the next day at work.)  At those times I was Terrorble because I was dangerous and they knew it.  I was a source of fear and reason to worry.  When it came down to one-on-one, the other guy new there was a fair chance he was going to die, and I was going to cut his pride down a notch doing it.

    Pursuing the underdog methods didn't always put me on top.  Sometimes, I was just plain terrible.  Things didn't go my way.  In NWN I could not bring myself to play the obvious and best builds on the server.  I searched for a way to do what nobody else was doing and make it work.  I've never had much ego about having to be the best, so it's amusing to me to think that I'm both potentially quite skilled at a game, and doing quite bad at it at the same time.

    So, Terrorble is both meant to incite fear in the opponents when I'm hot, and make them laugh when they see me failing (or as I like to say "succeeding terribly") at whatever stupid thing I'm trying.

 

3. Profile name nickname: T

 

4. That's all.

 

Great idea for a topic.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_icywind1980]

               

1. My name is pronounced just like the standard English words 'icy' and 'wind' and then you add the numbers 1, 9, 8 and 0 at the end. If anyone mispronounces it, I'd actually like to hear how they mispronounce it. It could become a new thing.

 

2. Uh here's where it came from *hides head in shame*

 

3. Nicknames include icy and jade. '> Don't ask about the jade part.. no idea

 

4. I'm icy and it's nice to meetcha.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Empyre65]

               

My name is pronounced just like the word "empire."

 

An old friend drew comic books as a hobby (far better than I could draw, but not professional quality). many of his characters are based on or inspired by his family and friends, and when he added one based on me, he named him Empyre. I liked the name and when I finally got onto the Internet, I chose that name to use. I use the name everywhere I go on the 'net. I don't know how my friend came up with the name. The 65 is not really part of my name. I had to append it to my name because the name Empyre was already taken when I registered here. The same thing has happened on other sites, like Google. I use 65 because I was born in 1965. If you see an Empyre somewhere else, it might or might not be me, but if you see Empyre65, it is almost certainly me. When I registered at YouTube, both Empyre and Empyre65 were already taken, so I called myself therealEmpyre (the real Empyre). Later, I discovered that the name Empyre65 was taken on YouTube by me by way of my Google account.

 

I am sometimes called Emp for short.

 

I have heard that there is a book that features an evil corporation called Empyre.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               @Terrorble - reminds me of a tweet I saw this week:


@TerbilDraems: Yor bin plaeying a gaem of Dungones Drogones for twantey yeres. Stumbel out into the ligt .Everthinge is Chaenged.Yor arested for bein Olde
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               

1. How do you pronounce your Profile Name?

 

I'm just gonna skip this one.

 

2. What are the origins of your Profile Name?

 

I wanted Balkoth, which is my usual profile name, but it was taken.  And I've always liked mages and magic, so...

 

3. Does you nickname have a nickname? If so, what?

 

MM, I guess?  Should be obvious.

 

4. Is there anything else you want people to know about your Profile Name?

 

Balkoth (and one of the primary sources for my fondness for mages which resulted in Magical Master) comes from Lords of Magic, which is an awesome game and you should feel bad if you've never played it.  P.S. It's on sale for $2.99 at the moment.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_werelynx]

               

1. How do you pronounce your Profile Name?

2. What are the origins of your Profile Name?

3. Does you nickname have a nickname? If so, what?

4. Is there anything else you want people to know about your Profile Name?

 

1. Standard English pronunciation usually. Sometimes I use Wapanese "werelynxo" with extra o and varying between r's and l's since Wapanese don't differentiate between the two. My brother uses "verelynx" for reasons unknown to this poster.

 

2. For native English DnD player it's quite obvious where the 'were' comes from. As to lynx, let's just say in High School Lynx was my nickname. Story involves silly English teacher and personal details.

 

3. Lynx? Essentially the scope of my nickname and backstory of the overpowered character that it is makes it have as many names as there are stars in infinite universes. Lord of cats, Voice of N. are 2 from the stupid stories I am writing currently.

Another thing is that I sign sometimes as Wx or wx when I feel a little bit feline (=lazy).

Don't confuse me with some Vampyre, I don't have reverse name like "Xnylerew", nope.

And there is no module(certainly not by the name Bordering Genius) in which Xnyl'e'rew is an evil abomination and alter-ego of werelynx, nope.

And he isn't another immortal with free respawn, nope.

 

4. You will all bow to me one day when the stars are right. Oh I forgot magic ain't a thing, sorry about that. Forget it.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

1. How do you pronounce your Profile Name?

 

It's three common English language words. Not too difficult.

 

2. What are the origins of your Profile Name?

 

January 1996, a college in the midwest, and this D&D geek needed a title for his obligatorily-lame first GeoCities webpage. I've always been into dragons, and like the rich, deep purple of high quality amethyst. Thus "The Amethyst Dragon" became one of only two online usernames/handles I've used over the years (the other being "One Who Thinks"). And yes, the "The" has always been part of it.

 

3. Does your nickname have a nickname? If so, what?

 

AD, or TAD. Because of all the typing people do on the internet, 19 characters is too long sometimes.

 

4. Is there anything else you want people to know about your Profile Name?

 

Nope.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shemsu-Heru]

               

Shemsu-Heru, or Shemsu-Hor is an ancient Egyptian term, literally it means "follower of Horus", Heru is the true Egyptian name of Horus. Horus which is more common now a days, is the greek form for the name of this deity.


According to a papirus conserved in the museum of Turin, The Shemsu-Heru, whoever they were, would ruled Egypt during 1000 years before the Pharaohs dynasties....


I don't consider myself close enought to the god Horus, for being one of his followers. However Horus, still, is my favorite Egyptian god. Also I have chosen this term as a profile name, because I had considered it rare enought to coincide with other people profile names...


About its pronunciation, I really don't know how ancient egyptians would pronounced it, so you can pronounce it in the way you wish...

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_AndarianTD]

               

Interesting topic, AlleySlink!

 

1. How do you pronounce your Profile Name?

 

AndarianTD: An - dar - ee - an - T - D.

 

2. What are the origins of your Profile Name?

 

I chose Andarian as my handle on the IGN Vault shortly before release of my first module, Sanctum of the Archmage: The Sight. It refers to an element of the story that I introduced in it. The player discovers the existence of an ancient society that predates the known history of the world. It had become divided into antagonistic factions that devolved, over millenia, into the conflict between the "Gods" and the "Demons." "Andar" is the name of an ancient philosopher who preached an alternative "third way" to their beliefs. "Andarian" refers to a follower of his ideas.

 

3. Does you nickname have a nickname? If so, what?

 

No.

 

4. Is there anything else you want people to know about your Profile Name?

 

Andarian.com is also my website URL. I added the "TD" on my BSN handle because "Andarian" had already been taken on the original forums by someone who never participated in them. They're my initials. I'm also developing the story for release as a series of e-books.