My name also came years ago when I was trying to sign on to my first email account. The names I wanted were taken.

I was reading a science fiction/fantasy book at the time, that had very large cats with telepathic abilities that were called "ghattens". Since I have way too many cats, and love my scifi/fantasy ... became "pamghatten" ever since.

Boy, if I had known I would become a frequent GW poster, I would have put a bit of thought into my username. Could I have come up with anything more unattractive and boring than budge?!

I'd love something whimsical and optimistic. Daisychain, sunbeam, ...

...but something more realistic would also work - procrastinator, stuckathecomputer, can'tmakedecisions,...

Budge was my daughter's nickname so even though it's boring and stodgy it still makes me smile :-)

I didn't stop to think that usernames appeared in lowercase, but I first typed it in as "AMCofAR," which are my initials first then the word "of" then the abbreviation of the state in which I have always resided.

--Anne M. C. of Arkansas!

Mine's not what you probably think.

I've been very happily married for almost 22 years. DH and I have a running joke about referring to eachother as "my first husband/first wife".

I was married at the Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, Italy and I'm a Mom of two little ones (2.5 years and 9 months). So... CimbroneMamma. I *always* have a hard time coming up with a fun username.

Here is a link that might be useful: Villa Cimbrone

Adoptedbygreyhounds: I loved your name the minute I saw it!

Annaleef: YouÂve given me wonderful inspiration! I will do that, too.

Lowspark: John Barleycorn was among the first 10 CDs we bought when we got our first CD player!

So many of your names are wonderfully creative or touchingly tender. Mine is sort of a proud affirmation. Growing up in an Italian-American household we heard lots of phrases -- in dialect, not the true Italian. "Fa Napoli" insultingly meant go to Naples; "ooh fa" was an abbreviated derivative of the same, usually muttered in exasperation. Some time ago when one of my cousins was separating from her husband, they had an argument where he dismissed her by referring to her as "You and your Âoofa family." That raised my hackles, boy, and in loyalty we other cousins dubbed ourselves the "oofa sisterhood." (Definitely, HIS loss!)

Kompy has been my nickname since I was born 42 yrs ago. My real name is Kelly and my sister (who wasn't even one when I was born) couldn't pronounce my name. She called me Kompy and it's stuck all these years. Even my DH calls me Kompy or Komps or Kompsalicous....or Camp Director Kompy (when I get bossy!)

My other nick is Petsike (pete-cee-keh), it's Hungarian for little one, I think. I'm 1/2 Hungarian, 1/4 Norwegian and 1/4 Irish.

So I was doing a search on knobs/pulls and came up with this?!?

It's fun to bring up (and see who is still on this forum!).

I'm a stay at home mom who teaches spinning at a health club (when I'm not on gardenweb!).

Gosh, this is fun! I never saw this thread when it started. I need to spend more time in Conversations!

Emmie is my nickname from college; it morphed from my full name, Mary Ellen, into M.E., into a name. 9999 is something iVillage tacked on ages ago because there were already so many Emmie's registered. iVillage membership transferred me here, and voila!

It's just that persistent feeling...

Wish I'd found the Conversations section, too, a lot earlier than this!

DonnaR57 - first name, last initial, year on birth certificate (just turned 50).

DonnaR/CA - first name, last initial, state of residence. GW didn't let me use this for a name, and DonnaRCA (no /) was already taken!

we bought a fixer -upper. For the last 8 years we've been fixing this house--outside first!

And I call myself remodelqueen, with as much sarcasm as possible. I am sick of the remodeling!!!!!

Fairly obvious, I'm sure - have 3 boys, a husband and myself - we all play hockey and although presently living in MA for the past 22 mos, we're Minnesotan's through and through...

A nickname my grandpa gave me. Don't really know why or what the story behind it is...But aparently Agnes had a sister named Lucy Waffleoosle or something. At least, that's what my father tells me. Who knows?

I am new to the GW forums in the last few months, when I stumbled in to look for good ideas for building our house. I used to use guamquilter on all my forums, because my first forum was a quilting forum and at the time, we were living in Guam. I am not in Guam anymore and we are building a house in Minnesota. My first name is Teresa, so MinnT is what I am trying to use on any new forums I join. It was kind of strange to sign in on some non-quilting forums and have a quilting in my user name. People think Grandma when they see quilts, even though it is not like that anymore, necessarily.

Here is a link that might be useful: My house building blog

Nothing too original here - just the place I've lived since I was two - Napa, CA
Loved reading the history behind behind the names!

I'm a singer.
I'm a mom.

Go figure ;)

Mine's boring...it's my college nickname from oh soooooo many years ago (from my then last name....pre-marriage)

minnt - I was thinking, at first, you had an affinity for mints.

Honestly I wish I had picked a different one. I didn't know when I signed up that I'd become loyal and addicted to GW. I made up this name long ago so I wouldn't have to worry about having a different name on every board I joined. Since it's long, made up, and has double consonants that don't occur in naturally in English it's never taken by someone else. However, here I feel like I'm too anonymous when I post. I forget to sign my posts: Jim

Well, My name is Olga and Olchik is a diminutive of Olga in Russian :)

I thought I posted on this a long time ago. :-/ Like Sue36, I lack originality when it comes to monikers. lol Someone told me they thought I liked to gamble and it was "all is on 07 & 04." But the truth is I hate to throw away money when in Vegas and never put more than $5 in the nickel slot machines. If I start wining, I walk away. :D

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice spring day. Best regards,
Allison, whose birthday is the 4th of July (7th month).

Mine is a family nonsense word, which means "hello."

What a fun thread! I stumbled across this looking for something else entirely, but thought it would be nice to revive it. Conversations moves so much slower than Discussions so maybe this will stick around for a while and have even more additions.

My screen name does not refer to any delusions of grandeur. I'm a SAHM and am always class mom / room mom / team mom, etc. One of DS1's coaches for football and lacrosse is the type of coach who gives nicknames to everyone. All of the kids are "the Bull" or "Wheels" or some permutation of their last name "Gatesy" etc. He calls me Supermom. It's been over 3 years and I've never heard him refer to me by my actual name even though his wife and I socialize frequently. The lax is because that is the sport that DS1 plays most often. Dec-Mar in a dome, Apr-Jun one week off then Jun-Aug.

laxsupermom - I thought you were a lasped supermom!

My username is a combination of the nickname my Dad gave me when I was a kid and my favourite colour (yellow not lemon really). Lots of people know the lululemon line of products, and I was honestly surprised I was able to use it as a user name but it was late so I just went with it. Usually I have really boring variations of my first and/or last names and my birth year (1967). And my password is always the same so I never forget it.

Louise

I've used the screen name Idietolive for over a decade. The first board I ever joined was a Christian one and I wanted to have a name that spoke to me. It really means 'I die in the flesh, so i may live in the spirit. Only problem is that people ask me all of the time if it means 'i diet to live' or 'i diet olives'. So I decided to simplify it for gardenweb.

Ok, lots of names were taken. Hestia is the goddess of the hearth. I like my names on different forums to relate to the forum so that I remember my "name" after an absence. Hestia was also taken, so Hestia is also the keeper of the home flame, thus Hestia_flames.

I like being "goddess of the hearth" but I'd prefer being "goddess of the finished kitchen!"

Mine are my kids initials along with the ages they were when i first registered here. :)

Obviously, my first and middle names and the year I discovered this wonderful cyber-heaven. Now, that's a good name: is it too late to change?? I didn't realize how many clever post-ers there would be, or I would've found a cuter, or sillier, or more descriptive name: historyteacher! choirsinger! impatientkitchenredoer!

This is a really great thread. Mine is a nickname someone gave me a long time ago - a special friend and neighbor called me Prill as a nickname for Priscilla. The only person to ever do so. I always think of him fondly when I use it.

Hmmm...I love the way some posters have created their names, very interesting. I think mine is pretty obvious too, my heritage is irish, and I've feel like I've been very blessed, but the normal spelling is always taken soooo lukki irish it is!

lukkiirish-- lol, I always saw your name (quickly) as "lurkish"! Funny what the eye will do.

Fun thread! Mine was given to me by a slightly off-balanced boy in my class when I was about 13. One day he saw me and started into a rant something like, "Donna, Donka, Donka, Donna" and he wouldn't stop. It pretty much stuck with friends after that and even to this day someone from back in the day will pull out the 'Donka' nickname.

He also nicknamed my friend Karen "Carrot" in much the same manner, and we still use that too :)

When I posted to this thread over 2 years ago, I think I assumed everyone would understand the quick explanation I provided. That is, that my handle is meant to be a sarcastic comment on my interior design and general contracting skills (or lack thereof). Since then, though, I've learned that some of you -- especially the "younguns" -- might miss the sarcasm. :-) As such, here's a fuller explanation:

Like many here,I am constantly initiating, and then struggling with, home improvement/interior design challenges. So, the "Martha" in my handle refers to Martha Stewart. But, the "Vila" part is not a misspelled reference to some lovely vacation home! In fact it's a reference to Bob Vila, the highly savvy general contractor who was the original host of the PBS show, "This Old House" (from 1979-1989). In short, as a lover of old houses (and an owner of century old townhouse in NYC), I think I ought to be a Martha Stewart and/or a Bob Vila. Hah! Still, here on the GW, I can fantasize about having the talents of both. So, when here, I get to be MarthaVila!

Mine is very obvious and very boring. My name is Mary Beth and I'm a Dental Hygienist. I wanted Tooth Fairy which is the name I always use but it was taken. Hmmmm I've never seen her post on the forum I'm beginning to think she's not real! LOL!

We have an animal menagerie here, including two ferrets which we refer to as furlets!

I drive a 65 mustang, and always drive under the posted limit of 65 mph...

Mine is from our corporate name I came up with when we owned a pizzeria - it's a combination of my name, Debbie and my other halfs name, Eli with an extra L thrown in to sound a little more Italian, which neither of us are!

My name is Anne, E is my middle initial. Just a nickname for Annie (Anne E) banannie shortened up. Pretty easy!

Came across this thread today after clicking on 'Conversations' at the top
of the page, hoping it would lead to lost threads, which it did. Thought it
might be fun to revive, considering the lack of threads to peruse at the
moment, and the number of new members since this thread was started.

I'm a percussionist, particularly of Middle Eastern drums. Darbuka is the
Hebrew word for doumbek, or goblet shaped drum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Goblet drum: wiki

Mine is my first name and the area code of where I was living at the time (Annapolis, Maryland). Now I am in another state (NJ) but I have kept this name.

My "name" is from when I first needed an email address that I didn't want to use my real email for. Since I was researching timberframe homes at the time, I used timber as part of my email address.
I like to use it, as it is still our dream to build a timber framed home someday. I'm sure as soon as we finish remodeling this home from one end to the other, we will have to find a new project, LOL.

Happened upon this while searching out fire and ice kitchens. It was an interesting read. Gotta love those greyhounds!! Chris is short for Christine, 45 is the year I was born, and I live in NY. Not too original compared to some I've just finished reading about. A great thread!!

I just discovered this conversation side. What fun to see where everybody's name comes from!

Mine is my nickname...from...Lorna Doone.

My family has always called me Doonie. So, there you have it!

Mine is my name. Tricky, eh?

Surprised I never answered this one.

Easy, my dh is a beekeeper. Just a hobby. Only 1 hive so far. The girls were good to us this year, 2.5 gallons of honey. mmmm

Stumbled across this old thread and thought it was such fun reading. How fun to keep it going with all the new names.
Mine is simple and easy; city of our first date and nickname only DH calls me:))

Wow - a fun old thread

A2 Ann Arbor

Gemini -zodiac sign

(The "beanie" I mentioned in my post? She's 18 now, and a HS senior!)