can this post act as a timely reminder that we haven't had a username amnesty for a while?
To answer your question, dave, I got stuck with mine when I changed it during the last amnesty [just to see how it felt] and forgot to change it back in time.

... when I first signed up on the Mojo board several years ago and came across something from the Washington Post's annual competition where you have to change a letter, add a letter or remove a letter from an existing word and come up with a new definition. The winner was "reintarnation: to come back to life as a redneck hillbilly" which made me think of "Billybob" and then "Billybob Dylan" being a bit of a Dylan fan. Simple as that, really.

My name comes from when I was a student back in 1971 when I met a bloke whose specs and haircut reminded me of John Sebastian of the time. So, I named him The Californian. We lost touch for a while and recently have corresponded a lot on email. He told me some time ago he was addicted to this blog. So, just for a laugh, I decided to track him down and put a reply or two to his posts. Just to add to the fun I stole back his name (which I gave himn in the first place). He has since 'outed' the real me a couple of times which rather pissed me off. He shall remain nameless.

I have never been to California..... (and, possibly, nor has John)

A character in Windsor Mackay's comic Little Nemo in Slumberland. Has a slightly trippy circular feel which appeals to me.

I am not really Iggy Pop,and i don,t wanna be your dog! But he has been a bit of a hero of mine for a long time, so its a name that,s not only easy to remember but quick to type. I also use it on the PS3Home site, much to my 12 yr old sons disgust as it can,t be changed, so his school mates know him as Iggypop too! Hope i,m not breaking any site rules by using an actual person,s name--maybe i should get insurance ..swiftly!!

my Dad met my mum and ................

My real name's a bit boring, so I thought I'd give my online alter-ego a real zinging presence

...Oktapod *IS* my real name... what are you trying to say??? :)

I was due to born on St Matthew's Day. I guess my m&d are not the most imaginative sorts.

I think somewhere at the heart of it is the voice of the my favourite Matt Groening character 'Ruler of persi I A' in Futurama. Before I met my GLW I shared a flat with a brilliant comic artist called Dan. Like all Men behaving Badly scenarios, it was deemed fit for us to have alteregos, especially for when good times were being had in the pub or watching the footy. Vorgon was mine: a sort of priapic sexually irresistible pangalactic overlord whose grammar came from Yoda (always putting the verb at the end of sentences 'Make toast I must' and who was wont to refer to himself in the 3rd person a la Bargepole. 'Mmmm this Cheryl Cole is pleasing unto Vorgon's eye - have her brought to Vorgon's chambers.' The god tag just seemed right as such all-conquering power and prowess would lead even the most unLennon-like of souls to the murky glade of delusuional omnipotence.It was, as my catchphrase would have had it, a vorgon conclusion....
Real name's Mike, by the way.

Loki,Norse Godette,shape shifter,mischief maker.As I'm a bit prone to changing my mind and I like to put the cat amongst the pigeons when in the mood it seemed apt.

He's officially only called Cookie but along the way I lengthened it quoting Benny Hill and his Chinese character who (when annoyed) would always say, "You'll get yours Cookieboy." Something I'm always repeating to the mongrel as he can be very naughty.

Anyway he was jumping on me when I was signing on so he was the first thing I thought of. I have no desire to see my real name in print, not even on a blog.

Since my earliest days on the net I've often tried to use Gatsby as a name on interactive sites. I choose Gatz as it's Gatsby's real name and I liked the idea of an alias which was the name which the character tried to escape from.
If you click on my blog entries you wil see that my original handle on here was 'the so so Gatsby', which is frankly rather poor, and the result of being deep in wine when I created the account.

Picture yourself in the first days of school aged 5. You have nothing better to do than make up nicknames for your classmates. Mongo, Peck, Binns, etc. Mine started as Greeny, became Beano then settled on Beany. Stayed with it, stuck with it and proud of it, as must Sting, Fish and Bono be of theirs.

Wherever I went, grammar school, Leeds Poly, work, there was always someone who either knew me or would probably take a phonecall from someone asking for Beany. I even have signed memorabilia made out to Beany (Family farewell tour programme, etc). It's like having an alter ego, like Clark Kent, that fits well with my piscean personality. Just don't make out the blog royalty cheques to that name (cash preferred for "tax" reasons).

;-)

actually, I did post on here for ages as biscuitbiscuit, but everyone thought I was a bloke. so I switched to my real life name. sometimes wish I'd actually gone for something more creative and female sounding.

Like "Mistress Badger, warrior priestess of Fire"

or maybe not.

It's Andrew Barrons.

Only my family call me Andrew. Friends call me Beezer (I don't know why) which is a contraction of 'Mr B' as I was known for a long time.

I prefer Andy though ever since someone worked out that Andrew Barrons backwards reads as Werdna Snorrab. Which amused a number of school pals inordinately.

Call me what you like.

deluded, under-achieving, overweight, poorly-dressed...

My Mum once told me in all seriousness, that they had given us names that other children couldn't shorten!! I have a brother called Robert and a sister called Jean - so one out of three isn't bad!

And yes, the rest is where I live.

after my favourite Royal's striker Dave Kitson - until the bastard left us so I was happy for the User Name Amnesty (The Fall's greatest unreleased album by the way) to come along to change.

Then he came back on loan but he was crap so I never bothered Fraser to change my name back once again.

...on the bassist of some once-popular beat-group combo...

Wealth, power, virility, intelligence, wit, creativity, a certain rugged handsomeness....

Need I say more?

to my late, great and, sorely missed alter-ego Mr Interior.

I was in PE once and a highly confusing piece of gym equipment was in the corner of the room. I asked a friend of mine what the thing was. He replied "That's a ganglesprocket."
It was about twenty minutes till I realized I had been "got," but I liked the sound of it and always kept it in mind. Who would have thought that the invention of the internet would make it useful?

...wrote a book called Only Forward, the main character of which was called Stark. He was a can-do kinda guy, had a talking toaster and everyone complimented him on his trousers; I could see a lot of myself in him. I merged his surname with mine, and now I look as though I can't spell 'starkly'. Maybe an amnesty is called for after all...

... Than the name of a Nothern Soul group.

Unfortunately decided on before I knew that an American collective of cover artists had also decided to adopt the moniker.

The Torres Bounce is a song sung by Liverpool fans in honour of Fernando Torres.

Bounce in a minute, we're gonna bounce in a minute...etc

(Commence bouncing)

His armband showed he was a red, Torres Torres
You'll never walk alone it said, Torres Torres
We bought the lad from sunny spain
He gets the ball, he scores again
Fernando Torres Liverpool's No.9

It isn't a particularly good username, but I couldn't think of anything better at the time.

I used to use my real name but decided to anonamise a month or two back.
I am now Lying Doggo in every sense.

(I wish I'd put a space between the words, though)

Spanish fireman

I just used my real first name. Which means "great one," by the way. No pressure there then.

it seemed a good idea to have a pseudonym for hotmail etc and I picked Stuart Pearce's Thighs to demonstrate my appreciation of the notable pins of a Forest hero (I don't stint on the upper leg circumference myself...). Shortened to SPT. Hardly worth the bother now, but I kept it anyway.

My name's Matt.

And my M&D christened me Nicholas.

Real name David - Daveyman was my unofficial new nickname when the Stotts came on the scene (Vic & Bob at their best) and its stuck since for best part of over a decade - best said in unconvincing North East/Geordie type accent for added hilarious benefit...

...mind the Stotts were incredibly funny, especially the interviews on 'smell of reeves and mortimer' where they kept cracking up with Sting etc on about 'letting off little tommy sqeakers' etc etc!

I am bored with my pedantic handle. Would welcome opportunity to change to somethink cool and wonderfull to reflect the image I can see of myself when I don't look in the mirror.

I'm stil ok with 'Daveyman' for the minute, but if the need arises i'd like to to change to 'Mont De Wally De Honk' if at all possible!

if he's called Declan, and no less Irish for living in Germany for over 30 years. So, yes, another real name..

I'm a Moderator on a band's official web-site and I always used my real life first name on the Forum. Mainly 'cos I wasn't really up on Forums or Blogs or User Names or anything like that. When I meet people at gigs they always ask "what's your real name then?" so I politely tell them that it is my real name!

So when I registered here - my first choice didn't work out as planned (see above) so I went for Retro Man. It happens to be the title of my favourite song - nothing to do with the fact that I am an old nostalgic stuck in my ways punk rocker who only likes "old"...well, now I come to think of it...!

in gravy.

My real name is actually being used by someone else as a username on here!

I signed up for was a footie one, which was limited in terms of the names it would allow. I decided to go for something that related to West Ham. Around 127 unimaginative abortive attempts later - "Hammer1", "Hammer2" .... "Hammer37" etc (and eschewing "Irons1" or "Irons2" lest it create any confusion)I borrowed "fortune" from on of the lines of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" and became "fortune8" - a rib tickling play on words and numbers. I continue to use it, mostly because it's easy to remember and my imagination hasn't improved much.

My real name ... well, if I can call you Betty ......

....just because daveross asked?

Buggered if I'm letting on.

Colin Clay. Was gonna call myself "FLOATLIKEABUTTERFLY" but it sounded a bit poncy.

when someone from England pronounces it. I´m usually known as Oooolay Cleess-an when in England (and lately also when in Scotland). Please say it out loud, dear Massive.

Claesson is actually pronounced Klasson - and can also be spelled like that - as in, say, clam.

And yes, I am Swedish. The land of six feet blondes and anxiety seen in black and white. You can´t have one without the other.

But seriously. Never thought about it, but yes. Some get an h in there. This goes for every -sson name. Good call!

I had acquired the nickname "The Bad Man" at work.

I've always liked Bud Neill's Lobey Dosser cartoons, and blended the name of the baddy (Rank Badjin) with the Neill-mangled-Spanish of Lobey Dosser's horse (El Fideldo) to produce elhombremalo. It might be easier to read if I put spaces in.

As pointed out on a previous post, Raul Malo is my cousin, on his mother's side.

Photo of the magnificent statue of Rank Badjin, Lobey Dosser, and El Fideldo : the world's only two-legged equestrian statue.

due to the fact that I eat an inordinate amount of Polo mints

Frasier's Dad's dog

for the first to guess where I get mine from :-)

*EDIT: A very small prize.

...precisely two guesses.

(Real name's Adrian, by the way - pleased to meet you!)

Stiff Little Fingers and their record label (yes, it is that obvious)

Has previously been used for characters when I did live role playing (sad isn't it), other forums, usernames etc

I imagined the God of 'easy swing' having a thrash metal band

and it made me laugh out loud when I came up with it

In 1999 I was preparing myself for a couple of months of backpacking across India. My good friend, Heinz, was a seasoned traveller in the country and very knowledgeable regarding its history and culture; he suggested that I get myself a hotmail address so that we could communicate while I was away. At the time he was studying for his MA or his PHD - I forget which. We sat in the computer lab of whatever university it was (Coventry I think) typing various permutations of my real name into the hotmail application form, only to find that they had already been taken by other users.

Eventually I become agitated by this exercise which was eating into the valuable time that I thought could be better spent drinking Guinness.

“Just call me backwards7 and let’s go,” I said.

backwards7 - the first ridiculous thing that sprang to mind - became my first email address and later a blanket internet identity. It’s symbolic of nothing. I only hung onto it because the name does imply a certain pervasive awkwardness - the opposite of savoir fair – and in that sense it’s a very appropriate description of me as a person.

That’s the underwhelming story of my online moniker - A moment of stupidity that gathered a momentum of its own and will probably end up in brackets next to my real name on my tombstone.

you've all watched The Wire?

See?

I'm a George, I'm a Morrissey fan, and there was a "George the 23rd" on some Morrissey fansite in 2003.

mine comes out of two things, one silly, one pretentious really.

First, I really like the Iluminatus! trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, ramshackle and shambolic seventies trash that it is. So much so that I handed over the cash and became a member of the Church of The Subgenius (and an ordained minister) for a laff.

Second, and here's the pretentious bit, it actually says something about my mindset and outlook on the world. It stuck after I read Francis Wheen's How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World and, as I read an early chapter about Immanuel Kant and the foundations of The Enlightenemnt, I realised that this was precisely my own way of looking at things around me. I don't actually claim to have achieved illumination, but I live in hope.

I dislike my first name intensely, but don't think trying to change it now would help. My parents did exactly he same as others herein and tried to give me a name that 'couldn't be shortened'. Epic fail on two counts: yes it can and it makes me sound like a mouthy plasterer from Basildon.

the nickname bestowed on me 20-odd years ago in honour of the great architect of glasnost, perestroika and the unwitting downfall of the Soviet empire. Yep, it was all my idea; no need to thank me :-)

My Wikipedia entry sums me up perfectly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimpy#Stimpson_.22Stimpy.22_J._Cat

"Stimpy is a red and white, rotund Manx cat with a blue nose, purple eyelids, no tail, human-style buttocks, flat feet, and a brain the size of a peanut (despite some intelligence, such as cooking and inventing; he is also a talented musician, can read extremely well and has some other knowledge such as monetary counting and knowing that pork fat floats on beans).

Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman of Animation World Magazine described Stimpy as "obese," and "brain-damaged." Andy Meisler of The New York Times described Stimpy as "barrel-chested," and "good-natured."

Stimpy's trademark facial expression is a blissfully ignorant smile with his tongue flopping out. Most of the time when he gets excited, he says his famous catchphrase, "Oh, Joy!" or simply "Jooooooy".

Stimpy likes to create destructive electronic devices and feels a fixation for "the sensory pleasures of fresh kitty litter."

I go with MJ, but that's a bit dull. I frequently have ink on my fingers, from doodling. And I'm a Miss. Fascinating.

... the wicked scullion from Swelter's kitchen who rises to destroy the strange denizens of Castle Gormenghast in Peake's mad fantasy.

The place where I live + the annual Diwali firework displays = leicester_bangs.

What?

I'm with the other own name using dullards on here, with a twist as most of my comments on here are added at work and the full name might just show somebody how little work I was doing!

Also, Mrs b would only take the piss and call me a saddo for chatting to my similarly saddo cyber buddies....

Also, having a memory like a sieve, I'm worried that I might forget a new clever, hilariously funny name, even if I could think of one. Even when drunk I don't think I've ever forgotten my own name, although pronunciation has been a struggle on occasion.

...was a reference to that of the leader of the Daleks (according to Richard Herring).

I have a vague (& possibly inaccurate) memory that this was the name of a spoof Magical Realist novel that Alexei Sayle pretended to have written, in one of his notorious "Time Out" (or was it "City Limits"?) columns in the early 80s.

The appalling punctuation is all my own work, though.

I kind of regret it really - I'd rather be called something groovy like London Fog - but that's my pseudonym across the net so there it is. I thought it was colourful and vaguely interesting, but it's a bit of a mouthful. I prefer F-C.

My real name is rather dull.

My birthday is March 20. The Vernal Equinox and the first day of spring in the UK. My dad later quipped that I was "the first rustle of spring" - quite good really I think, bless him.

'Wake me up for meals'? Ah, the master, Wazza - Mr Bad Example. Enjoy every sandwich. Pip pip....

is, of course, my real name and for your information I'm into importing but I'm thinking of getting into exporting, however my girlfriend is not so keen.

but correct spelling

comes from the part-time mail order record business I used to run with a mate in first half of the nineties: Lard Records.

We specialised in rock music of pretty much every stripe; advertised regularly in the classifieds in the back of Record Collector and usually had a stall at the Brighton record fair. Shaped picture discs, promo CDs, old and hard to get stuff - you know the form.

We were doing pretty well until we got to the point where we had to either put more hours in and try and make a living from it or just keep doing the same thing and to be honest I was too scared to leave my full time job on the off chance that the record business might take off.

... and when the great username amnesty arrived I decided that my old name was surplus to requirements. I browsed my iTunes library and found something that sounded rather good (to my ears anyway).

and from now on if I ever join another it will forever be.

...the crowd gets bigger as The Word goes round.

When Moe talks about his boxing career, he says something like "they called me Kid Gorgeous, then Kid Presentable, later Kid Gruesome and finally Kid Moe." I always liked that, though I'm not always presentable.

You may or not be pleased to hear. It's the name of a song that our band demo'ed and played live a lot but didn't make on to our album. I'd like to add an MP3 on to this link but I don't know how to do it. I've seen others add MP3 links which simply play when pointed at on the thread if anyone knows how to do that please let me know.

Well.. sort of. Martin Leonard Law is my given name. When I was at school, I was the only Martin. Once at university, however, there were loads of sodding Martins and a way had to be found to attract our individual attentions. Middle names seemed useful. Lenny I became. And have remained thus to lots and lots of people. Call me Martin. Call me Len. Call me whatever. Just prefix it with "What're you having.." and I'll be happy.

from Ween, it's one of their song titles.

was the commie-de-jour when I was in college particularly if you didn't buy into the revolution will start on monday morning positivism of the Heinz 49 varieties of Trotskyists.

...from a La's song mixed with my 2nd favourite from Girls Aloud

After a day at West Ham and an evening in The Black Lion in Plaistow (great pub by the way), I got a text from a friend saying I love you big guxy (drunken keyboarding) and it has stuck.

when on the "Who's Gazza" discussion, someone commented that to me "all that matters is we know where your username came from"

It is of course a song by my musical hero:

but, as a white boy growing up in Nuneaton, I got a lot of stick from my classmates at school. I decided at quite an early age that, as soon as I could, I would change my name to something more 'me'. All the girls would refer to me as 'handsome' or 'gorgeous', so when the time came, 'Handsome' was a natural choice ('Gorgeous P. Wonderful' sounds a bit daft, don't you think?).

My middle name is Peter, by the way.

Is an avatar on Second Life. Any resemblance to my actual human form is totally not my fault.

My house is called Cobweb Cottage & my name's Steve (or Steven if your my Mum & I've forgotten somebody's birthday again). Oddly this combination of twee and dull now conjures up an image of some kind of creepy goth lounge lizard to me.

I invented to save my blushes while rubbishing around with electronic music about 15 years ago.