Ask HN: How do you guys pick your usernames?

An OP on a 90's IRC channel I hung out in used to find it hilarious to forcibly change my username from banana to plantain with /sanick and I got bored of changing it back.

banana was originally picked because it was an adjacent object at the time.

In 2007, I wanted to start a blog to release some of the software and videogame side projects I had begun developing in college (at the time, a Kernel Panic Screen Saver for the Mac and Cursorcerer, a Mac system tool for hiding the cursor with a hotkey) . A friend of mine sent me a piece of php code he'd written that would spit out a huge list of 2-word pairs chosen at random from an English dictionary.

I scanned through this huge vertical list of word outputs, and the pair "doom laser" instantly stuck out to me. That sounds cool! A few hours later, http://doomlaser.com was born, and I snagged https://twitter.com/doomlaser as well. I'm still updating Cursorcerer. It continues to run in macOS Ventura, and it has been downloaded on the order of a hundred thousand times. People are still downloading it from the same blog entry I wrote for it in 2007 :)

The friend who wrote the word pairing program is one of the co-founders of Rogue Amoeba, though I've never asked if it was the source of the name of their company.

Way back before the World Wide Web the dialup world had Bulletin Boards. Everybody wanted you to create an account "handle". I tried to use first initial and family name, but found that my name was common and I had to think of different "handles" for different sites which became a memory problem. So I decided to come up with a unique handle that wouldn't be used by anyone else. I put three Z characters between my initial and family name. I still use that today as my account name here shows.

For pseudonymous ones I usually farm old Ice-T and Opgezwolle lyrics. (Ice-T in the case of my HN username).

https://www.thisworddoesnotexist.com/ can also be fun for this.

I got tired of being asked to sign in for services so I created a google account, reallydontaskmetosignin and I think when I tried to create that username it wouldn't let me, so I shorten it to reallydontask

I use various tools when creating a handle

These are invaluable:

https://1password.com/username-generator/

https://www.lastpass.com/features/username-generator

https://nordpass.com/username-generator/#Generator%20-%20Use...

At beginning of 90s you were limited usually by 3 letters in games so just used in general my name initials combined in various names like PDO, TED were I think the most common.

I think my first full nickname in mid 90s was Markoff inspired by reading John Markoff's book about Kevin Mitnick, I just liked the sound, I like in general those names ending -off before I even knew it's transcription if Russian names. I used this nickname for maybe 10-15 years until it became unbearable, because it was not anonymous at all after few years in my small home country anyone a bit familiar with internet could figure out who I was. Then I wanted to become anonymous online again since nickname made hardly any difference over my real name. Since then I just use quite random made up names and word combinations usually some clever plays on existing popular phrases, one was for instance replacing Berliner in IchbineinBerliner with word with similar meaning, the other is play on dark chocolate, white chocolate replaced with particular color combination for people in tech you won't certainly find in shop.

So since first nickname I'm actually still using the second one on many sites with exception of Reddit where every few years I change nickname to start fresh.

My dad chose it for my first windows account when I was about 7yo.

It stuck with me ever since, because it's actually pretty unique on the internet !

I never found someone using the same username.

I've picked one at the arcade and never changed it. (It only allowed three characters)

It was up to my parents. ;)

I use my middle name as the username in all my accounts. But, recently, I realized that someone would probably know if the username "my-middle-name" belonged to me. The pattern is obvious. This becomes my concern due to the privacy (anonymity). Let's say, I give an opinion about a topic in the internet forum. My friends or my coworkers will know if that is me. So, now, I use a random username generator from Bitwarden [0] to generate a username. I use this approrach for new accounts since many organizations/websites don't allow to change the username.

I will probably use my middle name for certain accounts, like social media.

[0]: https://bitwarden.com/help/generator/#generate-a-username

import string import random

if __name__ == "__main__": s1 = string.ascii_lowercase s2 = string.ascii_uppercase

    s = []
    s.extend(list(s1))
    s.extend(list(s2))

    print("login: ", end="")
    print("".join(random.sample(s, 12)))

I develop compilers.

Old school forums ("boards") used to have threads dedicated to good usernames.

Randomly generated for every website (except this one paradoxically even though it looks random), avoiding characters that lead to confusion (i vs l, O vs 0, etc - some websites designed by morons require you to type the credentials).

I have a command in my zshrc.

https://gist.github.com/Ryu1845/07e5d72275ec1eb97ef911825536...

Mine's based on the Operation: Mindcrime[1] album by Queensrÿche[2]. I've been a huge fan of theirs, and a huge fan of that album specifically, since about 1992 or so, and started using "mindcrime" as an online handle decades ago.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation:_Mindcrime

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensr%C3%BFche

I use a different name and email address on every site. I lurked on this site for many years, not being a fan of social media. With time I found the moderation here made for good discussions most of the time and there were some questions/discussions about Linux. I have a proclivity to bend Linux and Linux applications into doing things they were not intended to do. I also like the character "Bender" from Futurama so I combined them to have a name that might be unique.

I like this generator

https://jimpix.co.uk/words/username-generator.asp

I had Cartoon Network (I think?) on the television one day when I was creating a character in EQ. The Smurfs was on. Gargamel's nephew (not his nephew, his apprentice, had to look it up after making this comment) was in the episode and his name was "Scruple" and I've used it ever since. I guess that must've been back in 2000 or early 2001.

Depends on the context. My "real-life" profile is just my firstname + lastname, like many others. This particular username came into life because it was auto-generated when signing up to reddit, where I wanted to post a 3D simulation/physics render I did, so that's what stuck. Then I started using the same user across platforms and brought the username with me.

To be honest... no idea. :D I think it was inspired some time around the release of the movie "Hackers" in the 90-s. I was writing a short script for something, when the arrangement of letters and numbers made sense together, and still fresh after watching the movie, I came up with it. Been more then 20 years now. Kind of always sticked with it.

For a while, when I slept I made sounds that sounded like a creaking wooden staircase. I obviously had no clue but my wife told me about it. She recorded the sound and I played it to my doctor. The doctor had no idea how that could happen. I was pretty healthy so nothing came off it and I don’t think I make that noise anymore.

I was the first to grow body hairs in primary school, so some bullies tried to make fun of me calling me yeti. Then I've used that as my nickname, but by highschool internet started coming along and it wasn't unique enough, plus one friend sometimes greeted me with "Hi yeti, hehe!", so yetihehe it was.

For reddit, I let it select them randomly for me. I change accounts every couple years or so.

Here I just used whatever felt funny at the time. I'm on my 5th account or so here, long past time to switch to a new one but I'm lazy.

For meaningful social networks I just use my real name.

For server accounts I use a system of related names per server.

I have used 20+ handles so far, some still in use, and this particular handle originates from an era where gmail was still invitation only and I had to come up with some cool name. I chose a mythical name for some reason but lifthrasir (note one i) was taken, so I doubled the vowel and it was available.

I played a Traveller RPG in 1985 as Orion Blastar and the name stuck. He was a Merchant turned Space Pirate.

My hacker news one is the password that one of our maths teachers used at school for the computers.

I used MrBananas as a test account name (probably inspired by the banana man cartoons) - which is why it’s my Twitter handle… didn’t think Twitter would last when it launched so made a throwaway test account.

I pick different username / handle for every website because I don't want someone to be able to follow everything I do with a simple search.

I just pick them as it strikes me fancy, based of something cool I saw that week. This one is a onomatopoeia for a sound of bubbles. No idea why.

For HN it's a character from the Discworld series, but generally I'll use a partial anagram of my real name.

For example, the name "Jonathan Doe Smith" can be changed to "Damian Jones Thoth", so I would drop the "Thoth" and just make it damianjones.

As far as I know I am the only person alive with my first and last name combination. So its always available and often use that.

But for gaming and or anonymity I use 'Tellusion' which is available most of the time. Its a combination of the words Teleportation & Illusion.

"evan" was already taken.

I have 2 methods: When I am an early adaptor, I use my standard (since 30 years) username.

For everything else I pick something that randomly comes to mind. Username here, loosely based on Get Shorty (the movie). I was probably watching that while registering at the time.

Normally i would use my first name (a rare Finnish male first name), but someone already used it. (Maybe it was me years and years ago, but forgot the password and i have no idea if any email account is associated with it.)

Therefore, no names left and it stuck.

On the first Unix system I used, 40 years ago, you had to had at least 3 characters (letters). I used consonants from my last name, as I had used in arcade games before. And I've been using the same trigram ever since.

I have a few regular ones, usually I squat all of them when I register on some new social media site or forum. This particular one stems from my affection for the sweet chilli sauce of the same name. I also like its slight innuendo.

Since 1password ubiquity on all my platforms of choice, I just mash the keyboard. I wish 1p had a username generator built in like what docker does when creating container names.

Snazzy-peacock sounds mighty fine for a username :)

My name plus the last few letters of the modern english alphabet in lowercase

I just combined a term for my favorite music at the time (THALL!) with a dinosaur (-saurus)

Obscure but memorable. Hestefisk means “horse fish” in Danish.

I’m British but have spent most of my life in The Netherlands.

Older accounts have some sort of "meaning" that I thought of, but for the last couple of years I have been using the username generator in Butwarden.

It is my really old CB (citizens band radio) handle.

My mom named me Kay, but the a and y are silent.

For computers, I just use my initials: 'jvs'

For some social media, I use the name of a children's book hero.

I think I think.

My family name starts with Đ, which is transcribed to latin DJ, and other part is my nickname.

Completely random, my full name or vaguely related to my name, depending on the forum.

Character in several Neal Stephenson books. Was reading one when I made the account.

I stole it from enlightenment.

It’s a nickname from playing an early MMO (Ultima Online) that stuck.

I wish to be the Don of aliens, my username reflects that ;)

I'm Nick, from (but no longer living in) Seattle.

artificial intelligence for intelligence amplification

My parents chose mine back in the early 70s...

I just press some random keys on the keyboard.

quick throwaway account. first one was taken.

I love 64 bits.

It’s my name.

My god's name is my username

A lifetime of pain and suffering.

parts of my first and lastname

Random password generator

last name + initials here

I just use my name too.

removed characters from my name until HN let me register.

Randomly.