A new screen name

April 19, 2005 2:51 PM

I need a new screen name. I've got low standards. Go nuts!

I've been using Hildago on the web for, I don't know, seven or eight years, and to tell the truth I didn't even really like it back then. It's meaningless and unpronounceable, and people seem to have difficulty spelling it correctly (Hidalgo, Hildalgo, et cetera) and I don't blame them, since it's not a very good name. Plus, that movie with the horse came along and just made it worse.

So, I've been trying for a while now to think of something better, but I'm just not having any luck. My criteria are:

1. It has to be fairly short (so that it's easy to use as a login)
2. It has to be uncommon, so that I won't have to append numbers to it just to be able to register at a site (hildago420, etc.)

I know that Matt doesn't like people with histories on the site to change their Metafilter account names, so that's not what I'll be using it for.

posted by Hildago to computers & internet (65 comments total)

ranganathan_and_the_posse?

Or, for metafilter only, [!]
posted by stet at 2:54 PM on April 19, 2005

or [more inside]
posted by bshort at 2:55 PM on April 19, 2005

It's just not fair to post a question like this when the note below says "wisecracks don't help people" :)

Then again the stuff I would be tempted to wise off with (PornMasterG! SirSpanksALot!) are probably in wide use anyway.

Can you clarify with some interests or hobbies at least? As is you're asking for an uncommon short word. 'qwertyuio' would be fine by those standards.
posted by phearlez at 2:57 PM on April 19, 2005

AdamHindman. I'm a huge fan of people who use their proper name on the web. It seems both retro & very ++ modern. I also like the accountability it gives.
posted by seanyboy at 2:58 PM on April 19, 2005

Buick MacKane, from the T. Rex song of the same name. Had I been thinking, I would've chosen that for my Mefi handle instead of Dr. Wu, which I like less and less everyday.

Or Juicebutt. That was the nickname of a kid I went to summer camp with about two decades ago. Wonder whatever happened to him...
posted by Dr. Wu at 3:08 PM on April 19, 2005

Adam Hindman = Hidda Man Man

On preview: Juicebutt ewwwww!
posted by Specklet at 3:09 PM on April 19, 2005

Hindadam. Evocative of your real name, only 8 chars, and Google has never seen those 8 chars together.
posted by smackfu at 3:09 PM on April 19, 2005

hindmania!
posted by brad! at 3:10 PM on April 19, 2005

self-link?
posted by stet at 3:11 PM on April 19, 2005

Jarvik-7, as in the artificial heart.
Or Ymir, the frost giant whose body makes up the earth in the Norse creation myth.

Maybe salmagundi?

. . . hadamind! YES. hadamind -- i used your name, man! Come on!
posted by jenovus at 3:18 PM on April 19, 2005

Adamgo?
posted by [!] at 3:23 PM on April 19, 2005

Ooh, the Norse stuff is good. A good name has to look like you're not trying too hard, but be slyly funny, in my opinion.

Generally, anything with "chunk" or "puppet" in it is great. Or references to industrial products or plastics from the 70s that no longer exist. What about the generic name for silly putty?
posted by craniac at 3:26 PM on April 19, 2005

Nice, looks like someone already took stet's suggestion. How's it going, [!]?

I am willing to go as far as hadamindman
posted by jenovus at 3:36 PM on April 19, 2005

sorry about the hidalgo thing. it's the curse of knowing just a little spanish.

how about something from don quijote? rocinante? :o) or is the idea to have something anglo-ponetic?
posted by andrew cooke at 3:37 PM on April 19, 2005

If you like usernames that go out of date quickly, how about FCKGW?
posted by shepd at 3:39 PM on April 19, 2005

I'm certainly not going to help you, young man...Okay, I couldn't think of anything.
but if I may quote myself:
names are easy - just grab a newspaper, dictionary, or good book and start randomly flipping pages and pointing at words. Jam on the good ones. Give it a good 15-20 minutes and I guarantee you'll be on to something original that you can live with.
then get back to bloggin'...
or you could go with "stubbles", that's all i got...you really should not have asked this at the end of the day. ;)
posted by hellbient at 3:41 PM on April 19, 2005

Hindmind.

It's part of your name + "mind", which means you're smart, right? And it will always be in the back of your mind.
posted by frykitty at 3:41 PM on April 19, 2005

hey jenovus, things are going well. i sorta wish i'd taken GAFBFW instead. alas.

hildago may find use of the suggestion though.
posted by [!] at 3:44 PM on April 19, 2005

oh, i should add that using your real name is, in my experience, a pretty good move. just yesterday i got an email from someone saying "hey, people on web site X are looking for you!", just because they used my name and this person knew me through mefi. sweet.
posted by andrew cooke at 3:46 PM on April 19, 2005

Arugula.
Chicken Fritatta.
Sir Mince-a-Lot.
Potted Herring.
Edible Meat Product.
80% Post-Consumer.
Why Me Oh Lord.
Family Pet.
Slow Children At Play.
Shaken Not Stirred.
Fistula.
Under Your Skin.
Under Your Kin.
Small Quantities of Magic.
Boop-Boop-A-Doop.

So on and so forth. I find random word association works best. Speaking of which:

Random Word Association.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:47 PM on April 19, 2005

That's fistula. He's so hot right now.
posted by jenovus at 3:48 PM on April 19, 2005

Jessamyn's blog entry on why using one's real name is not always advised.

I googled you and found that a) you are weird or maybe b) whine a lot on listservs with searchable archives or c) whatever. Do I know that this is wrong, that I should be evaluating your skills and not your personal life? Yes, of course. I am not stupid. Will I do it anyway? Yes, of course. After all, I am not stupid.

I'm just saying is all. My only goal w/ psuedoanonymity is to keep my metashenanigins out of the google index under my own name.
posted by stet at 3:51 PM on April 19, 2005

From your website linked from your profile:

Recidivism may pull me back in the future, but for now I've got grad school and work to contend with.
^^^^^^^
posted by PurplePorpoise at 4:16 PM on April 19, 2005

from your website:

pork chop wings
hot fudge lake
wooden legs
steak fajita tree
raining lemonade
life is tasty
crashing waves of beer
doll's eyes

I liked Family Pet from fff.
posted by j at 4:39 PM on April 19, 2005

I'd be inclined to look favorably upon someone whose username had pleasant connotations, therefore I humble present the following:

Rainy Night
Bakery
State Park
New Shoes
Fullness
Creativity
Pinwheel
posted by Dreama at 4:39 PM on April 19, 2005

Penultimate Warrior.

But only if you're willing to change your legal name to this as well.
posted by Saydur at 4:40 PM on April 19, 2005

Wuqia
posted by SeizeTheDay at 4:44 PM on April 19, 2005

A good name has to look like you're not trying too hard, but be slyly funny, in my opinion.

I think Craniac pretty much nailed what I'm ideally looking for / unable to come up with myself.

Some good suggestions so far.

I'd use my real name, except that there are a couple other Adam Hindmans in the country (a high school football player and a chemist, I think), so uniqueness is not guaranteed. Plus, I tend to make an ass of myself online, and, you know, want to distance myself from that as much as possible.
posted by Hildago at 5:18 PM on April 19, 2005

Trade with me.
fucking punches stupid screen name in the face.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 5:25 PM on April 19, 2005

Beamery Crutter
posted by picea at 5:33 PM on April 19, 2005

Rogue Thespian
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 5:38 PM on April 19, 2005

Corey Feldman and the Goatse National Orchestra
posted by dobbs at 5:46 PM on April 19, 2005

quonsar III Electric Bugger-ree
posted by orthogonality at 6:09 PM on April 19, 2005

Bob
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 6:15 PM on April 19, 2005

klerck.
posted by angry modem at 6:15 PM on April 19, 2005

Sombra.
posted by atchafalaya at 6:25 PM on April 19, 2005

Radix Malorum.
posted by atchafalaya at 6:25 PM on April 19, 2005

AdamHindman. I'm a huge fan of people who use their proper name on the web. It seems both retro & very ++ modern. I also like the accountability it gives.

Woot!
posted by BradNelson at 6:55 PM on April 19, 2005

"glockenspiel" Just because it's a cool name to say
posted by bluehermit at 7:40 PM on April 19, 2005

AdamHindman. I'm a huge fan of people who use their proper name on the web. It seems both retro & very ++ modern. I also like the accountability it gives.

Woot!

Ditto.

BeesKnees
Adamrama
Mwa Haha
posted by amandaudoff at 8:41 PM on April 19, 2005

why not go with 'tailorstoday'?

it's pleasant, easy to remember and already unique to you, if you're the sole purveyor of content on tailorstoday.com

google search only turned up either tailorstoday.com or tailorstoday.blogspot.com
posted by Kattullus at 9:06 PM on April 19, 2005

Madanam - the of the easily pronouncable portion of your real name reversed. It's obfuscated, but memorable. Plus, it apparently means "cupid" in what I believe is Hindi, so you've got that going for you, which is nice.
posted by freshgroundpepper at 9:13 PM on April 19, 2005

turnsole
nebris
exegetepost
prolapse
abseil
emcee
posted by sled at 9:17 PM on April 19, 2005

Headasplodes
posted by schyler523 at 9:24 PM on April 19, 2005

I really like "hadamind" and "hadamindman."

I wish you could use the picture of you feeding the monster, which seems to have disappeared, as your user name. The whole picture. I love that picture.

I also liked "a woman named Hilda ... on the go!" or whatever that was.
Though I suppose that is long and not really conducive to a good (or representative) username.

Have you a favorite song or movie that has a funny and random line? You could go with something from that ...
posted by almost incandescent white tuxedos at 9:24 PM on April 19, 2005

Hildago writes "I'd use my real name, except that there are a couple other Adam Hindmans in the country (a high school football player and a chemist, I think), so uniqueness is not guaranteed. Plus, I tend to make an ass of myself online, and, you know, want to distance myself from that as much as possible."

So just call yourself ChemistAdamHindman, and if you act the fool, the chemist gets the blame.
posted by orthogonality at 9:26 PM on April 19, 2005

For example,

favorite movie = The Princess Bride;
screen name = inconceivable (or I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means, if long were OK)

favorite song = Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas) by They Might Be Giants
screen name = incandescent (tho' possibly too sorority-girl) OR IncandescentGas OR MassOfIncandescentGas

etc.

What fun!
posted by almost incandescent white tuxedos at 9:32 PM on April 19, 2005

mervana
posted by whatnot at 9:40 PM on April 19, 2005

Have you a favorite song or movie that has a funny and random line? You could go with something from that ...

I've had bad luck with that in the past. I used a song lyric as the name for my first web site, and then immediatley regretted it. Although, I think that your method there, along with some combination of hellbient's suggested method, is probably the right way to go.

So just call yourself ChemistAdamHindman, and if you act the fool, the chemist gets the blame.

That's genius.
posted by Hildago at 10:41 PM on April 19, 2005

Hypnic Jerk (from the why do I sometimes twitch when I'm falling asleep thread)
posted by stefanie at 11:07 PM on April 19, 2005

I actually like hellbient's idea better too.
posted by almost incandescent white tuxedos at 11:26 PM on April 19, 2005

Anagrams are the coolest screen names. They are enigmatic yet secretly meaningful.

These are my favorites for your name:

A Madman Hind
Damn I'm A Hand
A Dim Man Hand
A DNA Ham Mind
Handmaid Man
Madman Dinah
Damn Him Dana
Dim Mad Hannah
Mind Had Manna
Had Madman In
Damn Man I Had
Hand Amid Man
Hand And Maim
Mad And In Ham
Hi Mad DNA Man
posted by nanojath at 12:10 AM on April 20, 2005

All these came from neighboring words in your GeneFilter iterations:

lovebag

modernsensibility

aspirinfactory

jellybean mission

Davies Chaucer

violin soldier

clockworkdog

brainscript

piratesign

strangerlight

lifedemo

sinister minstrel

Orwell Hobbes

pretzel threat

unmarked Bill

etc.

(I kind of love "aspirinfactory")
posted by taz at 1:31 AM on April 20, 2005

Also, as for anagrams: "mad handiman"
posted by taz at 1:51 AM on April 20, 2005

Corey Feldman and the Goatse National Orchestra
posted by dobbs at 5:46 PM PST on April 19 [!]

LMFAO.

My entry:

Chief Singing Ass

I was supposed to be yogaboat but a brain fart upon registration shortened me to look like a sock-and-sandal freak.
posted by yoga at 5:10 AM on April 20, 2005

I second using anagrams of your name.
posted by safetyfork at 7:23 AM on April 20, 2005

John Barnett
John Bigboote
John Camp
John Careful Walker
John Chief Crier
John Cooper
John Coyote
John Edwards
John Fish
John Fledgling
John Gomez
John Grim
John Guardian
John Icicle Boy
John Jones
John Joseph
John Lee
John Littlejohn
John Many Jars
John Milton
John Mud Head
John Nephew
John Nolan
John O'Connor
John Omar
John Parrot
John Rajeesh
John Ready to Fly
John Repeat Dance
John Roberts
John Scott
John Smallberries
John Starbird
John Take Cover
John Thorny Stick
John Two Horns
John Whorfin
John Wood
John Wright
John Ya Ya

Or Perfect Tommy.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:02 AM on April 20, 2005

Merkin Man.
posted by graventy at 8:39 AM on April 20, 2005

Raining Lemonade is good. Whimsical, happy, food-related, and surreal.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:06 AM on April 20, 2005

Iron Bandana
posted by trinarian at 9:16 AM on April 20, 2005

Mulch
posted by trinarian at 9:17 AM on April 20, 2005

Stationwagon
posted by Freen at 1:28 PM on April 20, 2005

Spöt, although the umlaut might be a bit tough for others to type....
posted by Freen at 1:30 PM on April 20, 2005

Tony Danza
posted by underer at 6:39 PM on April 20, 2005

GayMilitantBuddhistGuerilla

(alt)GayMilitantBuddhistGorilla

Wait - you're not gay, buddhist, nor a guerilla. Are you at least militant?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 9:06 AM on April 21, 2005