Curious about your usernames

[pne]

So, what's the story of your usernames? What made you pick them, or how did you come up with them?

Also, if you had a free rename token, would you change your username, or are you happy with what you have? (And what would you change it to?)

When I started my first job, our login IDs on the computer systems were usually three letters long: usually first letter of given name plus the first two letters of the family name, unless that combination was already in use, in which case they'd pick some different letters of your name (e.g. first two letters of given name plus first letter of family name, or first and third letter of family name, or whatever).

So "P"hilip "Ne"wton turned into "pne". And I've had that login for so long that I've grown rather used to it (or should I say, fond of it), and so I like to take that username if it's still available (and not prohibited by minimum username length policies or whatever).

So I was rather happy that "pne" was still available on LiveJournal, with its millions of accounts. I don't think I'd change it.

Sadly, my work login is no longer "pne" ever since we switched over to a new internal network a month or so ago: we belong to a much bigger company now, so logins have to be longer for uniqueness, and I'm "pnewton" in our Windows domain. Though on a number of internal systems, I'm still "pne".

Comments

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

'lexa' is my nickname based off my full name 'alexandra', but it's unusual enough that I've used it online fairly frequently with very little oops-already-taken problems. I also like bears, and I'm cuddly like a teddy bear, so 'lexabear' is one of my friends' terms of endearment. I set up my LJ mostly to keep in touch with my friends, so 'lexabear' it became.

ooh, under your company's old login, I would be 'aha'! My company's login is first initial of first name, first 6 letters of last name, with numbers afterward for uniqueness. One of my coworkers is apparently the 36th mjones in the system. I'm the 7th of my combination, which I had thought was fairly unique.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Our new system is similar to your company's: first initial of given name, first seven letters of family name, with numbers if necessary for uniqueness.

So I'm pnewton, with my full last name, but others have to suffer truncated family names.