Onomastics - What does XweedXjuggaloX mean to you?

Onomastics, or onomatology, is the study of names and their origins. From an anthropological standpoint, names and naming practices can tell us a great deal about a culture and its history.

Video game handles predate the fighting games we know today. Pinball machines tracked high scores with three letter initials long before arcades took a shine to Samurai Showdown in 1993. But what about the modern fighting game culture? Almost everyone who plays online has either a Gamertag, a PSN name, or some sort of PC login.

I want to know where they came from.

Is your Gamertag a reference to your favorite Godard film? Does your PSN name contain the date of birth for your first child? Is your Steam login some sort of racist slur in another language?


I’ll start:

On PSN I’m DKoresh. It’s a reference to David Koresh, the charismatic leader of a cult based out of Waco, TX, which was stormed by the FBI and ATF in 1993. I chose that name because I was curious about how many people would get it, and also how many people would be offended by it.

On Steam I’m Stagger_Lee. When I made that account I was listening to a lot of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Their version of Stagger Lee is pretty bad-ass.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD, CHARLES

http://z4.ifrm.com/30153/94/0/e5111191/e5111191.gif

Knew that would get at least one person. :slight_smile:

I’ll say it, what the hell does this have to do with fighting games?

I sometimes wonder what my username stands for…

My Gamertag is the most ridiculous XBL suggestion I could find. It’s a penis reference.
A friend of mine was assigned “BeardedAirplane”, that’s pretty boss.

You know what Marylin Manson says about NC, right…?

I’m one of the biggest Star Wars fans I know of. I’ve read nearly all the books, comics, and graphic novels. I’ve seen nearly all of the mini-series, documentaries, different movie variations…Anyways, my most favorite thing about Star Wars is the Sith. The beginnings of the Sith have very Egyptian-like scenery to them, but are written in a Greek-like epic way. There are numerous tales of deception, defeat, exile, rebirth, and murder. I’m a ridiculous fan of all types of mythology, so I feel right at home with those themes. I grew up reading the books and comics my whole life, and still do to this day.

The beginnings of my internet phi-sod trace back to 1999 with Quake III Arena, when I was 10 years old. I knew that I needed to come up with a name, but I really wasn’t sure what to use. After a day or so of thinking, I finally settled upon SithLord07. SithLord is pretty self-explanatory. The 07 came from my expected year of graduation. I sported that name for…4 or 5 years before it upgraded.

I have to explain this before I go any further.

When I was younger, I read a lot of mythology and philosophy books. I hated my stereotypical Southern white church upbringing, and craved all of the knowledge I could find. I stumbled across a book in the library one day titled “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” The particular copy I found was difficult to read, but I pushed through with help from my dad. The book was so influential on me that I named my first D&D character (Human Wizard) “Zarathrustra” when I was 8 years old.

I’ve been using “Zarathustra” as a character name in nearly every MMO or RPG that I’ve played since then.

Now to continue.

Shortly after Quake III Arena, I began playing Everquest with my cousin. I wanted to try something different from my traditional magic user named Zarathustra, plus I think the name was taken already. I settled upon an Iskar Monk named Kankuri. I don’t exactly know how I developed the name. I’d like to think it came from a combination of characters that I can’t quite remember. Kankuri became my normal character name for anything melee oriented in a game. I continued playing Everquest until Gates of Discord released in 2004. That expansion was so horrible that even SOE admitted it was bad.

I picked up Halo: Combat Evolved for PC that same year. I must have spent thousands of hours on that game. I must admit that up to this point, I didn’t view online gaming as very serious (though I played EQI lololol). I stumbled across a few people that I really enjoyed playing with, and they introduced me to Xfire and TeamSpeak. I got involved in that, and soon found myself among a group called “the PLs.” I remember many of them; Oyster, Coltz, Diesel, Hensai, Ray, Ninja, Ace, and a few others that escape me at the moment. They didn’t like to refer to themselves as a clan, but more of a gaming family. I didn’t quite know what to think of this as first. When I began buying and downloading other games they played, I saw what they meant. Every time I joined into a game with them, it felt like I was sitting in a living room and playing with family members. I played with them so much that I began sporting the PL tag on my name (SithLord07PL).

I also began World of Warcraft in 2004, and even played with PL members. My first character? A Tauren Warrior named Kankuri. Second character? Undead Mage named Zarathrusta…Yeah, Zara***thustra*** was taken.

For 3 or 4 years, I hopped on every day after school for hours and played with them. I didn’t have many friends, and didn’t like a lot of people at my school. The only class that got a glimpse of me was Band. I was a lunatic during Band class. I took my music very seriously, and often hit myself if I couldn’t get something right. My director/teacher tried his hardest to help me in 6th-9th grade with that, but he just gave up. You don’t become the best by being sane.

After high school, I went to college. Derp. I lost contact with my fellow PL members due to ever increasing stress from school. I really don’t recall gaming a whole lot during that time. I failed my first semester, then brought my grades back up the next one. I hated my life at that point, so I stopped going to school, didn’t get a job, then got kicked out of my house. Honestly, 2008 to late 2009 is kind of a blur.

I didn’t really start gaming again until 2010. When I jumped back on everything, I shortened my name down to SithPL.

So, there is the history of my internet aliases.

Sp33dking89

Honestly i hate it, nor will i share how i even thought of it.

I used the handle D3v4st4t0r on a couple of sites during the height of the whole 13375|?34|< craze during the early 2000’s. People started calling me D3v and it just kinda stuck.

The Decepticon?

Yes.