What's in a name?

[[AK]Gunny Highway]

Just curious as to the origin of everyone's names. Gunny Highway is from the movie Heart Break Ridge basically a hard nosed jarhead full of one liner's with a bad attitude to boot. When it comes time to get dirty though attitude aside he is all about the fight. That's why I chose the name.

[GovermentCheese]

Mine originates from when I was telling Sonic a story about how disgruntled I was with the Christmas season back in 86 when I was in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard working for Naval Sea Systems command. Basically I went on one of the Subs that I was previously stationed on and asked a cook (a good friend) if I could pilfer a few blocks (15) of "Goverment Cheese" from the "reefer". I then proceeded to wrap them and mass mailed them out (Goverment, dime of course! Hey I used to appove O'-rings at 4K a pop or more!) to all friends, loved ones and enemies. Sonic suggested that Goverment Cheese would be a great nick, so it stuck.

There you have it.

[[AK]Clay]

Mine's actually my name. I used to go by Lazy Engineer in on-line gaming (mostly Subspace and CounterStrike - I was addicted to those games).

For some random reason I figured I'd try "Clay the Magnificent" the first time I played 1942. I think I had too much wine that night. I never bothered to change it and next thing I knew I was in AK and it's too late to change it back to my old handle.

Now I've dropped "the Magnificent" because it doesn't fit in the box with [AK?] anymore.

-Clay

[Slaughter]

I came up with Slaughter back when I was like 15.. I'76 was the game of choice, and I liked "slaughtering" people in it when I could. Of course, whenever I ran into the AK people I ended up getting "slaughtered".. it didn't discourage me though. I, like most people that played, joined up with a 'clan' and started hitting the roads and Pubs with them (Wolfteam).. Thats pretty much where Slaughter stuck.. I didn't use it before then.. infact I didn't start using it until I had had a bad encounter in the I'82.com Flame boards.. After then is when I changed the name, changed my attitude (believe me, it had been really bad.. I was a stubborn kid back then).. Slaughter was basically a redesign of myself, a better me.. I think thats the real reason it stuck, is because I liked the newer, nicer and more polite me...

Though more and more I've been using Fallakin in FPSers.. Because its unique, and I like Unique..

[[AK]The Beast]

Need I say more?

What can I say, I was a college freshman when I really "discovered" online gaming in the form of I'76 in 1997. I played a few games as "Shaft" and "Pimp Daddy" before discovering that everyone and their brother was using those names (those were some names I used when online gaming to me meant Faxman and I dialing into each other's modem's after school to play Duke Nukem 3D). I wanted something that no one else had, so I named myself after my favorite frat house swill (I was never in a fraternity myself, but went to my fair share of the local Greek parties). My tastes in beer have matured somewhat (I do still drink Beast and other swill beers, but only on rare occasions) and I sometimes ponder a name change, but the name is comfortable like an old shoe--only Faxman has really known me by any other name.

[Slaughter]

The Beast's Deli sandwiches aren't half bad either!

[[AK]Hylander]

Mine came about because my fellow AK'ers didn't like my "boring" PA-Scott name, which I had used online for gaming and sim racing since 1993.

But I chose Hylander for two reasons. One, Highlander was taken. Two, I have alot of 'coincidences' tying me to that region of the world.

- Some of my ancestory can be traced back to Wales and Scotland
- My name is Scott
- I did my undergraduate studies at Radford University, who are known as "The Highlanders". The student paper was the Tartan, etc
- Now living here in Bethlehem, PA - we have a huge Celtic Festival with Celtic games and competitions along with food and music. (N0, I will not eat Haggis!)
- And of course, I was a fan of the Highlander movie and TV series

[[AK]Sonic Boom]

When I signed up with AK, they deemed that my former handle, Prison Bitch, was inappropriate so I had to come up with something fast.

Since I'm pretty much only good at things involving speed and hand-eye coordination and we were going to go meet Chuck Yeager that morning, Sonic Boom just popped into my head and I decided to go with it.

Online gaming is one of the only times in your life when you get to pick out your own nickname...

[[AK]StitchJones]

I used to be and still use in some cases FactorFear. The name is a mock up of the band name Fear Factory That was big in the death metal scene back years ago.
But since working with Gunny and Choozoo, I earned the name StitchJones cause I am very much like the character from Heartbreak Ridge. Over extraverted, thinks he's the coolest cat in town (which I am), and keeps things light and humorous even when the S hit's the fan. In fact Gunny gave me my name. So I have to give him a shout out on that one.

[[AK]The Beast]

Originally posted by [AK]StitchJones
I used to be and still use in some cases FactorFear. The name is a mock up of the band name Fear Factory That was big in the death metal scene back years ago.

Phew--for a minute there I thought you were going to tell me it was a mock up of the horrible reality TV show Fear Factor. (I got sick of reality shows somewhere in the first season of The Real World. I've never watched a minute of Survivor or its "cousins".)

My "kid" brother (who I'76ers may remember as [DK]Skurj and has been old enough to join AK for almost two years now, were he still into computer gaming) was a big fan of Fear Factory--he even had a Hotmail or Yahoo mail account once upon a time with a user name of ffremanufacture.

[[AK]Squidly]

Back in highschool I was accused of "hogging" the Apple II computers. A friend called me "Datasquid" which years later I recalled and used as a BBS handle around 1990-91. I became known in the "Doom" community for that nick, and over the years it's grown from there. All the way to http://squidly.com

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

The story behind my nickname is actually based on the history of a battle in World War I in which The United States Marines faught in.....

The battle of Belleau Wood in June of 1918.

The 5th and 6th Marines were tasked with taking a wooded area in France called Belleau Woods. This wooded area was heavily fortified with machine gun nests and some of the best German Trooops of the war.

The Marines took the woods from the Germans in a heavy battle...
As the story goes when a German Prisoner was interrogated all they could get out of him was: "Teufelhunden" translated: Devil hounds, or Devil Dogs. That was what the Germans had nicknamed the Marines they faught against since they faught with such ferocity.

Later the Franch would rename the woods Bois de la Brigade de Marine, in honour of the Marine Corps's tenacity in its re-taking. Also they awarded the 2nd Battalion 6th Marines The French Fourragere, which by the way I still have to this day. I served with 2nd Battalion 6th Marines. Only Marines that served in that unit can where it. When you transfer from the unit you can no longer wear it.

So there you have it... Devil Dog

Belleau Woods

Here is another peace of history about 2nd Battalion 6th Marines:
2nd Battalion 6th Marines

[[AK]Nuts]

I've used a bunch of names online in the past... mostly with Quake II: Jack Flack (can you name the movie?) Preacher Jones, Faethor Frenzcy (can you name the book?)

I first started playing BF1942 while at work. I and the guy I share an office with set up an old Proliant 1600 (256mb RAM, token ring) and two workstations and played while the boss was on vacation for about two weeks. At that time, I randomly picked the names, "Nuts McKrackin'" and "Balls McAckin'". They were milk-out-of-your-nose funny when using a really bad scotish accent and bored out of your mind.

Months later I decided to start playing BF again and got online. I just picked my old name and didn't think anything about it. The minute I put my application into AK, I knew I should have changed it to something not so 3rd-graderish. I asked one time if I should change my name and was told that it was still okay. I mostly just stick with the 'Nuts' parts when I can, but it seems to be in use places like TWL, hence the full name: Nuts McKrackin'

-nuts

P.S. Speaking of names: As we're expecting our first child in July, we're pleased to announce that our son will be named after his Grandfather, who many of you know as Pops Murphy. (And no.. I don't know where he got that name from... we're not Murphy's)

[[AK]Palooka]

Palooka

pa·loo·ka
n.

1. Sports An incompetent or easily defeated athlete, especially a prizefighter.
2. Slang A stupid or clumsy person.

[[AK]StitchJones]

Originally posted by [AK]Palooka
pa·loo·ka
n.

1. Sports An incompetent or easily defeated athlete, especially a prizefighter.
2. Slang A stupid or clumsy person.

Nuff said