Let's Talk About Your Username/Penname

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I just used my regular name. forever the outcast

[childofbooks]

It's nothing special,
Eli is a part of my real name. And I just wanted something that starts with F next to it. And I like to go hiking in the forest so... coming up with the penname Eli Forest didn't really take time.

[ar-ninetysix]

Tell ya what, I don't know any other Nathan on the site so this is perfect for branding!

[nathanKmcwilliams]

True true. It's leagues better than dragonsparking which was just the name of my comic XD
Also better than my old Machine_Fish and Friendlypiranha usernames. And 1000% worse than the best username I ever had: Godzilla Maximus. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[DualDragons]

@nathanKmcwilliams @ar-ninetysix
Lol for me it's a little weird reading that because I do actually have a nephew from 2018 called Nathan (obviously he's not on this site lmao)

atleast not that I'm aware

[ISNEKO]

I like cats and anime so, Neko.

I don't remember why I have I.S. in front of it.

[DreamyPastel]

I originally started based off of my username on minecraft, but the name itself no longer applied to me, so I came up with Pastel Dreams! I really liked pastel colors, and dreams intrigued me. Eventually, it turned into Dreamy Pastel, not sure how, but that's about it really! It's not the most unique username, but it just kind of suits me well I think haha

[shfra13]

Uhhh, my current pen name doesn't have any special story tbh. I had (have) a lot of internet names. Before this pen name, I wrote fanfic and used a weeb pen name which I didn't want to use any longer, and my other internet names just didn't sound right to me. One of my names, Ad, didn't sound half bad tbh, but imagining the name "Ad" on a cover seems empty (lol). It was also around the time that I became serious in writing, where I, if I ever publish, didn't want to be recognized irl. So, I picked Szafir, which is in a way a meaning of my real name, especially since out of my full name, I have an attachment on the part of my name that means Sapphire despite it not being my first name. Also, that way, I still "link" my name back to myself without pointing directly at me. A perfect amount of anonimity without erasing my identity, I guess.

[Rhonder]

Rhonder became my go-to username back at the end of middle school/start of high school when I needed a name for a MMO that I wanted to start

Prior to that I hadn't really used any one name too consistently. I had users ranging from pop culture references like "Hyper Lugia" and "Neji-san021" to "Raguna" which was the main character in the story I started writing in middle school. At the time I was starting to try and use the "Raguna" name more and more, but I found that it was semi-consistently taken on many websites already, and as well for this game. I mulled it over for a while and decided to try the name of the jerk-y anti-hero rival from my story, Rhonder, and it was available, so I went with it.

Over time as I started joining more and more websites I found that "Rhonder" was more often than not available, and so now it has become my primary username~ Nowadays if it's not available as-is for art account purposes, I just amend "_Art" onto the end, Rhonder_Art. It works well enough~

It was unintentional but it's also a partial anagram of my real name and has similar sounds, although rearranged so... I guess that's neat too? For my creative works I usually still write my real name on as the author, but like to hang out on websites with my username I guess.

[thirdly]

MichiTheThird is a fusion from my real nickname (Michi) and Thirdly, which was/is my online pen-name. Thirdly was what I named a golden cat character I had drawn as my avatar. I can't remember exactly how I chose that word as a name, but if I had to guess, it was because it was one of my favorite words to write on five-paragraph essays (for the points, I would write: Firstly, Secondly, and Thirdly since it was easier...I'd also end the essay on a "Finally..."). Another reason might be because I was the third child born of the third-to-last (but later on I found out that wasn't true, I was more like the sixth born since 3 siblings died before me and one was my undeveloped twin). Sixthly doesn't sound nearly as smooth as Thirdly, though, so I just kept it.

[jkb4753]

I made a whole music video for twitter about my penname. You can watch it here: https://twitter.com/brightside_jack/status/1375261574412300290?s=20
It has my real face and everything.

"Jack" is the main character from Fight Club and "Brightside" is from "Mr. Brightside" by the killers. I came up with this pen name when I was like 14. I should never be allowed to live it down

[Caro]

I’ve never really liked names that were more like usernames than actual names and one of the reasons is that I noticed no matter how many followers I have I have this instinct to click through on profiles where the username is just the person’a name (or at least something that sounds like a real name) because I associate that with someone who is a professional in whatever it is they’re doing and a lot of times they are OR are trying to be and I end up finding a lot of reallly great work this way.

My name isnt my actual name but it is a name I stole from the year book of a very aggressive 3rd grader I found in a free bin outside of a thrift store. He scrawled out all sorts of hilarious insults in his big 3rd grader handwriting and its still one of the funniest things I own. I tried to find him online because he should be a little bit older than me but I haven’t been able to find him. I took the nickname version of his first and last name as my pen name though. Firstly, because I wanted to try and trick people into thinking I was a male cartoonist (didnt last long because sometimes I like posting selfies) and second because I was making some sensitive content I worried about family seeing.

because I’ve gotten some success my pen name isn’t really a secret to my family anymore (one I was visiting them and someone working at the grocery store we were at recognized me and called me out by my pen name). They also don’t really read my comics so honestly I’ve thought about just going by my real name. But the pen name is so engrained that I haven’t heard my husband use my actual name in maybe six or seven years and when he does its uncomfortable and foreign but I wish it wasn’t sometimes because its a nice name and more professional sounding! Oh well!

[jkb4753]

the grocery store clerk recognized you by your pen name?
I dont even know what i would do.

[Caro]

Its happened a handful of times and everytime i get reallllly red in the face my blush is all consuming and not cute at all.... sometimes i feel like i should delete every picture of me on the internet but..... i like people telling me im cute....

[Crippling_Anxiety]

Well mine is crippling anxiety because I used to joke around that I was crippled by my anxiety whenever I was anxious (which is often).

[jkb4753]

just accept the compliment. you are adorable. we see you, and we think you are cute.
(i have never seen what you look like im going off description)

[Panqiuyan]

For me I just use my Chinese name because I hardly ever get to use it. My name is Pan Qiu Yan but people can't pronounce it right. plus I didn't want to use my English name because people made fun of my last name.

[azzy-m]

(Hello fellow Filipino lmao, I'm also victim of the mañana habit lmfao)

My name is basically just a shortened version of my old alias, Azure, combined with the first letter of my last name (the -m part). The "Azure" part was from a randomly generated username in a game I played as a kid called Growtopia. All of my usernames in my current accounts and even past accounts are all variations of it lol.

Azzybluu, Azzybluee, Azurebluuu, lalazure, _azzym.... they are all other ways to twist the word Azure.

[NickRowler]

Nick Rowler is a pen name but I prefer being called Nick over my real name.

I don't remember where it came from. I originally thought it came from "Rick Roller" but it predates the meme. The name was first used as a version of "John Doe" and in my older works, the name would pop up. I think I had a character who no one knew his name so everyone just called him "Nick B Rowler". I started using it as a username because it is usually available but dropped the "B" because I don't want people to call me "Browler".

[ReneVergence]

I use the name Rene Vergence. Rene means "rebirth" for my pursuit of art and writing, which are activities I love but don't do often because of dedicating time to other responsibilities or my own fear. Being able to pursue them feels freeing to me like a rebirth. (I'm honestly not sure if that's more romantic or cheesy.) Vergence is from "verge"/"convergence" since I started using the name for my comic which is merging together art and writing.

There's also Rene Nocte, which I created first but use specifically for posting dark art on instagram (at least currently). Nocte literally means "night" because it's for dark art. Very clever I know.