How did you come up with your caching name?

[+sword fern]

I'll start: sword fern is a common northwest rainforest plant in my area. Liked the ring to it, thus making me sword fern.

[+stijnhommes]

The origin of my geocaching name is extremely boring. It's my real name so other cachers in the area could see I am related to my father who introduced me to the game and because I saw no need to use a pseudonym.

[+DonB]

I didn't my parents did.

[Mr.Yuck]

I didn't my parents did.

 

Now that there is funny. I had a different name for the first 7 or so years, which hopefully no one remembers. My real last name is kind of synonymous with all things Yucky, so Mr.Yuck. Some guy I worked with many years ago actually came up with the Yuck nickname.

 

Additionally, there is the rather famous character Mr. Yuk from poison stickers. Although I think he may be only famous in the Northeast, Pittsburgh, more specifically. I do roll with variations of that character as an avatar in many places.

Edited April 28, 2013 by Mr.Yuck

[+wimseyguy]

You are in the clear Mr Y. No one remembers TWU.

We had two cats when we started caching, so I became wimseyguy and my wife took shadowgal.

She's probably been with me for maybe 10% of my finds, has found a few before I spotted them, attended dozens of events, and never logged a single one.

Edited April 28, 2013 by wimseyguy

[+briansnat]

I wasn't being very imaginative. I just used my email name which contains my first name combined with the common nickname for most people in my family. It's a shortened version of my last name which is long and Polish.

[+Mick McPhee]

Mick McPhee after McPhee Reservoir, my favorite fishing hole. Wife is Horseluvr and Grandson is Cowboy. All my caches are Cowboy cache followed by the name of the cache.

[+Heli Leo]

Heli Leo, Helicopter law enforcement officer as I flew helicopters for the local police department for 25 years.

[+Don_J]

My parents gave it to me at birth...

 

Seriously, I went through the CB radio craze in the 70's where we all had these funny handles, I was the Pinball Wizard, and people would call, "Hey PW". Looking back that sounds kind of gross so when I opened my first AOL account in '92, I decided to just stick with my name. All of my online identities since have been tied to my first name and some form of my last. When I stated caching, I was using a much longer version and when I met other cachers, they were pronouncing it wrong, so I shortened it up.

 

Edit: I hadn't read DonB's post yet, didn't mean to steal his punchline...

Edited April 28, 2013 by Don_J

[Mr.Yuck]

You are in the clear Mr Y. No one remembers TWU.

We had two cats when we started caching, so I became wimseyguy and my wife took shadowgal.

She's probably been with me for maybe 10% of my finds, has found a few before I spotted them, attended dozens of events, and never logged a single one.

 

I am most certainly NOT in the clear, several locals still call me Urkel. Which I grew to despise. Anywho, which of those to Cats is sticking his head out of the horrifically cheap beer case? Just kidding, I drink Bush or Bush Light all the time. I do like black Cats, I had one die at age 6 from an intestinal blockage (dummy liked to eat plastic), and I replaced him with another black male a few days later (which I still have). I think I might have got a good deal on him too, although he's just an SPCA adoptee, he appears to be a pure bred Bombay. Or at the very least, had a Bombay Mother or Father with very dominant genes.

[+sword fern]

My parents gave it to me at birth...

 

Seriously, I went through the CB radio craze in the 70's where we all had these funny handles, I was the Pinball Wizard, and people would call, "Hey PW". Looking back that sounds kind of gross so when I opened my first AOL account in '92, I decided to just stick with my name. All of my online identities since have been tied to my first name and some form of my last. When I stated caching, I was using a much longer version and when I met other cachers, they were pronouncing it wrong, so I shortened it up.

 

Edit: I hadn't read DonB's post yet, didn't mean to steal his punchline...

 

Haha, DonB and DonJ...same punch line...

[+Kacher82]

I've had two caching handles other than the one I use now. My current one is simply a misspelling of cacher, followed by my birth year. The associated email address to my account has to be spelled differently, because Kacher82 was already in use. The first handle I went by (marshall23) was my first name, followed by my firefighter ID number. The second one (IowaFoamr) was based on my state of residence and my occupation. I decided to change to what I use now so I wouldn't have to change every time I move or change occupations.

[GPS-Hermit]

I wanted a Woodzy name - that sounded like it was there for keeps! Hermit was taken so I added the GPS- in front.

[+DonB]

My parents gave it to me at birth...

 

Seriously, I went through the CB radio craze in the 70's where we all had these funny handles, I was the Pinball Wizard, and people would call, "Hey PW". Looking back that sounds kind of gross so when I opened my first AOL account in '92, I decided to just stick with my name. All of my online identities since have been tied to my first name and some form of my last. When I stated caching, I was using a much longer version and when I met other cachers, they were pronouncing it wrong, so I shortened it up.

 

Edit: I hadn't read DonB's post yet, didn't mean to steal his punchline...

No problem with stealing the punch line. I went through the CB craze also in the 70s and had quite a bundle tied up in equipment. My handle was Big D and my wife, although didn't use the CB much, used the handle wildflower.

[+Chief301]

I'm a volunteer fire chief. My radio callsign is 301. Yeah, boring, I know 😏

[+redwoodkestrel]

I wanted to just be Kestrel, which is my nickname. Kestrel was already taken though, and since I was living in the redwoods at the time, I became redwoodkestrel.

[+DadOf6Furrballs]

At the time we had 6 cats. We still have all 6 them.

[+Snoogans]

The night before I discovered geocaching I watched all 5 hours of An Evening With Kevin Smith.

 

Jason Mewes made an appearance and during Q&A he answered the question "What does Snoogans mean?"

 

Snoogans = Just Kidding

 

That fit me better than any other internet moniker I had used up to that point. After a moment's consideration for the name Zaphod Beeblebrox, I typed in Snoogans for my geonick.

 

It has gone on to become part of my identity. I even answer to it.

 

[+Chief301]

The night before I discovered geocaching I watched all 5 hours of An Evening With Kevin Smith.

 

Jason Mewes made an appearance and during Q&A he answered the question "What does Snoogans mean?"

 

Snoogans = Just Kidding

 

That fit me better than any other internet moniker I had used up to that point. After a moment's consideration for the name Zaphod Beeblebrox, I typed in Snoogans for my geonick.

 

It has gone on to become part of my identity. I even answer to it.

 

 

"Zaphod Beeblebrox" would have been cool too....just a bit wordy on cache logs 😎

[+RecipeForDisaster]

I tend to be accident prone, so a friend has referred to me as a a recipe for disaster. It works overall because I love to cook and we have done a lot of volunteering in disaster work...

[+Semper Questio]

I started as "kiltedcacher" but about the same time that I decide caching in Texas in a kilt was not particularly wise I also learned ther was another with a similar name - "Kiltes Cacher" - so I decided to make a change. I wanted to do some Gaelic version of "Always Searching" but every varaint I found in the different Gaelic forms was to hard to pronounce and/or spell or was too long for cache logs. So I thought abou tit some more and decided go back to my USMC roots and took a variation off of Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) and came up with Semper Quesio (Always Searching).

 

I have been thinking of changing my name again, though. Either to "Frankenfeet" in reference to my caching accident in 2008 or to "Howard The Duck". Howard is my first name and my Marine brothers used to call me The Duck. Yes, after the comic book character of the same name.

[+Snoogans]

 

"Zaphod Beeblebrox" would have been cool too....just a bit wordy on cache logs 😎

 

If I had typed it in I would have gotten a taken by another user message. The ZB account predates mine.

[+Andromeda321]

My handle is Andromeda321 on many places on the Internet, so when I needed to make up a geocaching account it was an easy choice.

 

As for why it is, I'm an astronomer and have been interested in the subject since I was 13, so figure it out yourself though I like the galaxy most. 321 is because my birthday is Jan 23 but alas 123 is usually taken.

[+Chief301]

 

"Zaphod Beeblebrox" would have been cool too....just a bit wordy on cache logs 😎

 

If I had typed it in I would have gotten a taken by another user message. The ZB account predates mine.

 

"Arthur and Trillian" is also taken. 😜

[+Willow's walkers]

We mainly cache as a family of 4 along with our 2 year old chocolate labrador,Willow. When we were thinking of geocaching names our eldest came up with Willow's walkers which we all liked!Our dog walks have taken us to some fantastic and interesting places since we started geocaching, most of which we would never have found.

[+QClan]

Our last name starts with a Q. We are a young family and hope to grow into a clan. We also cache with our dog and often with a friend's dog that we are exercising, and any house guests or friends we can talk into coming.

[+The_Incredibles_]

I started off as wonderwoman, but when my family started coming along caching too, I decided we should change our name to include them.

 

Can't remember what names I was thinking of, but our daughter came up with the name The Incredibles, after an animation we've watched about 100 times. Fit perfectly.

[+Michaelcycle]

I wasn't being very imaginative. I just used my email name which contains my first name combined with the common nickname for most people in my family. It's a shortened version of my last name which is long and Polish.

 

Brian I just read an interesting story about another name that you are quite familiar with; it was in a collection of stories of New Jersey by Frank Richard Stockton published in 1896

 

As for my geonick:

 

 

Esztergom, Hungary. That's how we roll (sorry about the pun)

[+Harry Dolphin]

I'm sure we've been through this before. But I'll repeat.

I lived a few years at the Jersey shore, and loved the boardwalk games at Asbury Park. Put down a quarter, and spin the wheel. If your number comes up, you win a prize. I loved the stuffed dolphins! And acquired a few. The first was a blue dolphin I named Adolph Fin. The second was Rudolph Fin. But the material did not hold up well. Then I learnt to sew, and Fingolphin Dolphin has survived several skin reconstructions. (Yes. We've owned the same axe for generations. Replace the handle seven times, and the blade three times.) (Finley is half the size of Fingolphin.) But a friend had Harry Dolphin.

So, we come to Bulletin Boards (from the old Amiga). (Yeah. The 90's.) Users had 'handles', borrowed from CBers. (Don't know how they changed to 'user IDs' or 'screen names'. To me, they are 'handles'.) Hey. I need a handle for the bulletin boards! I'm Harry Dolphin! So, I've been Harry Dolphin for almost twenty years. Yes. That's also my AT hiking name. Over a thousand miles on the AT! (Some people actually think my name is Harry... Nope. That's my handle.) My sister's AT handle was "Walks in Circles". But she was more of an 4000 peak bagger. She probably has only hiked 500 miles on the AT. But she did the 12 4's in Maine! And bought herself a Corvette as a prize. But she was always a "Hi. I'm Walks in Circles, but you can call me 'name'. She never understood 'handles'.

Som you can call me Harry. That's been my handle for a few decades. Just don't call me 'Fuzzy Fish".

[+MountainWoods]

From college until geocaching, my nickname (and handle on many forums) was simply Woods, because it is my initials (WDS) with a couple of Os slid in to make it a word. Which is great, because I've always liked the woods (forest to some of yuns).

 

Since Woods wasn't available, I took my handle from the name of our ranch, Mountain Woods, but shoved together, as is so typical in today's society (probably because of the internet).

 

Sometimes when signing logs I wish that I'd have chosen something shorter; and I have signed with my real name (when I started), or rarely with an abbreviation (and noted so in the Found It log).

[Alvater]

I'm pretty sure there was another thread recently here and I answered there. But I can do it again.

 

I am a huge dog enthusiast and I am very interested in their behaviour and how to train them. When I took my first steps, or should I say clicks, on internet, I joined a Finnish speaking pet forum and I had to pick an username. I ended up with Belgiter which contained my favourite dog breed (at least at the time) Belgian shepherd dog Tervueren, which was also the breed of our two dogs then.

 

Later I found international forums. I soon discovered that my old nick might be confusing since I have nothing to do with Belgium. Both of our Tervuerens were also gone.

 

Then, what brought me to geocaching? Alva, my rough collie, who can not do agility and I decided we need a hobby. I remembered something I had found interesting but had not officially tried yet... Geocaching offers us destinations for walks and everyday adventures and Alva can use her nose to sniff and find caches with me. I saw the light in Alva's eyes. I'd be known as Alvater in this community. Alva from Alva, 'ter' for the memory of the Tervuerens.

[+lumbricus]

Lumbricus

 

Wikipedia

 

Family: Lumbricidae

Genus: Lumbricus

 

My surname is Wurm, so my caching name is self-explaining

[+Rabid_Dingo]

Back in 1998, on a trip to Australia, my friend and I were walking down the street. There was a lady walking a chihuahua. He freaked out, pointed at the dog and yelled, "Rabid Dingo!" Of course he was being childish. (Yeah me too) I've used as a handle / username since.

 

Spelling edit.

Edited April 30, 2013 by Rabid_Dingo

[floridabiker1]

Living in Florida + Liking to bike = floridabiker1

[+ExtremeNorthWales]

I just cache under my real name, Alex Rea. I do sometimes wish that I had given it some more thought and come up with something clever.

 

I've got to the point now where I don't want to change names, as people in the area won't know who I was.

[+Skillet68]

Back in 1988 I was 19 years old and sharing an apartment with a 7 foot German guy. He looked at me one night and said "Skillet". I'm gonna call you Skillet from now on. I didn't dare argue. Tried getting that name but there is a cacher in California with it so I added the year I was born to it. Ala Skillet68

[+The_Incredibles_]

We're all waiting to hear from BillyBobNosePicker.

[cutiepie7f]

Because I'm just soo adorable ... no its the same name I've used since I was 13 ... 13 years using the same name I'm not likely to forget it

[+M4RKO]

M4RKO = MARKO (all the normally spelled versions were taken of course)

 

From the game we used to play in the swimming pool, Marco Polo. Since the person who is It shouts Marco while searching for other players, I thought it was a suitable nickname while I search for caches.

[+313JTG]

Mine is a tribute to my favorite football team.

 

If you follow the NFL, you'll understand the reference.

 

If you don't follow the NFL, google "Ndamukong Suh stomp" and everything will be clear

[+BeorntheViking]

Because I am Beorn..and I am a Viking.

[+munchygut]

Back in the day when my boys were little, we were members of the Pawnee tribe in the Indian Guides. This was a program run by the YMCA and was meant to get dads and their kids together with others for the sole purpose of having fun (the name was recently changed to Y Adventure Guides, for political correctness). Munchygut was a log with a face carved into it by a creative dad. Legend had it that whichever tribe found Munchygut in their campsite on the last morning of a campout would have bad luck until they were rid of it at the next one. It was quite a sight watching 5, 6, and 7 year olds trying to sneak it into other camps to hide the log. The name Munchygut invokes lots of great memories of time spent with my boys and the fun they had. BTW, some of the dads I met in this program are now long time friends. Some of them are on my golf team at the local country club and the name of the team? The Pawnee.

[+briansnat]

 

"Zaphod Beeblebrox" would have been cool too....just a bit wordy on cache logs 😎

 

If I had typed it in I would have gotten a taken by another user message. The ZB account predates mine.

 

It was one of Bassonpilot's many sock puppet accounts.

[+6NoisyHikers]

When I first joined, I had the name "NotWriting" because that is what I was doing (or not doing). Geocaching was going to be one more distraction to keep me from writing the Great Canadian Novel*.

 

But the first cache I ever found was with my daughter, and we enjoyed it so much that I realised this would be a family affair and that our username should be about all of us. So we are 6NoisyHikers: Mom, Dad and 4 kids, and we have since added two Mini-Hiker grandchildren to the team. Not all of us are noisy, but those who are make enough noise to warrant the name. When we write our logs, we state which Hikers were part of the find. We are numbered by age - I am NoisyHiker#2. If we need to save space in a micro log, we write "6NH".

 

 

 

*Definitely not writing that novel any time soon.

[Dirtnapper]

Mine, well, I am a funeral director.

[+Geordie Roamer]

Mine is for the name given to a person from the area of the UK I am from and a play on words from map reading (Romer)

[+Trucker Lee]

We're all waiting to hear from BillyBobNosePicker.

too hard to fit on micro logs.

 

I shortened it to family nickname preceded by line of work. Often seen on logs as Trkr Lee, or even as TL on those little bitty scrolls found in those little bitty buttons no one likes rerolling the logs into.

 

Edit for splling. Oh phooey, did it again!

Edited May 15, 2013 by Trucker Lee

[+Annawashere]

Annawashere, because I got a kick out of the idea of signing logs like that (at the time). I was originally letsgoonanadventure. Not so long after my first cache find I went, "oh that's too long to write out every time."

[+livlina]

"livlina" means "lifeline" in Swedish.

 

My first name is lina, and I love gameshows like "Who wants to be a millionaire?". So, fits me perfectly

[+etphoneme2plz]

Etphoneme2plz... made it up as an email addy YEARS ago, just stuck with it... ET phone me 2 plz (please), LOVE that movie!!!