Names are funny things

[Peti]

So, you all know me as Peti.
If some of you saw the name Wijnruit, you'd know that was also me.
But those are the only names I ever used in FFxi, and I've never used them elsewhere.
Outside FFxi, none of you would ever know who I am!

So here's to fixing that.

Long time ago, I was living in some dorms on base (USAF!) and playing Metropolis Street Racer on Dreamcast. (MSR was Project Gotham Racing's predecessor)
I had a few cars in my garage that I spec'd out for different race types, and I'd label them with a custom license plate describing how the car handles.
While playing one day, my roommates' friend came by and watched me play a few minutes, and asked "'Slick', is that you? That what you go by?"
I'd never thought about it before but I said yeah, sure.
I'd used Slick in a ton of things after that, like Halo and other shooters, and even my Steam Account.

Slick is a hard name to use in MMOs though, it tends to be already taken.

FFxi came along, and yeah, Slick was taken.
I have no earthly idea where I got Peti from.
I really dont. But I love it, and I stuck with it!

After FFxi (possibly during? I played some games concurrently), I was creating characters for Guild Wars (the first one).
I was being clever, and started naming my characters after the worst trait you could possibly want for that character.
I created an Assassin named Klutzy Charlatan.

Since then, I've used Charlatan for my healers in a lot of games, 'cause who would want a charlatan for their support?
Some games like Guild Wars allow for given and surnames, so I tend to use Charlatan as the surname.
Klutzy is now my go-to name, though. I use it whenever I can get it, which, happily, is pretty often.
If I cant get that, or I make alternate characters (something I hate doing, and wish every game was like FFxi: all jobs available to one toon),
I'll use a short list of names I've come up with over the years, all which sound hilarious when followed by Charlatan.
Klutzy
Inept
Remiss
Hasty
Reckless

One of my cats is named Klutzy, after my characters, lol.. feline grace eludes him, just as agility and dexterity escaped my assassin

So, how do the rest of you come up with names, now and in the past?

[Malakai]

Ah, fun thread!

I used to watch my older brother play games when I was a kid, and one of those games was Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1. In the game, there were the siblings Rafa and Malak, the heaven and hell knight respectively, if I remember correctly.
For a while, we used those as nicknames for ourselves and our game characters, with him being Rafa and me taking Malak. That stuck as my gaming handle for a while and eventually KOTOR stole it with Darth Malak (which was actually pretty awesome).

Come time for FFXI, I couldn't use the name Malak so I toyed around with a few variations and eventually settled on Malakai.
Like Peti, I didn't really use that name outside of FFXI. I've played many MMOs and created lots of characters since then and for a period I didn't really have a naming scheme.

One game I picked up for a while with some RL friends was Aion. One day, when adventuring with my friends, this assassin from the other faction ambushed me and I don't remember much else about the encounter besides his name, as I yelled it in agony upon my death; "GIBBLES!!!" Then I stole his name. Because I liked it.

In FFXIV, my main character is named Gibblz after this and my guild mates provide endless alternatives for secondary characters by intentionally mispelling/saying the name as Gooblz, Gribblz, Gobl, etc.

If I get a cat some day I'll probably name it Gibbles.

[Xarious]

I've gone by a few names over the years, and I usually use certain names for specific things.

First Person Shooters / General

The first online community I played with was a clan for a FPS game called Command & Conquer: Renegade called Rebel Elite Defense (RED). The day I got the game I had just come home from a zoo, and I was fascinated by the snakes that they had there. So much so that I was kind of obsessed with them for a while, as kids are. A was/am also a huge Star Wars fan. So what does one cool ass 13 year old come up with if he's into snakes and Star Wars?

DarkViper

When I joined RED, I was sad to see that they already had a DarkViper in their ranks, so I was forced to pick a new name. I wasn't losing the Viper part, so I thought... hmm? What kind of words would substitute Dark? I need something grim... Ah!

GrimViper was born.

I was a part of RED for the better part of 4 years, and people came to know me as Grim or Grimmy. GrimViper also eventually became my Xbox Live name. Miraculously, when I joined DeRaMa in FFXI, there was a player named Kayest. After a few weeks of playing together, we got on the topic of C&C Renegade, only to find out that Kayest was also in RED, and was someone I knew - "Deathmoney". Mind was blown at the time.

My PSN ID is GrimWookiee because GrimViper was taken. *le sad*
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IGN

I've been a regular part of the IGN community since 2003. I joined on a whim one day when I noticed my friends at school discussing Final Fantasy on IGNs FF board. At the time I joined I was playing FF7 for the 900th time, and I was working on getting the final Bahamut summon materia, so Bahamut was on the brain. What could my name be?

Bahamut!

Nope, taken. Argh! Well I won't be defeated! What makes a name cool? Adding X's of course.

BahamutX!

Taken.

BahamutXX!

Taken. Wtf?

BahamutXXX!

Sexually taken.

Begrudgingly, BahamutXXXX!

Bingo-bango.

So for the past 13 years, I've been known as BahamutXXXX on IGN. Kind of ridiculous, but it grew on me. I was a moderator for 4 years before I decided to dedicate less time to the boards, but I'm still there and you can generally find me on the Kingdom Hearts and Resident Evil boards.

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MMORPGs

The first MMO I really sunk my teeth into was Tibia. One of my old friends is who got me into it, and they went by the name of Xantam. I don't know why, but I also wanted a name that started with an X. After thinking on it for a while, Xarious was born.

I played Tibia for about a year before I got FFXI. I didn't get FFXI at launch, I got it just after Christmas that year after seeing my friend play it (Naida in XI, Naedo Legacy in XIV). I didn't really think about a name, and just went with Xarious - the guy you've come to know and love. AKA "Moose"

In World of Warcraft, my first character was a Night Elf Rogue named Xarious. I wasn't a fan of the class, so after I got it to 60 I quit WoW until The Burning Crusade was released. I created a Blood Elf Warlock named Kaelus and used that toon for the remaining WoW days.

When I started XIV, I made a Miqo'te Gladiator named Xaril Seraph, but it wasn't vibing with me. I quit for a while, but then came back and played with my wife and created a new character: Orion Skylock. Since then I've transferred from Midgardsormr to Gilgamesh, and changed the name to Kael Skylock.

So - when it comes to online names, currently you'll find me as: Kael Skylock - Gilgamesh, BahamutXXXX - IGN, GrimViper - XBL, GrimWookiee - PSN.

I've used other names in the past, but nothing with longevity or worth note.

[selk]

Ahhhh... history of our names.. Hmmm...

I played a lot as "noskillz" on CS and it was fun whooping ass with that name. I use the same for battle.net including Overwatch.

For Diablo III characters I pick similar class-style characters from the Malazan books to name my characters but people generally don't see those since it mostly uses the battle.net name.

Selk was a derivative of the selkie. A balkan mythological shape changer. I use variations on this name commonly. Selkie was originally taken in XI and he was a taru iirc.

Selkus Ruin (XIV) was a play on Selk and Silchus Ruin from Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Rally (or variations of) is a play on my initials and my joy of driving fast.

I honestly can't think of any other names I used much/regularly.