CamcorderUser.Net

I have been foruming for a number of years now and have always wondered about people's usernames. Some are very straightforward using a first name. Some also incorporate what appears to be a birthyear. Some might give a hint as to the person's occupation. Some of them I have absolutely no idea! Whenever I have somebody on this side of the computer, they usually say "What the heck is an Atwinator?" So I thought it might be interesting to start a thread to explain unusual usernames.
 
I am originally from just outside of Amsterdam in Holland so my background is Dutch. Both my parents are also Dutch with mixed European backgrounds. My real full first name is Edwin, and the way that is pronounced in Dutch is "Etvin". So obviously this was someting I didn't want my friends to know as a kid growing up. Invariably they would of course and that wasn't very much fun! Anyway years later but before I got married in 2001, I had puchased a home and rented out rooms in it to friends. One of these was a guy named Dave who is actually resposible for my interest in video as well as computers in general to some extent. Anyway so eventually Dave hears my parents call me Etvin one day when they were over. Of course he find this very amusing and takes the ball and runs with it eventually morphing it into "Atwin". I tried to get even with him by calling him "The Dwaff", a name which he used online from that point forward. Then in further defence I took the very wimpy sounding "Atwin", and toughened it up a bit by adding "ator" , as in "Terminator" to the end of it. Since then it has just kind of stuck. Unfortunately Dave committed suicide about a year and a half ago. Silly as the name is, when I see it I fondly think of him.

Nice post Ed,
Sorry to hear about Dave. Its nice to read sometimes a personal and sentimemtal post and its interesting to hear how you came up with your forum name. Mine is real simple, Shaun being my first name and 1970 being the year I was thrust upon this great beautiful land we all call home, "Earth". ( Some folk say it was the day Earth stood still!) Lol !.
My last name is Stoddart which I believe is Dutch as well, although I'm fifth generation in Australia from England, my ancestors from my fathers side were European.

Great Idea for a new topic! Hope everyone can join in on this one.
BTW, how's Adelaide treatin ya? Poo Poo weather, but fine days are ahead real soon.
Cheers,
Shaun

Adelaide's been great so far Shaun. Most of the relatives are starting their holidays that they took for the wedding now so there is a lot of socializing going on. Last night was both bucks and hens night so that was fun. The women (27 of them) had a supposed sleep over party 5 minutes away from ours. Eventually they ended up crashing our party all dressed in PJ's and bent out of shape so that was interesting! I actually drank a whole 6 pack of Coopers Pale Ale, which is more than I've had at one time in well over a year. Everyones looking forward to Tasi but they are warning me it will be brutally cold! Haha....yeah right!

I've posted before about my username and site name, but not here.  Perhaps a rehash would be appropriate.

Before I switched to a real name, I used the alias "StrongDotGuy."  It is actually a spelled out version of Strong.Guy, which is a real name as my full name is Strong Guyton Bruner, Jr.  I was always called Guy because my father was Strong. Lots of colleagues took to calling me "Strong Guy" when they found out my full name.  So, I just went with the flow.  It doesn't hurt that I'm relatively beefy and was once a weight lifter.;)

When I created my first domain, I named it FortVir which is from the Latin fortus vir, or strong guy.  Fort is French for strong...close enough.  I couldn't register the domain stongguy.com, .net, etc.  because the gay porn sites already had it. :cool:

I almost forgot you used to go by strongdotguy Guy. I dinstictly remember wondering what it's meaning was though. Now it all makes sense. I'm glad you mentioned about Fortvir too because that was another one I could never figure out! Bedtime now....I'll sleep better!

My parents were from Spain, so I got a Spanish name, Ricardo.  I was born in the US and as I grew up the name Richard was used at times.  At one point, being in the Military and getting passports I just changed by real first name to Richard (1972) because it was easier than changing all the records the other way.  So, that's how I got the name Poncho....   Hehehehe, kidding, some close family friends just called me Poncho when I was a few days old and it stuck in the family.




Rich

Mine is super simple.  I do this video stuff just "For Fun".

I do find myself getting more and more into it and as I learn,  I want more still.  Video stuff is very addictive.

I started For Fun as well, I only had my GS300 for 18 or so months and had to get more cause its way addictive, some $6000 later and I'v still got a big list of things to get.

Your forum name is simple and relevent in your case.

That's a perfect example of a case where I had completely the wrong idea. I actually always thought that Poncho was the name of your pet collie! Now I know. Is the avatar you often use your dog?

I started using the ScenicRoute moniker for posting on a backpacking forum. Didn't put much thought into it, just grabbed one that wasn't taken. Carried it over to the video forums as well. Since most of my filming is outdoors stuff, it still fits.

-Andy

Nope, the collie is Mr. Tucker.  He is almost famous.  He was on local TV a few years back for saving a ladies life.

Hey, he's more than my pet dog, he is my buddy...  I'm pretty much retired, we go out walking every day.  Here he is in action at a recent Celtic Festival.  Yes, we have Celtic Festival's here in New Mexico.  [media]http://vimeo.com/1028734[/media]



Rich

I agree with Shaun, this is a terrific idea for a topic and everyone can join in.

I've often wondered about other posters' handles, your Atwinator being one, Ed. I had assumed Poncho was a Clint Eastwood fan and Guy was, well, simply Guy!

Mine's fairly simple. I was named David, a name that sits well on some, but not me, I think. After several years through school with a nickname I disliked even more - how I got it I have no idea - I started to insist on using Dave, which felt more "grown up" somehow and it's stuck.

So, about 1,000 years later when I wanted to join my first forum, Dave was taken. No surprise there. Sitting there with the registration page open, I couldn't think of anything witty, so I thought I'd be Ethan's Granddad (I am and proud to be so), but there is another one out there. So I thought that as it's a forum about digital camcorders how about Digitaldave? Nearly, but Digidave rolls off the tongue easier, so that's it.

Now I think about it, I don't know why I didn't use my old CB handle, Samson! Hindsight is always 20-20 vision ain't it?

Cheers, Dave

Makes a lot of sense, and of course most of us wouldn't be into it if it wasn't fun! I also find it quite addictive, partially because the technologies are constantly changing and evolving.....even progressing in some instances! I also just love a great image and all the possible applications for it.

Wow that sounds like an interesting story! He is a beautiful dog. We have a 1 year old golden retriever named Winston who my son in particular is missing terribly. He wanted us to bring Winston on the plane to Australia but finally settled for a stuffed toy that looks just like him. He has been sleeping with it every night we have been here.

Yeah I hear what you're saying, I don't sign up for many websites anymore but I can remember sitting in front of a registration page trying any combination of anything that made sense to me and having all of them already being taken. So I would hit some random keys on the keyboard, it would work, and then I would forget what it was on my next visit and never go back again. That hasn't been a problem with "Atwinator"! Oh, and for the record, I think David is a nice name! (http://www.camcorderuser.net/images/icons/icon14.gif)

Yeah I figured your username meant you were an outdoorsy kind of guy. Very fitting. Nice films too by the way!

Hmmmmm.

How did I get my user name? It's a name I started using when I was in radio. No. It's not my legal name. It is my D.B.A. name though and most people, especially clients, know me by Jeff Emery.

Jeff

I seem to remember that we had been quite heavily 'grandchildrened' on the day I registered.  

Granpa's (as apposed to Grandfathers) know a little about a lot, a lot about a little and can invent the rest as they go along until someone (usually much, much younger) puts them right.  Granpa's, in Granpa context, have no need for dignity and are usually happy to be put right about almost anything except the need to be Polite to Gran, When is Bedtime and Opening the Next Bottle of Aussie Shiraz.  

Which largely seems to apply to my venture into videography, too.  

Especially about the Bottle, during editing.  

I think there was already another Granpa out there in Forumland (undoubtedly with more experience than me) so I was quite happy to be the second.  By chance, b is also my initial.

There's another surprise, I would just have assumed it was your real name. Are you really named Jeff? Not familiar with the term D.B.A., what does that stand for?

I always figured that your username was granpa b because you were a grandpa. Can you tell what the b stands for?
 
As far as the bottle, I never drink and edit as the results could be tragically twisted! When I drink I always make sure I have a deignated editor with me!

Yes Ed,
Jeff is my real name. Emery is a name that I kind of happened upon a long time ago.

While attending a broadcast training school, I wanted to use an alias since my real last name has too many "hard turns" in it. It doesn't flow in the way I wanted it to. Plus, most people who don't know how to pronounce it just seem to naturally butcher it. If there were an apostrophe in the right location, everyone would get it right away. But there's no apostrophe. And, rather than have to correct people, I decided to use an easy to spell, easy to pronounce name.

On a quick side note, my proper first name gets butchered in spelling too. My full name is Jeffery yet most people I do business with (banks, insurance, doctors, dentists) spell it Jeffrey. Sure, it's a minor thing, switching the E and R, but I have to correct them. I have my mom to thank for the name Jeffery. She was from Georgia and very thrifty. Jeffrey has only two syllables while Jeffery has three. I guess she figured she could use the same amount of letters but get an extra syllable absolutely free.:)

So anyway, back to the Emery story. While in school, I pursued news. I tried to come up with a newsy sounding name. I was Dave Davis for a short time but that sounded as bad to me as Duran Duran so I abandoned it. Then I was Jefferson Phillips. Surely that would make me sound credible. I liked that name but I started spending more and more time focusing on my announcer skills and Jefferson Phillips didn't feel right for a radio jock. So one day I was blurting out some names. I had recently seen a TV show on the old Nashville Network. The show's host was Ralph Emery. He was a big name in the Country entertainment business, sort of like Jay Leno or Johnny Carson, but country-fied. So in blurting out names, I said Jeff Emery. It flowed. It was easy to spell, easy to say. So I started using it almost exclusively.

I say "almost" because after getting hired at a couple of radio stations as a news reporter and later as a news director I used my real first and last names.

For a while, my real name was well known and popular in the Michigan news community. I was a regular contributor of audio reports on the Michigan News Network and won a Contributor's Award from the Associated Press wire service. Ah... but those days are long past.

In the many radio staions I worked at as an announcer, I used Jeff Emery.

I run my business Jeff Emery Audio and Video Productions under a ficticious name. So I am Doing Business As Jeff Emery.

When doing business, I introduce and represent myself as Jeff Emery. And that's the name on the paycheck I receive from clients.

Jeff

Before I had read more than two or three lines of that, Jeff, I could see you narrating it.  Go on - the script is just about perfect!  Let's see it as one of your fabulous shorts!

How does that work, is Emery your legal name?  I can see the company name and you representing yourself as Emery, but to be paid with legal documents with that name?

Or are they paying 'Jeff Emery' the company (the shortened version of the company name).  Then it makes sense.

Well, my name varies slightly from site to site, but the majority of times it's WpgCameraMan  which is short for Winnipeg Camera Man , Winnipeg being where I live.  And Camera Man being something I am (not as often anymore, less than half my gigs have me shooting, it's mostly editing or mobile tape room).

In some cases, CameraMan has been taken, so I add Wpg when needed.  

I'm not active on lots of forums, mostly lurk.  I have two other identities I use for other purposes, one is for one of hobbies (DIY home stuff), and the other is for something else (vague, yes!) (nothing but peace & love though).

I've never been fond of using my real name while on-line.

Oh...   How far back are we going with user names, because some of us were working user names before the Internet.  I ran a pretty popular electronics BBS back in the day.  I forget most of the names I used back then.  Started BBS'ing in 1984.

Thanks for the DBA explanation Jeff. I always google acronyms I'm unfamiliar with but DBA produced many unrelated results.
I always figured you were a camera man WPG, and the Canadian flag in your sig made your city obvious to me. Speaking of acronyms, I looked up BBS's (bulletin board systems) and had no idea such things existed before the internet. Interesting!

Yes, it was interesting.

I ran several BBS's for several years.  Mid 80's until 1999.  Finally gave it up.  I use to have a small company "DBA" for a BBS for the Atari ST.  Anybody remember "BBS Express! ST".  That was me for awhile.



Rich

The name I have registered for doing business is "Jeff Emery". I add the audio and video productions part on my letterhead and business cards. However, that is merely an added description so if someone unfamiliar with what I do happens upon a business card I've distributed, they'll know what I do.

All invoices clearly state to make checks payable to Jeff Emery. I've had a few checks made out to Jeff Emery Productions and Jeff Emery Audio and Video Productions. I just stamp them and deposit them as usual with no problems.

Jeff

Hi Guys,
 
I just got back from a 2 week long backpacking trip with my son's Boy Scout Troop, so I'm trying to catch up on 2 weeks of forums posts on the various forums I visit.
 
My username here is "timlan635". On other forums I have been "Tim L", but I am slowly morphing to "timlan635" (with a "635" avatar) as it is more unique. Also, I have at times found a site or two that wouldn't accept a blank in a username, so "Tim L" had to become "TimL".
 
My given name is Tim Landwehr, so that's where the "tim" and "lan" parts come from.
 
The "635" is the street address of the house I grew up in, and the house where my parents still live. Lots of people move around a lot while growing up, but we were all in the same house the whole time. And like I said, my parents still live there, for almost 50 years now. So "635" is a very significant number to me -- not just a random, tacked-on number (i.e. not like I'm the 635th "timlan" registered on this site).
 
When I got into video and editing about 3 years ago, the very first substantial project I did was a video about the house and neighborhood where I grew up: the school we went to, the park where we played, the houses where neighborhood friends lived, the old TV shows we watched (back in the 1960's). It was a very nice nostalgia piece.
 
I made nice printed discs with glossy DVD jackets and gave copies to my parents, brothers and sisters for Christmas, and I was a hero! It was so professional looking (for an amateur) and they were all just blown away that you can do that sort of thing (titles, editing) on a home computer.
 
I titled the video - pretentiously, and tongue-in-cheek - as "635: A Film by Tim A. Landwehr". The front of the DVD case has a picture of the house, with the "635" address very prominent. My avatar's "635" image is taken from the cover shot on the DVD case.
 
The back of the video case also had some very impressive reviews from some popular magazines.
 
N.Y.Times said "A brilliant effort by a first time filmaker."
 
Time Magazine said "He truly captures the essence and soul of growing up smart and handsome on N. xxxxx St."
 
American Cinematographer said "Wow! That was really something! Wow!"

Hey Tim,
That's cool that 635 was the number of the house you grew up in. I actually figured it would have been your current house number. The "lan" part I wasn't really sure but now I get it.
That sounds like a really neat gift DVD you made...what a great idea! Very creative to have the magazine reviews of the DVD on the back, sounds like you really had fun making it!

Petya = a shorter version of Peter in Hungarian (spelled 'petja')
Mester = means master in Hungarian

A friend of mine gave me this nickname when I was around 12 year old. I don't know what inspired him...

Before that I used 'fantasy' as a nickname because I liked reading fantasy books. Not very creative I know, but I was very young then.

Your username was also one that I had always wondered about Peter. I figured the Pet part of it must have been an abbreviated form of Peter but the "yamester" part I had no idea. I like that username...much better than Fantasy if you ask me!:)