Your FFXI name... What? Why? LOL? etc.

[Khamsin]

About 7:45 one night I realize that I had 3 books to return to the library and about 15 minutes left to do it in. So I jump up and was immediately attacked by my dog, Grendel. Most nights Grendel gets a walk between 7:00 and 8:00 PM, something we missed the night before because of all the rain, so she was full of energy to burn.

So I piled her and the books into my car and zoomed off to the library and Grendel did her best to cause me to crash. I get there with enough time to return the books, one of which I wanted to renew.

"One of these books was renewed once (once is the limit) on my mom's card. Can I just renew it on mine now?" I asked.

The lady gave me a weird look and told me they frowned on them doing that. I had to stop myself from pointing out that my mom had done the same thing the other day with one of her books. "However," the lady went on. "I can check this book in right now and place it on the carts, anyone can check it out then." She then quickly scanned the book then passed it back to me. "There," She said with a conspiratorial smile. "It's on the carts." So I checked it out and returned to the car.

Why does everyone break the same rules in a different way? Does the world just have too many loop holes allowing for too many confusing variations in style? Or do people's weird personal codes exist no matter the rules? Oh well I had my book.

Anyway I dropped my books off at the car and walked the dog a few blocks down to the courthouse square. A lot of people were out enjoying the summer weather. Live guitar music came from the front of the guitar store, mainly practice sounds. A few couples were dressed up and headed to The City Office & Pub (the only 4 star restaurant/bar in town) and high schoolers were out cruisin' the streets without mufflers. I noticed that all the doors to the old theater were open and you could see the gutted interior and a lone man in work cloths. Small town life at it's finest I suppose.

I let the Grendel off the lead, like I always do, so she could run through the grass. I guess there is some irony in breaking a city ordinance on the courthouse lawn but it's a pathetic excuse for a crime spree so I don't get any giggles over it. We did a lap around the building and I had a short conversation about Grendel with some random dude twice my age, Despite the topic he chose, I'd say he was more interested in meeting me than my dog but maybe I'm cynical.

Finally, I put Grendel back on the leash and walked over to the old movie theater. I'd spotted a single man working within so I walked up to the door and caught his eye. He invited the two of us in. I logically assumed he was the new owner and we started talking about the state of disrepair the last owner left had left it in. He'd basically used it as a warehouse of junk. Four feet of worthless crap had covered the entire theater. All of the seating, counters, and bathroom fixtures had to be replaced.

The man was in full PR mode. He was extremely open with me and any other person that walked by the theater. I got the feeling he'd left the doors open to encourage community dialogue. Twenty years without a theater down town is a long time. People are pretty disenchanted considering that for the past 6 years there had been a sign in the window stating: "Theater opening in 2000!," before that "in 1997!", "in 1996!", "in 1994!" and so on.

I asked him a bit about his business plan and what type of movies he'd show. He said he'd only be showing old movies or indy stuff once a week the rest of the time he'd run it as a basic dollar theater. Not exactly what I'd hoped for but small towns are rarely known for their high culture. I said goodbye and jogged most of the way back to the car.

As I approached my car, I thought to myself "I sure could use a good khamsin right now", since it was a bit chilly out and a khamsin is a type of hot wind, like a sirocco. It also means "50" in Arabic, and my automaton's name is Dreizehn which is "13" in German. Combined, 1350 has a special meaning to me since it is my WPM rate in LS chat. I decided to use Khamsin as my name because it describes me so well.

And that's my story.

Well, actually it's somebody else's story. I just plagiarized it from some random blog I found. But I figure it's about as interesting as any other "how did you get your name" story.

[Mufferino]

Mufferino, Was drunk and lol'd at the fact people could/would call me Muff.

[*Aaren*]

saw a guy in shoprite with "Hello My Name Is: Aaren"
:D

[Katalya]

Did you try Natalia? Isnt that the proper spelling?

Yes it is. But in my family they spell it Natalya. I guess kinda like Brian and Bryan, or Shawn and Sean.

[Nystul]

The Ultima series was my favorite RPG series. I grew up on it. THe king (Lord British) guided the main character (the Avatar) through all kinds of world saving adventures. The king's mage, the old smart, sorcerer that always had some kind of hairbrained invention that would often be some old relic that would be eventually very powerful, was named Nystul. I've been told it's also a spell from D+D, I do not know which came first but my name references the Ultima series rather than the D+D game.

I chose the name because all these people would walk around with FF knock off names and I thought well fuck these people then I'll take a name from what I thought was a better series. I even had an ongoing promise that the first person who ever came up to me and correctly placed the name would get 10k gil. It took almost 6 months but eventually I paid that money out.

[miokomioko]

The Ultima series was my favorite RPG series. I grew up on it. THe king (Lord British) guided the main character (the Avatar) through all kinds of world saving adventures. The king's mage, the old smart, sorcerer that always had some kind of hairbrained invention that would often be some old relic that would be eventually very powerful, was named Nystul. I've been told it's also a spell from D+D, I do not know which came first but my name references the Ultima series rather than the D+D game.

I chose the name because all these people would walk around with FF knock off names and I thought well fuck these people then I'll take a name from what I thought was a better series. I even had an ongoing promise that the first person who ever came up to me and correctly placed the name would get 10k gil. It took almost 6 months but eventually I paid that money out.

He was the kooky hermit high level wizard first in Ultima 6 ya?

[cassiraa]

http://www.kittykondo.com/f3bttf.JPG + http://fan.togenkyou.net/nausicaa/im...able/start.jpg


Chausie(a type of cat) + Nausicaä = Chasiraä.

Chasiraä caused POL to crash because of the umlaut. and I couldn't pick the name again or Chasiraa, so I made it into Cassiraa.

It's fairly unique, almost 100% of the Google hits for Cassiraa are actually about me, frighteningly.

[Ikerius]

Iker is my real name... and I just added the ius >_>

[Kimiko]

Named myself after one Nanasawa Kimiko from Megatokyo (not the one from Xiaolin Showdown as a lot of people think). If my japanese is up to par, I believe it roughly translates to noble child or something like that.

[BRP]

I wanted a name that spelled out BRP and brought great attention to me. I did this without any idea about the emo or gothic subculture. I might have been subconsciously thinking of Edgar Allen Poe however.

[Bardlet]

Back when the faeries lived in fabulous houses built inside Irish hills, Midir the Faery King spotted a beautiful faery maiden. He fell in love with her. But his wife was jealous. She had Etain turned into a butterfly. She made a storm blow her away, far from the palace.
For seven years, Etain the butterfly flew around the country, until she was found by another faery king. He recognized her for who she was and gave her safe haven in his palace, though he could not change her back. Midir's wife found out where she was and raised another storm which blew her away again. Right into a feast, where she fell into a glass of wine and was consumed by a mortal queen.

Nine months later, Etain was reborn. She grew up a princess and married the High King of Ireland. She lived a happy life until, one day Midir, out riding, spotted her. She didn't know him, but he, with the Sight of the Faery, knew her.

He challenged the High King to three games of chess, and won a kiss from Etain. She recognized him as her old love. But the High King wouldn't give her up. Midir stole her away then, and they flew off, disguised as two swans.

Etain's been enspelled, captured, swallowed in a glass of wine and bartered. She's died and been born again. None of it was her own doing. But even as a butterfly, she did not simply lie down and give up. She flew for seven years.

Etain is no stranger to change and transformation. No stranger to riding the waves the storm of life brings her. Maybe that's why you're here, sitting beside her.

[Sho]

"Shokox"

"Shoko" was taken so... I added an "x" to the end. Silly me, I never knew people would take it in silly ways, but ah well:

Pronounced a few ways:

"Shock-ox": Basically how people call it, I like this one. "Shok" for short

"Show-cocks": Running gag, this is where I fail. Every single person that I know gets me with this. Learned to live with it for 3 yrs, so meh.

"Sho": Nickname, want I put on my forum names as well.

"Sho-ko": Few close friends call me this, as if the "x" didn't exist.

[Alaric]

Alaric was a Gothic king who sacked Rome. It translates roughly as "everybody's king". For anyone who's interested, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaric_I.

[Bumbles]

Sirfrog because at the time it was really funny >.>

[Caspian]

Character from C.S. Lewis series of books.

[Masterofshade]

I was drunk.

[Dank]

Well, my roommate got me interested in this game because I would watch him play when it came out in the states. My roommate and I both worked at a restaurant, myself as a bartender, and him as a server, and I dunno if anyone knows this, but, everybody that waits tables smokes pot. No joke, it can't be avoided.

The day I got the game we were sitting around smoking and he was talking about how he was about to be a lvl 30 RDM and he would be unlocking Dark Knight and taking it to 75, with me. Well, I got to the character select screen and put the name I used for LAN parties for HALO, Fagblaster. I ran around and got to level 8 before a GM put me in jail. So, back to the drawing board, mind you I was retarded high, and I picked Dankknight, because we laughed when I said that name, and it kinda sounded like Dark Knight.

Ya, I tried Dank, but it was taken. I fucking hate my name now, and I don't even smoke anymore, but I get stoners running by me like every day doing some random emote about passing a joint to me. I just play along, since I brought it upon myself. This was my first MMO, so I was not expecting to have to live with this name for 3-4 years, that's why I didn't try to think of something more appropriate.

[Grummish]

Gruumsh is the Orc God from the Forgotten Realms series. Having 0 knowledge about FFXI and SE's inclination to name Galka in the same manner as Native Americans, I thought it went well with the big, hairy frame. Just changed it to Grummish to make it more pronounceable.

[Meriandle]

I made the name Meriandle either from a dream, wild arms 2, or a dream about wild arms 2.
I have yet to check to see if the name, or something like it, is in the game to keep some sense of mystery.

(Edit) Ok yeah I think it may have had something to do with the character Marivel but I need to replay the whole game to find out... and I'm not sure thats going to happen anytime soon. >_>

I use Meriandle for most games/random web profiles now. Before that it was Valcor. But Valcor is a dude and mithra are NOT. So Meriandle came into prominence thanks to 11.

[Ferryl]

Ferryl (Fair-ill) is an archaic Irish name that means brave. It's actually a man's name; but since it is close to the word "feral" and I play a mithra, it sounded too good to pass up. Multicultural baby name sites are wonderful for researching names. ^-^

Puddle is my taru mule's name. It may not be an edible noun, but it still conveys a sense of being small and cute.