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Ask HN: How do you choose your usernames?
9 points by behnamoh on Jan 15, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 70 comments
Basically the title. Every time I want to sign up for websites, the hardest and most time consuming part is choosing the username. I just never got why some people add seemingly random numbers in the end. I've always wanted the username to mean something or be special in a way. There have been times when I spent almost half an hour trying to come up with a better username, esp. on websites that don't allow you to change the username in the future.

How do you come up with your usernames? And is it really important in this day and age?

See this for example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5742175/



1. Use a passphrase generator to produce two or three words

2. Smash pieces of the words together until you get something that looks good.

e.g. blurred grumble ambiguity:

- Blurlamb

- Redblig

- Leguity

Don't worry about the meaning. The meaning emerges from the identity you give it.

Extra credit: Look it up to make sure it isn't a dirty word in some foreign language. Happens more often than you think.


I use my first and last name as a helpful reminder that there’s no such thing as anonymity on the internet. If I have an opaque username, I may be tempted to write something I wouldn’t want to publicly stand by.


You may write something that you publicly stand by today but not 20 years from now. You can't go back and erase what you wrote. At least with an opaque username there is an element of plausible deniability


I agonize over significance and feel and mood and sound and uniqueness and then a few years later 1238729874983274 other people are using it no matter how obscure it is and I give up and start thinking AmbientTruffleSausage47921x is as good as any other and I weep into my beer.


I use Bitwarden to generate a username. Previously, I was using the same username across different accounts. I realized that I needed to use different username. People can identify me if I have the same username. This actually depends on the site I am going into. For example, it's better to use random username if the website is containing explicit contents. I guess being anonymous on the internet is hard.

> I've always wanted the username to mean something or be special in a way

As others mentioned, you can use a passphrase word generator. It contains common words even though they don't make real meaning. Why does the username have to have meaning?

https://bitwarden.com/help/generator/#generate-a-username


I use random usernames coz of my huge thin foil hat. My username is void of meaning.

I use a password generator to create both username and password.


> My username is void of meaning.

That's exactly what a person whose username contained significant amounts of secret meaning would say...


I always try to make some sort of pun, subtle joke, or other silliness. I don't think it matters at all.


I find these patterns difficult to remember down the road for sites I don't use regularly.


I've been using the same username for 30+ years. It was the default username on the very first shell service I signed up for.

Occasionally I get to a service where someone already has it (either my cousin or someone in Sweden). Then I just add 12 to it, because the first time it happened (on AOL) I had to get to 12 before it was unique.

Very occasionally that's taken too, so then I have to get creative, like realjedberg or something like that.

But at this point it's become sort of a brand for me.

And no, I've never had another throwaway login or anything like that. I had a few tester accounts on reddit but never used them for anything other than testing.


The random-number addition is sometimes suggested by websites as a simple way to retain personalization but bypass collisions with existing names.

"behnamoh is taken. Would you like to use benamoh37?"

Some people will tag on a birth year, address, or zip-code if their preferred name isn't available.

You'll also see people sequentially add numbers to the end if they have forgotten a password or lost access. Lost your HN access, but still want people to know who you are? How about behnamoh2? Do it again? behnamoh3. I've seen family elders do this over and over with email addresses and Facebook accounts.


I wrote some blog posts about how I came up with my username (and even associated logo!):

- https://blog.leftium.com/2011/07/my-personal-branding-part-i...

- https://blog.leftium.com/2011/06/my-personal-branding-part-i...


For projects that are relevant to me I always use the same username. That way there is a clear link between projects that I'm working on. Otherwise any random name will do.


I just pick something that makes sense at the time with a different name and email address on each site. In this case I had been lurking on HN for a few years and finally wanted to comment on something and it seemed like there were a few other Linux tinkerers here. Oh and I appreciate the character "Bender" [1]

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln4rfYh7ng0


Around age 16 I liked incorporating the words "spiffy" and "nifty" into my lexicon, because I'd been watching older TV shows where those words were used.

I liked using computers, and so "spiffytech" was born, and I've used it virtually everywhere since. Except for a few of places where someone else has used it (which surprises me!).


I just use the same username everywhere. I have some older accounts that use different names but since about 2009 or 10 I've been using the same username. It comes in handy for looking up something that I posted on a forum somewhere. Plus I don't have to give up my email address I just tell people to email my user@gmail.


I use the same name everywhere I care for the content, if not I have a second username used for forced registrations.


I just type in any old crap, knowing that I will eventually either delete or abandon the account, or the service it's registered on will be shut down and disappear forever.

Best not to get too attached to your online identities, or take them too seriously. They're even more ephemeral than one's physical existence.


I always try to get this username which I created not long after I got my first PC and got internet access. It's a riff on the call sign of the airline I worked with at the time.

On the rare occasion when it's been taken I've been appending 'OBE' as a suffix to obtain uniqueness.


Pick one and use it everywhere. If it's commonly used by others, try adding a zero, if that doesn't work, pick a number of significance that's not your year of birth or your postal code and add that instead. Maybe not your area code either, but maybe.


First initial, last name. I was assigned this as a Unix username in 2000, and just kept using it.


My last name is gorman.

I've used this screen name for 20+ years.

Namrog84 my last name backwards and I was born in 84. Its never taken and its half my real identity and half alais.

Namrog is great because its not a thing but it is a thing for me.

My dad used to go by gman sometimes with numbers.

Both names work perfectly for me.


My name had its origin in nethack [1]. It was supposedly a character that would ascend every role. You can guess how that worked out. But I kept the name anyway...

[1] https://www.nethack.org


I have a function in my zshrc

https://gist.github.com/Ryu1845/07e5d72275ec1eb97ef911825536...


Some combination of the name of my first pet and my mother's maiden name.


Followed by the last four digits of your SSN and your zip code, right? Perfection!


Your account has been debited, thank you for cooperation.


I think there's this interesting thing on HN where usernames that are older contain fewer and fewer characters. Find a 3-character username on HN and I guarantee you it is an old account.


I bet there are a lot more three-letter names left. 26^3 = 17576.


Nonsense words from my childhood, or words that I catch out of the corner of my eye from something on my desk. I think when I chose my HN name, I was looking at an Analog Devices datasheet.


When I was 10, my username was hotsmell@hotmail.com. I since have retired this username and email, as it would be tough to land a job I figured. Still the best username I ever used.


My fairly unique first name used to be annoying to spell over the phone, but I appreciate it now, as I get to just use that as my username. Even getting the .com was no problem!


Unrelated but reminded me of Khruangbin[0], a trio that makes wonderfully novel/familiar/haunting music. I can never get the spelling right but google always finds/fixes my attempt including some of the consonants.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4xKvHANqjk


Similar to that, my favorite party trick is knowing how to pronounce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi and finding an excuse to saying that when I run into social scientists, psychologists, and the like, who all ought to know but just refer to him as the author of Flow, the psychologist with a complex name, etc


I literally just LoL'd.


Is Kirubakaran your first name or first and last? Is it Japanese?


That's my first name. It's Tamil.


I was 12 and I liked dragons, but "red" was too strictly connected to a movie coming out at the time...

Kinda regret it, but can't really go back, lol


After harassment I ensure my username isn't traceable back to me anywhere. No references to a username used anywhere else and no information that is related to me.


I was very interested in quantum mechanics as a pre-university student. Safe to say that after 4+ years of physics education, I still don't quite understand it.


Kaizer-soze style. 2 random words from what's on my screen at the time , to avoid doxxing myself although it will inevitably happen


On most sites I use my amateur radio callsign (HN is an exception). It's unique and very unlikely to be taken already.


Doesn't the FCC maintain public records of callsigns and associated home addresses? Why would you want to immediately tie your personal address to most of your online accounts?


I may not be under the jurisdiction of the FCC :-)

Some countries publish full records, others just names, others nothing at all.


Would you put in your real name and address on all of those sites?


I use ISO standards certification numbers


Greg Dulli is the lead singer of the Afghan Whigs. I had been to an Afghan Whigs concert the night before.


here, it's my name :) i'm really happy this is one of the few places where I'm comfortable using my real name

I use different usernames for different websites, mostly randomly generated two-words-plus-number combinations, since I rarely need to prove my identity across domains.


I use the current date and if I can and my first and last name when I am required to be identified.


for popular sites, any good name has long been taken. so I just find the shortest one possible. Have to be careful though. for example, with Hacker News, better to check:

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=hello

than here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/login

because the second option, they will IP ban if you request more than once every 8 seconds. here are some open ones, I got tired of waiting so its not a full list:

0c 0e 0g 0i 0l 0n 0r 0s 0u 0v 1b 1f 1g 1h 1l 1n 1o 1t 1u 1w 1y 1z 2g 2i 2l 2o 2p 2q 2r 2s 2u 2w 2x 2z 34 35 38 3b 3c 3g 3h 3j 3k 3m 3o 3p 3q 3r 3s 3u 3w 3y 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f 4h 4i 4j 4l 4m 4o 4q 4r 4s 4v 4x 4y 4z 54 5a 5b 5c 5e 5i 5j 5m 5o 5p 5q 5r 5s 5t 5u 5w 5x 5y 5z 62 67 6b 6e 6h 6i 6j 6k 6l


IP can get banned for days even using user directory & timing seems to be an average over an unknown window. The HN big query db is also appeared to be lacking user entries for users without comments or submissions in addition to synchronization delay.


Thanks!


I am using the UNIX username that was given me by my university everywhere.


deep, subtle, and cleverly hidden literary references to obscure works.


A person of snow crash culture I see


I have a surname that’s hard to spell.

Not sure how future generations will do it.


For your children I would suggest ghiculescuv2.0


I love the mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi :)


I use last pass username generator


I wish 1Password had this. I usually just try to think of random words.

(Tangentially, are you not concerned about the Last Pass breach?)


They have it on their website, no account needed:

https://www.lastpass.com/features/username-generator


I am a 1Password user as well. As mentioned in another comment, the last pass username generator is possible to use without an account on their website.

So no, I am not concerned :)


+1. You can still use the PW generator to achieve this but it’s a bit clunky.


bitwarden user name generator


I just put my real name


I do try to use some variation of my real name where it's available. Especially in my younger years, I did notice that I acted like more of a dick in pseudonymous communities than when my name was attached, so I stick to just enough of my real name to curtail that.


Name of a Culture ship


Assembly commands :-)


The first time it was an anime reference, after which it's a land grab to keep on trying to get the same username.

https://xkcd.com/1963/


pwgen




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