Origin of Usernames.

[Trutharchivist King's Tester]

Mine is pretty obvious. I got Truthwatcher in the Radiant order test, and chose the power of an Archivist (feruchemical copper) because... Memory! I have a relatively good memory, and it's important to me. Since I didn't really have much internet life before joining the Shard, so I take that name with me to other places where people will never have any idea as to why I chose it. No better than my sister, who uses a combination of her two favorite characters as username in many places. In Hebrew speaking places I usually use another name - Galard, a name of a character of mine, because this one doesn't translate well.

[Shining Silhouette Steel Inquisitor]

Silhouette is one of my favorite words (it just sounds so cool!) but I didn't want to be... you know, just like a shadow. So I picked a word that contrasts with that because I think I'm a bright kind of guy, so now I'm Shining Silhouette

[NerdyAarakocra King's Wit]

This is my go-to username for any site where I want to be known for the total geek I am. Aarakocra are a race of birdfolk from D&D, and I once played one with a 20 in INT. That was the original nerdy aarakocra.

[Maddie The Survivor Elantrian]

I’ve had like four different usernames and the first two I had because I didn’t know what I was doing on the shard. The third one I made was (as some of you may recall) because of my succulent Maddie. I named her, Maddie the Succulent. then i decided to just make my account Maddie The Survivor. 

(also maddie is still alive, i think…)

[Spren of Kindness Savant]

I don't quite remember where I got my name, since I'm fairly certain it came to me in a flash of clarity when I was going to sleep, but I know I was trying to think of a positive characteristic, and I wanted something from Sanderson lore. 

[Frustration Sliver]

I made a theory and someone debunked it, so as a joke I said that if Frustration was a shard I would hav ascended.

A few weeks and a joke later I changed by username.

[Stampede Noble-Blooded]

I was just thinking about this! This is a handle I rarely use, but I got it from Trigun (sci-fi western manga/anime) and the main character, Vash the Stampede.

[The Sibling Cobalt Guard]

Because I can identify with the Sibling's general dislike of other people.

[Eran of Arcadia Lighteyes]

"Eran" is very crude Elvish for something like "lone wanderer," Arcadia is the city in California where I served my LDS mission, and I got the idea to put the two together from the show "Joan of Arcadia." Which I've never seen. Nonetheless, I've been using this name all over the internet since 2004.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Eran of Arcadia

[Cinnamon Honorspren]

This thread is kind of dead … so ima revive it. My name irl means Cinnamon and I couldn’t think of anything more creative

[The Aspiring Archivist Full Feruchemist]

I shall also contribute. My name isnt particularly complex. I guess similar to Trutharchivist, in that I have a pretty good memory irl 

[Just a Lifetime Prelan]

Just a Lifetime is a song by The Legendary Pink Dots (LPD), from their 1990 album The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse.

Dragons walked the earth again, and paraffin was free
A fire-eater went insane, and torched the final tree
And one fine day the planet crumbled, just 'cause someone sneezed
For this, for this... We waited just a lifetime

I like that it also works at a more meta level, since I am just a lifetime.

My 'Member Title' is a line from a different LPD song, The Ocean Cried 'Blue Murder'.  For the potentially curious, I'll mention that Amanda Palmer (whom some on this site may know best as Neil Gaiman's wife) has compiled a Spotify playlist of her favorite LPD songs.  I also see that their 2022 North American tour kicks off next week in Salt Lake City.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Just a Lifetime
Turn off syntax highlighting in lyrics

[The Halcyon Girl Shade]

‘Halcyon’ is the last part of my author name, thus The Halcyon Girl. That’s… literally it. But I’m proud of it!

Edited October 14, 2022 by The Halcyon Girl

[Telrao Shardbearer]

Well, I love Elantris, aons, and Brandon Sanderson, so I want to tell others about them!

Ergo, Telrao. And it sounds almost like something a cat would say like "tel-rraow?"

And, heh, it took me about a minute's contemplation to come up with  

[Mr. Misting High Prelan]

My username comes from a weird niche indie author. You guys might have heard of him. His name is umm, Brandon Sanderson I think? 

Well, I made an account in the first place so that I could get a manuscript of Aether of Night, so I didn't put much thought into my name. I liked alteration, and I liked mistings. Mr. Misting was born.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Mr. Misting

[Ranryu Returned]

My username is a yugioh card. I wanted to see how many people would get it, but no one did. (I guess I kinda picked a random card) I'm pretty sure it means "storm dragon" in Japanese, but I didn't know that until after I made my account. My old pfp was actually the card illustration, but I changed it because the pic was so small you couldn't really tell it was a dragon. I almost did Ruby, which is a part of my author name, but that sounds too much like an actual person name, so I went with an obscure card game reference.

[Lord Gregorio Misting]

One day in seminary, one of my XC buddies was assigned to write people on the board for the devotional. He wrote nicknames to everyone and wrote me as Greg. It eventually kind of became a nickname to my close friends and some other friends from XC and I use it for usernames and stuff. Not creative, but I like the username Gregorio (or Gregoreo sometimes). 

[chongjasmine Ardent]

Chongjasmine is simply a combination of my surname and the name I took for myself when I became a christian.