I have an interest in Roman history, which started when I saw "I, Claudius".  My husband played under the name "Claudius" in a first person shooter game.  When I joined the tribe, I joined as "Messalina", one of Claudius' wives.  At some point, my husband stopped using Claudius, and I decided I really didn't want to continue to use the name of such a promiscuous traitor, so I switched to Livia, the wife of the great emperor Augustus.  While no saint, Livia had great influence.

Ironically bestowed upon me long ago when I was a kid by a friend's older brother, in honor of my mad bowling skilz.

Thanks for all the responses guys this is great.

I went by Eitamaton on ToS. Eitamaton is a portmanteau of my actual first name and 'automaton'. It is pronounced almost the same as 'automaton' except the first syllable of 'Eitamaton' is pronounced as 'eight'. Also, when I tell people my actual first name they almost always think that it is spelled 'aton'. Further, 'automaton' is an excellent self-characterization.

I shortened it to 'e' on wargear for a couple reasons. One is that the abbreviations for Eitamaton are not great, so I just decided to go full minimalist with it and make it easier on everybody involved. Two is that I am a mathematician and e is a well-known number (though it doesn't have much of anything to do with the profile picture).

wow.  All I thought about originally was a rave... thanks for the explanation.

Lol, I guessed that too until I teamed with him. Way to analytical for a rave kid.  =)

I was just searching through the forums and found this thread...though I'd resurrect it.

A long time ago, when I was a kid, my friends and I created a Call of Duty clan named AFRO for whatever reason...we were kids...so I started using that pretty regularly in other games. Fast forward to my college years -- a group of my friends and I went to Panama to help build a camp for kids and all the locals couldn't pronounce my name properly, calling me Daby instead. It became a nickname for me and after a short while I combined AFRO and Daby to become AfroDaby as my online/game moniker.

This is a great thread to resurrect, good call, AfroDaby!

My Dad's heritage is Nicaraguan, that's where I grew up, and where I go back every two years or so. Nica is just shorthand for Nicaraguense or Nicaraguan.

Chele is "Blond" in Nicaraguan Spanish, and I've always been called Chele by my Dad and by complete strangers on the street. Nowdays, I get called "Pelon" (baldy) more than Chele, but Chele has been with me a lot longer.

I tried getting CheleNica for e-mail addresses and other user names, but there are a lot of Chele Nicas out there, I've always been to late to grab onto it, that is, till I arrived here :)