SHORT AND SIMPLE,  MY GIVEN NAME IS SHARLENE,  IN COLLAGE A FRIEND SILK SCREENED ME A SWEATSHIRT FOR CHRISTMAS.  THAT SAID ON THE BACK  CHARLIE THAT'S ME.  ON THE FRONT WAS A PICTURE OF A PERSON IN A STRAW HAT, BIB OVERALL CUT OFF BELOW THE KNEE ONLY ONE STRAP OVER THE SHOULDER AND BARE FOOTED WITH A STICK FOR FISHING POLE.   OK,  I AM FROM THE COUNTRY IN THE WEST AND SHE WAS FROM THE BIG CITY BACK EAST  BUT I HAVE NEVER DRESSED LIKE THAT.  BOOT, JEANS, AND SHIRTS,  AND MY WESTERN HAT.  

Thank you so much for having initiated this thread. I wanted to but real life kept me away from the forum for quite some time.

So now for me ... long or short version? We'll see!

Picture it ... Switzerland December 1984 .. Dinner with friends on Friday night as always, two are late, very late, vely vely late! They finally show up, all exited and talkative "Flo (that's lil me!) you have to see this, we found a way to talk to people not in the same room, sometimes far away, well not talk but write through computers, you have to try this, you really have to, you come with us to the university's computer room tomorrow and we show you, really, you have to"! Yeah right, that all sounded like a joke but ok friends, if you want to play April Fools in December, that's fine with me, I am happy to make you laugh!

So next day, I thought they had forgotten about it but nono, they kidnapped me and hop! to the comp. room! They made some manipulation and a screen appeared with something like "enter username". "Sit here and pick up a nickname. Now!". Nono friends, show me first and then we'll see. But they insisted so much that I finally sat in front of the computer, entered the first thing that came into my mind and got connected to a strange place. A place where lines were quickly appearing, from people who actually really seemed to be communicating. Wow, the joke was pretty well done!!

And then it started to become quite obvious that I was actually really talking to people from Germany, Italy, UK, Australia ... That was just so incredible!! I was asking questions and was getting answers! Real answers! From real people!! Woohoo!!! I had just discovered my first chat room. Which was probably one of the first chat rooms ever, if not the actual first one. It was pretty basic, nothing like what it is today, but hey, these were the first attempts of the internet. That is also why I always say that I created smileys, It is kind of true after all! You know, the first ones that look like :-) and :-( and :-| and so on.

I came back the next day, chose the same name, connected ... and they were still here (same ones, new ones). And it was so much fun again!

And I became addicted ... I think my friends sometimes regretted having pushed me into that because I was so immersed in that new world that I started not seeing my friends in real life any longer. I could remain connected for hours (my record is 72 hours in a row if I remember well). When Australia was going to bed Europe was waking up, when Europe was going to bed, US was arriving, when Theo was going to bed ... well, that hardly ever happened!

I met fantastic people, made quite lot of trips to Germany, UK, USA, Austria, met those guys in real life and that was so great! I recall a Christmas party at my place with friends from around the world (well ok, around Europe!) that was so much fun!

Oops, I could talk about all this for hours and am forgetting about the theme of this thread! I was a student in mathematics and when I got in front of that keyboard and had 20sec to choose a nickname, the only word that came into my mind was Theorem. Back then, only scientists and computer guys (and hackers, not the mean ones of today, they just had fun hacking places like the NASA, leave a note there and brag), only males, were using this new way of communicating, so I was happy my name was not showing I was female. It quickly became Theo, which was convenient as it was short and "pronounceable" in every language. And I ended up liking that name which had been chosen under pressure. And here I am, 35 years later, and still using it everywhere. It is me as much as my real first name is!

I guess it was the long version of the story after all!!

Hi,

Fascinating, like you friends.

Tracy 

This is a fun one to read.

My Maggie game is easy as my name is Margaret and of course came Maggie as  nickname most of my life.

On IOS I am IBDAPITA stands for I BE Da (as in the) PITA  = Pain in the Arse. My husband used to jokingly tell me that most days. I have used it for years and was quite surprised that it was taken here. LOL

Maggie

Theo -

I know what it's like to be the only female in the room. In high school Calculus there was me and 9 guys. Later in the Navy, I joined while there was still a federal law limiting the number of females in the armed forces. (I didn't mind at all.)

My nickname has two roots. In WWII my mom worked in a defense plant where there were women from all over the country. A new girl from the South asked her name. When my mom said "Lois" the other girls said what's the rest of it? Mom gave her full name. That still wasn't what she meant. According to this girl, where she came from if you didn't have two names that meant they didn't love you, so she started calling my mom "Lois-a-bell."

When I was in the Navy I worked with another Wave who was "Carolyn Sue." We did NOT hit it off. My name is Virginia Susan, so some of the guys started calling me Ginny Sue. I've always wanted to be a "Ginger" so my online nickname is often "Ginger Sue."

Susie

pc Ginger Sue and Navy Blue

android Susanna and Juliana

Brad the Impala (OtterQueen) said:

Then I named my character "Echo." (Supposedly a duck's quack doesn't echo. I have no idea if this is true.)

Just read an article online. Some scientists decided to test if duck quacks don't echo. Long story short. The quacks usually aren't very loud or sustained and the ducks don't usually hang out near cliffs or such that would provide a sound reflection. So any echo is just too faint to hear.

ETA - Facebook snopes.com 10/16/19 reposted article from Snopes 7/19/99