Ok, I'll bite. My call-sign stretches back a long way...all the way to high school where I was given the ironic nickname by my 11th grade English teacher of "wild bill" (I was anything but wild, straight-A student, 3rd in my class, etc.). He had a good sense of humor and I would always finish my classwork early and ask for a pass to the writing lab or computer lab so he got tired of writing my regular name (Bill) and started doing creative things...the "wild bill" stuck in that regard. I used that all the time for online forums and such but when I joined the MMORPG "World War II Online", "wild bill" was already taken...so I shortened it down to wbill...but that was taken too...so I added my birth year of 76 to come up with wbill76. That's been my online handle in many places for nearly a decade now...so it fits.

As for the avatar...that's the first ever "tank" designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. I have a love of history (both social and military) and building armor, so the avatar joins the two together perfectly.

SMJmodeler wrote:

Guys: I received a PM from JMart and he jokingly said his "unique" forum "handle" was a contraction of his name...kinda' made me laugh and think about our names here.  When I started on the forums I was unaware the "handle" I chose would eventually stick and be how I would be recognized.  Had I known I would have been more creative than "SMJmodeler" (initials + modeler)..as would JMart probably... So it begs the question, "how and why did you name yourself the way you did here?" We've mentioned avatars before too, but some of you are new so let us know why you chose that too!  I'll go first. Me: SMJmodeler (initials + modeler), Avatar: "Spies Like Us"  I love the movie and the particularly this scene...it kinda represents the sometimes crazy and hairpulling parts of this hobby! Thanks guys!

Yeah I'm in the same boat as you,if I had realized I would have thought of something more creative,as it is I just used my name and house #     Oh well-boring!!!! As for the Avatar,I just use diffrent pictures,this idea I robbed from one member I can't quite remember who it was,but he has a picture of himself with the APG Panther,I thought it was cool so last summer i did one next to the Jagdtiger.

And yes,,, I await the explanation for "Mansteins Revenge"

So you want to know why I choose Pvt Mutt.

My blood line is Scot-Irish,Dutch,Shawnee and Cherokee= Mutt. 

Simple                                                                                                                           Tony

Mine is simple my initials JT, I build race cars in real life,but didn't want to use my buissness name wasn't sure if that was alowed so I just use race,and 214 is the sprint car I crew chief on..

John

"Cameraflage" is the name I use for my photographic endeavors...mostly landscape stuff, nothing too weird an no weddings (been there, done that...ugh.) Its a take off on camouflage, which is what I tend to wear when I go out shootings. I like to see without being seen.

Note how my desert digital pants kinda disappear against the rock wall I'm standing next to. If nothing else, it keeps me from being noticeable in other people's vacation pictures.

I tend to sign my posts as Ranger Joe, since Joe is my real name and I used to be a ranger...I served my country in uniform as a seasonal National Park ranger at Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge of Virginia. Best job I ever had. The NPS was smart to not provide me with a firearm (much to my friends' relief..."They didn't give you a gun, did they?"), so my defense of bunnies was carried out from a park entrance station along Skyline Drive. 

Ranger Joe, Defender (kinda) of Bunnies

Like a few of you have mentioned, my name spawned from online gaming as well. Specificaly Call of Duty 1. For those that don't know German my name means ghost. My avatar is just the eagle that appears on some modern German flags.

Erik

wing_nut wrote:

Well mine USED to mean something

 LOL....  traitor...

Well, mine's not a brain teaser, that's for sure. I'm sure you can guess what one of my favorite planes is?? Just put Focke in front of it. It's simple, easy to remember and spell!

Andy

Geist wrote:

Like a few of you have mentioned, my name spawned from online gaming as well. Specificaly Call of Duty 1. For those that don't know German my name means ghost. My avatar is just the eagle that appears on some modern German flags.   Erik

Erik, the eagle is the so-called "Bundesadler" or Federal Eagle, aka as the federal Chicken and is the official coat of arms of the Federal republic of Germany and can be found on all official flags flown at official buildings. here is a link if you would like to know more about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Germany

Amazing how often this thread shows up-this is the third time I've contributed an answer on this site alone! LOL!

Mine is my longtime girlfriend's "pet name' for me. 

She has two big 90-lb dogs, Toby (left) and Sebastian, (right);

They're brothers. 

One day, after she had a particularly rotten day dealing with customers at the restuarant where she is head hostess, she came home to find tails wagging, tongues flappin', and got the normal amount of affection and excitement to see her--which caused her to remark "even on the worst of days, nobody loves you like your doogs!"

So,.....natch, I became a "doog' as well! (She always greets me "HEY DOOG!" LOL! )

My screenname is my first and last name initals, mg, then comes my name Michael in Swedish, mikael. Hence you get mg.mikael. No, I'm not Swedish, but because everyone loves them....especially the women. That's why I chose to go with that language for my name.

As for my avatar, you wouldn't believe how many people ask me if she comes in full scale. LOL My avatar is of the character Cameron Phillips, a terminator from the TV series Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Cameron Phillips is played by the very, very talented actress (my favorite), Summer Glau. She also had the role of River Tam in Firefly (a tv series) and the movie Serenity, for those wondering.

I finally wised up and kept the answer to this question on a document so can do a quick paste with a little editing for the dates...

My favorite comic book in the 60's was Enemy Ace, along with Sergeant Rock and The Haunted Tank, etc... In 1998, I started flying a WW1 air combat sim called Red Baron II, then later Red Baron 3D, on-line and most of the other sim-pilots took historical WW1 pilot names, or the usual crop of the nonsensensical or humorus ( I was partial to Lt Pat McGroyne, my "Allied" persona)  but there were several of us who went with fictional ones. Hans Von Hammer, "The Hammer Of Hell" was my first pick as a German pilot-name, and I've carried it to other forums as well..  

Even the CAF has hung "Hammer" on me as a call-sign (for a different reason though.  My first name is Mike and the CO at the time was a fan of Mike Hammer detective stories and hung that on me), so it got put on my name patch as well.  I didn't let on to the fact that I liked it, since one of the "Call-sign Rules" states, "If you like it, you can't have it"...

My avatar changes periodically, just to keep folks guessing... Currently, it's a picture of me back about a hunnert' years ago, when I was a young Army Staff Sergeant and the Section Chief on an M109A3 SP Howitzer...  I prefer pics of myself as avatars, mainly because I think it helps folks communicate better in forums if they get a face and a name...  Plus, I just love a good "Hero Shot"...

I'm a Lord of the Rings fanatic, read the Trilogy+Hobbit 3 times over 4 years and the Silmarillion twice, so I picked my favorite sword from the books and movies.   Oddly enough, I own a couple official reproductions of the swords, but not Glamdring, go figure.  I kick myself now when I see the prices on Ebay, double what they were 4 years ago....

Avatar is one of my TV heroes, Dr. Greg House, MD.  He's holding the magic eyeball which was the immunity trophy when he was picking his new team from a bunch of fellowship doctors, the one he awarded the eye to got to run their test on a patient.  Think Survivor, complete with the extinguished torches. (bunson burners in a lab)  One of the best episodes of the series, IMHO...

Some years ago,  I had a landlord whom I discovered was a Hauptman in the Panzer Korps in WWII.  I affectionately referred to him as 'Panzer Willi'.  This is kind of an homage to Willi.  I just stuck my name (Richard) in after the 'panzer' part. 

The avatar is a pic of my 1:16 Tamiya Tiger in my backyard.

Well, mines not actually hard to guess.

I spent my 6 years in the Army either on M1 A1 or M1 A2 Tanks. (of course there was that oh so fun time in S-3 at Battalion.)

My avtar I found on line liked it so I used it.