How did you get your handle or user name?

[Rafiki]

I am a hunter named… you guessed it- Habib (“Habib” means “Friend” so I am a friend to all hunters).

Rafiki is friend in Swahili.

 

[skydiver386]

Military Freefall Instructor # 386

Considering changing it to SirLoinOfBeef!

 

[Inline6]

My white Dodge Ram 3500 gets 24 MPG when I'm not towing...

Lol, my white 2500 gets 15.5 on a good day.

 

[BSO Dave]

Back when I was a criminology student attending the University of Miami there were several Daves in one class. I was a road deputy at the time working for the Broward Sheriff's Office... The different Daves all got nicknames... The professor tagged me with BSO Dave, and it has stuck all these years...

 

[Joker12]

I flew helicopters in Vietnam and Joker12 was my callsign.

 

[Grandpa Moose]

With my years outfitting and guiding moose hunters we took 423 moose. My grandkids started calling me their Moose Grandpa with all the euros hanging around. The bull last year was down in just over an hour. The season opens next weekend

 

[Hogpatrol]

Since retiring I've spent many summers in the bean, alfalfa, and mulch hay fields helping my farmer buddies control groundhogs, aka woodchucks, aka whistle pigs. Whenever I was asked by my spouse or buddies what my plans for the day were, I'd reply "I'm going on hogpatrol".

 

[Rare Breed]

As I peruse those many threads on AH Forum that interest me, I often wonder about the story or meaning behind the handle or user names of the posters. Many are intuitive to me, but with others, I'd just be taking a wild guess. I've had the good fortune to get to know a select few on here really well and have their back stories, but for the rest, I'd love to hear how you got your name - please do share.

Ku-winda, by the way, is the name of Otto Koehler's Journal detailing his safari to Kenya and Tanganyika in the mid 50's. It means "to hunt" in Swahili and was the source and inspiration to many of us in South Texas and directly responsible for setting me on a path to adventures of my own on the Dark Continent.

Since I was 12 years old my parents taught me to always do what I thought was the right thing to do and never care for what the crowd thought. Being a middle child I have always been extremely independent. Due to this one of my high school friends said I was a “rare breed”. The name has stuck with me all my life so it seemed natural to use it as my AKA for AH

 

[Rare Breed]

Since I was 12 years old my parents taught me to always do what I thought was the right thing to do and never care for what the crowd thought. Being a middle child I have always been extremely independent. Due to this one of my high school friends said I was a “rare breed”. The name has stuck with me all my life so it seemed natural to use it as my AKA for AH

lol…my parents did not start teaching me values starting at 12! Peer pressure just starts about this age

 

[Trogon]

Birding has been a longtime hobby of mine, the Elegant Trogon is a favorite target to see in the mountains of southeast Arizona. Found my first driving up Sawmill Canyon on Fort Huachuca years ago. Had to pick something I figure.

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

My bother inadvertently gave me mine. My boat is shaped like an F-117 Stealth Fighter from the front. I think boats with Birds in the name are cool. He figured out the F-117 is named Nighthawk. I just adopted the handle.

The alternative was Hellcat. My boat being a catamaran. Equally cool boat name.

Both being better than my buddies suggested name: “Cirrhosis of the river”…

 

[Dirtdart]

Dirtdart is a term of endearment for a paratrooper.
Not sure if it is a reference to the high level of intelligence shown by the average paratrooper or ?

 

[Ridge Runner]

Cartoon show in the early 90's that my boys liked - Called "Catdog", but I don't like cats so I changed to Dogcat....
Yes, I know, it makes no sense....

Perhaps you could have tried: Dog1cat0.

 

[Puddle]

Born and raised on a cattle and horse ranch in Oregon's Big Empty. By age 14, alone, I'm regularly taking a pack horse resupply run into the summer high meadows, locating the sheep herders and their flocks.

One time, alone again, I'm deer hunting in the high hills. By prior arrangement, my dad and I agreed to meet at a spot on the trail where he'd collect me and any deer I'd managed to drop. This time, however, a freak rainstorm hits, and I get soaked to the bone. The storm was big enough that I knew someone would notice and come to collect me, so I high tailed for the meeting point.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before I could hear one of the ranch trucks growling its way up the trail. It was my dad with a fresh set of dry clothes and a bath towel for me. At the back end of the truck I stripped down to my birthday suit and started drying off. It was then my dad said "damn boy, your nothin' but one big puddle of water!"

Unfortunately, my kid brother was along for the ride, and he made sure the nickname stuck.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Dirtdart is a term of endearment for a paratrooper.
Not sure if it is a reference to the high level of intelligence shown by the average paratrooper or ?

Figure in all the adverse variables to a good jump, factor in "Murphy" and that sudden hard landing puts a jumper hard into the dirt. Feet and knees together and the jumper resembles a Dart speeding to, or into, the ground with a grunt or a whom.

Blast From the Past:

" I use to be 6 feet 6 inches tall with a baritone voice. Made my first parachute jump followed by a sudden hard landing.....and...Now I'm 5 - 10 with a high pitch scratchy voice."

 

[Neophyte]

As I’m a member of one other forum that I infrequently participate on, and the name I use there was taken here, and being that African hunting is new to me, I felt the moniker appropriate for the situation.

 

[Neophyte]

Born and raised on a cattle and horse ranch in Oregon's Big Empty. By age 14, alone, I'm regularly taking a pack horse resupply run into the summer high meadows, locating the sheep herders and their flocks.

One time, alone again, I'm deer hunting in the high hills. By prior arrangement, my dad and I agreed to meet at a spot on the trail where he'd collect me and any deer I'd managed to drop. This time, however, a freak rainstorm hits, and I get soaked to the bone. The storm was big enough that I knew someone would notice and come to collect me, so I high tailed for the meeting point.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before I could hear one of the ranch trucks growling its way up the trail. It was my dad with a fresh set of dry clothes and a bath towel for me. At the back end of the truck I stripped down to my birthday suit and started drying off. It was then my dad said "damn boy, your nothin' but one big puddle of water!"

Unfortunately, my kid brother was along for the ride, and he made sure the nickname stuck.

That ION country is beautiful.
I buckaroo’d up there before it was fashionable. It was a long time ago but I loved it. I grew up in Arizona and headed to the wagons in Nevada as fast as I could graduate high school.

 

[Laniarius]

Genus name of the Crimson-breasted shrike, a bird I like to see in Namibia.

 

[Neophyte]

Figure in all the adverse variables to a good jump, factor in "Murphy" and that sudden hard landing puts a jumper hard into the dirt. Feet and knees together and the jumper resembles a Dart speeding to, or into, the ground with a grunt or a whom.

Blast From the Past:

" I use to be 6 feet 6 inches tall with a baritone voice. Made my first parachute jump followed by a sudden hard landing.....and...Now I'm 5 - 10 with a high pitch scratchy voice."

I got lawn darted by one too many ranch broncs as a kid. I used to be 6’ but now I’m 5’6”.

 

[Puddle]

Dirtdart is a term of endearment for a paratrooper.
Not sure if it is a reference to the high level of intelligence shown by the average paratrooper or ?

Yup. At one time I considered calling myself DopeRope.