Untangling Knots

Ravelry Username Origins

Day 07

Earlier this week at my knitting group, we were talking about our Ravelry usernames, and it got me thinking about how people pick their usernames. I’m always curious about the seemingly random ones.

Up until a few weeks ago, I was TheAndiPants on Ravelry which probably struck other people as random. Andi Pants was one of my nicknames in high school. When I was in Intro to Theater Arts, my friend and I used to try to make eachother laugh when we were supposed to be quiet by whispering words in silly voices. I could make laugh without fail by saying “pants” in a goofy voice. She started calling me Andi Pants, and the nickname just stuck.

Before I started designing, I was really cautious about keeping my last name off the internet. I would use Andi as my first name and Pants as my fake last name. It sort of stuck, and I was using it all over the web. When I signed up for Ravelry my senior year of high school after finding out about it from a LiveJournal knitting community, I decided to use the name I was in the habit of using. I was surprised to see that someone else was using my nickname so I slapped “The” on the beginning.

For the past couple of years I’ve thought it was silly and juvenile. No one calls me that anymore, and I’ve lost touch with the friend who made it up. Ravelry conveniently allows you to change your username so I gave myself a boring shortened version of my real name, AndiSatt. It’s not very interesting or clever, but it makes it easier to figure out who I am.

So what’s your username origin story? Do you still like it?

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35 responses to “Ravelry Username Origins”

  1. rilana

    Well, my ravelry name is “rilana.” It is my real first name. I figured my name is unusual enough…who needs a last name. Hehe. I have no back story to it. My blog name PDX Princess is a play on my old internet name. I used to be “knit princess.” When I moved to Portland (PDX) I combined the two into PDX Princess. That’s pretty boring too, huh? Lol.

    Reply
    1. Andi

      I’m jealous you scored your actual name as a username. I’ve never had that luck.

      Reply
    2. Eileen

      Hi Rilana, I’m from North Clackamas. Do you belong to a knitting guild or meetup group?

      Reply
  2. Izabelle

    I hate mine. I created it when I was unsure about my place on the internet. I had a few blogs before I settled on izznit and each time I changed blog names I changed my username. By the time I came to izznit I had run out of chances to change it (you’re only allowed to three times). I came up with “heyiblink” when a friend on myspace had the name “heyipoo”. I thought it was cute but too gross, so i changed it to blink. SO ORIGINAL.

    Reply
    1. Andi

      Yours was definitely one that I was curious about. Wasn’t that the name of your blog for awhile?

      Reply
      1. Iz

        Yup! You were one of my first readers!

        Reply
  3. Monita

    I used my first name (Monita) as username cuz it wasn’t taken yet. Not very creative but easy to remember. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Jules

    I’m k1k2 for my kids – i knit and have a big kid and twins. I wanted k1p2 or similar variations but they were already taken but I’m happy with my name. My original rav name was divamcknitster becos I liked nice yarns and was an adventurous knitter (still am) but last year felt I wasn’t much of a diva anymore so I changes my name.

    I like your updated rav name and understand changing it for professional reasons, but admit that theandipants name always made me smile. 🙂

    Great post – I love reading about online name origins.

    Reply
  5. RobinBrz

    Nothing too unusual for me… I’m RobinBrz on Rav and most places on the internet. I did give it a lot of thought though. I like many of the “curious” names, but after having a “creative” email address that now feels all wrong I wanted to stick to something simple that will have longevity.
    Creating your identity on the internet is an interesting process. I wanted to make sure that I was recognizable in more than one forum which is another reason for my choice. It’s also why I signed up for gravatar – so my avatar and user name are consistent.
    Creating your image/identity is like branding even though we don’t usually think of it that way. But if you’re looking to increase your presence on the internet it helps to keep it in mind.
    Thanks for sharing – I like hearing peoples stories.

    Reply
  6. Dominique

    I’m Andromache…It’s just a name I picked for a lot of online stuff….I really liked greek and roman mythology in university 🙂
    Sometimes I go by madchemist (I’m a chemist) or gunzgirl (from a cadet youth organization, I was in the gunnery trade).

    I’m still happy with Andromache though, it’s pretty and fairly neutral in terms of silliness

    Reply
  7. Cambria Washington

    No cool back story here. I went with my real name because it’s pretty uncommon and I knew that I’d remember my user id better, lol.

    Reply
  8. Rebecca D

    My username is Bekkles and much like you it was something that was given to me from a long time ago friend. I use it for everything. I had no idea you could change your username on Ravelry. I may do this.

    Reply
    1. Andi

      You can, but you can only change it a limited number of times.

      Reply
  9. deepbluerenegade

    Mine came from a mash up of names. blue_butterfly was taken, and my column in HS was Renegade Song Bird, which I had stolen from a friend that lived on the other side of the state. So when I was trying to find an AIM handle that was free, that was what was born. I use it all over the place, which probably makes it stupid easy to figure out who I am.

    Reply
  10. Michelle

    Mine comes from my husband and I joking about my being a robot mommy during the seasons of child rearing when I got very little sleep, but continued on, and always seemed a little dazed- mamatronic. It is juvenile, but I find it kind of comforting to see people’s silly ravelry names, though they may be known elsewhere by their true name. It gives Ravelry a small world kind of feeling.

    Reply
  11. Ashley

    On Ravelry, I’m fortheocean.

    It’s the title of my favourite song by my favourite band, Finger Eleven. I use it a couple places on the internet and have been for a long while. If I were to change it I have no idea what I would change it to now. I’m pretty content with it.

    When I noticed your rav name had changed, Andi, I couldn’t figure out WHAT had changed for the longest time. I knew your name was different, but couldn’t remember what it was before.

    Reply
  12. Casey

    I use ‘caseyplusthree’ everywhere. It’s my name and the plusthree is my three kids. Everywhere I go, I’m plus three!

    Reply
    1. Andi

      I never made the plus three connection. That’s cute.

      Reply
  13. Kelly

    I must confess I don’t know how many times I’ve searched in my friends for you under U for Untangling and then remembered crap she’s TheAndiPants heheh
    I think I’ll be able to remember this one because now you are on my page one of friends 🙂

    oh and I’m CelticCastOn on Rav….. no explanation needed!

    Reply
    1. Andi

      I try to remember people’s real names, especially the people who I talk to online a lot. I always struggle when I try to find someone on Ravelry, but then I remember I can search my friends by name.

      Reply
  14. cecilia

    It’s so interesting reading everybody’s origin stores. My username is just the words grandma and status fused together because I learned to knit in high school and people always commented how that’s a grandma hobby and I just took it to heart Haha.

    Reply
    1. Eileen

      My grandmother was an excellent knitter and whenever anyone commented about how knitting was a granny hobby, I’d just smile to myself and think of all the great weekends I spent with my grandmother, at her house knitting. Calm, peaceful, great meals, comfy bed with freshly washed sheets, early morning stack of pancakes. Loved it there! And I learned to love knitting about age 8. She’d stay up late watching Kack Paar and knitting, and I’d fall asleep on her arm.

      Reply
  15. Claire @ Happy Elastic

    People always comment on my Rav name when I wear my badge at knitting type places. I used to be August Girl, boringly after my birth month and gender, but needed a change after my blog was found by sneaky relatives. I changed to HappyElastic after that. I’m prone to bouts of depression and the ‘happy elastic’ is the good little things like cake, tea, yarn etc that helps support me through to the other side of the black hole each time.

    I really liked your AndiPants name too but understand why you changed it if it no longer fit.

    Reply
  16. Lizz

    I’m lizzlizzlizz on Ravelry- not exactly the most creative, but it works. Before that, I used a username that involved my last name, but once I discovered the forums, I changed it. It’s not that you still can’t figure out what my last name is (linked accounts eliminated that one), I just didn’t want it to be quite so prominent. In terms of paranoia about identity, Lizz isn’t my legal first name, nor is it really anything that Lizz is an obvious derivative of.

    Now I’m kind of sad I didn’t snag the name before now, as there are other people who use lizzlizzlizz on different websites.

    Reply
  17. Danielle

    k2togandssk: pretty self-explanatory for Ravelry. My other usernames are either references to Marx brother movies or made up verbs.

    Reply
  18. Ness

    My rav name is urbanizer. It’s my livejournal name too, so I just carried it over when I joined Ravelry. I picked it because I joined livejournal in order to be part of a Keith Urban fan group. While I still adore Keith Urban, “urbanizer” has kind of taken on a life and meaning of its own completely apart from its origin. I don’t mind it, but I have thought about changing it. It’s so apart of me now, though, that I don’t know what I would change it to!

    Reply
  19. Heidi

    My ravelry name used to be my old blog name and now it is the new Wool Rocks, I think my real first name is also in the mix somewhere .

    Well not a fun story but much nicer none then the one u used to have online “mixtress mika” but that’s an other story (not involving any strange things though )

    Reply
  20. pdxknitterati/MicheleLB

    My Ravelry name used to be MicheleLB, because that’s the name I used everywhere. About a year ago, I decided to change it to PDXKnitterati, because that’s my blog name and the name I use for my pattern line. PDX for Portland, Knitterati like glitterati and literati. I know Knitterati is technically plural, but who wants to be a knitteratus? Doesn’t sound nearly as nice. So I’m the editorial or royal “we” instead!

    Reply
  21. pdxknitterati/MicheleLB

    PS: I love the red and gray yarn combo at the top of this post!

    Reply
  22. Jacey

    Mine is jaceynotjc. I constantly get asked if my name is J.C. or if it’s one word.

    Reply
  23. Megan (cleancup)

    My user name is related to my blog name– which is taken from Alice in Wonderland. As a teacher I’ve tried to be careful about my internet presence; I think I’ve managed a balance, in that if any of my students find me on the internet (and it’s not impossible, just convoluted) I don’t have anything out there that I’m unwilling to discuss… On the other hand, it’s really ok with me to keep my knitting life (and personal life) far away from my professional one!

    Anyway, like you, my first name is far too common to be useful as a handle, and my last name is hyphenated with unfortunate initials. Even when I change it next year, I doubt “MeganB” is readily available.

    Reply
  24. Eileen

    My Ravelry moniker is EileenBx. My first name is Eileen, last name begins with a B. And can you believe it, that name was already being used, so I added the x just to make sure I could use my moniker. If someone had that I probably would have added “OR” to designate the state I live in.

    Reply
  25. katie wyum

    can you tell me how to remove my username? I WANT TO REPLACE IT.

    Reply
    1. Andi

      There’s a link underneath the option to change your password when you edit your profile.

      Reply
      1. Emily

        THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I think I became temporarily blind and you helped me see the light (or at least the blatently obvious link that was staring me in the face).

        Reply

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