erudity.net prattlings on via nattering nabobs

Onomatology

Or the study of proper names - and while my collection of names isn't universally proper, it is rather expanisve, ranging from nicknames garnered in 8th grade soccer to online handles to what my bosses call me.  But let's start from the beginning.

Herbert Victor Allen IV.  Very traditional, as belied by the "IV" appendage, and with that tradition comes some confusion - what do you call people when there are three (or more) HVAs in the room?  My grandfather went by Herb, my dad by Vic and I go by Victor, but it depends.  If I met you before graduating from college, you probably call me Victor.  Since the Navy is all about brevity, Victor got shortened to Vic almost instantly, so most of my Navy friends and coworkers call me Vic.  My bosses tend to call me Herbie because... well, I actually don't know.  My first commanding officer started using it and the tradition (that word again) continues to this day - almost three years later.  Today when I introduce myself it's a toss-up as to whether I'll use Vic or Victor and usually depends on the crowd that I'm hanging out with and which one they use. With so many different names it's not uncommon for people to mangle them a bit, with Vic commonly becoming "Vince" or "Vincent," Herbert becoming "Hurbert," "Hubert," "Hebert," or Allen becoming "Allan."

"Herbie" is something of a nickname and I have no shortage of those, either.  My first real nickname was coined by a member of my 8th grade soccer team: "Habib," pronounced ha-beeb.  I supposed I look a little Indian or something, but who knows.  It only sticks with me today because my sister will still occasionally use it when she's annoyed with me.  Of course being a pilot in the Navy we are assigned callsigns, except that in the helicopter community we refer to them as mess names.  They usually stem from a humorous and embarrassing story that you're a central part of and while mine is no exception, I'll spare you the exposition and just let you know that I'm known in certain parts as "Ike."

My experiences using networked computers stretch back to 1989 and Prodigy, although we didn't really have screen names.  The first online handle I remember was my old MSN handle of "Matrix_Man."  Why that?  Suffice to say that it was prior to the movie and had to do with mathematical matrices.  Yeah, I'm a nerd.  Around 1997 or so I was searching for a new handle to use on AOL Instant Messenger, which had just been released.  I wen through several variations of "scorch," as it was a scorchingly hot day (booooo) before settling on "squorch."  That's been my handle ever since.