A Tale of GitHub Usernames
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Read this post Share Tweet 7-minutes readEver wondered what could be the possible reason behind the different usernames / alter egos of people around you? Well, it is this eerie mystery that this blog post aims to cover, around my circle of friends and mentors - at least, on the GitHub platform. Before starting with the actual blog post, I'd like to provide you with spoiler alert to some memes that have been picked up from the scenes of TV series - 'The Flash' and 'Breaking Bad'.
Not all heroes wear a mask
Indeed. There are many users who prefer to have a mainstream username, which directly exposes their name. The most common reason behind this is that, a mainstream username looks more 'official' at first sight. Need I give any explanation for the below handles?
- @kaustubhhiware (Kaustubh Hiware)
- @nishnik (Nishant Nikhil)
- @lokeshh (Lokesh Sharma)
- @hargup (Harsh Gupta)
- @Shekharrajak (Shekhar Prasad Rajak)
Infact, I myself belong to this category. My GitHub username is @athityakumar - and I went for a mainstream username because my name was already spelled weirdly enough, that I didn't even have to think of a more weirder username.
Some heroes wear a psuedo-mask
By a psuedo-mask, I mean that these usernames reveal the user's name - but it's not just the name that is being revealed.
-
@kshitij10496 (Kshitij Saraogi) -
Kshitij truly believes that the
Date of Birth of an individual is something that makes the individual
unique, and has hence included his Date of Birth (10/04/1996) in his
username.
-
@vivekiitkgp (Vivek Rai) -
Vivek Rai is a (final-year)
student of IIT Kharagpur, and has hence added the Institute name
(iitkgp) to his username.
-
@shivani29456 (Shivani Sharma) -
Shivani had obtained an
All India Rank of 29456 in JEE(Mains) - one of the most competitive
college entrance exams in India. Hence, she has added it in her username.
@kshitij10496 (Kshitij Saraogi) - Kshitij truly believes that the Date of Birth of an individual is something that makes the individual unique, and has hence included his Date of Birth (10/04/1996) in his username.
@vivekiitkgp (Vivek Rai) - Vivek Rai is a (final-year) student of IIT Kharagpur, and has hence added the Institute name (iitkgp) to his username.
@shivani29456 (Shivani Sharma) - Shivani had obtained an All India Rank of 29456 in JEE(Mains) - one of the most competitive college entrance exams in India. Hence, she has added it in her username.
Some heroes love string manipulation
These are the usernames from which the user's name can't be guessed directly - but a corelation between the name and username can certainly be derived.
-
@geremih (Mihir Rege) -
The 'Rege' in the name has
been transformed to 'gere' in the username, and 'mih' from Mihir has
been added at the end. Hence, the username - @geremih.
-
@amrav (Vikrant Varma) -
Simply reverse the last name 'Varma'
and behold - it's @amrav.
-
@raincrash (Sri Charan) -
Time to play Anagrams!
The letters in the name have been smartly rearranged to provide
the username, which even looks meaningful.
@geremih (Mihir Rege) - The 'Rege' in the name has been transformed to 'gere' in the username, and 'mih' from Mihir has been added at the end. Hence, the username - @geremih.
@amrav (Vikrant Varma) - Simply reverse the last name 'Varma' and behold - it's @amrav.
@raincrash (Sri Charan) - Time to play Anagrams! The letters in the name have been smartly rearranged to provide the username, which even looks meaningful.
Some heroes prefer a secret identity
The usernames below have no relation whatsoever to the user's name, and a corelation can't be drawn even after the user's name is known. In most cases, only the user knows the story behind their username.
-
@zverok (Victor Shepelev) -
'zverok' has been the default username
of Victor for nearly the past 15 years. The username has Russian
origins, and it means 'a small beast' in Russian (зверёк). Seemingly,
this username was selected randomly from the absurd play(s) that
Victor had written with his friends of that time.
-
@DefCon-007 (Ayush Goyal) -
DefCon is the largest hacking convention,
held annually at Las Vegas - Ayush first took this as his nickname for
Counter-Strike gaming within the Institute. But as this username was
already taken on GitHub, Ayush added the James Bond number '007',
and made himself known as 'DefCon-007' on GitHub.
-
@americast (Sayan Sinha) -
Sayan had crafted this nickname in his
5th grade itself. During one of the Geography lectures, he came across
the different Timezones, and was more attracted to the American Standard
Time more than Indian Standard Time. Hence, he had decided that he'd keep
himself as @americanst in the digital world to not showcase any details
about him. However, a typo while creating his first Yahoo account made
sure that he'd rather be called as @americast on all social media
platforms. Although a typo, @americast does sound more cooler than
@americanst - so, I guess it can be considered a 'Wonder Blunder'.
-
@ghostwriternr (Naresh Ramesh) -
Many years ago, Naresh had
chosen 'ghost_000' as his first linux user account name. He was also a
part of Technology Literary Society of IIT Kharagpur due to his interest
in writing. Hence, combining `ghost' from linux username, 'writer' from
writing, 'n' from Naresh and 'r' from Ramesh, the username
'ghostwriternr' was born.
-
@the-ethan-hunt (Dhruv Apte) -
Being a fan of the 'Mission Impossible'
set of movies, Dhruv named himself as 'Ethan Hunt' in one of the Mini
Militia gaming marathon in his Institute. Gradually rising among the
ranks in the game, Dhruv got a good vibe from this nickname and went on
to change his presence in all social media platforms to Ethan Hunt.
Wanting to be unique, he chose the username 'the-ethan-hunt'.
-
@zorroblue (Rameshwar Bhaskaran) -
Being a hardcore fan of
Beyblade's Kai and Zorro animated series, he wanted a username like Kai /
Zorro. However, both Kai and Zorro usernames were already taken on
GitHub. Hence, he combined Zorro, with his favourite color (Blue) -
resulting in @zorroblue.
-
@Parth-Vader (Parth Verma) -
This is pretty obvious. Being
a Star Wars fan, Parth combined his first name with the last name of the
most powerful Jedi that ever lived (Vader from Darth Vader) to end up
with his username @Parth-Vader.
@zverok (Victor Shepelev) - 'zverok' has been the default username of Victor for nearly the past 15 years. The username has Russian origins, and it means 'a small beast' in Russian (зверёк). Seemingly, this username was selected randomly from the absurd play(s) that Victor had written with his friends of that time.
@DefCon-007 (Ayush Goyal) - DefCon is the largest hacking convention, held annually at Las Vegas - Ayush first took this as his nickname for Counter-Strike gaming within the Institute. But as this username was already taken on GitHub, Ayush added the James Bond number '007', and made himself known as 'DefCon-007' on GitHub.
@americast (Sayan Sinha) - Sayan had crafted this nickname in his 5th grade itself. During one of the Geography lectures, he came across the different Timezones, and was more attracted to the American Standard Time more than Indian Standard Time. Hence, he had decided that he'd keep himself as @americanst in the digital world to not showcase any details about him. However, a typo while creating his first Yahoo account made sure that he'd rather be called as @americast on all social media platforms. Although a typo, @americast does sound more cooler than @americanst - so, I guess it can be considered a 'Wonder Blunder'.
@ghostwriternr (Naresh Ramesh) - Many years ago, Naresh had chosen 'ghost_000' as his first linux user account name. He was also a part of Technology Literary Society of IIT Kharagpur due to his interest in writing. Hence, combining `ghost' from linux username, 'writer' from writing, 'n' from Naresh and 'r' from Ramesh, the username 'ghostwriternr' was born.
@the-ethan-hunt (Dhruv Apte) - Being a fan of the 'Mission Impossible' set of movies, Dhruv named himself as 'Ethan Hunt' in one of the Mini Militia gaming marathon in his Institute. Gradually rising among the ranks in the game, Dhruv got a good vibe from this nickname and went on to change his presence in all social media platforms to Ethan Hunt. Wanting to be unique, he chose the username 'the-ethan-hunt'.
@zorroblue (Rameshwar Bhaskaran) - Being a hardcore fan of Beyblade's Kai and Zorro animated series, he wanted a username like Kai / Zorro. However, both Kai and Zorro usernames were already taken on GitHub. Hence, he combined Zorro, with his favourite color (Blue) - resulting in @zorroblue.
@Parth-Vader (Parth Verma) - This is pretty obvious. Being a Star Wars fan, Parth combined his first name with the last name of the most powerful Jedi that ever lived (Vader from Darth Vader) to end up with his username @Parth-Vader.
Oh, and here are the 'BROs at OSS' - ie, real-life brothers who're doing big at open-source.
-
@OrkoHunter (Himanshu Mishra) -
Being another fan of the 'Mission
Impossible' movies, Himanshu wanted a nickname that included Hunt /
Hunter. However, as Hunter seemed like a surname, he began searching for
a first name that he could use with Hunter. After literally searching for
'Worst Cartoon Charecters', the then Google redirected him to
this
page. Being the lazy guy he is, he chose the the cartoon character
which was shown on the top of that page rather than scrolling
down - Orko. This is how @OrkoHunter came into existence.
-
@debugger22 (Sudhanshu Mishra) -
Combining 'debugger' and his
date of birth (22), the username @debugger22 made it's way into the
GitHub world and went on to create GitHub-Audio (
Website |
Repository
).
@OrkoHunter (Himanshu Mishra) - Being another fan of the 'Mission Impossible' movies, Himanshu wanted a nickname that included Hunt / Hunter. However, as Hunter seemed like a surname, he began searching for a first name that he could use with Hunter. After literally searching for 'Worst Cartoon Charecters', the then Google redirected him to this page. Being the lazy guy he is, he chose the the cartoon character which was shown on the top of that page rather than scrolling down - Orko. This is how @OrkoHunter came into existence.
@debugger22 (Sudhanshu Mishra) - Combining 'debugger' and his date of birth (22), the username @debugger22 made it's way into the GitHub world and went on to create GitHub-Audio ( Website | Repository ).
But when secret identity is too much a secret...
When secret identity becomes too much a secret, even the users themselves can't come up with a legit reason for their username. Readers are welcome to share their own fan-fiction theories about how the below usernames might have come into existence, in the comment section below.
-
@icyflame (Siddharth Kannan) -
Though Siddharth claims that he hadn't
come across 'A Song of Ice and Fire' novel before fixing his username,
the username 'icy' (Ice) + 'flame' (Fire) does perfectly blend in with
this novel's name.
-
@v0dro (Sameer Deshmukh) -
Sameer was once interning in a
company, when his boss asked him what he'd like to call himself on
GitHub. For some 'unknown' reason, Sameer chose @v0dro as his handle, and
started to like it ever since. It's also noteworthy to mention that he
also went on to start the project Daru
(Acronym of Data Analysis in RUby, and also coincidentally the Hindi word
for Booze), which has been taken under the patronage of
SciRuby organization.
@icyflame (Siddharth Kannan) - Though Siddharth claims that he hadn't come across 'A Song of Ice and Fire' novel before fixing his username, the username 'icy' (Ice) + 'flame' (Fire) does perfectly blend in with this novel's name.
@v0dro (Sameer Deshmukh) - Sameer was once interning in a company, when his boss asked him what he'd like to call himself on GitHub. For some 'unknown' reason, Sameer chose @v0dro as his handle, and started to like it ever since. It's also noteworthy to mention that he also went on to start the project Daru (Acronym of Data Analysis in RUby, and also coincidentally the Hindi word for Booze), which has been taken under the patronage of SciRuby organization.
Conclusion
A huge token of thanks to everyone who shared the story behind their GitHub username! It was really an interesting experience for me to get to know about the various origin stories of usernames, and I hope it is equally interesting for the readers too. If possible, I'll try to come up with a part-2 of this post which may not be restricted to just GitHub usernames. If you'd like to get your story featured in that post, shoot me a mail at athityakumar@gmail.com. What do you think about this blog post? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.