<p>Funny, when I see “backhandgrip” I think of a stage hand!!</p>
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<p>You have think of chemical symbols of the elements. Au = gold and Pb = lead.</p>
<p>PBN2AU = “Lead into gold”. It’s what the old alchemists were always trying and failing to do.</p>
<p>Aha…very clever!!!</p>
<p>Hi Cruell, btw I do love my cat as well!!! Never thought about that when I chose the screen name!
For emeraldkity: I have always wondered, emeraldkity, is your name a reference to the Emerald City of Oz, but kitty must be a part of your actual name? This may have been addressed already, but this thread has gotten so long that I haven’t found it…</p>
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<p>No. Well, I own an old racket and I know how to keep score, and I recognized “backhandgrip” as a tennis reference, but to call me a tennis player would be way overstating it. Ellemenope, on the other hand, is an excellent player–>played at the college level and still plays in city and tennis club leagues.</p>
<p>I finally read all of this thread - it is fabulous, entertaining and enlightening!</p>
<p>I never knew coureur and ellenemope (I actually got that one) were married.
I knew Sooviet was Susie in Vermont but I always first thought Soviet Susie.
I picture Jamimom as a jammin’ mom - especially with all those boys.
I connected thumper1 to a dog wagging its’ tail.
Cangel had a hard “c”.
I play a lot of tennis so backhandgrip was obvious to me.
Mini was a she and garland a he.
Momof2inca was south american to me.
Marite will always be mah-reet.
And I am very curious about emeraldkity - it’s always a kitty to me. </p>
<p>Mine comes from a (long ago) nickname for my husband. When I first started posting I wanted to hide as much personal info as possible so I didn’t want anyone to know I was a she. His name is Al (al-fredo: get it?). Plus, a long time ago he had done something pretty stupid at work and someone teased him about taking him out to the lake and getting rid of him (as Sonny Corleone has someone do to his brother Fredo in the Godfather).</p>
<p>Now that I’ve been around CC long enough, I wish I had been more clever in my screenname and revealed something more personal and pertinent knowing it would have been “safe” to do so.</p>
<p>Fredo; nice post1 And I do think of you as masculine. Sometimes you make a comment and I would think, ‘now isn’t tha insightful.’- thinking yu might be a guy! Glad to be straightened out!
Coureur; I don’t know, but there is something Freudian about your handle, dispite your claims to the contrary, now that we know your wife is a good tennis player. You are either jealous or envious ??? -The most fun in the world is to be had by a husband and wife playing tennis together. As you are fit I would recommend you both start!</p>
<p>As one who has always loved words and also how people’s brains work, this thread is so much fun. 
I’m flattered that some of you like my username, I’ve always thought it was a little boring. I chose it to somewhat honor my own mom who many years ago told me that ‘once you’re a mom, you’re always a mom’. How true. </p>
<p>It’s been fun to see how some of these names are pronounced. I am another who who was sure that it was Muh-reet. I love ellemenope and drusba, you two are so clever. Do any of you have a picture in your mind of what others here look like? I do, and often wonder how accurate they are. It would be fun to have a CC convention and meet everyone here. We could all wear name-tags with our user names on them. It would seem funny calling someone a REAL name!</p>
<p>I selected mine because when I’m on CC, I am avoiding work and I figured that pretty much everyone - kids and parents - would relate to that.</p>
<p>Even a name as simple as fredo has surprises: fray-doe, not fredd-o. I’m also glad that I’m not the only one that glanced at soozievt’s name and thought of her as Russian.</p>
<p>As for real names, they’re relatively boring (like mine: Bob; geeez, that’s the name of the bridge in Vail where they hold the “Bob Festival”). You’re stuck with your real name, given to you by your parents, but an on-line user name is one you get to invent yourself. Although if I had known that it would have lasted this long, I would have chosen a better one, like… hmmm… hmmm…</p>
<p>After some email exchanges with some CC posters, I’ve gotten to know some people by their real names and it’s somewhat jarring. I’d rather just refer to them by their CC names. Twinkletoes will always be twinkestoes, TheDad will always be TheDad, tsdad will always be tsdad, and on and on.</p>
<p>Thanks, Dancersmom. (I’m still hovering.)</p>
<p>This is a great thread. I’m blown away by Kluge and Ellenmope, and also love Pyewacket, Momrath, Tokenadult, and Drubsa. It’s fascinating to realize what we see and don’t see when we look at screen names. For example, I got mom-of-two-in-ca right away, but didn’t have a clue about us-mom-in-uk. And unless there’s an obvious tip-off in the screen name like mom or dad, I’m wrong about gender as often as not.</p>
<p>Ha! And I thought Fredo was a man! My bad. </p>
<p>Love Momrath, Pyewacket, Ellemenope and Drusba too…as well as others like Marite and SoozeVT.</p>
<p>This is so funny! I have gotten so many wrong, often because I just glance at the names and sometimes switch letters around.</p>
<p>ellemenope- I thought it was “Ellen Mope”
jamimom- a jammin’ mom
emeraldkity- Emerald City
marite- mare-ite (long a and i)
soozievt- Russian Susan
cangel- can gel
momof2inca- family from Peru
digmedia- digimedia</p>
<p>I went with TwinMom (easy enough to pronounce) thinking that any parents of twins would readily identify and perhaps offer some words of wisdom to someone trying to survive two teens at the same age. Also, my D, who reads this forum once in a while, advised me to pick a name that wouldn’t be shortened (as in InterestedDad - ID - which doesn’t bother me but for whatever the reason annoyed her.)</p>
<p>Figured out Ellenmope when I typed her name once to respond to a post but didn’t realize that she was married to Coureur.</p>
<p>Soozievt was definitely soozie-viet until one day she explained her name in a post.</p>
<p>Marite - MUH REET … no question there. I cannot think of her any other way.</p>
<p>TheDad - love the way he refers to TheMom, TheDaughter etc. Simplistic but clever (as he always is.)</p>
<p>EmeraldKity - always read it as Emerald City; assumed she was a Wizard of Oz fan.</p>
<p>Jamimom - JAmi’s mom </p>
<p>CtyMomTeacher - City Mom Teacher</p>
<p>Digmedia - never “saw” the i - just figured he “digs media” - throwback to the 60s.</p>
<p>Achat - Ach - at </p>
<p>Momof2Inca - assume her two kids used to play Aztecs and Incas rather than cowboys and Indians </p>
<p>Garland - definitely male</p>
<p>Mini - definitely female</p>
<p>Backhandgrip - clearly tennis</p>
<p>NJres - read that as New Jerseyers</p>
<p>Cangel - rhymes with angel</p>
<p>Oldman and Over30 - great sense of humor</p>
<p>Thumper1 - Anyone remember: “What’s the name of the game? Thumper. How do you play? You thump.”</p>
<p>Berurah - Hebrew</p>
<p>Great thread.</p>
<p>“What’s the name of the game? Thumper.” Thanks for that blast from the past!!</p>
<p>“…I thought Sluggbugg’s was because her daughter went to UCSC and the mascot is the Banana Slugg.” --OVERTHIRTAY</p>
<p>Ding-ding-ding, I feel like I’m on “You Bet Your Life!” and a duck is going to drop down and give the winner fifty bucks! Yes, that is correct, Over30. I can’t believe you remembered that. </p>
<p>GARLAND, I always knew you were female. Graceful, gossamer, Garland…not a guy’s name at all! </p>
<p>COUREUR, French for “heart,” was female, in my mind. Very cool for a guy, though. Speaking of cool, PBN2AU is the spiffiest license plate I’ve heard of in a long time.</p>
<p>USMOMINUK, sorry, you live in Alaska (US), you wear mink mukluks! </p>
<p>I had MINI as female until I read his firsthand account of traveling to the areas ravaged by the tsunami. MINI turned out to be two people, David & Ellen. The thread, “Roby & Momrath, please post,” was in the Parents’ Forum on 12-26. Thanks for posting, guys. :::slugghuggs:::4U</p>
<p>PHIDIPUSZEBRA, a Philadelphia fraternity for referees?</p>
<p>Just had another thought - with so many clever, interesting parents is it any wonder that our kids, generally speaking, are bright, involved and interesting in their own right? Apples don’t fall far from the trees…</p>
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I thought I was the only one that saw the irony of the thread about film studies major started by backhandgrip; the kid could become “keygrip” :)</p>
<p>My ancient rarely-used french would also loosely translate coureur as “lover” </p>
<p>I actually did a google search on “berurah” because it was such an unusual name, and a lot of talmudic stuff came up.</p>
<p>TM, as one of the most common abusers who shortens some names, I’m sorry I annoyed your D…if I had known, I would have made an exception to my habit. But you may tell her that “Twinmom” was no antidote. :)</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that Ellemenope and Coureur were a boxed set until yesterday…Dense 'R Us. Of course, I kept trying to make Menope into one of the Muses and–</p>
<p>Some names <em>are</em> deeply rooted in my brain according to their original conception. For some people I have to do a quick internal translation of Prounounciation1–>RealPronounciation–>TrueName.</p>
<p>Fendergirl, have you considered adopting “Hey There, You with the Stairs in Your Eyes” as your theme song? Doesn’t go with electric guitar but…</p>
<p>Coureur, how long have you had your license plate? I have a sense of deja vu.</p>
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<p>Pretty close!! Actually it was the thumping noise the dog made with his paw when he scratched his ears…thump thump thump. He was a stray and he came with a “few” fleas. He also wagged his tail a lot…but he was a cocker spaniel and didn’t have much of a tail!!</p>