[ASH] Derek Radner's Private Journal #5 - What's In A Name?

[EDMLite]

On Apr 9, 7:48 am, dvan... at haven.eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) wrote:

>      (underlined) Types of Names
>
>      Real Names - No codename, plausible pseudonym, foreign tongue

There's also the combination of real names, which can be interesting.
I, personally, would think twice before going up against someone who
called himself Elvis Hitler.  Or Snoop Doggy Bush, for that matter.

I'm glad Mr. Radner avoided the once-popular practice of devising a
codename based on your real name (i.e., E. Nigma becomes The Riddler).
By that logic, Theodore Wong would have become the rampaging Thong.

>      Still, it's worth keeping the idea in mind.  Pick a solo name that a
> theme can be built around.  The Colonel started as a solo act, but later on
> he led the Elite Brigade, with militarily themed names for the members.

I've always suspected the Swedish Bikini Team started the same way...

>      Descriptive names are probably the most common out there...
>Most of these names describe what you are or what you can do.

I actually had a dream about this.  In the dream, I was going for
a job interview, which turned out to be an interview with a super-hero
team.  They asked me what my powers were.

"I don't have any powers," I said.

"Everyone has powers," the receptionist said.  "Just think of
something
you do really well... better than anyone else."

"Okay," I said.  "I'm the Nightsleeper."

The receptionist decided that was lame, and that I would henceforth
be known as the Chuckwalla.  I had to look the word up on Wikipedia
after I awoke.  It turned out to be a kind of Southwestern lizard that
expands in the face of danger.  This probably explains why I eat a
gallon of Ben & Jerry's chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream
whenever an assignment is due.

>      If I picked a name like that, it'd have to do something with either
> electricity or technology, maybe both.

The Third Rail?  (I tried to think of some animal names, but most of
those, like the Torpedo Ray or Electric Catfish, would work better for
blues musicians than super-villains).

>      Local color, though...we got a LOT of those.  Very few of them ever made
> it out of their local scene, and some of them were unpowered posers, like
> Milwaukee's Kapitan Kielbasa, who was just a guy in a sausage costume who
> hung around the ASH HQ and made a nuisance of himself.

And yet he eventually went on to fame and fortune after teaming up
with the Werewolf of London.  Together they were the Beast and Wurst
of
Thames.

--Easily-Discovered Man Lite
--Is probably the last person who should be giving advice on hero
names...