Playa Names

D-Rock · Post by **D-Rock** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 2:50 pm

Do people go by Playa names while they are at the burn rather than their default names? Lost of people seem to have them, just wondering how wide spread it is?

Post by **AntiM** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 2:57 pm

Some. Most? Depends on how simple the playa name is, no one likes using big long puffed up playa names. Playa names happen to you. The best are simple and fun.

I go by my playa name increasingly in real life.

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 3:04 pm

I don't go by TomServo, but rather Ducky..because of my rubber duck pattern footie pajamas. That and I like Duct tape.

dragonpilot · Post by **dragonpilot** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 3:17 pm

Then there's the friend of mine who legally changed his name to his playa name...

I've seen the credit cards and drivers license...

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:37 pm

Hey Rock...

Yeah. about 95+%. Usually the ones who don't are staph people who prefer (for various reasons legal) to use their default name, or birgins who haven't figured out or been blessed with one... yet. When I do staph gigs (still up in the air this year) I go by my default name for that reason.

Mine... was a result of a former job I had for some dozen and a half years. I no longer work there (thank God!!!) but am still stuck with the name. If I could change it I would, but it wouldn't carry the menace mine currently does.

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:42 pm

I am OneEyedDick everywhere i go.

most friends just call me Dick

some friends call me "OneEye"

no one has ever called me One Dick yet

capjbadger · Post by **capjbadger** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 5:12 pm

oneeyeddick wrote:I am OneEyedDick everywhere i go.

most friends just call me Dick

some friends call me "OneEye"

no one has ever called me One Dick yet

Everyone else calls him "Dickeye". ;D

-Badger

Post by **Eric** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 6:42 pm

I go by "Eric" everywhere. Real-life, playa, ren faire back when I did it.... I have drag/ club monikers (ShutterSlut, Uncle Gropey, Olestra Glide) that I use for characters, but I'm always me.

I've never felt the need to go by another name- I'm the same me in front of my family & drunk in a bar. Scary as that may be.

I have friends who love their playa names and I know people who will hit you if you try to give them one. If you want one, don't try to create it, it will happen.

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:20 pm

Eric wrote:I go by "Eric" everywhere. Real-life, playa, ren faire back when I did it.... I have drag/ club monikers (ShutterSlut, Uncle Gropey, Olestra Glide) that I use for characters, but I'm always me.

I've never felt the need to go by another name- I'm the same me in front of my family & drunk in a bar. Scary as that may be.

I have friends who love their playa names and I know people who will hit you if you try to give them one. If you want one, don't try to create it, it will happen.

Yup! Took me 9 years to get mine. it has to just happen. Will happen quicker if you work with the DPW though.

lemur · Post by **lemur** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:29 pm

TomServo wrote:I don't go by TomServo, but rather Ducky..because of my rubber duck pattern footie pajamas. That and I like Duct tape.

dont be so modest Htom Sirveaux

we know you just dont want people knowing you dared to have a name with a silent H.

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 9:37 pm

lemur wrote:
TomServo wrote:I don't go by TomServo, but rather Ducky..because of my rubber duck pattern footie pajamas. That and I like Duct tape.
dont be so modest Htom Sirveaux

we know you just dont want people knowing you dared to have a name with a silent H.

You got me

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:09 pm

I have 3 Playa/eplaya names that get used each year. Depending on when you met me during the last 12 years is the name they use.

early years "Ranger" cuz i was the go-to guy to make the camp work or keeping everyone safe because I'm the sober one..

mid years "Finger" because of late nite chats in camp disclose a finger going you know where...

past 5 years "ibdave" because of the eplaya. I named myself on this one when I need a log on. I really think is sums it all up.....

Clar-i-ty · Post by **Clar-i-ty** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:23 pm

I've been Clarity since I think my third Burn. I use it in conjunction with my default name for my website, and on my blog, (shameless plug) clarityinthedefaultworld.blogspot.com

Optic · Post by **Optic** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:21 pm

So how does one go about getting a playa name? Will you get named by someone pretty quickly if you make it known that you don't have one, or is it kind of a spur of the moment thing?

I really love names (I already have 3 that aren't part of my legal name), so I'm especially curious about this xD

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:02 pm

Optic wrote:So how does one go about getting a playa name? Will you get named by someone pretty quickly if you make it known that you don't have one, or is it kind of a spur of the moment thing?

I really love names (I already have 3 that aren't part of my legal name), so I'm especially curious about this xD

It hust happens....Tater got his after blowing a refridgerator door down, at the ranch, with a potato gun.

Post by **Eric** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:20 pm

Optic wrote:So how does one go about getting a playa name? Will you get named by someone pretty quickly if you make it known that you don't have one, or is it kind of a spur of the moment thing?

Don't stress about it, it happens when it happens (like everything on the playa). As you saw in this thread, while some people got one quickly others didn't get "The One" for years. Names can also evolve & change.

Just don't make up a stupid one like "playaflower" or "moonchild" or something that's been done to death so that you have one. Let it happen.

If you already have 3 other names, just introduce yourself as your favorite & go from there.

Not everyone has or wants a playa name, so don't run around thinking you need one. Breath in & relax about it.

Hoolie · Post by **Hoolie** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:34 pm

I never got one and don't really want one.

wakeangel · Post by **wakeangel** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 11:55 pm

Last year a virgin in our camp named himself Androgynous Krishna. Insisted on it. He kept calling me mike and when I asked him to call me Michael he said he would if I'd call him by his Playa name. You can imagine what I thought of that. I've never been given a Playa name and I like it that way.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:42 am

I believe that "Androgenous Krishna" is Flemish for "Self-Involved Twitoid" but I can't seem to get Bablefish to agree.

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:44 am

wakeangel wrote:Last year a virgin in our camp named himself Androgynous Krishna. Insisted on it. He kept calling me mike and when I asked him to call me Michael he said he would if I'd call him by his Playa name. You can imagine what I thought of that. I've never been given a Playa name and I like it that way.

just call him.......

phil · Post by **phil** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:51 pm

aging-hipster mode

Louise and I started going to Burning Man before there were playa names. Ho hum.

/aging hipster mode

dragonpilot · Post by **dragonpilot** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 6:07 pm

Easiest way to get a playa name...do something stupid in front of people you know.

Zhust · Post by **Zhust** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 8:30 pm

D-Rock wrote:Do people go by Playa names while they are at the burn rather than their default names? Lost of people seem to have them, just wondering how wide spread it is?

I had a similar question, although mine was more about deliberately creating one. If you don't click on the link, my point was to create a personal mythology. A social experiment of sorts ... I've never been much on mystique, but I find it to succeed in cases where the logical-argument methods I've used have failed.

Up until this Burn, I have always been Jason on-and-off Playa. It's been fine. Sometimes people try to make a Playa name stick, but it requires a group of friends (which I don't have) and some precipitating event or behavior (which has not happened). I liked "Hero" from when I reverse-engineered and helped fix the lights on Duel Nature when it was in the keyhole in 2006, but, as I said at the time, it won't stick. And it didn't. It wasn't an ingrained behavior. Just a serendipitous skill-set and the absurd overplanning of having a battery-powered oscilloscope. If there was a word for "overprepared" as elegant as "avuncular" or "defenestration", then I'd be all over it, but there isn't.

Sorry to masturbate all over on that one.

My point is that there are reasons for Playa-names. One is personal mythology like I'm going for -- hence, I've chosen to go by Zhust. Another good reason is to try out a new persona -- Burning Man is a great place to try that shit out. It's like a 7-day improvisational gig. There are probably many more reasons that I'm missing or can't articulate well (i.e. I have a vague and probably misattributed notion of some kind of Native American naming based on this ...)

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:44 pm

jaycerochester wrote:
D-Rock wrote:Do people go by Playa names while they are at the burn rather than their default names? Lost of people seem to have them, just wondering how wide spread it is?
I had a similar question, although mine was more about deliberately creating one. If you don't click on the link, my point was to create a personal mythology. A social experiment of sorts ... I've never been much on mystique, but I find it to succeed in cases where the logical-argument methods I've used have failed.

Up until this Burn, I have always been Jason on-and-off Playa. It's been fine. Sometimes people try to make a Playa name stick, but it requires a group of friends (which I don't have) and some precipitating event or behavior (which has not happened). I liked "Hero" from when I reverse-engineered and helped fix the lights on Duel Nature when it was in the keyhole in 2006, but, as I said at the time, it won't stick. And it didn't. It wasn't an ingrained behavior. Just a serendipitous skill-set and the absurd overplanning of having a battery-powered oscilloscope. If there was a word for "overprepared" as elegant as "avuncular" or "defenestration", then I'd be all over it, but there isn't.

Sorry to masturbate all over on that one.

My point is that there are reasons for Playa-names. One is personal mythology like I'm going for -- hence, I've chosen to go by Zhust. Another good reason is to try out a new persona -- Burning Man is a great place to try that shit out. It's like a 7-day improvisational gig. There are probably many more reasons that I'm missing or can't articulate well (i.e. I have a vague and probably misattributed notion of some kind of Native American naming based on this ...)

Welcome to Barbarian culture!

Frankenstipe · Post by **Frankenstipe** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:16 pm

Last year was my first year and for one or two nights I would wear these blue christmas lights wrapped around my pants. So my friends friend who everyone thinks he plays good music (John Craigie), I don't obviously, nick named me Sparkle Pants. I didn't like it cause it's dumb and hopefully no one will remember it cause I hate it, but other than that I'm still waiting for mine to appear to me. :roll:

If I had to think of my own, which I don't because that's not how it works, then I would chose....I really don't know I hate picking names.

shroom · Post by **shroom** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:31 am

I'm wondering if I should introduce myself with my actual name (yes I have one). or my name online? I'm Shroom or Shroomfairy to all on the internet, and I like it.

Fire_Moose · Post by **Fire_Moose** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:54 am

I'll be Fire_Moose this year..

Don't forget the underscore!

gaminwench · Post by **gaminwench** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:12 pm

Took 9 years to get one that stuck... YAY!

illy dilly · Post by **illy dilly** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:21 pm

Fire_Moose wrote:I'll be Fire_Moose this year..

Don't forget the underscore!

How do you pronounce that?

illy dilly · Post by **illy dilly** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:25 pm

Mine has evolved from something that I originally picked about 5 years ago. Originally illA, to illllllhhaye (pronounced with sorta a Scottish twang, like Willy on the Simpsons), and now to illy dilly.
Sorta picked on my own, sorta grew into something else.
But I'll answer to just about anything

Playa Names

Playa Names

Re: Playa Names

Re: Playa Names