Some thoughts of what makes a playa name a good one

[ygmir]

Nice list, Dougly. Is that our Spam total for the week?

Sometimes, Dougly makes me swoon..............

[robbidobbs]

People that I met that got named this year: Crayola, JabbaWabba, SlutPuppy

[LarryConlin]

Rites of Passage was my first burn. I resisted all playa names until I was part of of the ecosystem and experienced it first hand; the playa had plans for me.

I need suggestions for an appropriate Playa name based upon the root my camp burners and I came up for myself: Vodou or Voudun or Voodoo. Here is a summary of the gestation.

Ringing the virgin bell, lost my car keys in the dust, held up the line, and had to go back to search for them.
First night, five stitches on left index finger, sutured by Dr Karen at the medic station.
Sprained right wrist.
Coffee burns from Free Coffee Camp
Huge bruises on right inner knee from who knows what.
Huge scratches on back
Ankles have open wounds from el wire drivers attached to boots.
Slices along right forearm from some random push against some exposed wire.
Relationship drama even though I was being true to myself.
Bleeding big toe toenails from untested and too tight platform boots.
Dozens of small bruises all over my body from whatever-the-fuck I was doing.
Half a dozen small scratches all over my body from whatever-the-fuck I was doing.
Truck battery died.
Stripped the pedal post on my bike, rendering it useless.
Stripped the pedal post on the next two yellow bikes I picked up, rendering them useless.
Became a pedestrian, which isn't bad in and of itself, but impacts camp mates.
Without any camp mate commonalities, had to bolt the venue and threw up during a long night dancing at Osiris.
And there are a few more instances of other experience interruptions.

To sum up, I felt that the Playa was manifesting the negative energy it was absorbing into and through me. I have always felt that "everyone feels pain, but not everyone suffers" and I have a high threshold for pain, so I was YOUR recipient for the Playa's voodoo doll.

I am happy carrying this responsibility in a playa name, but I want it named authentically.

So, am I Vodoun, the Playa's Voudun target? Voodoo doll? Legba? Loa? Or simply too fucking of a virgin to handle my shit? I can handle any emotional pain just as well as any physical pain so don't hold back.

Oh, and I now officially love all of you. Really, I love you all. Thank you for welcoming me home.

[robbidobbs]

Ok, you're Voodoo. Skip the specifics, it's an excellent playa name.
(and yes, I have a background in vodun, but the playa is notoriously lazy)

Nice injuries BTW!

[LarryConlin]

Ok, you're Voodoo. Skip the specifics, it's an excellent playa name.
(and yes, I have a background in vodun, but the playa is notoriously lazy)

Nice injuries BTW!

Done. I love you!

[delle]

Mine came to me pretty naturally. Random strangers just kept shouting it at me:

kickstand!!!

(seems I never could remember to put the thing up before taking off again.....


This got tweeked a bit on the ride home to zipper!!! when my pants got a bit disfunctional.

[Elorrum]

I think you are Voodoo DOLL... quit stickin' them pins in yerself!

[hookahdude]

I was gifted mine by members of DPW after bringing my hookah to a series of work weekends in 05. Then it was sealed when, though I was calling myself "iconoclast", I was told to look at an article in SFGate titled "Desert Rats". I guess there was a reporter out there who snapped a picture of me asleep and drooling on myself in in which I was identified as "Hookahdude"... And that Mrs. Crabapple is why I like my name just fine!"

I think it is a good name. Better than "Iconoclast" which, looking back, seems kind of pretentious....

[ambird]

I don't have a playa name, and my real name is Amber. I had *several* people ask, "Is that a playa name?" I got a kick out of that!

[Cheyenne]

I wasn't looking for one as I thought a 'playa' name was a bit wank to be honest.. pretentious and suggested that one had to act differently to manifest any loaded connotation.... but

It was the night of Temple burn and I was chatting to one of the very cool bods in our camp who is a super nice guy and he just said 'hey Archer, how was your burn?'

I said 'eh? who is Archer?'

He said, 'Its you isn't it? You went and shot arrows at that fuckin huge horse the other night didn't you?'

So... I thought maybe i'd earned it after a month of practicing tethered arrows for the horse burn... it didn't once cross my mind that that's how my camp mates saw me

[Comrade Bunny]

Why can't I give myself a playa name? I want to use my college nickname, Comrade Bunny. I strongly identify with it and it was given to me by friends. It's also very flexible. I respond to Comrade Bunny, Comrade, or Bunny. In fact, I'm planning to include bunny ears in most of my costumes.

[AntiM]

Why can't I give myself a playa name? I want to use my college nickname, Comrade Bunny. I strongly identify with it and it was given to me by friends. It's also very flexible. I respond to Comrade Bunny, Comrade, or Bunny. In fact, I'm planning to include bunny ears in most of my costumes.

It is just fine. But don't be surprised if a new playa name finds you. It happens.

[Ugly Dougly]

Whatever. You're in the middle of the desert, gathered about a giant burning man. How can anything be less absurd?

[theCryptofishist]

Why can't I give myself a playa name? I want to use my college nickname, Comrade Bunny. I strongly identify with it and it was given to me by friends. It's also very flexible. I respond to Comrade Bunny, Comrade, or Bunny. In fact, I'm planning to include bunny ears in most of my costumes.

It is just fine. But don't be surprised if a new playa name finds you. It happens.

If you join Apokaliptaka, you'll have the the might of a stalinest camp behind your name choice, Comrade. But you'll have to show us you're tough enough to wear bunny ears under those circumstances.

[jcliff]

My playa name is Cliff, which at first seemed sort of boring being that it's just a shortened version of my last name, but I love it. I often feel like I'm standing on the edge at Burning Man. Logistically, it's short and people seem to remember it. Most importantly, it's me. I'm one of those people that don't feel the need for an alternative identity on the playa. I always admire really cool playa names, and they're a great way to start a conversation with a new friend. I'm ok with plain old Cliff.

[knowmad]

holy fuk!
I'm kinda drunk and a bit stoned right now. buy I know enough about Eplaya to know somthings skrewwey.
why da fuk are we on page two? of how the hell we got our playa names?

Am I doing this wrong? or wha???

get over it! your name is Robert Paulson!

[lemur]

Why can't I give myself a playa name? I want to use my college nickname, Comrade Bunny. I strongly identify with it and it was given to me by friends. It's also very flexible. I respond to Comrade Bunny, Comrade, or Bunny. In fact, I'm planning to include bunny ears in most of my costumes.

your new playa name is SENTIMENTAL

you may now rise.

[knowmad]

Why can't I give myself a playa name? I want to use my college nickname, Comrade Bunny. I strongly identify with it and it was given to me by friends. It's also very flexible. I respond to Comrade Bunny, Comrade, or Bunny. In fact, I'm planning to include bunny ears in most of my costumes.

your new playa name is SENTIMENTAL

you may now rise.

that's too funny.
and I now am in laugh debt to you Lemur.

[Igneouss]

In my experience names range all over the place. Some use default given names. Some choose their own. Friends and behaviors result in some names. Some use nicknames that make sense but limit the use for the playa. Some come with wonderful origin stories and some (like mine) don't. It's all good.

Mine is an old internet user name. Had it for years. I'm a geologist and the first place I tried to use it it was taken, hence the added 's'. By sheer chance it fits burning man so I use it. No one has felt compelled to suggest anything different.

A guy in our camp ate some 'cookies' that he had been randomly given the night before. After he recovered at the med tent he was duly assigned the name 'Cookie Zombie'.

[Ugly Dougly]

1. If it ain't fun, don't you do it, by tarnation.
2. Don't piss in someone else's whisky, dad gummit.

Them are yer rules, playa folk. Nearest what I can see, any playa name what you come up with, long as it's conceived in wonder and joy, is far out and freaky.

[Comrade Bunny]

I don't mind new nicknames, so I'm open to it.

I was given my current nickname during rehearsals for "1984." I was playing the female lead, Julia. We were rehearsing in the green room. In one scene, I had to throw a book at Big Brother and then run out of the room. We were in a green room that had limited space. I'd start running and then bounce to a stop. I didn't calling it bouncing, but a fellow classmate did. He said I bounced like a bunny. Since we were doing "1984," everyone was a comrade. Thus he put it together and from then on, I was Comrade Bunny.

[theCryptofishist]

(Careful. I think Comrade Joe just put your name on a list...)

[gyre]

Just remember that bunny ears don't count as costume.

[JayBobBoy]

I.P. Freely
Hu Flung Do
Buster Hyman
Connie Lingus

Giggity...

(Snickering like a 12 year old)