trail name(s)-coming up with one.

[Delta-Dawn]

My 19 year old son gave my daughter and I the names of Pinky and The Brain. It works for now but we are open to new names if bestowed upon us.

[FritztheCat]

Don't have one yet. We'll see what the trail provides.

[Jedeye]

Started off with the generic "Just Jon", but that got changed into Johnny Mud Foot, after loosing a shoe to the mud in Vermont. Video from the day I got my name.

[darkage]

My brother and I do multi week long sections, and we have plans of a thru in 2012 ... I gave him his as one night he refused to ration water till the following day and hiked 5 miles in the dark with our camp bladder back too fill up .... So i call him Hydro, When i meet people on the trail that are members of whiteblaze, they know me as darkage - came about as i like the darkness and the old worlds ... My childhood nickname is wild thing from my days growing up playing baseball and football through my highschool years .... So i tend too go by both just too throw people off, No one on the trail has givin me a trail name yet, So we'll see what the thru hike brings. For now, ya'll know me as darkage.

[topshelf]

Mine was given by a fellow hiker. I was explaining about floating and fishing the new and how its got great smallmouth but all I normally catch are redeye's. and there it is.

[Mags]

Too many vowels in my last name.

I blame my grandfather who also had the same trail name (his trail went from North Africa, to Sicily, up to Italy, to southern France and ending in Munich. Had to carry an M1 rifle the whole way).

[elmotoots]

I am Elmo, my wife is Toots.

Toots is what her dad called he for 56yrs so it is stuck on her forever

I got mine 25yrs ago when I helped coach my sons baseball team. I could not remember all the boys names so I gave some of them nicknames.

I gave one of them the nickname Elmo. One day at a game I called him in from the outfield using his nickname, he came up to me crying and said his mom and dad didnt like his nickname but he did. I told him we would start using his real name for him and would call me Elmo so everyone would be happy, he laughed and the nickname stuck for me.

So we are ElmoToots

[Raul Perez]

I fell into 2 lakes on 2 consecutive days... thus Water Monkey was born!

[seminoles]

I was given the name of "Panama Red" by Kevin "Teflon" Vickery, I suppose because I am from Panama City, Fl. and after a long climb my face was red...very red. Hence
Panama Red.
I remember in the 70's something else had the same name.

[mweinstone]

trailnames are a key. to unlock a door. to folks welcoming you in, or to open a closet and reach for a shotgun.lol. thats why i never hike without "the shirt with two names". i can turn it around in the twinkle of an eye and become ms.lmao.

[Snake Farm]

I was given the name of "Panama Red" by Kevin "Teflon" Vickery, I suppose because I am from Panama City, Fl. and after a long climb my face was red...very red. Hence
Panama Red.
I remember in the 70's something else had the same name.

There's also a guy in the movie Trek ( a documentary on the AT) who is named Panama red. I dont know where the Panama comes from but he has long red hair.

[Kimmee]

I have had my best friend give me two as we were hiking and geocaching and although I like them I honestly want to wait for my "real" trail name to be bestowed upon me on the trail.

I have "grace" and "taurus" as I am so graceful (not!) and I am a Taurus and stubborn especially when doing any sort of outdoor activity.

I have also gained several nicknames as well from being a travel nurse and moving around from place to place!

[Buzz Saw]

Years ago I was a pot smoking carpenter. Thus I used Buzz Saw as my CB handle and thought it would work until I received a better one. I have since gotten old and a party is staying up to watch the news.

[K-3]

After my brother suggested the trail names "Outta T.P." or "Morning Wood", I thought it best I think of something less suggestive - at least to get me started. I settled on my last call sign from when I was on active duty in the Navy which was K-3 (kilo-3). I was a canine police officer in the service; the police dog and handler are referred to as a kilo unit which is short for K-9 unit. Its pronounced as Kilo for the NATO phonetic alphabet pronunciation of the letter 'k'. At the time I joined my last unit, there was already a K-1 and K-2 so I took the call sign K-3. I'm open to receiving a different trail name if I like it but I figured its best to start off with something generic and not too suggestive of anything.

[myotheralt]

I dont have a trail name, but this name came about from the computer game World of Warcraft. I had my main character, Pharmaracy (not a peddler of medicines), then I created a new character, and named him Alterego. I build him up to be my alternate character. Then I started another one, my other alt, Myotheralt.

I kept this one around, I suppose so I could say "it wasn't me, it was my other alt", but that has never worked playing out in my head.

[LordoftheWings]

I love Pommes. That's great.
Mine came easier than most I suppose. I've had the Nickname "Bink" ever since pre-school (last name Binkerd)

I wanted something a little different. It might be hard to guess by my size (6'2''-375) But I love hotwings. I've always been a movie buff as well. I happen to love the Lord Of The Rings series that Mr. Jackson directed. It was only a matter of time that my firefighting buddies started calling me LordoftheWings. It's a nickname that stuck enough that I used it online for a XBOX handle as well. I didn't want to be subjected to the obvious and insightful names that a tall, fat man is often given like "Tiny" or "slim" I embrace my size, to ignore it or pretend it isn't the first thing that people notice would be a great injustice.
It's funny though. I have friends all over the world that I online game with as far as Australia in fact. Even though I've had to change my XBOX name (too many people reported it as offensive?????) My buddies still call me Lord or Wings.

[LordoftheWings]

@ Kilo- I'm sure you had all the same smart@ss friends giving you ridiculous names like I did. My buds tried to get me to use Foxtrot Sierra and I use the term to describe crappy situations, like (This is a bunch of F%$# S&^%) We also use Whiskey Tango to describe the white trash that we seem to always encounter at nearly every call. (How does every 911 call start you ask?----Watch this, hold my beer.)

@ Johnny Mud Foot --Love the video. My kind of luck for sure. I'm certain it's only a matter of time before my mug ends up on youtube.

[tennesseered]

um get someone on the trail to give you one its no fun if you start off from springer or katahdin with a trail name already unless it was from a previous hike sheesh

[Papa D]

When I did my Thru, I was the Troll because I was (probably illicitly) camping in a totally ghetto spot under a bridge near the bus station by the river in Medway, Maine. Troll was fine for a long time and for a brief section I was known as "tweed-blazer" (ha) but I was re-named by these 3 high school girls on the Long Trail, Papa D.- because I resist getting old and I sort of (try to) act younger than I am so it sounds sort of Grandpa like, I didn't like it much so it sort of stuck. I would say this:

1) you can't give yourself a trail name (maybe in rare circumstances), but those usually are not as fun - sound too much like great indian chiefs or something or grand animals or total hard men / women and are just not as great unless it sounds great (i.e. "fire-walker") but it is really because your pants went up in a campfire and it was freakin' funny because you had to walk to town in your boxers or wrapped with a pack towel and get some pants out of a hiker box or something.

2) if you like it too much, it's probably not a great one

3) the best ones poke fun at the one so named - like "creek dancer" (see above post) because he falls (or fell) in the creeks all the time.

4) wait to be named - don't worry, you'll get one - like it or not.

the best person, I named was last year - he called himself "cowboy" or some crap - I looked at all the stuff he had littering the shelter and said you look like that character from Peanuts - "PIG-PEN." It stuck like glue.

This is how it works.

[LoneRidgeRunner]

I was given the name of "Panama Red" by Kevin "Teflon" Vickery, I suppose because I am from Panama City, Fl. and after a long climb my face was red...very red. Hence
Panama Red.
I remember in the 70's something else had the same name.

There sure was something in the 70's had that name but it had nothing to do with a red face..."red eyes" IF you could see them...LOL..