Evolution of a Gamertag

So...as some of you know...my first name is Grover.  Yeah, like the fuzzy blue guy on Seasame Street or our 22nd & 24th President Grover Cleveland (the only 2 term Prez to serve non consecutive terms).  Anyways, politics & blue monsters aside, Grover is a curious and uncommon name to have, especially in these more modern times.  Apparently, it was quite common back in the early days of our country, and even still in common use early last century. 

Well, as you can imagine, all sorts of "original" and "clever" insults dogged my path as a child, and indeed through most of my life when encountering those whom lack a certain degree of decorum and forebearance.  I know 'em all, Red Rover Red Rover,  and "Hey Supergrover"...and "What's your name again, Oscar?".  Of course, society being what it is, you'll always encounter that element, all it did for me was develop a thicker skin about such things.

Of course, some people, especially my friends from Jr & Sr High, prefer nicknames to actual given names.  Charles becomes Chuck, Robert becomes Bob, and sometimes there's even the inevitable CJ or AJ or BJ.  Well, there's no real acceptable nickname for Grover, I mean, Grove?!  C'mon.  My middle name is Lee, so GL wouldn't really work and doesn't flow off the tongue as nicknames must.  So, what was to be done?  My friends in 8th grade actually ruminated over this conundrum for quite some time.  There was actually a point after some months had gone by where "SuperG" (remember Supergrover?) was about to become the default, much to my chagrin.

Coach Zielinski saved me from the curse of "SuperG".  In my freshman year, I decided I would play soccer for the hell of it.  Coach Zielinski couldn't, for some strange reason considering the nature of his surname, ever pronounce Grover correctly.  So, I became Gman.  And Lo, my friends rejoiced.  My nickname was found and all was well.

Well, in the ensuing years of High School, I became enamored with Information Technology and began some programming and generally immersing myself in the new (to me) thing called the Internet.  Mostly just dinking around on Bulletin Boards and making ASCII based pics of chix.  One of my friends fathers actually started up a bulletin board and offered me a free account, which I instantly accepted with thanks.  As I was registering on his computer, he pointed out to me that I shouldn't use my real name, but a cognomen of some sort.  Cognomen?  What is this of which he speaks I wondered.  Well, it's either the third part of a name like Julius Gaius Caesar or a nickname, usually but not always descriptive, acquired by use over an extended period of time.  Hmm, I thought, how about Gman.  Well, it should be more like an alias, an online extension of you says my friends father.

GmanV2.  You know Gman, for myself, V2, as in Version 2, like they do in the IT world and esp. with software.  So, from then to now, I've been Gman in RL and GmanV2 when out and about on the Information Superhighway. 

GmanV3 followed easily enough when confronted with the task of selecting a Gamertage back when I first started Xbox Live.  A third extension, into the gaming sphere, of myself. 

So there you have it, a bit wordy, but worth writing down in my own personal blog.