Such fun to read the stories behind your names!
Ornela, thanks for asking.
I chose a French word because I am a French professor. When we got a cat three years ago, I really wanted her to be called Chouette or Coquette, but my kids refused and named her Luna instead (another name I had suggested). Thus I used Chouette as my screen name on another forum (bread baking) earlier and since it was already taken, I had to come up with a number to make it work (which, if I remember well, was chosen pretty randomly after the first few didn't work). And then I just kept it for YLF too.

This word has several meanings:
As an adjective: Elle est chouette = she is nice (sympa).
As an interjecticon: Chouette! = Great! Cool! Sweet!
As a noun: Une chouette = an owl.

rosee, I thought that might be the case, who else would link to Croata kravata. I had to laugh abut babas' names comment.

Katiepea, you are spot on - it does sound secretive And sweet too.

chouette22, any story behind about 22 maybe?
Btw, when I don't understand the nicknames or don't know how to read them, I interpret them my own way. Hence this thread, in a bid to resolve some mysteries.
To me, you were always "little cabbage 22". It's a long story, but to cut it short, I had an unsuccessful experiment of learning French at one point in my life, but one of my best friend's nicknames and nothing to do with her real name was Chu, so "chou" was easy to remember and we ended up calling her "little cabbage" for a while

Mine's easy. It's my first name and middle name run together.

Mine's easy too, I love butterflies, and I'm a lady I was thinking I should have an avatar of a butterfly, but I loved this cat picture (gorgeous eyes) so I chose that instead!

What an interesting thread! I really enjoyed reading all your stories. I'm going to have to join the ranks of those who use their actual name. I just didn't feel like making an alias when I joined up. I guess I'm not normally the alias type -- with me, what you see is what you get.

I did join another forum after joining this one, and I used an alias there, but that's because it's a forum where baby names are discussed, so it seemed appropriate! I'm endlessly fascinated by the names people choose for their kids, so even though I'm not having any more of my own, I occasionally like to read what's new in baby naming. I don't comment there much, but when I do I use the name Aziraphale. Those of you who are familiar with Terry Pratchett may recognize it from the book Good Omens. Best fictional character ever!

Mine's easy, too. It's my nickname:) My full name is Elizabeth, after my maternal grandmother. I love my name; it suits me perfectly:)

It's my real name, which was devised during a baby shower party where guests combined letters from both of my parents' names to come up with prospective baby names.
No joke!

This is such a great thread! I love hearing everyone's awesome stories

My screen name is part of a song lyric by one of my favorite bands, Carbon Leaf (The wisest advice to me that I didn't teach is to lock up the heart but keep the key within reach).

My real name (Suzanne) was the name of a mutual friend of my Mother and Father, who introduced them! Fun Fact: I was almost named Victoria, but my parents decided not to do so when my Mother pointed out that other kids could make fun of me by calling me Icky, Sticky, Vicky.

Ornela, how cute to be "little cabbage 22". I like that too! The number 22 was chosen rather randomly when Chouette alone was already taken on the forum I had joined before YLF. Then I just kept the same combination for here. No significance in that number (I certainly am NOT 22...).

Chouette/Ornela--funny about Chouette--we always heard "mon p'tit chou" and "ma p'tite chouette" as in my little cabbage in male and female variations but for some reason I never thought of it as owl until I was reading Ornela's post just now!!! I always only think of hibou---my french is lousy!

Thank You for all the great stories! Such a fun read!
And here's my short one...

Joha is not my real name but its part of my beloved grandmothers name (Johanna). When I opened my first account on the net some 15 or more years ago, I thought about letting her participate in some way in all this. Have her with me. And as the years went by, the name stuck and I still use it in various combinations. But only around the net.

My real name is Anja (read: Anya) but as this is quite a common name here, I usually never bother to look if I could use it.