This is the first article I am writing using my real hobo name. As some of you have already figured out, I am the author of the visiting author series in the hobopaper. I reflected on the genesis of my hobo name. The first name I had was Soul Assassin. It represented a time when I thought the game was all about just bashing other hobos in true berserker fashion. The next name I used was Ronin. That name represented a time when I wandered from gang to gang not really fitting in anywhere. I joined Piemen and thought I belonged there, so I upgraded the name to Shogun. I wanted to continue the Asian theme of my former name yet demonstrate my pride in entering an elite gang. (Sadly this did not work out well)

For a very short time I again reverted to Ronin (symbolizing my angst at finding where I truly belonged). I finally ended up at Crazy. There I learned about cooperative game play. I changed my entire style of play here. I became much less interested in just self-development and began to play a much more cooperative and honorable style of play. The name Honorable Shogun just seemed to reflect my hobo journey.

Contemplating the Genesis of my name got me interested in the origins of other hobo’s names. I figured this article would be as good a time as any, to find out how some of you came up with your hobo names. I asked some of you: "How did you come up with your hoboname?" Here are the results…

Prof. PatThetic: “Pat Thetic is the name of the drummer of the band - Anti-Flag, one of my fav bands at the time of sign up. It also seemed to be suitably hobo-ish, The Prof part stems from a Prof. PatThetic moniker/alter ego I would adopt when running 'Intel Academy' programs in a couple of my old gangs. I decided to make Prof a permanent part of my name upon reached 2,500 intel. Plus alliteration is fun.”

¤AS¤nevah agin mothah " : :wave: Delighted to In the late 1950's and early 60's some young Jewish radicals formed a group called the JDL (Jewish Defense League) to fight anti-Semitism. Their motto was Never Again! Meaning never again will we succumb to anti-Semitism as we did during WW II Nev+ah" "agin" and mothah are an homage to my brothers and sisters of the Civil Rights movement who I marched with for many years and their patois "

{VAG} Joda: “Mocking my older boy who goes by Joe. Joe, duh became Joda. Conveniently, it has some appropriate translations en espanol.”

Catkin: “At the time of signing up i had a three legged cat who i adored. I wanted the simple name of Cat but it had already been taken so chose Catkin. My cat has since died and i now have two retired racing greyhounds. If i changed my name now it would be to Hound but then noone will know who I am......maybe that would be a good thing”

Brachial: “An artery in your arm/shoulder that I was studying for my radiography degree. I took a break from studying and my nephew got me to sign up......little fucker”

†ëh Xörbi: “My football team is Glasgow Rangers, their stadium is Ibrox Stadium. Xorbi is Ibrox backwards. I pronounce it Zor - bay.” Nothing special here, but I'll tell it anyways..

Freddy: “My name came from the respect rank Freddy Kruger.. at the time I wanted to get that rank, so I set my name to it.. Eventually everyone started calling me freddy so I shortened it down to just Freddy”

†ëh Whelhelm: “Whilhelm is my German equivalent of my actual name, William.”

imgumbydammit : "was at work, guy told me about the game and thought "i always liked eddie murphy doing gumby". i knew from the start damn it wasn't dammit, but eddie made it sound better and i thought of it as dammit. "

golden white blue monkey : "Basically, i like monkeys. i would prefer simian as a name, but monkey stuck. i call pets and dear ones my little monkey sometimes. plus they do crazy stuff but still exhibit enough human-like behavior to stand out amongst the animal kingdom. the wide range of expressions and outward attitudes monkeys have makes me feel excitement. literally. monkeys are exciting to me. that is the short version "

Gyro5 : "Hello, How are you?? I thought you were going to ask "Why aren't you in a gang"? I get asked that several times a week. Someone told me I'm the only player that has gone this far and never been in a gang.

Anyway regarding your question. Why Gyro5, I think the most obvious answer would be that I love Gyros and I can eat 5 at a time. Well I actually don't like Gyro's but I helped develop a Gyroscope that is implimented in aerial navigation that we called Gyro5, hence the name. Gyro5"

Josie Derk : "my name is a spoonerism. "

Creps: "Creps is shortened from Mr.Crepsley. Mr. Crepsley is a major character in the series of books Cirque Du Freak."

Df Sprinkles : "I chose Sprinkles for a couple of reasons. One of my families close friends was named Jimmy. He died of cancer a few years ago and I wanted to remember him. A popular nickname for sprinkles is Jimmies, so I took the name to honor him. The other reason is because I love doughnuts. For some reason the name Doughnut didn't seem quite right, so I went with the most fun doughnut topping I could think of. Sprinkles just seemed to fit, it was fun, it had meaning, and I liked it.

Thanks for asking. It's been a long time since I've thought about it and it's fun to reminisce. "

۞ dirtypiston: "well years back i was dating a girl and her dads best friend always called me bigpiston ( i am 6 foot 7) and he liked to bug my girlfriends dad that anyone this tall has to be well hung!!! that name i had a couple years then one drunken weekend i went home with a couple women from the bar that were a bit on the whorish side so then my friends switched from calling.me bigpiston to dirtypiston..."

Lon : "I tried to think of the guy who was flat broke, and the name that came to mind was Doyle Lonnegan from the movie 'The Sting' "

wiz♛hit : "I was going to use "wizard or wiz" but that was already taken so I went with a hybrid of how my hobo is built. Noun 1. wiz - someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field 1hit verb : to move your hand, a bat, etc., quickly so that it touches someone or something in a forceful or violent way : to cause (something, such as a ball) to move by hitting it forcefully with a bat, racket, etc. : to touch (something or someone) in a forceful or violent way after moving at a high speed and thats how it worked out Thanks for asking "

Slowsky: "Slowsky's are turtles used in these older Comcast internet commercials, as seen in this youtube link"

It would seem that the reasons for Hobo name choices, vary from the hilarious to the tragic and everything in-between. Thank you to those who shared how their names came about.