AIM confessions: 8 notable Charlotteans share their (embarrassing) 1st screen names
I can’t remember why my co-editor Corey Inscoe and I were talking about AOL Instant Messenger screen names in the office the other day. AIM actually still exists, but gone are those times when we awkward tweens and teens of the ’90s and early Millennium would hunch over desktops and sign into AIM to chat with friends and dorky crushes for hours. And hours.
I hope that Internet data has dissolved into the abyss.
But it’s fun to dredge up some AIM screen names of the past. Those names were arguably our first opportunities to define ourselves publicly, to assign a label to our beings and, with that, to go forth into the digital world and navigate our peer groups.
Some of us just didn’t choose too wisely when it came to that label, and we are haunted. Mine was ok, kind of boring. I was KTtennisluvr. “KT” for my initials, and the rest to signify my infatuation with a sport that I can no longer stand.
If you interacted with Corey in his digital youth, you would have chatted with sousaboy53. His reasoning: “Because I played sousa, was a boy and my football number was 53.”
For those who did not grow up as band nerds, a sousaphone is that clunky version of a tuba that wraps around your body and is ideal for marching band.
But on to more AIM names. While quite a few notable Charlotteans I reached out to have conveniently forgotten these labels of their pasts (let it stay buried), I dug up the first AIM screen names of eight people you know in Charlotte:
logdog46
Which belonged to: Logan Cyrus
How you know him: He’s a local freelance photographer under Logan Cyrus Photography and just spoke at CreativeMornings/Charlotte this month.
His AIM reasoning: “My first AIM name and Yahoo! Messenger name (I was more of a Yahoo! kid. Played a lot of online checkers.) was logdog46. ‘Logdog’ was a nickname I had as a kid but I have no idea where the 46 came from. I assume I was the 46th person to be logdog ever on the Internet. I also had a less popular nickname, ‘Hoagie Balls,’ that never made it as a screen name to my knowledge.”
(Editor’s note: Bummer.)
baron10387
Which belonged to: Townes Mozer
How you know him: He’s the owner of Lenny Boy Brewing Co.
His AIM reasoning: “Meaning Baron Davis (old Charlotte Hornet player) and my birthday. He was and still is one of my favorite players of all time.”
Ladybug11325
SeanCC99
Which belonged to: Sean Garrett
How you know him: He’s the executive director of United Way of Central Carolinas.
His AIM reasoning: “CC99 was because my senior high school cross country season was the fall of 1999. Looking back, it wasn’t as cool of a name as it seemed when I was 17!”
(Editor’s note: I think we’re all realizing that about our choices.)
bookgirl89
Which belonged to: Haley Bohon
How you know her: She’s the founder of SkillPop.
Her AIM reasoning: “What can I say? I was a nerdy kid who loved to read. No shame.”
XoNeoSmoXoX
Which belonged to: Garrett Tichy
How you know him: He’s the owner of Hygge Coworking and the brains behind the WeLoveCLT speaker series.
His AIM reasoning: “NeoSmox was my wannabe hacker name. This was at a time when we were programming Visual Basic spam bots and chat bombers. I was cool.”
Paintbarlowe
Which belonged to: Clark Barlowe
How you know him: He’s the chef at the acclaimed Heirloom Restaurant.
His AIM reasoning: “I was big into paint ball at the time, and my last name is Barlowe, so it seemed appropriate enough.”
KrBeams
Which belonged to: Kristen Wile
How you know her: She’s the senior editor at Charlotte Magazine and really hard to ignore on Instagram, due to her foodie adventures.
Her AIM reasoning: “My first (and the one I ended up staying with) was KrBeams. Kr for my name (original) and Beams because Beams or Beamer was my nickname. I was also a serial screen-name-maker, though. Other notables include: xoElvenBeautyxo (‘Lord of the Rings’ nerd) and ForYour007EyesOnly (Bond phase). Pretty sure I had one about hugs, too.”
I think Kristen wins. For rampant imagination.
Do you remember your first AIM screen name? You know you do. Share in the comments section below. Do it.
Photo: Katie Toussaint
This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "AIM confessions: 8 notable Charlotteans share their (embarrassing) 1st screen names."