screen name

Though it may not be appropriate for your life now, your first AIM screen name will always be special. The first link to the outside world, these screen names were probably filled with XX and OO and possibly a few celebrity or band names. I asked you to share your firsts, and you were brave enough to answer the call. Check 'em out below!

• "My first ever AOL screen name was bebe047." — PrincessBee
• "RockGrrl87. I was 12! I didn't know how obnoxious it was to spell things ridiculously. Ah, youth." — DrGirlfriend
• "my first was "dreamstar258411." It was so ridiculously long with an unnecessary amount of numbers." — Marshmelly411
• "littleladykate. My boyfriend when I was 12 made me change it to ktprinces919." — jkatie

My parents signed us up for AOL's first dial-up service when I was twelve. Since then, I've managed to hold onto my first screen name (a reference to my then-favorite band which is too embarrassing to share here), even though I don't use it. In college, my friends and I laughed over our screen names, chosen as adolescents but too close to our hearts to give up. I eventually switched to a work-friendly AIM account name, but a few times a year I'll sign online with my screen name of yore.

Plenty of my friends have original names, most featuring band or celeb names, often with a lot of Xxs or other characters for design effect, and always good for a giggle. Have you held onto yours? Brave enough to share it?

And, if you're in the market for a new screen name, be sure to check out this handy screen name generator.

Because I was a young teen at the time America Online went mainstream, I've had a number of screen names. Names professing bands I loved, boys I liked, and one or two making creative use of a lot of Xs in both lower and uppercase letters (stop laughing, you know you had one too). Now that just about every site on the Internet requires you to sign in and create a profile, a unique screen name is more important than ever. Sometimes the perfect name comes to you, but more often than not it takes a lot of thinking and a little help.

Now there's SpinXO, a website that will generate a great screen name for you. Just enter your name and some details into the site and it generates a very thorough list of suggestions — I got 97 different ideas. Some are a little obvious (GeekTechnology), some are silly (TechnologyHir0) and a few just don't make sense (T3chn0l0gyGotta). The list is fun to peruse, and who knows, it may even inspire a creative thought or two!