A consistant online identity

Some years ago there was a popular chat program called ICQ. It let you chat with other people based on either their email address or a unique number that was assigned to them. My friends in college and I used it for some time, and as a result I was rather late to AOL Instant Messenger party. When we finally did convert en masse I discovered that (of course) the handle I had been using, "The Walrus", was already taken. Since it seemed rather impersonal to call myself "tower3890" or some other alphanumeric conglameration of my life, I tried to think of something unique and catchy.

Unfortunately, I am not as clever as I would like. I ended up getting stuck with "hokietower". It was fine for a while, but pretty soon everyone started worrying about an online identity and how that could be traced back to your real persona. So I decided to come up with something that had no direct bearing on my life. "Hokiewalrus" was born.

I quickly started using hokiewalrus for all sorts of usernames. It was easy for me to remember and it was never taken by someone else. Even when I signed up for MSN Messenger in 2001 it was still available.

Recently a thought occured to me, do people know they are encountering the same "hokiewalrus" everywhere they go? Between my postings on ClubSi, Pc Magazine, twop, a host of other message boards, and things like Xbox Live, some people must have come across the name "hokiewalrus" more than once. I imagine it must be the virtual equivalent of walking down the streets of New York and running into your lab partner from junior high school back in Kansas.

I think the name is unique enough to be remembered, people comment about it all the time (often in the middle of a Halo 2 match). How comforting it must be for people new to a site or message board to see that they already have a friend to show them the ropes, or at least give them some sense of real online "community".

So my question is this, how come no one else does this? I mean, I'm sure there are people that do, but I can't think of anyone that does (with 1 exception). You would think people would want to be recognized online, yet it doesn't seem to happen.

Or maybe it does and I just never encounter these people more than once and the preceding wasn't enlightening to anyone.