nicknames

SUMMARY: I never wanted nicknames...

Source : Starting with my short response to an Oct 17, 2026 Jose Monkey post about how he got that name 

... and I don't have any. And…

... oh, wait, yes I do?! But, after being around for seven decades, I figure I am entitled to more than one nickname

My given name is Ellen. All my life, I have ruthlessly squashed attempts to call me "El". I just don't like it. But, after many years, there are select small groups of friends who sometimes call me Elf and other select small groups who sometimes call me Taj.   And an even smaller cadre of friends--mostly pirates – – who call me Maquesa (Marquessa?) DeLaFinch. all of these evolved organically. Maybe I'll go to my own blog and give the stories... oh, here I am.

ELF: These are my initials. How could I not make use of them whenever possible? When online communication became a thing, this seemed like an ideal, simple and easy-to-remember username. The first time I recall using it was when my company first got email capability. Around 1982? Or maybe for some sort of internal chat-like capacity before that? 

so, for over four decades, that is how people have seen my online identity. Anywhere I've had an online account for a long time, such as Wikipedia, that's my username. And I suppose that, when you see that more often than the given name, you might be inclined to use that when addressing me both online and in person. I don't dislike that. 

Taj: short for TajMuttHall. Like this blog. In fact, specifically for this blog. I wanted something At least marginally clever and dog related. Back around 2000, when I started it, I did not find any other Taj MuttHall with an online search. Now, there are others, such as a grooming shop. As time has gone by, it is harder and harder to be able to use just "elf" – – I end up using elf1 or elf11 Or whatever it takes to get that elf at the front of the  Username. But how dull is that? So I started using tajMuttHall not only for the blog, but also as my username in other places. For example, Discord and Tumblr. Again, those who see this username more than they see my real name, often just refer to me as Taj. I don't dislike that, either.

Marquesa deLaFinch: my "pirate" name. Started in the mid 1980s when a group of friends and relatives styled themselves as Road Pirates With a humorous slant on them cruising the highways in a motorhome and boarding buses or trucks to steal their gold. They all had established pirate names by the time I decided that I really wanted to be part of the Fun. A couple of those pirates wrote short fiction stories about the road pirates, So I did, also. In my story, I invented Several things. Such as the title Marquesa DeLaFinch Whose husband, the Marquis DeLaFinch, Was a graduate of Nobility School, In which he learned such important nobility skills as basketball and swordsmanship and being able to identify any popular music from the past 20 years just with a few notes.

Being nobility as we were--I mean, I'm the Marquesa of course--, We had vast estates and a huge mansion that contained a wine cellar. Seeing as how two of the Marquesa's sisters are Road Pirates, the whole troop of them unfortunately showed up fairly often in the wine cellar, drinking up the stores. To which we owe the now famous lyrics, also from my short story, heard dimly echoing through the estate at night, "Yo ho, yo ho, a something something something!" (Road Pirates are Disney fans but not quite bright enough to be able to look up and memorize the actual lyrics.)

So there you have it. You can call me Taj or you can call me elf or you can call me Ellen or you can call me… Well, you get the idea.