Your First Screen Names, Illustrated

Remember your first screen name? Before you were worried about your "personal brand" and had a professional-facing "firstname.lastname@email.com" address?

Those were the good old days. The Internet seemed more casual then. Our online identities were never meant to stay with us forever. They were meant to be more fun. Sure, they were often naive, but also more whimsical than what you'd expect to show up on a resume.

So a few weeks ago we asked you to submit yours to us. What was your first screen name? We even offered up some Mashable staff examples ("NakedSushiNight," anyone?) to get you started. And we had Kiersten Essenpreiss illustrate them.

We received hundreds of submissions, making it extremely hard to pick just a few. Your entries confirmed what we suspected: Lots of people used their birthday or the year for an identifying number. There were a lot of word mash-ups and deliberate misspellings. And there was a fair amount of aLtErNaTiNg CaPsSs (LOL).

We picked some of our favorites and sent them over for illustration. Without further ado, here are some of your first screen names, illustrated for the first time.

CaptainFromage

@mashablehq CaptainFromage was one of #MyFirstScreenName. I'd originally wanted CaptainObservant but it was taken. I was a big francophile..

— william michals (@wmichals) December 14, 2012

CATDAMON

@mashablehq #MyFirstScreenName was CATDAMON... because in HS I liked Matt Damon, and my nickname was Cat...and I also liked cats. #Genius

— Caitlin Moyer (@Cmoyer) December 14, 2012

CyberSquirrel

See Your First Screen Name Illustrated on Mashable buff.ly/12pk1Ai ~ @mashablehq #MyFirstScreenName CyberSquirrel

— Dr Gail Barnes (@ZAGrrl) December 14, 2012

dressed_to_depress_13

@mashablehq #MyFirstScreenName was "dressed_to_depress_13" after the Murderdolls song, my goth attire, and my birthday.

— Daylina Miller (@DaylinaMiller) December 14, 2012

VampirePlayground

@mashablehq - #MyFirstScreenName = "VampirePlayground" Long story short, I was kinda dark. Back when Vampires were still Cool!

— Garett (@GarettHolden) December 14, 2012

Illustrations by Kiersten Essenpreiss