Trail name protocol

[maddog5150]

So I find the whole trail name thing interesting. I'm curious what the "rules" are.....

Do you/ can you make up your own trail name? Does it have to be chosen by someone else? Do you have to accept one you don't like? What are all the rules around this? (I know there isn't a rule book per se, just curious if there generally accepted guidelines)

[rafe]

No rules. It's kind of a silly tradition.

Make up your own if you want, if you'd rather not take the chance with having a name "assigned" to you.

[Sugarfoot]

Protocol would be a fine name, and unique. My favorite last year was a hiker who introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Demented." Being merely deranged, I was impressed.

[Miel]

There will be a PrairieFlax NoBo with her husband this year as thru hikers. She's not on WB, but she uses the same name for everything - hiking, the NYT arts comments section, anything. She's from Nebraska and doesn't have a FB either. I will try to encourage her to join here, as she and her DH hike all over the place.

[mattjv89]

You can get your trail name however you please. You can try to fight off a given name but it can be hard to shake, especially if inspired by a funny event you'd rather forget.. I'd say the majority of people get it from someone else. Mine was a little of both, it occurred to me but everyone I was hiking with thought it was a great fit so it stuck.

[Another Kevin]

I don't really have a trail name. I have met a great number of groups on trail (and online) that have a Kevin in them already, hence I'm another Kevin.

(I had a trail name, back in my college days. It doesn't fit me now any better than the clothes I wore then would. I didn't choose it, and it didn't make any sense really, but it stuck to me like trail mud.)

Some people go through life without a trail name: Just Bill, for instance, is just Bill.

[Lone Wolf]

So I find the whole trail name thing interesting. I'm curious what the "rules" are.....

Do you/ can you make up your own trail name? Does it have to be chosen by someone else? Do you have to accept one you don't like? What are all the rules around this? (I know there isn't a rule book per se, just curious if there generally accepted guidelines)

there is no rule. no protocol. no tradition. i named myself

[maddog5150]

Protocol would be a fine name, and unique. My favorite last year was a hiker who introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Demented." Being merely deranged, I was impressed.

LOL, now thats funny. Well there it is...if I ever get the chance to do a thru hike I'm naming myself Protocol.....

[Spirit Walker]

I chose my own trail name. I wanted a name that had meaning for me. DH had a nickname he had used previously, back in CB radio days. It turns out to be pretty common on the AT, so much so that there are sometimes two or three in a given year. Several years after his AT hike, he decided he wanted something a bit more unique, so on occasion goes by a different name.

[Starchild]

I have a spiritual take on trail names. Many faith and spiritual traditions have the concept of receiving a new name. It is very much part of native american traditions, and comes usually as part of a spiritual journey, which the AT is.

I believe the 'real' rule, the only 'rule', is that the trail (as a living entity) names you, that 'rule' is above us, it is the parent (living entity that we know as the AT journey experience who cares for us) naming his/her child (the hiker). How we receive the name, the method to relay our new name to us, is not our choice and can come though many methods but ultimately one source.

And there are many nuances to this, some may never hear their new name, others may purposely drown it out and miss it, some may take one that another has forced onto them and they accepted and some people are not in the right place, not children of the AT, but their home is elsewhere which they have yet to find and where they will receive their new name, or know they are just visiting the AT and already know their new name and their home.

[greensleep]

any one hiking under the name "alias"?

[WingedMonkey]

any one hiking under the name "alias"?

Bismarck was.

Now he's going by a number.

[Odd Man Out]

Of course if you do something boneheaded, then your fellow hikers might assign a less flattering name to you. If you don't like it, you can have Demented take care of them for you ;-)

[DavidNH]

It is best to come up with your own trail name sooner than later. If you don't, chances are good that someone else will GIVE YOU a trail name that might not be too your liking.

[DuneElliot]

I'll be picking my own when I hit the CT next year...I'm so clumsy and ungraceful I know whatever I get given by someone else won't be flattering.

[jbbweeks]

Once sitting around a shelter when a girl walks up an everyone says 'Hi Fireball' She was a ball of energy and was making trips to the water source and collecting firewood like a champ! That night as we sat around the fire circle she was sewing up another girls gaiter and I said "I see why they call you Fireball!" She laughed and told me the first night on the trail her stove malfunctioned and caught the shelter on fire. Everyone ran for cover except her and she politely stood and kicked the stove out of the shelter. Needless to say her energy had nothing to do with her name!


Tapatalk

[LittleRock]

Trail names are mostly a thru-hiker thing. Most thru-hikers have a trail name and use it, most others don't care.

Section hikers get the best of both worlds. If you're given a trail name you like, you can keep using it. If you're given a trail name you don't like, you can just say you don't have one the next time you come back to the trail.

[Miel]

Miel in 1976, Miel now.

[QiWiz]

I use a moniker that started as an online poker table player name, and it worked just as well on trail.

[Secondmouse]

my spirit guide deemed me He Who Farts Like Thunder.

but that's a little long so my friends changed it to Secondmouse...