Trail Names

[bohochristine]

I'm curious how those of you that do have your trail names got them? Did you come up with it yourself, did someone give it to you, is it a nickname you've had your whole life?

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[chknfngrs]

Back in college, I ate a whole lot of those fried chicken strips called "fingers" and honey mustard sauce. Hence "chknfngrs"

[runt13]

I have been called Runt for the past 15 years or so, even my granddaughter calls me ''Grandpa Runt''. I would say most people who know me [some for the better part of those 15 years, some longer], don't even know my legal name. 13 was my original racing number. So................Runt ''13'' it is.

RUNT ''13''

[Whack-a-mole]

Mine involved a mouse and a flip-flop. You can figure out the rest.

[JC13]

A guy named Bees gave it to me at Blue Mountain Shelter, although I had been called the same name prior.

Leonidas

[TNhiker]

i bought mine off of Ebay............

[Motormouth]

Childhood nickname

[RangerZ]

i bought mine off of Ebay............

If you need one quick, try Amazon Prime

[Vrill]

Mine is a whole sentence and I don't really intend to use it until a better one finds me. My first time on the AT, the guy who drove me to the trail head said my trail name is "Don't worry, be happy" like the Bobby McFaren song. He bestowed this name upon me because I was nervious and excited and asking a lot of questions, and I needed to stop worrying and just have fun (be happy).

So yeah, my trail name is "Don't worry, be happy."

[jefals]

sometimes I use gypsy, from one time when I was on a road/hiking trip, generally across the country, but no specific time frame or destination ...

[map man]

I was given mine, "Orange," by another hiker going the opposite way on the Colorado Trail in 2014 (I always wear at least some blaze orange on all my hikes in recent years). But I'm the one who decided to own it and answer to it in subsequent hikes. I'd been backpacking for eight years before I acquired a trail name. Some people in every AT hiking class seem to be in a big hurry to give others and themselves trail names in the first few days, or even hours, on the trail. It seems like a good idea to let a name come more slowly and naturally than that.

Some who name themselves might take names like "soulful spiritual pilgrim" or "gall bladder cancer survivor," etc., names that are hard to imagine fellow hikers actually wanting to use on the trail.

[martinb]

Wanted to use my TN (trip) here but it was taken. It's trip because if there's root, there's a good chance I'm going to trip over it.

[RockDoc]

At it's best you don't choose your trail name. It is conferred on you, as with many Native cultures.

People see things in you that you can't see...

[YoungBloodOnTrail]

When I started hiked the AT I was 18, and in the first few days I would always get to the shelters before everyone else. One day another hiker (peacedawg) came up and was like.. "man you got that Young Blood working for you!". From then on, I was Young Blood.

[AfterParty]

My dogs name is party I'm going to hike after she dies in her memory.

[ScareBear]

Well, there was this bear, see......

[Brian Doyle]

You either invent a good one in advance or get one as you go.

[Lone Wolf]

My dogs name is party I'm going to hike after she dies in her memory.

that is so sad. but very cool too

[Lone Wolf]

i named myself

[egilbe]

I wasnt wearing a pack and you know that feeling after carrying a pack for awhile and you take it off, how light and free you feel? I was running down a trail, packless and hopping from rock to rock and mentioned to my gf that I felt like a billy goat. Being the paunchy 50 something I am, she said I looked more like a Belly Goat. It was funny and I took it.