Why do people add numbers at the end of their names?

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One thing I never got about other people (including on this site) is why do they add a bunch of numbers at the end of their name? I just find it really weird and pointless, does anybody know?

This is just one of those random questions that is always in the back of my head that I always forget to ask...

Usually it's just that the username they wanted to use (without numbers) is already taken, or forbidden for some reason, and they just add a bunch of numbers to make their username unique rather than think up another username entirely.

Often those numbers will have some meaning to them (age, year of birth, house number, a mix of various things) or the forum where they wanted to register has some "helpful" mechanism that proposes an extension to the username they wanted, adding a rank number.

It isn't usually any more meaningful than that.

Sometimes the name they pick has already been taken so they use numbers at the end. Sometimes people want to put the year they were both at the end of their name or their birthday.

I agree with League_Girl about the date part, it's usually the month number and the last two digits of the year of that person's birth.

I don't usually do it that way, but if my WP screen name were like that, it would end with 1279 (December 1979).

I do what I want.

This was the first forum I ever joined. If I could choose my name over again, I'd leave the numbers out; I just wasn't familiar with the norms. I thought long and hard about this username - I wanted it to be meaningful to me and yet low-key so as not to draw too much attention to myself. My numbers have to do with a song I like a lot.

I don't mind it. I think it's the person's way of expressing individuality.

I have a number after my real name, it's 3 or as it is properly written III (I have no clue whether i am named after my dad or my grandpa)

my ebay username is keira9471
the name I wanted was taken.

My username has numbers, so I think I can answer this one!
Usually it's becuase the username as it is, without the numbers, is already taken.
Sometimes it would have been available without the numbers, but I joined other sites before this one, where the desired username was unavailable, so I used numbers. By the time I got to WP I was used to always having one number or another and had decided I liked having the numbers there.

What's wrong with numbers?

On another forum I was suspended for 27,000 years.

I reregistered as gs2099... 2099 is "comic book code" for "from the future" (Dr. Doom 2099, Spider-man 2099 etc...).

So gs2099=goonsquad from the future.

Seems simple and obvious to me!

They are robots.

I always wondered this too. If the user name I wanted was taken, I would find another one rather than put a whole lot of numbers after it.