I’ve been trying to come up with a performance name. My screen name here is basically meaningless and certainly has no relation to video art. I’m curious if your screen name is the same as your performance name? Is there a story behind it?
So the best I’ve come up with so far is Moire Ideal - meaning wavy video lines is my goal. I’m
thinking it will be printed as 60s psychedelic poster art. What do you think? Will it look good on a poster with other names?
For your inspiration seach:
technical video documentation
tube TV parts
IC names
optical / video art terms
obscure video brands
examples:
LM6172 and the Ferrites
Kathodenstrahlen
SECAM
PLX2000
Our own names have been / are:
de Oplichters (a dutch pun which means the scam artists & also “they who light up a space”)
RGB fraktion
Reverselandfill
This is an interesting topic. It isn’t easy to pick a good name.
One little piece of advice about performance names, nicknames, etc. is be careful, sometimes they stick forever. A friend of my daughter had a baby boy, somehow he got the nickname ‘Gordo’ and it stuck. Not good. Another kid got stuck with Stinky. Kid Rock isn’t a kid any more!
I got the nickname Boneoh a long time ago in a crowded bar after everyone had way too many beers. It doesn’t mean a thing, but it stuck.
The other day I had to pick a name to start a business. It’s a small part-time consulting business and will be through word of mouth only, no website or advertising. I picked Rational Advisors LLC because I couldn’t think of anything better. It wasn’t taken here in Idaho, but it turns out there is a big Rational Advisors LLC in NY. I wish I had put more time and care into picking a name, though the chances of anyone mistaking my business with a mega billion $ business are slim to none.
I have named a few bands, projects and lots of modules, and it’s always a challenge. I think the most important thing is disambiguation and having something specific and easy to say. “LZX” is just a 3-letter sequence, for example, like “ABCs” or “DIY”, and intended to absorb it’s own meaning over time, which it has. I think some of my favorite module names have been ones like “Staircase” and “Doorway”, where there’s a simplicity and commonness to them, but within their context as video synthesizer module names have specific meaning, and make it easy to have a conversation.
I agree with @7pip that it’s ultimately something you won’t be immediately certain about at conception. Over time you hope to fill the name with your own identity and context in peoples’ minds.
Just sharing thoughts, because I love having a topic like this to discuss in this space.
In a similar vein, coming up with a good name for a song seems to be hard for me. My latest is called ‘No Name 1’ 
Usually for a song, I’ll start off by naming with the date of inception (YYYYMMDD), and typically a name emerges afterwards.
I love naming and renaming things, it is an opportunity to be playful and creative. It can stick, but it might not. Usually when you don’t like it, it will stick.
Other people will give it more meaning than you do, especially over time. It will mean different things to different people as well, which is cool.
I’m in the zone of three word titles for video pieces/songs at the moment - Seconds of Arc, Fractals of Paradise, Orders of Magnitude.
Last year it was one word, in caps, THINGS, EMANCIPATE.
I enjoyed coming up with Raster-fari as my profile name here.
SEECAM would be great yeah. I often think of band names for the fun of it / spontaneously.
I was thinking PAL for a pet name as well, explaining to the vet that it is short for Phase Alternate Line.
Defunct tech always a good place to go for names : )
I like to create systems for naming stuff.
For example a series of art pieces could get the name of rivers in a geographical region. Then I’ll take the word Rivers and translate it into the oldest language of that region and name the series so, or even a new pseudonym just for that exhibition.
I always thought Ray and the Dolby Tones would be a great name alas its meaning is lost today.
Hmm is Flyback taken?
All the video art people using names that relate to video tech — except for a few folks that I am more familiar with — I tend to get them all confused. FWIW.
Even though it honestly makes me very uncomfortable (for various reasons), I’ve just started using my given name.
for song titles/band names etc - unless something immediately pops out I often go to the bookshelf and grab a selection of books and look through them - short story titles, chapter names etc even dictionaries - just flip through them until you find a random word or phrase I like possibly use word association with that… or change a letter/word to get something different
I like catchy pronouncble names that are not only meant for nerds/insiders.
Or at least make it a combination of a video related word together with something else. Like:
Time Enhancer
Life Colourizer
Feedback Memories
Then if you have a few ideas you need to go pregnant with them. Its a method to take decisions. You decide for Time enhancer and you look how it feels for the next three days, then you take anothrr one and you observe your feelings about it for another three days. You will notice then what feelt right…
Best group buy name evar
A friend gave me the nickname “Dr. Yo” circa 1988, and I’ve used it ever since as a “band” name and online handle. Due to the restrictions that most systems place on username length and permitted characters, I’m forced to use “dryodryo”.
I don’t do live performance, but if I did, I would probably use that moniker. To me, it represents playfulness, positivity, paradox.
In a “serious” context, e.g. entering work into festivals, I use my real name, Aaron F. Ross, with the middle initial, for disambiguation.
or you could use doctoryo or doctor_yo
I always read your name as dryo dryo not doctoryo doctoryo
Thanks @prakodr for creating this thread 
It’s great to see & read so many interesting responses!
I’ve been performing live this year as Optical Collusion. I wanted something that hinted at collaboration and something that clearly suggested the visual domain. I walked about brainstorming for a couple of days and once I stumbled across, I had a “that’s the one, now for the next step!”
Hopefully this thread and the various responses will fuel your creative fires 
Yeah, but I like the mystery of a username that doesn’t necessarily make obvious sense
true - and why should it…
but then neither does doctor yo - unless there’s a reason meaning it…