Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we? And let’s not skim on the cringe.
We’re not talking about the ‘scene fringes’, string-thin eyebrows and low-rise jeans of yesteryear. We’re harking back to the early days of the internet – the MSN days.
Before you throw your hands over your face to protect from the onslaught of embarrassment, remember that we were all in it together. If you think your online behaviour was toe-curling, don’t forget that your friends, siblings and classmates were at it too.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, before the likes of Whatsapp, Instagram and all the other snazzy social media apps, MSN resigned supreme.
We raced home after school to chat on MSN messenger, with people we’d literally been chatting to all day. And a lot of this went on:
Back in the day, you had to sign up to a Hotmail email account to use MSN, and many of us weren’t shy about going in with ‘xoxo’,‘bwabipwincess’ (baby princess), and ‘sxcbiatch’ (sexy biatch) for our usernames.
Though we’ve buried those names deep into our psyche, just for your entertainment, the HuffPost team dug out the monikers now leaving us in a puddle of shame. What were we thinking?
“M_United07” – Faima Bakar, life reporter
“My first one, which I’m embarrassed to admit was still in circulation until only a few years ago, was M_United07 (as I used to swoon for Cristiano Ronaldo – that hasn’t aged well) when he was first at Manchester United. At the time, I used to be a football fanatic and wore it as a personality trait. I actually forgot the account password so got locked out, but it was the username that was linked to my iCloud, Facebook, everything. But I’m so glad to have changed it to something more sensible. I should mention though, I also used Diamond Gal 101 at some point *hides head in shame*.”
“i_luv_doggies“ – Kate Nicholson, senior trends reporter
“I think mine was i_luv_doggies, which is frankly foul. I remember I wanted something much cooler, but, alas, I needed my dad’s help to make an MSN account, so that meant there was a blanket ban on anything too sassy. I mean, I like dogs, but that’s a terrible MSN name.
“When it comes to how I feel about it now...well, I definitely tried to forget that little bit of information about myself for years, which is pretty telling. Let’s just say I was very keen when everyone moved onto Facebook.”
“nosyparker94” – Nabihah Parkar, audience engagement reporter
“My MSN name used to be nosyparker94 as my surname is Parkar. I can remember the day I created my account and asking my dad for help to think of a fun way to use my own name within my MSN name. It wasn’t the coolest thing to admit back then that my dad came up with it, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise as I can now pass full blame onto him for the disaster!
“I was always nosey as a kid, wanting to be in-the-know, so it’s come in pretty handy now as a journalist. Looking back on it, I cringe a bit and I’m not exactly filled with pride, but there are definitely worse names out there.”
“Cheekybiba” – Habiba Katsha, junior life reporter
“My MSN name was “Cheekybiba” which is still the email I use for online shopping and events! I chose it because I think it best described me at the tender age of 10. I was mischievous and cheeky,′ so I wanted to have an email that represented my character.
″‘Biba’ is a nickname my family and friends call me. I actually like the fact that that was my MSN name. I’d still describe myself as quite cheeky and ‘Biba’ is still my nickname, so it doesn’t feel too off brand.”
What name did you used to have?