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Part of a series on Your Name Game. [View Related Entries]

About

Your NPR Name is an online forum game akin to "your porn star name" or "your superhero name" in which the player earns a nickname from a combination of two arbitrary personal details. In this game, the end result is supposed to emulate the often exotic-sounding names of newscasters on National Public Radio (NPR).

Origin

The game was invented by blogger Liana Maeby, who explained the rules of the game in a blog article^[1] posted on April 13th, 2009:

You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited. So I’m Liarna Kassel. And Eric is Jeric Bath. I even have a new nickname for my little brother in Dylsan Rosarita.

Spread

The majority of blog posts about the NPR Game came from the days immediately following the game's creation in April 2009. On April 14th, "Your NPR Name" game threads appeared in various message boards and forums including Woot!^[9] and MacResource^[10]. By April 15th, the NPR Name game was posted to MetaFilter^[8] where it received over 279 comments playing the game.

That afternoon, NPR's Linda Holmes created a blog post^[3] describing how she came across the game on Twitter, via Chicago-based radio personality Peter Sagal^[4]. The article received over 200 comments with readers sharing their own NPR Name game results. The same day, Maeby's NPR Name game was written about on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon blog^[7].

Public Radio Name Generator

There's also a Public Radio Name Generator^[5] created by Get Creative Inc. According to the underlying DNS registry data for the URL, the domain was acquired at least as early as April 27th, 2011. ^[6] The results from the generator seem to simply mash-up randomly-generated combinations of names of various ethnicities.

What's your public radio : " name Always wanted to be a host on public radio but don't have a name with the international punch of Doualy Xaykaothao, an Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, or even a Daniel Zwerdling? Not to Worry! Enter your name below, and we will suggest a new public radio-friendly version. The rest is up to you. Enter Your name: Select a gender Male Generate your public radio name!

Rain Wilson's Variation

On September 22nd, 2011, a second notable variation^[2] of the game was tweeted by The Office actor Rain Wilson. It is unclear what motivated Wilson to tweet^[2] a different set of rules over two years later.

@rainnwilson
RainnWilson Create your own @NPR newscaster name! Your grandparents middle name + your 1st foreign pen pals last name. Mine? Oswald Kashiwa. #NPRname
Sep 22 via HootSuiteFavorite RetweetReply

On Twitter

Wilson's tweet has resulted in a resurgence in the #nprname game on Twitter, though with a significant mutation in rules:

Search Interest

Search queries for "NPR name" reached its peak in early April 2009 and continuously waned throughout the rest of the year; the minor resurgence in July 2010 can be attributed to an unrelated news story about National Public Radio's official name change to its familiar initials NPR. The spike in April 2011 eclipses with the launch of Public Radio Name Generator.

External References

^[1] Liana Maybe's Tumblr – Your NPR Name

^[2] Rain Wilson's Twitter – Sept 22nd

^[3] NPR MonkeySee Blog – What's Your NPR Name?

^[4] Peter Sagal's Twitter

^[5] Public Radio Name Generator

^[6] Network Solutions – publicradionamegenerator.com DNS registry data

^[7] Late Night With Jimmy Fallon blog – What is your NPR name?

^[8] MetaFilter – All Things Ill-Considered

^[9] Woot! – WootBot

^[10] MacResource – what's your npr name?

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Back to Home +Save this search Results for nprname Refine results。 JodieNovak Jodie Novak My #NPRname. Cordell Simon.. I kinda like it :) 13 hours ago pdxjoc Joe Wilson Create your @NPR newscaster name! Grandparents middle name +your 1st foreign pen pals surname Mine: Bryant Cornejo #NPRname via @Chaos-Boy 22 Sep sugarsook April Carter Grant Create your own @NPR newscaster name! A grandparent's middle name+first foreign penpal's name. Mine? Lagosta Adusa. #NPRname 22 Sep Rebotten Becky Root Liberals, whendyouget funny? (Arnold Drummond face) #NPRName 22 Sep mtnprofet Mark Calhoun RT @rainnwilson Create ur own @NPR newscaster name! Ur grandparents middle name + ur 1st foreign pen pals last name #NPRname//Farrell Keiko 22 Sep MaddieLeSage Madeline Lavinia Leeds. Yikes. RT @rainnwilson: "Create your own #NPRname . Your grandparents middle name + your 1st foreign pen pals last name" 22 Sep rosscosmart Ross Smart You're listening to This American Life, I'm Ernest Yamaguchi #NPR name 22 Sep christinacody Christina A Cody Frances Muller! #NPRname RT @rainnwilson Your own @NPR newscaster name! Your grandparents middle name +your 1st foreign pen pals last name pinkini Kristen Catherine Hoffman RT @RainnWilson Create ur own @NPR newscaster name! Ur grandparents middle name+ur 1st pen pals last name #NPRname 22 Sep DanicllcCHuman daniellechuman Verona Brejla RT @RainnWilson Create yr own @NPR newscaster name! Yr grandparents middle name+ your 1st foreign pen pals Ist name #NPRname 22 Sep PersoNick Nick Clark Eugene ulrich RT @rainnwilson: Create your own @NPR newscaster name! Your grandparents middle name +your 1st foreign pen pals last #NPR name 22 Sep SarahJindra Sarah Jindra Fun! RT RainnWilson Create your own @NPR newscaster name! Your grandparents middle name + your 1st foreign pen pals last name #NPRname 22 Sep brittanywesely Brittany Wesely Alice Kitahaura RT @rainnwilson Create ur own @NPR newscaster namel Grandparents middle name+your 1st foreign penpals last name #NPRnarme 22 Sop Mommy8 MT @rainnwilson: Create your own @NPR newscaster name!Grandparents middle name+ 1st foreign pen pals last nameMine?Oswald Kashnwa. #NPRname 22 Sep ☆ Favorite tュRetweet Reply RebckahMonson Rebekah Monson Dean Moreau MT @rainnwilson: Create your @NPR newscaster name! Your grandparents middle name+your 1st foreign pen pals last name. #NPRname 22 Sep mccu John McCulloch Mine is Ram... RT @rainnwilson: Make your own @NPR newscaster name! Your g-parents mid name +your 1st foreign pen pals last name. #NPRname 22 Sep scribner Matt Scribner My @NPR newscaster name: Monte Oskimov (Grandparents Middle Name Last Name of First Foreign Pen Pal) cc @rainnwilson #NPRname 22 Sop robanguS Rob Angus Raymond Fontana RT @rainnwilson Create your own @NPR newscaster namelgrandparents middle nameyour 1st foreign pen pals last name #NPRname 22 Sap ElGanador EGanador "arainnwilson: Your grandparents middle name +your 1st foreign pen pals last name. Mine? Oswald Kashiwa #NPRname' What's a "pen pal"? 22 Sep NialaBoodhoo Niala I'm sticking w/Niala Boodhoo MT rainnwilson: Create yr #NPRname: Grandparents middle name廾oreign pen pals last name. Mine? Oswald Kashiwa 22 Sep 0 MichaelBrown Michael Brown @rainnwilson My @NPR newscaster name: Chandler Atkinson #NPR name 22 Sep Morbidorable love deluxe #NPRname sum, my grandparents didn't have middle names as far as im aware. 22 Sep rainnwilson RainnWilson Create your own @NPR newscaster name! Your grandparents middle name+your 1st foreign pen pals last name. Mine? Oswald Kashiwa #NPRname 22 Sep You've reached the end of the Top Tweets for nprname. View all Tweets

Lianablog liana dot maeby at gmail I also have a dumb Twitter Your NPR Name Eric and recently discovered a shared fascination with the slew of mposs bly named NPR hosts we listen to every day: Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep, Corey Flintoff, Korva Coleman, Kai Ryssdal, Dina Temple Raston In fact, we ve often wondered what it would be like to be one of them. A Nina Totenberg or a Renita a SPu da Glaser or a Sylvia Poggioli. So fnally, after years of Fresh Ar sign-off ambitions, we came up with a system for creating our own NPR Names. Here's how it works: You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smalest fore ign town you've ever visited So Im Liana Kassel. And Eric is Jeric Bath. I even have a new nickname for my little brother in Dylsan Rosarita

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Your NPR Name

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About

Origin

The game was invented by blogger Liana Maeby, who explained the rules of the game in a blog article^[1] posted on April 13th, 2009:

You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited. So I’m Liarna Kassel. And Eric is Jeric Bath. I even have a new nickname for my little brother in Dylsan Rosarita.