What's in a name?

I've been asked many times over the years about the name Kyrrinstöch. Mostly, the questions are where it comes from and how to pronounce it. A lot of people have guessed that it's North/Eastern European, Baltic or even Slavic in it's origin.

It's not.

It's purely ficticious, so is it's definition.

Just for clarification, it's pronounced keer - in - STOKE (long O, silent E, like the word boat)

Years ago (circa 1992) I joined a local Science fiction group that had their own original theme and regularly threw some of the most lavish and outrageous parties at the largest of the local Sci-Fi conventions. As part of the whole costumed character bit, we had to come up with names for these alternate personalities.

Kyrrinstöch was the name I came up with.

As technology spread and home computers became more prevalent, we saw more and more BBS's popping up. These were similar to the on-line discussion forums currently prevalent on the Internet, but were text based and limited to local dial-up access using our modems. As I joined a few of these, I needed a user name. For lack of anything more original, I used what I'd become known by at the Sci-Fi conventions. Over time and meeting a lot of the BBS members in person, I started to be known by that name outside of the conventions. As the Internet became more and more accessible, I continued to use the name on-line as well.

Though it's hard to spell (and pronounce after several drinks...), I still like it. It's unique and still suits me.