The story of my user's name goes back many years ago, when I was reading Giacomo Casanova's "Histoire de ma vie". There is one chapter where he mentions people having a ridiculous name and he takes the example of Philipp Schwartzerd (Schwartzerd means "Black earth"in German). Casanova then says that Philipp Schwartzerd was right to hellenize his name (in ancient Greek, "Black earth" translates into "Melanchthon"). As my name means "Black earth" in French, it amused me and, when I had to chose a username on DKos, I chosed Melanchthon...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet