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High school football coaches are incapable of pronouncing four-syllable last names.
There I'm standing during the first week of freshman offseason football workouts, listening at the coaches taking roll. They're calling out several dozen young, sweaty 14-year-olds' last names in 100-plus degree heat. In the near future we'll have settled on jersey numbers and positions, and the coaches will be able to handle attendance just by watching us warm up, but for now, they need to call out names.
Jimenez. Johnson. Johnson. King. They're approaching the 'M' last names. I'll be coming up any second.
But I'm not listening for "Montgomery", even though that's my legal last name. I have played enough sports as a kid to know that coaches call me one of two things -- my first name, Kyle, or an abbreviated version of my four-syllable last name. High school football coaches aren't the only ones incapable of four-syllable last names.
It's always the same shortened version, too. Like the coaches of my youth all had a secret meeting at one point and agreed upon the nicknames that would define their players' identities for the development portion of their respective lives.
"Monty!"
"Here," I reply.
The nickname stuck, as it always did. I don't think I was ever called "Montgomery" in a single football practice.
But "Monty" is a little too common to be used as a unique identifier on an online platform. After all, my own extended family has about a dozen "Monty"s in it alone -- every male member of the bunch. I soon started incorporating my first initial in it as well. "K. Monty."
And thus my MHR screen name, kmonty, was born.
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In this post, I'd like you to tell us about your MHR screen name. What's the story behind it? When and how did you decide on it? What does it mean to you?
Hit us up in the comments and let us know how your MHR identity came to be!