When the Halo 3 Beta burst onto the scene many moons ago, there was much lamenting over the implementation of the call sign system. Gamers love their unique gamertags, they love their customizable avatars, but they didn’t love the random selection of letters and numbers automatically assigned to them. Almost nine months later and we have grudgingly gotten used to it. Some of us will even admit that it’s an improvement from H2’s system. Now instead of saying, “Hey, you with the penis and balls avatar!”, you can instead call that person by the U69 call sign they and half the Halo Nation so proudly display.
My call sign has always been H07. Previously I belonged to a community that uses the first letter to signify what squad you belong to so being an active member of the Honor Guard (defense), my letter was an H. Our number selection was entirely our choice so I went with 07 as seven is a significant number in the Halo series. A few weeks after I had selected my call sign I was in the middle of matchmaking and one of my buddies started hysterically laughing when he realized my call sign spelled out “hot”. I did not realize that when creating my random string of characters as I am not especially fluent in the 1337 language so everybody got (and continues to get) a humongous laugh out of it. Yeah, real funny jerks.
It’s now time to change my call sign so I’m looking for inspiration from all of you. What is your call sign and why did you choose it? Does it bear any personal significance to you? Please note anybody with (insert random letter here)69 need not reply. I know why you chose that, you horny unoriginal bastard you.
I dont know I went with C23 just because I thought Cozmo23 = C23 seemed logical. The bad thing about this is I kind of assume people are going to keep the first letter of their callsign the same at their GT. So when people have completly different callsigns then I have a tuff time matching them up.
J84. My first name is Jonathan. My year of birth is ‘84.
G54
Alright, I must admit to my mystery-surrounded past. I was a MAJOR Godzilla fan when I was a kid. Hence the name I use here and on XBL. The first Godzilla movie, Gojira, was released in 1954. Thus:
G=Godzilla
54=1954
Mine is U21. U because it’s the first letter of my gamertag, and I thought it would be easier for people to identify me that way. And 21 because it’s my favourite number. I’ve never had anything different because people get used to it. I was terrified that my friends would constantly change their call signs like they do their MSN names, but thankfully they’ve only changed once or twice, if at all.
You could go with the first two digits as B5 (as in, BS), and then a random third number? If I had your GT that’s probably what I’d do.
Mine is M80 (”M”= Mendicant, 8 looks like a “B” in 1337 speak and “0″ for Installation 00 or the Ark) but I have been thinking of changing it as well.
You know I honestly thought you chose H07 for “Hawt”, finding out that you didnt makes it freaking hilarious. What a random coincidence!
I choose to go with P13 because it spells pie, and pie is better than cake. Plus it’s the last part of gigglepie.
T13, for my first name and favorite number.
I always roll my eyes when I see someone with O07. Wow, so clever!
@Sarge Tomzilla
I was and still am an avid Godzilla fan! I look forward to every iteration that TOHO studios puts out.
Also, as an edit to my post:
”M”= Mendicant, 8 looks like a “B” in 1337 speak, so that stood for Bias, and “0″ for Installation 00 or the Ark)
Apparently I got really excited and hit that SUBMIT COMMENT a wee too early. =/
You’re always gonna be H07 to me angel!
S21. S (for Strike Team) and 21 cuz that is one of my favorite numbers/age I was when I joined this community.
Mine is E59. I’m not really sure what it stands for.
I went with Y19 after the YF-19 veritech in Macross Plus, which is probably my fave animé ever.
Plus it’s slightly more original than all the I69’s…
F51 -> supposed to look like FS1
FS represents Firestream, my tag, and 1 represents absolutely nothing at all.
P.S. where did you find out what the first letter stands for?
R66.
R is the first letter of my name and the 66 is refering to the devil and my way to protest the theocracy America is becoming.
A10.
My first Tag was Alpha Ten, and I never really stopped using it.
T19.
T for Todash, as Halo is similar to traveling through space and time to a different plane.
19 because sometimes playing Halo on XBL is totally 19.
“I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart.”
I briefly switched to S01 because it is how my ROTFLOLCOPTER goes, but that confused my friends to no end. So I returned to the familiar.
F22, standing for Fighter 22 (F-22A), the most advanced air-superiority fighter ever to grace the skies.
Z93 - Favorite Rock station.
Mine is I04
Because Fred in the novels is spartan 104. all my buddies have coresponding numbers to halo characters. oneof my buddies has O51 for kurt, and so on.
P33
because, in a move that infuriates me, Bungie decided to disallow the use of P00. I knew it had to start with a P, and my wife said during the beta that I should be P33 instead. I am, and she is W33.
Mine is U58. It’s because once I played Local at a friends house with one of the Guest Profiles, and my callsign was U58. I thought it looked like USB for some reason, and thought people would find it easy to read in mid-combat.
X86 because I’m just that geeky. It stands for Intel’s 86 platform (i.e. 286, 386, 486) also known as the X86 series of chips.
like most people, i used the first letter of my GT, and the last numbers
CrazedOne1988
C88
S10, for the first time I kissed my fiance–September 10, 2006.
Now THAT was H07.. ;-). ..And possibly TMI.
Pooberry, I love the coordinating call sign story! Hilariously awesome.
And petetheduck, that is so sweet in a way only geeky Halo fanatics can appreciate. I love it!
D17
Something that easy for my friends to say on the run. The obvious origin is that D17 is most of the last characters in my name.(Spartan “DC 17″). I was thinking C17 also but I thought that would be too common which I found out was correct. I choose the call sign because I didn’t want my team to be confused by two the same call sign.(M16 call signs aggravate me to no ends because of this too).
Z28
Z because I hardly ever see the letter Z used. It means in team games, normally, you see the Z and know it is me.
28 is just the end of my gamertag.
Well are we limiting it to three characters (a letter and two numbers)?
Because I’d say T65. Which is the numerical designation for the X-wing starfighter, which blew up a superweapon…
It makes sense, sort of.
Mine’s K57 because my friend, who was responsible for getting me into Halo in the first place, always used to call himself (well his internet/videogame profile name) “K57 Soviet, ” after the AK-47 in Goldeneye. Well he no longer plays very often, he doesn’t even have a 360, and hes away at colege so I hardly see him anymore; so my callsign is in honor of him. My small tribute to thank him for introducing me to Halo.
SF
O13.
Mainly because I had a mini fanstory thingy about my multiplayer being Spartan 013, a Close quarters specialist…
also because 13 is my lucky number…
Mine is G23. G for Gatchaman (My gamertag, and a totally awesome cartoon!) and 23 because I was born on the 23rd February. (G seems to be quite rare, although it could be my imagination)
Mine is V12, because I played F.E.A.R for a while and absolutely fell in love with the shotgun, which is coded the VK12. Its unique enough that it doesn’t cause confusion with other players, and also I just *really* like shotguns =P
P77
P as in Project QWERTY (my clan)
and 77 because 7 is my favorite number and also to pay homage to Bungie. When me and friend started the clan we made it a rule that all members must have P7(any number) so that the P clan would be repped and that subtly we could honor Bungie.
http://www.360voice.com/tag/xProjectQxERROR
-DotslashERRoR
My gamertag being a variation of Bug Hunter, I chose K48. I chose 8 because it resembles a “B” on a calculator and 4 resembles a “h” upside down on a calculator and K because my first name begins with a K.
S11.
S is for Salen, my gamertag, and 11 for… uh… I like 11? I don’t know. It just seemed like a decent enough choice for a number.
G17 for me
Partially for Glock 17, but I realized it looks a bit like Gil for Gilver
Mine is E14. It stands for Pi, the perfect number. When I was young I loved Pi. I don’t know why.
Honor Guard. That explains why I hear so many stories of team-mates shot in the back. They should’ve put you up front so they wouldn’t be between you and the enemy.
V42.
V because it’s the 1st letter of both my name and my GT (I’m with Cozmo on the getting confused when callsign and GT have different letters) and 42 because it’s the answer to the ultimate question.
While I don’t have Live or a 360, my callsign on my buddies Xbox is P42. P for my first initial, and 42 from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
Though I’m also considering P90: first initial and the rifle.
Mine’s pretty straight forward and boring. Haha. Used my names first letter. So C. Then 3 is my favorite number (not sure why…just always has been) So 33.
C33.
Tada!
I’ve actually been thinking of changing it for a while.
A94, as it’s the closest I can get to “A.P.N.”, my ‘Tag. Yeah, not so imaginative I guess… and not terribly close, come to think of it. Oh well.
— Steve
Mine is rather simple. My name Soul of Aqua is shortened (mostly by non dutch for reasons I shall explain.) to SoA (though Soul isn’t uncommon either.) Thus I did SoA in 1337 speak S04.
The funny thing is that when I say to my fellow dutchmen that it stands for soa they start to laugh or think WTF!? because well… soa also happens to be dutch for STD. I love my acronym and I shall never get rid of it.
Better yet I gave my friend the name lubeman because of some 3 player coöp at wich he was the third player. Guess what if you shine your torch on them they shine as if they are covered in a thick clear oil also known as lubricant.(the dutch version is Glijmiddelman and I use both, one when I talk english and the other when talking dutch)
Even my girlfriend could not escape, Me and Lubeman named her after this lovely line from the beginning of Bioshock: “This little fishy looks like he just got his cherry popped!”. This because whilst I and Lubeman had sexually themed names that were not meant sexually, she was a woman and thus opposite of us and should have a name that is sexually intended but does not sound so. Thus Cherrie was born and now she finishes every letter towards me with hugs etc.,
Your Cherrie wich is immediatley also a spin on the french mon cheri or translated my love .
I went with P83: P8 = Pirate (a little of a stretch there maybe) and 3 because… I don’t know. lol ;0)
Since my nickname always is Smurfa and my birthday is on the 21st of February it became S21. Later I found that S21 was a torture/execution prison i Cambodja which maybe is not quite an ideal callsign. But my two of friends have S22 and S80 so I kept it.
B22. What, do you think Im original?
Q50
it’s fast to say and distinct
that’s the only reason it was chosen
S19 dates back to Halo which I played as a kid, its a long story and is related to my profile name back then.
G77
“G” is the 7th letter of the alphabet, and “77″.
Because 7 is quite awesome.
Mine’s F07… just thought I put the first letter of my first name and my favorite number
I might change it sometime though… then again I’m gonna have to log on to Halo3 to do so which I haven’t done in months lol.
R25
R is the first letter of my first name.
25 is the day I was born.
Mine is R30, which, when you take off the R and stick a zero in its place, you get Spartan-030 or Vinh, one of the truly MIA Spartans in the Halo series. She was possibly captured by the Covenant, where she’s liable to be to date.
Mine is Z42.
Z because it is my last initial (which also explains the Z in Colonel Z), and 42 for the same reason as Viktim and 7he grunt.
And here I thought I was being creative referencing HHG2G in my callsign. Oh well…
C47 is mine
my nickname is chedder so there’s the C, 47 is my clock in number at work, we have a habit of callin eachother by are clock in numbers. my friend from work uses his clock in number as well, D56 the D stands for his first name David.
T93…..self explanitory
I use K75 cuz K is the first letter in Kurt, and 75 cuz thats the number I wore through high school playing football.
You could do B54: B “S” “A” for bsangel in 1337-speak. That could become Boy Scouts of America as well though…
N17 - N for NartFOpc and 17 because it’s my lucky number (Get this, on 1/17/07 I turned 17 years old, thats a halo related b-day right there!). Just don’t ask the origin of NartFOpc plz.
P85: Well, it has a few reasons. First, it’s very distinctive. I haven’t seen anyone else with it. And second, there is a pistol called the 9mm Ruger P85 Pistol, the first of their Ruger P series. Deadly? Of course. As am I. Maybe.
I, like most people, decided to use the name and birthday combo. But mine, instead of first name, birth yar is last name, birthday. its W23 because my last name is Weaver and i was born on March 23. I was kind of in a rush to play so i went with that.
I would also like to comment on this ‘great’ way of pointing out players. Except for one minor detail. The fact that every time im playing, i see a plethora (HA see what i did there bs!) of I69 ’s from such witty members of the Halo 3 community.
Well the b is from my gt BeLoVeD which is what my name means in Hebrew & my numbers 22 stand for my name’s numbers.
PS- what IS the origin of NartFOpc?
Z33
Z for Zoom Demon, my gamertag.
33 because it is a name of a Smashing Pumpkins song, my most favorite band ever.
I ran into a guy in matchmaking, who had the same call sign as me. We ended up on the same team, that was cool. Never seen anyone else with it since.
Ah, forgot to add… I wanted “Z00″ but apparently they don’t allow double zeros? Not with the letter Z at least.
Mine is W44
W cause my name starts with it and 4/4 cause my B day is April 4th. Yay!
M66
My favorite car is the 1966 Mustang
M: Mustang
66: 1966
L23, my default =D
X72
Born in 1972, a member of generation “X” as determined by the man.
I04 –> Resembles my crew’s call sign when working in Southern California, as… a paramedic.
Mine is Z13. Z is for ZZoMBiE. 13 is for, er, 13. That’s also the initials I use when I top score on Q*bert.
F22.
It’s quite possibly the most completely badass fighter jet out there. Therefore, I paid homage to it.
Oh, and I see someone else also has the same tag.
Very nice.
Mine is S95. 1st initial ->my last name; numbuh -> my birth year.
My GT is from a comedy show ‘Sgt Schultz’ (and i didnt even know). =)
I choose o34. After Samual 034 from the Halo Novels. I always liked same and he was like the second to MC in terms of favoritism and that is how I see me. My best buddy Xander would be MC and I would be Sam. It is both a reflection of my life and a homage to the Halo Novels.
I’ve got a list of the most popular service tags up on HaloCharts:
http://halocharts.com/leaderboards.php?group_id=&type=popst
H07NESS
A17.
It’s pretty easy to find out why, but in case you’re feeling lazy, just assign a numerical value to each letter of the alphabet from A to Z, Z being 26.
~Angel
Q13 because it relates to my gamertag.
Qix213 is my gamertag
213 is my birthday - Feb 13
My dad’s is actually B08, his name is Robert… Bob.
Yes that’s right, hes in his 60′ and came up with that all by himself.
My call sign is V08
V is the first letter in my gamertag and 5 is my favorite number… so yeah…. very clever, right?
crap, I meant 8 is my fav number.
M42
As a member of the military, the letter M is used in front of weapons or equipment. (M16, M4, etc.) I chose 42 in honor of Douglas Adams and Hitchiker’s Guide (as someone else did above, I see). I always make my superstar cornerbacks in Madden use the number 42 as well.
B14
First name and age, keep it simple. It will be B15 in september but it doesn’t sound like sometime I like. lol, I gotten used to the number 14.
L33
It’s just a play on my first name “Lee” - I’ve always been lucky when entering in my initials into top score lists, 3 letter in the first name ftw!
Plus, my first name actually spells out my initials - another little quirk of my name
H72
H is the first letter of my amazing girlfriends name and 72 is her fave number!! i’ll finish the fight for her anytime!
mine is horribly boring….. My ‘tag is Merlin73, so guess what? I’m M73.
I would have gone with 256 but soon realized it had to start with a letter, so in following with the theme of my gamertag my callsign is S56 to resemble it.
Mine is L01.
I decided on it cause I had to use L and the letter(standing for Lt Anders) and then I thought whats a good play on words, yet also containing meaning. I then stumbled upon L01. the 01 standing for the fact that I am the First(no numbers in name) to Use Lt Anders, but also a catch phrase, in Leet, which ment lol. which is then also a catch pharse as I am really not funny with jokes.
Also, for your viewing Pleasure, the world of LEET: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet
(also in website)
Note: I really don’t see L01 very often(once a month or so…)
F86 Cause it’s one bad ass fighter and I knew F22 was gonna be used a lot.
I love the T65 though now, might change to it. I own EVERY single Star Wars novel out there
For a while I used K27 because my real name is Kyle and I was born on 27/4/83. Then I decided to use K80 for a while because it actually sounded like a name when you said it and for whatever reason I thought that was funny. (K80 = Katie) I am now using U98 because numercially, U is the 21st letter of the alphabet, so 3 7’s there. And 98 is the largest 2 digit number I could dived evenly by 7. 98/7 is 14, which is also another 2 7’s if you wanna look at it that way. And 9+8 is 17 so it’s another 7. And all of a sudden this post turned into something from the movie, The Number 23.
I use R20.
R = Ray
20 = My age
Plus, no one else seems to have it.
I saw someone in matchmaking with L01 (LOL) and thought it was hilarious.
=D
R55
R for rotary, 55 for the number of the 1991 lemans winner!
I think you should go with a callsign that involves a B for betrayal.
Mine is F13
The is for F like in bad grades. You know you always expect the dunce to be a pain in the ass and thats how I love to play.
The 13 is a tie in with my name and 13 and 8have been my lucky numbers for years, that and F13 looks better than F08. Im not Fat darn it… stupid l337
Mine Would be M45, or MAC©
but since I have one, no tag..!
I use J37 (Jet). I’m fast, deadly, and in a huge chunk of military metal.
For you, I’d say C47 (CAT), M14 (M.I.A.), or D04 (Dead on Arrival). Maybe G41 (Gal?).
Mine is H17.
It translates to “HIT” in 1337 speak, and conveys my love for melee and CQB in general. And by CQB I refer to “Close Quarters Combat” not the armor permutation.
I use X17.
X is the first letter of my handle, and I find that helps people associate it with me. I chose 17 both because it includes the magic number seven and as an obscure reference to Babylon 5 (specifically the episode "Grey 17 Is Missing").
(If you’re not familair with B5, you should check it out. It is easily one of the greatest sci-fi TV shows ever made. If you find it slow in the beginning, hang on until season 3 and I promise you’ll be absolutely glued to the TV.)
t10
That’s mine because my gamertag is tommyp2010. I just shortened it.
My callsign, M24, is the US Army designation for a type of sniper rifle we use. I fancy myself as somewhat of a headshot artiste (but in reality, I’m not awesome), so it made sense to me.
I04…as in Spartan-104, Frederic. I love the Halo books, and like to believe that I have many of the same characteristics as Fred (read the halopedia entry on him). I don’t think you can go wrong with selecting a spartan’s call number. Most of them are available (with the exception of I17 (although if I remember right, you can’t choose Sam’s service tag either, o34)
Mine’s K52. K because my name begins with a K, 52 because 5 and 2 makes se7en. I originally had K77, but I got around to thinking, ‘Come on, man, now you’re overdoing the whole se7en thing.’ Thus, I went with something a little more… Subtle.
L14
My name starts with an ‘L’, and I chose ‘14′ as a reference to ’seven’ in the Halo Series.
My gamertag was originally Radiago 713, and I wanted my call sign to be representative of that. I first thought I would choose r13, but then saying it out loud to myself found the “r” to be too long of a letter that required to much enunciation (as is sorely lacking over headsets). I also didn’t like 17 because it was an extra syllable that didn’t need to be there, and I wanted my teammates to call my sign out as quickly as possible. so I went with T13 because it was an easy, distinctively sounding 3 syllables, that didn’t get slurred easily and was quick off the tongue. Later I realized that this corresponded perfectly with my number after my “Radiago” name, 713.
Mines F47. It was what I was first handed in the beta, and it stuck. I figure that since that was the number the game decided to give me, I might as well stick with it considering it at least sounds cool…ish.
Recently I came to the epiphany that it is similar to yours, Ms. Bloggy:
Mine spells “FAT” in 1337speak.
But I’m probably not going to change it (Nobody noticed until I did…)
As for you…I’d see you as a G83.
Dunno why…Just seems to click in my head.
Mine is K68.
K = K
6 = G
8 = B
So that gives me the Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti–or Russian KGB.
I also use M80 - because I like to blow things up. All though, I have been thinking about trying A-55, one - because it is the initials of my GT, two - because I am an ***, and three - just to see if I can.
S05 because… that was what was automatically assigned to me when I got Halo 3. Only later did someone point out it says S.O.S. in leet.
Y for yankeyhotel, and the 19 because it is a “family lucky number.” My dad played in the NFL for a while with the Saints and Chargers, his number was 19. He had that number from the time he was playing high school ball.
X74.
Xis for Xbox, and for all the other things like X-Files, X-Men, etc. that have X’s in front of them. I’m not very original.
7 because Bungie loves the number 7 and so do I.
And 4 because I also love the number 4.
J88
That’s simply my first initial and year of birth (1988).
The tagging system actually didn’t bother me a bit. I’d been used to it from other implementations and immediately changed mine to “W98″ - Whiskey Niner Eight:
1. “Whiskey” is my team’s name in numerous implementations.
2. “9″ is my birth month.
3. “8″ is my birth day.
4. 9 + 8 = 17
N21
N because of Necromas.
21 because it’s 3*7, and has always been my favorite number.
Mine is W33 because it kinda spells weeeeeeee! And I think it’s pretty easy for people to remember who I am with this.
E07
All members of Team Eva (my clan for the last 4 or 5 years) use an Echo tag. We’ve got 8 members and I was the 7th to join.
O34 Sam’s spartan number from “The Fall of Reach”
K80 = Kato. Clever, I know.
Why would you change your callsign, it’s perfect!
Well my gamertag is Celsius070 and my callsign is C70 so…
I chose D59 cuz, wll, my Gmaertag is Dakota159, so D=Dakota, and 59=159. not that original, but hey, what the hell.
O43
I have ran with S043 or Spartan-043 for many years now, after William-043 from the novels.
Even though, now, he’s dead (thanks, Ghosts of Onyx); I continue to use it — even as my PSN ID.
In game, O43 looks like 043, so everyone I play with from TBK or Penny-Arcade knows it’s me. And it even says:
[Emblem] S043
SPARTAN-043
When you highlight me in the lobby! I love it.
M71
M for my Gamertag
7 for Bungie
1 for……. uh, my Gamertag again
V16
What I get from combining a name for a story and butchering leet.
1 is an I
6 is an A
Now that I think about it, I don’t know what I was thinking when I did the last number in October. ^.^
K23.
As in “Kilo Two-Three” from the game. Also, K for my name and 23 for my day of birth.
D09
as is “DOG” - first three letters of my gamertag
Well my brother, to my great anger, originally put our call sign as J69. Which was annoying as people would assume I was an immature kid, so I changed it about 4 months ago to J96, and he is yet to realise.
He made it J, cause his name is Jeremy, and 69 cause he’s a tard and thinks it’s funny.
S23: Sigafoos and 23 follows the law of fives (also, the S looks like a 5, and 5 = 2 + 3). There’s also 23 Skidoo, which I casually considered changing my GT to a few years back until I found out you can’t start the tag with a number.
My Gamertag is Kinsman 1602, but I decided to go with S47. S for Stark(Iron Man), and 47 cause it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Sierra Four Seven works for me.
My service tag’s N23…named after the movie “The Number 23″. My friends and I just thought it was a good movie…and we like the number 23.
Also…just because someone has 69 in their service tag doesn’t mean that they mean it in an…intimate sort of way. My friends have their service tags with a multiple of 23. One being D46, and the other A69. We’re gay like that.
A88
nothing special, just first letter of meh GT and the number of school days left at the time.
R17. R’s my favorite letter (has a nice sound to it), and 17 was the day I was born.
You know how one is randomly assigned to you upon boot up? My friend got W00 due to that. Needless to say, she hasn’t touched it (the game doesn’t allow you to *choose* anything ending in 00).
I choose mine because Wraith7n has been my screen name wherever I roam. So W77 was a normal choice based on that. And Bungie loves the number 7.
On a side note I chose Wraith long before they named the tank that.
I went with T77 cause I thought it would be the easiest for people to remember and recognize at a glance… plus, u know, the whole 7 dealy.
My callsign is S08.
S = Son
0 = Of
_ = A
8 = -BLAM!-
That is what I am when it comes to firepower.
C02, because it’s easy for people to recognize, and because C02 supposedly causes global warming which some people say will cause the ultimate downfall of humanity, and I for one would like to be a part of that :).