Geocaching Names: Ideas For Choosing a Unique Username

Geocaching Names

You are ready to start geocaching, have downloaded the Geocaching app, and are setting up an account when your device asks you to pick a username. How do you pick the perfect username for your Geocaching account?

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The perfect geocaching username should be something that identifies you and should be unique, fun, meaningful to you, and memorable. The most popular names are usually easy to spell, and often have a funny element or clever play on words.

Your username is your specific mark; it’s your tag. Like a flag planted on unknown soil, your username on a cache’s log is your way of saying, “I am here and I have conquered this.” Choose wisely!

What is a Username For?

In the geocaching world, your username is you. It’s how you identify yourself in cache logs, it’s how your friends will see you appear on their dashboards, and it’s the name you will be known by when you interact with others in the geocaching community, online, in forums, or even in person.

Geocaching legends grow as you start seeing the same names appearing again and again in the caches you find.

Part of the fun is opening up a cache, scanning the log, and seeing who beat you to it, and who hasn’t found it yet. You start to get mental images of people you have never even met and the username is a big part of those images.

As you carve out your own geocaching path, you need a good, memorable name to help you on your way.

Tips for Choosing a Great Username

The name has to be unique. If someone else has claimed it, you can’t use it. This is true even if the name has been inactive for years.

You will probably want to keep the username fairly short. Imagine standing precariously on a hillside, holding a little Tupperware container covered in camouflage duct tape while trying to write your username legibly on a floppy little piece of paper.

You want people to be able to read it and the fewer letters the better in that situation!

Try to create a username that is easy to say. Not only is that better when geocachers meet face to face (yes, many geocachers call each other by username, even at in-person gatherings) but a name you can say is much easier to remember than a string of letters or numbers.

For example, Buckhunter is easier to remember than EVH257.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t use numbers at all. Gr8scott is easy to say, easy to remember, and easier to write in a log than Greatscot (any back to the future fans out there?)

Some geocachers even like to have a stamp made of their username, so they can just stamp it into the log. A short username makes for an easier and more legible stamp.

Plus, you never know…you may go viral and famous and start making money geocaching!

Inspiration & Ideas

There are a number of ways people come up with a username that has meaning to them and is memorable to others. The best names imply a story.

Your imagination is the limit here, and the ways people arrive at a name are as unique as the people themselves. Here is just a small sample of what people use.

Work

A person who studies bugs is entogeek (short for entomology; the study of insects). Truckercacher is a long hall trucker who looks for caches near his stops when he is taking a break.

Firebuck is a firefighter who is also an avid deer hunter, so this name combines work and hobby.

Hobbies

People may identify themselves by non-geocaching hobbies. Worstcaster is a really unskilled fly fisherman.

GeneralGeo is a Civil War re-enactor. One person named themself after the jeep that they use for off-roading. Moun10Man is a mountain biker.

Are you starting to get the idea? Make it fun!

Family

Geocachers may use combinations of family member names, an old family name, or a combination of their name with something else, like BoiseSmith. Some people will use their pet’s name like RoscoeWalker.

Humor

This is where geocachers really let their imagination go. You are probably more likely to remember a name that makes you laugh than almost any other. There are all kinds of ways to approach this.

One is just combining odd things together. Rabidpeanut, Lazerpuppynerdsammich, and SuperHippoMonkeyTribe are all silly examples.

Other names are jokes. One reluctant geocacher who keeps being dragged out by his family calls himself TheyMadeMeCome– which I think is hilarious!

A family from Hershey Pennsylvania call themselves HersheySquirts. I am not completely convinced that’s a good name, but it surely is memorable. Almost any joke you like can be made into a username.

Nicknames

Many people come to geocaching and already have a nickname, maybe even one they have had most of their life. As long as no one has taken it, this can be a perfect ready-made username.

These are just a few examples of places where ideas for user names can come from. Literally, anything in your life can be used as inspiration for a good username.

A lot depends on how the name flows. You can have the greatest or most meaningful idea in the world, but if it’s clunky and unpronounceable, it’s no good. Some names that are complete nonsense just somehow work.

Geocaching Name Generator

I’m not aware of any specific websites dedicated to generating geocache usernames. However, here are a few name generator websites I always find useful for brainstorming:

Nordpass Username Generator

Shopify Business Name Generator (works just as good for usernames)

Geocaching Team Names

Geocaching Team names are usually intended for groups that go geocaching together at the same time. Families, church groups and even geocaching clubs commonly form team names.

Ask yourself, what do all of you have in common? Is it a shared passion, sport, interest or trait? Brainstorm common team names from sports franchises, or create your own unique play on words.

What if I Pick A Name But Later Decide I Hate It?

No problem! Let’s say you named yourself after your job. Now, you have switched jobs and no longer want to keep that name. Will you lose all your stats, lose credit for the caches you already found, and have to start a new account?

No, you will not. The process for changing a user name is extremely easy. All you have to do is go to the proper page on the Geocaching site and you can change it in minutes.

Just keep in mind that if you have been PlumberGuy to everyone in your geocaching community, you will probably continue to be PlumberGuy to at least some of them for a long time after your name change, no matter how cool the new name is.

See Also: Is it worth paying for Premium Geocaching?

Final Thoughts

Choosing a unique and memorable geocaching username can be a lot of fun…but dont agonize over a name either. Let it come to you naturally, brainstorm or ask a friend.

If you end up wanting to change your username, no problem! Thanks for reading.