My handle was simply my screen name when I played in team computer games (e.g. Counter Strike, Warcraft, etc.). I simply kept saying "anatol, anatolia" in my head one day and thought it had a nice ring to it, so keeping in with the style of serious game players then and today (and I've moved off serious game playing), I changed the o at the end to a 0 (just like replacing a e with a 3, and other insane combinations).

Certainly a new phase and less childish sounding than my first Hotmail handle (and address). As I'm not a very creative person by nature (at least in not this kind of stuff), I've got no regrets about my handle.

I remember the first time I went to the FT AGM in BNE year 2007. I was coming from PER and quickly posted before boarding that someone should try and spot me as I deplaned at BNE so we could catch up for a quick drink and bite at the QC. And there it was: two FTers standing at the gate in BNE with a piece of paper, on which was printed: "Mr. anat0l" (sic)

In case you're wondering, it's pronounced simply /ana-toll/. I believe that QF WP was the first person to pronounce it correctly without prompt - most others either look confused or mispronounce it. Most people (even on FT where cut-and-paste exists!) will misspell my handle, replacing the 0 with an O and the l at the end with a 1! (Hence some mispronunciations, e.g. anat01 -> /anat oh one/ !)