I've had alot of people confuse my screenname with something 'gangsta' style, or thinking I'm alot younger than I am because of the slang style of spelling for 'dawg'.
The screenname has been with me since 1996 when I got my first computer, and signed up for AOL for e-mail. I was looking for a screenname, and trying to come up with something other than my name. In the middle of that, my black lab came up to me wagging his tail, and I scrubbed behind his ears aggressively as I often do, and saying his name which excites him - 'Zack! Zackie dog! That's my Zackie Dog!'. And then my inspiration hit - I'd use 'Zackiedog' as my screenname since he's my buddy and all my friends and family would know that was me. Unfortunately, ever-popular AOL ended up already having a 'Zackiedog'...so I started contorting the spelling in different ways that would still come out sounding the same - and found an opening on 'Zackiedawg'. I took it.
Later, as I started going on websites that required user names, or message boards that would ask for e-mail addresses, I got used to using Zackiedawg since it was easier to remember. And it started to stick - I became better known by that name than my real name. At my annual car show, I'm usually referred to as 'Zack' by many of the attendees who know me by my screen persona. And more than a few people assume that 'Zackiedawg' is some kind of rap-style handle, or indication of youth - which has probably worked to my advantage (alot of the early support I received on the car show started from younger rap-culture guys who were into their cars...their greeting was always 'Yo, dawg!' Without them, it's unlikely the show would have caught on and spread to the 3,000+ people that attend now!
My lab passed on at age 14 1/2 in 1998...but the name lives on in honor, and has become my online persona. I finally had to filter down my 'zackiedawg' e-mail at AOL to only friends and family, locking out all others because of the tremendous junk mail loads...I still use it, but that account can only receive e-mail from the 20 people I listed.
So that's my long, intensive screenname story!
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Justin
galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg
(I'd be honored and overjoyed to have any of my posted photographs critiqued, commented on, or post-processed - I can attribute everything I know about photography to the wonderful people who have done this for me in the past!) 
