When I was a kid, everyone in my country called me "Simo". It was a name that felt like a warm hug from my childhood, and it stuck with me. Even now, my friends and family still use it. As I grew older and ventured into the online world, I started making friends from English-speaking countries like the United States, Canada, and Romania. I used "Simo" as my username everywhere. However, because "Simo" isn’t an English name, my friends often mistook it for "Simon" or called me "Simon" on purpose, as "Simo" was a bit challenging for them to pronounce.
I was over the moon when my friends began calling me "Simon". I had a deep love for the English language, and being called "Simon" made me feel special and included. It was like a badge of honor that made me feel part of the group, which motivated me to continue learning English with even more enthusiasm. Over time, I found that going by "Simon" made it easier for my international friends to connect with me. It became a significant part of my online identity and helped me build meaningful connections with people from all over the world.
As "Simon" became such an integral part of my online presence, I thought it would be nice to have a full name that felt equally fitting. That's when I added "Freemen" as my last name. The name "Freemen" has a special meaning to me; it embodies my lifelong dream of creating my own business and living a life of freedom and independence. It represents my desire to live without boundaries and embrace the limitless possibilities of life.
When I began my coding journey, I encountered a common challenge: coming up with unique names for variables and classes. I also faced issues with name conflicts while building browser extensions, where I had to ensure that my code didn't clash with existing names on web pages. To tackle this, I decided to use "sf__" as a prefix for all my variable and class names. The "sf__" stands for my initials, "Simon Freemen", and helped me avoid conflicts and keep things organized.
Since I frequently sought help from developers in forums, they quickly noticed my naming convention. They saw the "SF" prefix all over my code, whether it was sf__canvas or sf__container. It became a bit of a running joke, and before long, they started calling me "SFer" because of my extensive use of "SF" in my projects.
And that’s how SFer came into being. It’s a name that weaves together my childhood nickname, my passion for English, my dream of freedom, and my coding experiences. It’s a name that tells the story of how my personal and professional journey came together in a meaningful and memorable way.