My real name is Nathanaël, or Nath (and not Matthew I some were lead to believe). I mixed it up with the acronym that kept on showing up everywhere in my notes back when (in 1999) I first accessed to Internet : NMA.

The NMA acronym originally stands for network monitoring & analysis, standard term in computer technology for watching everything on a network (well, it can also stands for Non-MAskable interrupt). Irony intended, I also made it the name of the Network Maintenance Agency, the PC employer in my campaign Operation Charon. And so, as I said, the acronym was everywhere in my notes back then. I only realized later many more potentiel play on words like "not math"...

On Onyx first version, I created an alter ego, a character who would have been Onyx sysadmin in 2060. The character itself had nothing really extraordinary : he beared some ressemblance to me and we had similar interests, indeed. In his case, the Network Maintenance Agency reference was even more direct : it was NMA-mate, playing on the meaning of mate as friend or chess checkmate (yeah, I know, it sucks). He was using those three letters for every alias and fake ID. The character is somewhat official as one of my fellow French freelancer used nicknames from Shadowrun RPG web community as posters in Shadows of Europe. Also, the business man Patrice Lévenan, that I first designed as NMAth uncle, get a mention in SoE and later got a to play a pivotal role in Operation Charon.