Why the nickname Rafz

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, a very young Raffaele Iannello (here is his curriculum) chose the nickname Rafz to make his debut on BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems), namely the first digital communication platforms that allowed the exchange of messages and files. The first three letters were an abbreviation of his first name, while the fourth was the last letter of the alphabet. At the time, it was common to add a ‘z’ to one’s nickname to give it a distinctive touch. This practice recalled the hacker culture, associated with people with a deep knowledge of technology.

Over the years he has kept it, and it is now also one of his registered trademarks, representing his identity online and offline: @rafz is the name on almost all of his social media profiles, and rafz.com is the address of his website (yes, a .com domain of only four letters… a very rare thing nowadays).

By the way, Rafz is also the name of a Swiss municipality in the Canton of Zürich, but this has no relation to his choice of nickname.