My real name is Brian Clayton. I first got the nickname "Herzog" in 1988. I was in Mrs. O'Leary's 7th grade English class at Joseph H. Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, RI. We were given a sheet of sentences without punctuation as an in-class assignment. One of the sentences was something like "Have you read Saul Bellows new novel Herzog." This should have been changed to "Have you read Saul Bellow's new novel Herzog?" However, I changed it to "Have you read Saul Bellow's new novel, Herzog?" My friend Joe Parham noticed my mistake and burst out laughing. This, of course, drew the attention of the entire class who all had a good laugh at my mistake. For the following week Joe reminded me of the mistake by laughing, pointing, and saying "Herzog!" every time he saw me in the halls. Soon, everyone was calling me Herzog and the nickname stuck.
The original sentence I made the mistake in was not exactly the one shown above. I don't remember exactly what the original was, but I don't think that the novel it mentioned really existed (unlike the novel in the sentence shown). Both Joe and I have read the novel Herzog by Saul Bellow.
For my usernames, I usually chose "herzogone". Herzog is a fairly common surname so it is often taken already as a username. In the early days of my nickname, I was often referred to as "Herzog One" and Joe was "Herzog Two", so it just made sense.