The place was Andover High School, and the year was 1991.

This was before the outcast had a vehicle of his own to drive to school, thus he was forced to ride the School Bus®.

One day, riding home on the bus, there was a tap on his shoulder.

He turned around to see who it was, and it was a sophmore whom he knew, but did not know. It was someone he had known before, but had forgotten he knew. (He still thinks of this event as when they met)

The sophmore told him that he ran knew the outcast was into computers, and that he (the sophmore) ran a computer BBS. Would the outcast be interested in joining it?

The outcast was interested and said so.

The sophmore asked the outcast what his name would be.

The outcast said Let me think about it.

The summer immediately before his freshman year, the outcast had attended level 2 Space Camp in Hutchinson, Kansas.

At this camp, he met someone who had developed plans for a manned mission to Mars.

The outcast was quite interested and began to further develop the plans, both with the someone while at camp, and afterwards, on his own.

The outcast remembered his interest in Mars, and turned to the sophmore, saying that he would use the name Martian.

Thus was the name chosen, thus has it stuck.

[A friend of the sophmore gave him the nickname Marty, since she (like everyone else) didn't like typing too many characters, nor the typoing of the outcast's name.]