And I fully expect a "stranger" with the handle Master Bates to post here at any minute! As an historical interpreter who does a 19th century schoolmaster dubbed Master Peacock it occurs to me that since all the male teachers were called Master followed by their last name, a fellow named Bates couldn't very well be a schoolmaster, could he?
And since we're in full stroke with hand words how did handle come to mean an alias? Could it have had something to do with short-wave "ham" radio operators?