To further preface the explanation demerphq has given, merphq was meant to be a word which means nothing but can be used to mean anything. There was much debate over how the word should be spelled and it was eventually agreed that m e r p h was appropriate, until seconds later, when someone in the party shouted out "with a silent q" and the word merphq was set in stone.

When the various parties involved had returned to their respective cities around the world, I decided that I would set up a website so that we could all keep in touch. merphq.com seemed like the most appropriate domain name and also the least likely to be in use already. These days, most of us use 'merphq' in some form in our usernames as it is a sure bet that nobody else has taken it. Thus 'merphq', 'demerphq', 'smerphq' and 'merphqette' (until an recent breakup) are currently in use today in various ways. So in actual fact, it's not as uncommon as you might think.