What's the deal with people putting "*something" at the end of their IM nicknames?

Question

Nicknames like:
joe *help

or

joe *9mil

Answer 1

I don't know about those specifically, but putting *tired denotes that you are tired joe *help may like to help people, or may need help a lot..... joe *9mil could emphasize that there have been 9million joes in the last two years.... or something along those lines

Answer 2

the * functions as a word seperator in many cases. It is also used as a way to have the "same" name as someone else - just altered slightly.

Often times when trying to get a name that's unavailable, the system will kick back an alternative that includes the *