Avatar

SmallBusiness.com: The free small business resource

An avatar is an Internet user's representation of himself or herself, for example the photo or icon used on Internet forums and other communities. On SmallBusiness.com, the term "avatar" is sometimes used to describe the photo or logo that appears with one's User Profile.

The term (as used in its "online" context) comes from the gaming world in which 3-D representations of players are called referred to as avatars.