"mark twian " was his pen name, his real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens ."twain" is an archaic term for "two". The riverboatman's cry was "mark twain" or, more fully, "by the mark twain", meaning "according to the mark on the line, the depth is two fathoms", that is, "there are 12 feet of water under the boat and it is safe to pass.

He chose it from hearing the leadsman call out "by the mark twain" which means that there was exactly two fathoms of water. His original profession was steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, and a leadsman was used to help navigation through the shallows by repeatedly measuring the depth with a lead weighted line and calling out when it became shallow.

When waters are deep enough to be considered safe for most boats, which is around two fathoms in depth (about 12 feet),the leadsman on a riverboat described it as...Mark twain.

Because he was a ballin' motha'ucka'!!!!!

"Twain used different pen names (pseudonyms or "noms de plume") before deciding on "Mark Twain". He signed humorous and imaginative sketches "Josh" until 1863. Additionally, he used the pen name "Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass" for a series of humorous letters. He maintained that his primary pen name came from his years working on Mississippi riverboats, where two fathoms, a depth indicating "safe water" for the boat to float over, was measured on the sounding line. A fathom is a maritime unit of depth, equivalent to two yards (1.8 m); "twain" is an archaic term for "two". The riverboatman's cry was "mark twain" or, more fully, "by the mark twain", meaning "according to the mark [on the line], [the depth is] two [fathoms]", that is, "there are 12 feet (3.7 m) of water under the boat and it is safe to pass". Twain claimed that his famous pen name was not entirely his invention. In Life on the Mississippi, he wrote: Captain Isaiah Sellers was not of literary turn or capacity, but he used to jot down brief paragraphs of plain practical information about the river, and sign them "MARK TWAIN", and give them to the New Orleans Picayune. They related to the stage and condition of the river, and were accurate and valuable; ... At the time that the telegraph brought the news of his death, I was on the Pacific coast. I was a fresh new journalist, and needed a nom de guerre; so I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one, and have done my best to make it remain what it was in his hands—a sign and symbol and warrant that whatever is found in its company may be gambled on as being the petrified truth; how I have succeeded, it would not be modest in me to say. Twain's version of the story regarding his nom de plume has been questioned by biographer George Williams III, the Territorial Enterprise newspaper and Purdue University's Paul Fatout. which claim that "mark twain" refers to a running bar tab that Twain would regularly incur while drinking at John Piper's saloon in Virginia City, Nevada." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain#Pen_names