Question about IRC accounts

[Phil Adams]

I'm using pidgin v 2.6.5-1.fc12 on a Linux (Fedora 12, 64-bit) system.

For a specific IRC account, I find myself needing to execute a "/nick
<username>" command every time I join an IRC channel associated with a
specific account.   This is because I would like my visible username
in the IRC channel window to be something different (shorter) than the
userid I used to log into the IRC server.    Is there some way that I
can configure either my IRC account or perhaps the IRC channel (it's
defined in my buddy list) so that the desired username is set each
time I join the IRC channel without having to execute the "/nick"
command?

Thanks
Phil