How Do You Name Your Characters? (Naming Discussion)

[SteveTheCynic]

I don't have one policy for names.

 

* My first character is (OK, was) named after my first character in Runes of Magic. She, in turn, was named as close as I could get to my favourite character in Guild Wars 1. Kylara Nightsong - a hybrid of Kylara from somewhere (there was a character called this in the Pern series) together with Nightsong from a major allied NPC in Spellforce II - became Kylarina because RoM is a mononym game, and Kylara was already taken. But Kylarina the Shadow lost her name in the name purge, and was renamed Lyuze, a character from the anime Casshern Sins.

* I continued the Kyla* theme in my second SWTOR character, yielding Kylath, It's persistently mispronounced by my guildies because I'm English (y like eye, th like "thin") and they are French ("Keelat").

* I had a series of characters (F!humans on the Imp side) with a 'kinth suffix on their names. Jannia'kinth became Kylara Nightsong when the mononym rule was removed.

* I had another series of jade-green female Mirialans all with a 'jenik suffix. Only one of them is left.

* Bentarik is a Vanguard, but he enabled me to find out that I don't really like Vanguards. I semi-cloned him as the Commando Ben Tarik.

* I had a brain-worm song in my head that resulted in a character called Be-bop'alula.

 

Otherwise I'll throw syllables around (Parnos, Zeltoros, Xalari'pelarth, Krallak, Yerka Kolar, Fortuna'inskis, Bentarik, etc.), or push the random button and fidget the result by adding a syllable or taking away a letter or adding a second (or first) name. Recently the random button produced Rykeen, so the character became Jass'rykee, and Reyelria'kinth"s Rule(1) is named after Reyelria'kinth, random Reyel plus "ria" then the 'kinth suffix.

 

(1) Read your ability tooltips before you get into a major boss fight, not while the boss is trying to explode you like a blood sausage(2).

 

(2) I played Wasteland 1 back when "retro" wasn't cool. That phrase stuck in my mind.

[Qouivandes]

My first actual online name in any game was LoupGarou from a story i read at the library one afternoon and had bought to read to my daughter after she was born. from there I went on to stylize my gaming monikers from my home. RizSalete became Dirty Rice which i used for a long time along with its off shoot Rizsalier. this was mostly in SOEs Infantry.

 

Eventually i found myself in SWG and decided i wanted a TwiLek Imperial and settled on Cerceuil D'jbble as I was listening to a Stones song at his creation. It was supposed to translate to "the Devils Coffin" though i didnt noticed i misspelled it for a long time.

 

when i played WoW i started using Zryondell; it was a play on zirable and fell in line with his back story of being raised in undercity... Other names like Tqaulemara pay homage to two of the most friendliest gamers i have ever met--Taule and Mara mai Hoe.

 

Eventually, though, i decided to make a Horde Warlock and after deciding on his look, every name i came up with he seemed to dislike strongly. so, while outside smoking i kept asking myself where i intended on going with this toon (i like to RP even if i hardly do so in game) and it seemed a bit strange that a single book spine on my office shelf caught my eye as i walked back to my desk. the book was Qou Vadis. from there i changed it up a bit and settled on Qouivandes.

 

other names come from the various short stories that I have written over the years (non published), but most tend to flow in a similar direction incorporating some form Qoui or vandis in them. Later, i added Vqompadis. that one is a bastardization made for my Death Knight deriving from Vater and Padre. yea, i know, its a stretch, but it flowed out as i tried to tack on vandis. RP wise, the intention was that the DK was a distant ancestor to my BE Hunter who was raised by my warlock (see above) outside of Undercity. I never really played that DK and i am unsure if he ever made it to 70.

 

As you can see below, my name choices arent your typical names, but each have some meaning to me. being an altaholic i tend to make and delete toons enough that i have my poster up at some digital post office. however, each toon had a reason, however brief, for being in my cadre. Tqauilemara has even made a come back as being my original sage, but has now gained a taste for the dark side as my Sentinal. she was always a bit dark sidish. which fits for her to T.

Edited March 3, 2017 by Qouivandes

[Andryah]

I have favorite names that I have used over the years of MMO play. It used to be some of these (the more common ones) were already taken by someone else in this MMO.

 

However, when they upgraded naming conventions last year to allow a space in your name... all problems solved for me.

 

Now what I do is: <name> (space) <legacy name> and I just turn off display legacy name and I have so far had complete freedom in naming under the new naming conventions.

 

I love it.

Edited March 3, 2017 by Andryah

[eriksarcasm]

Mando'a for "sarcasm" is actually "tarhalsr." ...I like "sulinar" better, to be honest. XD

 

Figured someone would find a proper translation. What'd you use for that? I checked a few different translators and dictionaries online (there's a surprising amount of them, almost as many as for Klingon) and didn't come up with anything for "sarcasm."

[Eanelinea]

I don't typically like what I consider to be stupid or really weird names. So I'll never name a toon something like Ihealu or Shajaiutjhahrkg as if I smashed my forehead against my keyboard.

 

As for my current toons in THIS game...

 

D'raconia, I got this from Draco from Harry Potter. When I was on The Razor before the first server merge, it was just plain old Draconia. But some other toon who hasn't played in YEARS had that name so to keep it I added the comma.

 

Eanelinea I got from randomly picking a name that popped up when I was choosing a name for my High Elf Wizard in Everquest. And I've had it all these years.

 

Harriet I got from Harry Potter. It's the female form of Harry or Harold, whatever.

 

Got T'amara, K'athryn, Melony because I like having 'real' names when I play. I don't give a crap about lore.

 

K'yoko I got from a livejournal user who used to friend me. Hers was Kayoko or something, I don't remember.

 

R'iza I got from Full Metal Alchemist. My character looks nothing like Riza Hawkeye, about the closest I got was my R'iza is a trooper.

 

Velinea and Melinea I got from smooshing Melony, Vector and Eanelinea together.

 

Torren from Tharan C (as in my rp head and legacy tree, this guy is Tharan C's kid)

 

Darnel from My Name is Earl.

 

Eriobea I think from greek myth or random name generator, dunno. Ankyo is Andronikos and Kyoko smooshed together. Azariana is Riza and Aric Jorgan smooshed. I usually name the children/grandchildren I make (I have 36 toons atm) from combining/smooshing the parents' names.

 

Evie Ventia and Evie Ventiatu were toons created for the DvL event. Basically Event and Event Two.

 

I have a ton more names, but I can't remember everyone atm.

[Jagaimee]

Figured someone would find a proper translation. What'd you use for that? I checked a few different translators and dictionaries online (there's a surprising amount of them, almost as many as for Klingon) and didn't come up with anything for "sarcasm."

 

I used this: http://starwars.myrpg.org/coruscant_translator.php

It's...surprisingly in-depth, with A LOT of different languages. Mando'a, Catharese, Huttese, Cheunh (the chiss language), High Sith, Ryl (twi'lek)... 'tis fun.

 

Edit: that said, it might not be *entirely* accurate (or vague). Sometimes the same word is used for different things. "Tarhalsr" can also mean "taunt" or "quip" as well as "sarcasm." And "vysok," catharese for "champion"...oh boy...there's a gigantic laundry list of other words "vysok" might mean, depending on, I assume, context. o_o

Edited March 3, 2017 by Jagaimee

[eriksarcasm]

I used this: http://starwars.myrpg.org/coruscant_translator.php

It's...surprisingly in-depth, with A LOT of different languages. Mando'a, Catharese, Huttese, Cheunh (the chiss language), High Sith, Ryl (twi'lek)... 'tis fun.

 

Edit: that said, it might not be *entirely* accurate (or vague). Sometimes the same word is used for different things. "Tarhalsr" can also mean "taunt" or "quip" as well as "sarcasm." And "vysok," catharese for "champion"...oh boy...there's a gigantic laundry list of other words "vysok" might mean, depending on, I assume, context. o_o

 

Good lookin' out. I checked that one but for some reason didn't verify the result too thoroughly.

 

The more I think about it, it makes less sense for "Sulinar" to be Mando'a. It was for my BH who wasn't a Mandalorian at the start of his adventure. Anyway Mando's have "normal" first-last names: Jango Fett, Shae Viszla, Torian Cadera, etc...

 

It's a big universe, I'll have to do more research into documented naming conventions and find one that fits a single apostrophied named human.

[Fleurdelis]

Comic characters, movie characters, historical characters. My issue is if there is not an outfit in the game that fits the character then I will delete it. I usually spend lots of time finding the outfit before I actually create the character. I mix lots of different pieces and try different dyes to get it just right. Alt codes work wonders when you can't get what you want for one reason or another. Edited March 4, 2017 by Fleurdelis

[ImmortalLowlife]

All my characters are named after friends. I'm a rapper so I use our "stage names"

 

 

Sche Eastwood

N- Sain Mane

Al Kapone

Blue Boi

Blaine

etc....

[Vego_Mohenjo]

Many of my characters are recreations of characters I made YEARS ago as part of an P&P Star Wars game. As such, their names are very important to me, as it connects the TOR characters to the original ones.

 

Other of my characters are based on respellings of my own name.

 

 

In fact, the names are so important to me that I paid extra money to get early access to the game after beta, so I would be sure to get all the names of my characters.

 

However, when they did their first server merge, I lost Shien and Ahriman. So, I renamed them to Shein and Arhiman. Tolerable, I thought. After all, I was being moved to someone else's server, and he had dibs on the names.

Then they did another merge, and I lost those names again, along with Rath. Now, there was no way to rename them with normal letters, so I was forced to use goofy symbols and characters in the names. It's always rubbed me the wrong way, but there it is. Again, I was going to someone else's server, so dibs were theirs.

 

Then they did ANOTHER merge, and this time people were coming to MY server. So, I figured I had dibs this time. Nope, they took ALL my names from me again, forcing me to rename or respell or adjust everything once more.

 

It's a sore point.

[bluehufsa]

My BH is a Chiss female named .. Bluehufsa. The name is inspired from a song of the Norwegian avantgarde metal band Arcturus. The Hufsa is a cartoon character, she wants to feel warm but ends up freezing to death all living beings around her, a sort of personification of the eternal winter. I DO NOT recommend you to even search on youtube for the cartoon episodes, while other characters are nice and likeable, the Hufsa will give you nightmares.

 

My Sith Inquisitor,a Togruta, is called Ankh'Sun Seth'Amun - in translation Immortality of Seth and Amun - the twin Gods of Egypt represented dark and light.

[CrazyCT]

I stick to a theme depending on which server. Once I have my legacy name on that server, I fit my names around the name. Mostly, I'm inspired by literature. I have a couple of servers with characters from literature, so chose a unifying legacy name, then named the characters after characters in the book series - like naming my Legacy "Gryffindor", and then naming all my characters after Harry, Ron, Hermoine....... (I didn't use Harry Potter, the books I used were a bit more obscure, just showing you an example of what it's like).

 

On one server, I used the Legacy name "Chance", then named all my characters things like "Random" and "Fighting", so that when the legacy is shown, it's Random Chance, Fighting Chance, etc.

 

Also have a server full of HK clones, cause they are easy to name (just change the number).

[eriksarcasm]

I stick to a theme depending on which server. Once I have my legacy name on that server, I fit my names around the name. Mostly, I'm inspired by literature. I have a couple of servers with characters from literature, so chose a unifying legacy name, then named the characters after characters in the book series - like naming my Legacy "Gryffindor", and then naming all my characters after Harry, Ron, Hermoine....... (I didn't use Harry Potter, the books I used were a bit more obscure, just showing you an example of what it's like).

 

On one server, I used the Legacy name "Chance", then named all my characters things like "Random" and "Fighting", so that when the legacy is shown, it's Random Chance, Fighting Chance, etc.

 

Also have a server full of HK clones, cause they are easy to name (just change the number).

 

I recall once, I think it was you, asking for book recomendations, I suggested Discworld and you said you were very familiar. Is there a Rincewind and Twoflower running around somewhere, UnseenUniversity Legacy, perhaps?

 

Do you have one called Snowballs Chance?

 

Also for the HK ones, do you dress them in various Cybernetic skins? I ask because given how much thought you guys put into naming, I'm curious how much goes into appearances going along with that.

[CrazyCT]

I recall once, I think it was you, asking for book recomendations, I suggested Discworld and you said you were very familiar. Is there a Rincewind and Twoflower running around somewhere, UnseenUniversity Legacy, perhaps?

 

Do you have one called Snowballs Chance?

 

Also for the HK ones, do you dress them in various Cybernetic skins? I ask because given how much thought you guys put into naming, I'm curious how much goes into appearances going along with that.

 

A typical (slightly rusted) HK clone

 

Nah, no Discworld legacy (yet?). My favourite one the the Manetheren legacy (from the Wheel of Time)

Edited March 4, 2017 by CrazyCT

[DreadtechSavant]

That's really good HK character, CrazyCT

 

Well done.

[eriksarcasm]

A typical (slightly rusted) HK clone

 

Nah, no Discworld legacy (yet?). My favourite one the the Manetheren legacy (from the Wheel of Time)

 

Very nice!

[Vyerix]

Most times I think of a name to go with a new character. Other times I come up blank on the name for a character I am making. Then I use random name generator in the CC. I get lucky and something will pop up that I can work with. Sometimes I can tweak it with a few letters added or removed. Sometimes I get lucky and can put a space some where and end up with a nice unique first last name. Tyundo Yath originally popped up as tyundoyath. I've ended up with a handful that only required a space to work out. Also helps to change species to get a more diverse random name pool to work from.

 

Otherwise I have never had an issue with naming a character or a name being used.

[PiiTarr]

(Excerpted from my thread on this topic a couple of years ago.)

 

Before you start the actual character creation process online, make a list of potential names, (and no, I don’t mean three or four names, I mean five, six, seven, or more). Review the list often, eliminating any names that you feel you won’t enjoy seeing every time you play, as well as any that may not fit whatever you have in mind for a particular character, (but don’t get rid of those completely, as they may yet serve you for future characters). If you make such a list and add to it as new names come to you, you’ll be ready to create a character when the time comes, even if it’s a spur of the moment idea, (I have a list I’ve maintained for months, just in case). When the time comes, be prepared to have some of the names rejected, but that’s okay, because you’ve gotten to the point where you are fine with any of the names on your list, (though most likely you will have some order of preference established). Having the list helps keep you from being too attached to any one particular name.

 

There are several options available for creating such a list. You can take common names you like and adjust the spelling, adding/removing consonants, (or changing “c” to “k” or vice versa), and switching up vowels to phonetic variations of the same name. You can also use other languages by coming up with words that define how you see your character, then searching for the translation of that word in whichever language you choose, (think of the origins of “Vader” for example). [Once you have found words you like in another language, you may want to come up with alternate spellings for these words as well, just in case the regular spelling is already taken, or sometimes simply to make it sound more like a name to you.] If you have a specific species in mind for a character, use an online dictionary to identify names for that species, or even words from their language that you can turn into names, (Twi’lek, Chiss, and other species have dictionaries and even naming conventions available online). For something personal, you can look for variations of your real life family name and check the history/etymology of that name to come up with something for your character’s name, your legacy name, or both. Finally, you can just make up something, based on other names you’ve seen, either for that particular species, or in general. This process does not have to take very long either. A few quick searches can be completed in 5-10 minutes. How long you spend looking at the search results is up to you, but it’s definitely worthwhile if it helps you come up with a series of names you like.