How do you choose your ingame names?

As the title says I am wondering how each of us came up with the names we have ingame. I have been using mine since I got it while driving Trucks. I was called the Mouse due to the fact that I could squeeze a tractor trailor into some of the smallest holes out there. And to this day I still am known as Mouse online.

Mega Mouse

I used to do A LOT of online Forum roleplaying and names were always something I was good at. A couple of interesting stories though. My warrior continues a tradition of melee characters I've had since the old D2 days where I had a zealadin named Balin Godhand and so when I went melee with my warrior I made him Jareth Godhand. My dervish name is actually named for a little old Saudi guy that used to clean the embassy grounds while I was stationed there. His name was Hassam and so I named my Dervish Hassam Ibn Halah. Unfortunately rednecks and idiots love to call me a terrorist in game now. LoL. Nevermind that I was a Marine but you can't change stupid.

I name mine after economic theories and concepts...

Yes it's random.

Well, I used to play Dark Age of Camelot. When I was creating the name for my Troll Warrior on there, I was on the phone with my friend. He said that trolls kind of look like dinosaurs. I named my Troll Warrior Ecksor. Now I use Ecks in all of my names.

I've been playing RPG's so long that I just start rolling names around in my head like a tumbler, and keep going until something I like falls out. :\

Mitchel is my real name (yes with 1 L that is). So its usually Mitchel The (insert cheap proffesion ) or (insert cheap proffesion name), except for my Mesmer who was called Mesmer Mitchel.

When I created my first character I named her 'Myria Winddancer' -- 'Myria' being my name and 'Winddancer' being an old /nick from CI$ days. I didn't really have a plan for future character names at the time, and it would have made more sense if Winddancer had been an Ele rather than a Necro, but when I created my second character I decided to stick with the 'dancer' theme. So far I have --

Myria Winddancer
Myria Cryptdancer
Myria Bonedancer
Myria Flamedancer
Myria Stormdancer
Myria Swordancer
Myria Spiritdancer
Myria Bladedancer
Myria Speardancer

Not the most original method for coming up with names, but it works for me and has the advantage of there being almost zero chance of any name I might come up with having already been taken.

Anyone who watches anime should recognize my name. I just like the sound of it. No, I'm not one of those fanboys that starts shouting random stuff in local chat.
My original name (Tanamoril osfameron) is a character from a book.

huge fun of lord of the rings so my first char wouldnt be anyone else but
Dark Lord Sauron and Sauron W my second

Coloneh is Cherokee for "the raven", I started using it after i stumbled across some translator thing. I had been using Raven as my name since I first played Armored Core(best series ever). I thought Coloneh was a little less cliche.

Most of mine came from the song I was currently listening to or the first thing that came to mind

I took names of characters from books, movies and tv for mine.

Commander Ryker - Ele - STNG (spelled wrong because someone already had the correct one)

Christopher Snow Sr - Ra - Dean Koontz book, Fear Nothing. I had to add the Sr because once again, someone had it. In the book, Christopher had a dog named Orson, so I named my ranger's lynx Orson.

Dr Ben Casey - Monk - From an old tv show of the 60's.

Haka Lue Gie - Necro - One I just found on the internet. I made him in factions, so I went looking for a oriental name that sounded funny.

Lucas Davenport - Warrior - 2nd Account He is the star of a lot of John Sandford books. A perfect name for my warrior.

Top Gun made my childhood complete.

PvE: I try for original names hoping that they have not been taken. Unfortunately, I am starting to follow stereotypes and giving characters titles in their name. -__-

Right now my sin Cid Nocturne has the best name I ever thought of.

PvP: Character is always named "Makai (unit)" Based on the NiS gaming line. Right now I just have Makai Witch and Makai Kunoichi.

hmm depends.. i just think of a name.. or like my last 2 creations.. the google translator is my friend

Bleu lefeu (Rit)
Sitzende ende(maybe ente.. i forget) (my monk)
Sharia beni parlune (assasin)

my monks name means sitting duck in german and my assasins is sharia (name) blessed by the moon.. or something, as for my rit, if you split it to blue le feu it's supposed to mean blue flame. As for my dervish his name is a play on turai ossa (kralla torosa) The rest.. i made of the top of my head or based it on my online name noir0/orion/0rion/orionexus.

Neverwinter Nights 1 random name generator named my sorcerer Aruine. I liked the name and named my first GW char Aruine (ele = sorcerer), but GW names have to be two words, so I went with Aruine Atreides.

From there on, I used the same last name and made-up first names:

Alleji Atreides
Lynn Atreides
Aurelia Atreides

Mesmer - A Leprachaun
Necro - A Leprechaun
Warrior - A Lepracorn
Ranger - Lady Leprechaun

Other names used for PvP chars
- Mr A Leprechaun
- Miss A Leprechaun
- A Leprechaunette
- Lady Leprechaunette

etc, etc....


lol

~A Lerpechaun~

Anarion Silverhand - Tolkien mythology with a random last name.

Scipius Africanus - I would have gone Scipio, but that was already taken, curse whoever to to it first. He was a successful roman general.

+ a floating pvp char named Your A Wizard Harry

Mine are a mixture of reading material and online handles. All share the surname Belacqua.

Ele - Saraphim Belacqua (online name in a few places + the surname of Lyra from His Dark Materials)
Paragon - Marisa Belacqua (HDM again)
Assassin - Ruta Belacqua (HDM)
Necro - Serafina Belacqua (oops.. HDM yet again)
Warrior - Luthien Belacqua (The Silmarillion)
Dervish - Katina Belacqua (Strangers in Paradise comic book)
Ranger - Tara Belacqua (no idea where that came from)

The exception to the rule is my mule, called Muffing the Mule. Unsurprisingly someone had already got Muffin the Mule, so I misspelt it, unfortunately she now sounds kinda dubious...

Inspiration from books and a bit of creative thought. Though my first name created was what my internet alias is, Esprit Dumort (Espritdumort on the net).