Naming Characters

mine are all fairly random. I do try and keep my character names sounding like they might be real names though.

Most of my characters share the last name Shadowmere, which is a horse from the Dark Brotherhood assassin guild in TES Oblivion.

With my necro Angel The Wraith I wanted to make a very pale necro based on the naming of Wraith characters from Stargate Atlantis; Darrel the Wraith, Bob the Wraith, Steve the Wraith etc.

as for Riot Inducer (warrior) I have no idea where it came from, I was just staring at the naming screen for about a half hour and it clicked

most of my characters names come from more or less popular 18th century novels. no misspellings or x name x - if someone else thought of the name, i don't want it

i also like to hang out in town sometimes and look at the funny names people come up with

Since I'm bored atm....

I try to come up with names that might represent the character somewhat and yet still have the appearance of being a name.

Cinerea = Latin for Ash-colored (could also be translated white I think)
Nekrosis= Greek for Death (in Latin causing to die, killing)

Ash-colored Death.....I thought it fitting for a Necro/Elementalist.

mine all come from The Stargate Omnipedia http://gateworld.net/omnipedia/index.shtml
I pick characters that have been on the show at least twice in different parts and combine there names ie.my main toon is Lineahttp://gateworld.net/omnipedia/chara...ks/linea.shtml Kerahttp://gateworld.net/omnipedia/chara...nks/kera.shtml

I like to give my Guild Wars character names that you'd hear in the game and that fit, NOT random gibberish, phrases, screen names, etc that MOST people use in this game.

Prophecies i just made up names that i thought would fit, Factions i actually used Chinese and Japanese names, Nightfall i used African and Arabian names.

However this isn't always the case for PvP, since i do not keep my PvP characters that long, and i do not really care if i use screen names, gibberish, etc for PvP characters, i don't know why.

I use the power of my fantasy either and develop absolutely own names...or I get inspired by books, other games, animes ect. take from them 1 name or word and use them either as first or last name and the other half gets only thought out....

but one thing I do is ever the same... I try to find words and names.. which sound together good and fluid...names..which are no tongue breakers where you will automatically bit your tongue, if you try to spell it out.


For example my Main Character ...

First I naturally choose its profession..my Main is a female Ranger ...

so first points taken into consideration for the name are:

- Name must sound femalish!
- Name must fit to a Ranger!


Aloen with these categories came automatically the most famous and nice sounding name of a greek Goddess into my mind.

The Greek Goddess of the Hunt "Artemis", which hunts with Bow&Arrow.

So i had found the imo most nicest name for my female Ranger, that sounds good and is well known as beign the name of this goddess.

When i created my main character.. i was reading one of the Harry Potter Books and i ever liked the Name "Gryffindor"... so it was absolutely clear to me, that I wll call my main chara "Artemis Gryffindor"

A nice sounding name with historic background which fits to the profession as ranger and also sounds femalish. Also the point of rangers beign able to have pets (phoenix) brought me in an instant to the backname of gryffindor, due to the fact..that the house of Gryffindor holds the phoenix Fawkes.
Gryffindor fitted so perfect to a ranger...because in the name itself is a name of a mystical creature...the Gryffin.
For me is naturally clear..that my pet will be later a rainbow phoenix XD.
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For me its easy to think of fantasy names...all my characters have an absolutely different name...none..that has anyhow such dumb thigns in it, like Xxx .... Xxx or such stuff like Sir/Lady whatever ...or anything like "Sworddancer" or anything similar which sounds like as if the backname shoukld tell others..what the character should be lol

1. Take my profession: Warrior
2. Take a manly verb: Kill
3. Take a completely random slang word: Woot!
4. Put together, add a misspelling or two: Worior Wut Kill
5. Realize it's already taken, add random X's somewhere: X Worior Wut Kill X
6. Scratch my head when nobody accepts my party invites

This is exactly what I did. While creating a character, I imagine what ethnic background they might have and sometimes use real names from relative languages in our real world or sometimes base a semi-realistic name on this idea.

My Prophecies characters have European-based names (inspired by names from Latin, German, Finnish, etc...), while my Factions characters have Central and Eastern Asian inspired names (Chinese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Hindu, Uyghur, etc...) and my Nightfall characters have names from various countries in Africa or Western Asia.

I say "inspired" because I am basically creating my own names most of the time but I aim at making them sound like they could be very real names from specific regions of the world.

I was watching "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" (The episode where they dig up Fred Flintstone and Billy names him Jake Steel). So I named my first Character Jake Steel, and all characters since then are some variation of that.

Its hard striving a balance for me, names can be a few things and mean a lot more then what most people think. For instance names tie directly to recognizability, I still see people in guild chat that I think I never met, to only have them turn out to be an old friend on a new/unused name. Names also shouldn't contain Xx's or anything like that, its ugly and breaks the mood of the game.

Personally for me names break into three subcategories. The most practical being RP names with the last name being the same for them all, this is mostly the route I took with GW. My ele's name is Damien Creed, my Necro's is Angelus Creed, and my warrior's is Gaden Creed. Now thats fun, and it helps people recognize me, but at the same time, it gets stale. So I like having themed character names too which is another sub catagory, such as Shino Usagi for my assassin, seeing as hes basically asian. Finally the third sub category for naming for me is having a sleek one look name that can be remembered or having a pop icon name. Such as a name like "Raven, Shadow, etc etc" in other MMO's this is much more convenient as you do not need a last name, so it gives you a real veteran appeal in noob towns with players who tried typing the name you have in to only find that it was taken. Along with the short sleek names is the pop icons which could range anywhere from Chuck Norris to Will Smith. Those are always worth a chuckle.

In GW2 though I'm gunna have to honker down and get serious about what I want. If you really think about GW2 is a chance for many players to get a claim to fame in the early weeks/months of the game and become well known on forums. So I've yet to decide what route I want to take with my characters I'm borderline short and sleek versus traditional RP with the same last names. I'unno to me it just seems like people over look the notability of names, I've found that instead of changing the name of my PvP slot and instead sticking to Hallow Raven no matter what I re-roll into, people always recognize me in TA and what not. Its a nice feeling knowing you don't have to friend someone onto your list, but still can meet up with them just based off of a well remembered acquaintance.


Edit: Back when I first started playing GW (much younger at the time) I tried naming characters after music/songs. My first ele was Sonne Feuer, a song by Rammstein. I got so many PM's asking if I was German, still like the name though.

I have 2 first names I use, depending on the gender of the character, allowing newer guildies some chance of recognition.

Arden (male), taken from another online character of mine many moons ago... with a rough meaning of 'passionate and fiery'.

Noci (female), a most-likely inaccurate boiling down of nociception, the sensation of pain.

I will then tack on a last name that has something to do with the character (Arden Kindlecorpse was originally an Ele/Nec, and Noci Dirgesinger was a Nec/Mo). With the later campaigns I tried inserting some (superficially) cultural connections. I couldn't resist (embarrassingly) the temptation of linking my Derv to the grim reaper -- Arden Gloomharvest was my not very subtle compromise.

Faith, my main, is a hang over from RPGs since pen and paper games entered my life in my early teens.

All my characters are part of her family so they share the surname Angelis; Trinity, Hope, Dawn, Grace, Imogen, Selene... All good traditional English names.

In my not so humble opinion:

If your name looks like this Xx Something Xx or this II Something II... The name was taken, give yourself a slap and live with it.

If your name is not a name, but a statement, as in I Pwn Da Nubzez just give yourself a slap. If it's deliberately misspelled or contains 'net slang give yourself two.

Oh, and if you have an assassin with an anime name, or a ranger called Legolas (or any variation thereof) can I come to your house and give you a slap?

random mostly but some i feel are clever from others and i mod them

well the only character I play anymore is Captain Barq of Arg (ranger), and I made it cause i like Barqs which is a company who makes root beer and Arg which is a cliche pirate saying, and for Captain I was thinking of Captain Crunch the breakfast cereal.

For PvE I just use realistic names, like Matt Sand, or Santino Longo, or John Ramos.

For PvP I use the first name from a decepticon, and the last name Jones. So like, Shockwave Jones, or Rumble Jones.

Simple .. I lack imagination. Leprekan has been my online name for over 20 years .. the X was due to needing a last name. Other chars seem to be statement names as can be viewed on left.

Over 20 years? That's pretty amazing.

LOL. Not really.

I was ahead of the computer curve is all. Still have a few Tandy computers from when I was a kid. Strangely enough .. they still run. Even the original cmos battery is still kicking.

Or did you mean that it was pretty amazing that I still lacked imagination 20 years later

My names have more personal and persona reasons behind them. I do like giving my characters backgrounds and stories.

For instance, Sonata, by definition is a piece of music that is played, in numerous movements and instruments in its composition. This, opposed to pieces that are sung, such as opera's. Sonatas background of being a widow, her storyline, her motivations and reasonings are, for me, a composition that she plays. Events that have happened mold her.

Also, I have a great love of classical music so that helps too.

My rit, Appassionata, follows the same logic. Beethovens Piano sonata #23 was titled that and it's a stunning piece of work. It is often described that this piece was the reflection of Ludwig accepting his disability of being deaf with the emotional levels in the piece. Considering my Rit's story as I've been molding her as a semi-modern cleopatra style; the name fits perfectly.

My Necro, "Marquise de Sadist" is a mix of two things. The most obvious, the Marquise de Sade. The second being from a book called Deliver Us From evil, which is pretty much a Victorian period Vampire vs. Faust novel. In it is a Character of Marquise who is noble and ambitious in her "race".

I get inspiration for my characters names pretty much from anything and everything, movies, songs, books, games, people I've met, brand names, forums etc! ._.

My primary toon is named after my self. My ranger is named Jill; one of my fave female names. My Derv is named Cesario, my fave name from a play. (Can you guess which? rymes with spear.) Then my monk is named as best as I could, matching the asian/factions settings.

My main character's name is from this sticker I had which was from this online store I bought something from and it was "temptress on wheels" (it was a shop called i love racing i believe :P) and I thought that was cute.. so I used it.. any other name I get from looking at words that are very generic.. like "small" and I look it up in this online thesaurus and look for a not-so-generic synonym for it.. haha.. xD and anything that isn't a word.. (a name) I get from looking thru "baby names" on the internet.. haha.. xD sometimes I draw names from anime names.

I try to get unique names out there. :P

these are my names I made

Vince raven: mesmer
oathus nerkin: warrior
vampire of nights: necromancer
calvin stallworth: paragon
kevin curtis: warrior
kingstone bloodbane: dervish
shadows of victory: warrior
wizards in winter: elemental
John paul winter: monk
Chi mint: monk

I use D&D names sometimes, especially for DRAGONLANCE!

Huntmaster Avatar comes from my old Guild HunterSlayers, Found in Warhammer 40k, HunterSlayer is a tyranid or genestealer, as the Founder i just took the name to its extreme and called myself the HuntMaster. Avatar because well its an avatar of me. Avatar is also an aspect of a god in D&D. so Huntmaster Avatar works well for me.

I have considered naming all my Female Chars "Franny the Tranny" or "Itsa Trap" or even "Amy Ackbar"....

I use a combination of constellations a/o their stars or Celtic names.

dont have a character for over a year, named i looka like a hoe, and then get blocked for 72 hours even though anets Code of Conduct says that the only character will get blocked and ruin my whole weekend of fame get

Oh boy, what was the inspiration for my main character? Well, his name is Goondaba Ulfgar. Well, in 1989 I was playing D&D and needed to make a barbarian name. I formulated by just tossing sounds out of my mouth and out came Goondaba. Ulfgar came from nowhere. I just said it one day and it sounded good for a last name to Goondaba. My guildmates and people that I party with in PUGS take liberty with the name and call me Goonie, Goon, Ulfgar, Ulfie, and Gooie! I like it and will probably name my main characters this for many many more years!

My main toon - the first I created is named
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When I joined guildwars about 31 months ago it was because a friend told me about it (at that time I was seriously considering WoW *shutters*).
He - and a few of our mutual friends had decided to make a guild and inspired by "the Legend of the Five Rings", they decided we should all have Japanese-sounding names. I have never cared one wit about Japan (sorry my eastern friends) and didn't know anything about the typical names of that region other than they were hard to remember and even harder to pronounce!
They insisted and I thought "Ying and Yang that's sort of Japanese (I know - Chinese ) - so I chose Yang (male) and Whirlwind because I wanted to make an Elementalist and because it sounded cool!
Unfortunately people from time to time gets it into their heads that I'm probably a girl in RL - because the name Yang is a girl's name (See how silly it is to choose a name you're not familier with)

Hmmm, maybe when I get tired of my "evil eye" avatar I'll do something with the Ying-Yang symbol. That way people can't misunderstand!

well if you have phrophecies then make it like a med-evil name..search on google for that. you will find a name. like me. i got my name from shrek my name was going to be Lord Farquaad but someone took it so i name my self King Farquaad. although they wont let you have numbers in you name for some odd reason...beats me on that....

I design the names for my characters almost entirely on the way they sound.

I pick names that flow clearly. There's no point in having a name if everybody stumbles all over it or thinks that it sounds lame or confusing.

I pick names that seem like they might have some sort of meaning that describes the character but actually have no real meaning at all. For example, my mesmer's last name, "Dallenmire". It's not a real name at all. But it makes him sound somewhat aloof and laid back.

I tend to avoid names that actually exist in cultures on Earth. I want them to sound like they come from the world of Tyria, so what's the point in naming somebody after earthly concepts or naming somebody after something that only exists on Earth? Although I admit I have referenced an earthly thing in my ranger's name... but that's only because shing jea leggings dyed blue look like blue jeans!

I go back and open up the old Greek/Roman epics, like the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, etc. I try to mix the names up and I generally pick the people whom no one really pays attention to.

I just look for some random cultural inspiration, from a favorite book, or movie, or something else. Then when I got around to creating a Dervish, I drew blanks, so I simply made a more GW-like name that I was satisfied with (Ashes of Melandru).

I do that most the time, other time I go with food and drinks and make them look like names. can't give you ingame name example as that would let you know.

:P~ yeah paranoid, I know, but can't help it.

well I suppose I can give you an example of how i make name with food and drinks.

this comes from wine, I tend to like same initiall for both words.
Albarino Abruzzo or Bosco Basilicata

I make them up, use names I have used in past games and use names that mean something in differant languages (real and made up languages).

Basically I just use Nathan the (what ever selected profession). Failing that I tweak the profession name. E.g Nathan the (Instead of Ranger) Archer. I just think that is good enough for me.

You're not alone! LOL

Chanti Beppu is a name taken from the book "Last Legends of Earth"

Dora Explora is from, well, you know...

To cut the "work" of naming characters in half, I gave these two sisters; Ahndia Beppu and Cora Explora.

My Monk's name, Torga Dea is an anagram of Gator Ade. (was drinking one at the time of creating her)

Spongy Was Bob - after seeing all of the very funny " ______ Was ______ " type names in a "funniest names" thread here, I just wanted to see if it was taken. It wasn't, so now I've got a Ritualist!

Abigail The Angry - I named here this because I'd be pissed too if the only reason for my existence was to be a mule!

I usually look up old Celtic or Latin names, for mine.

My main is what my real name means in Japanese.

For PvP i come up with silly names like It's my time of monk xD and Little miss red.

i chose all of them for different reasons.

puddles is my online pseudonym, so i have:
lil miss puddles: monk, and current storage mule. she's small and cute, so it fits
desert puddle: ele. i lived in las vegas when factions came out and i'd been wanting an ele for a while. so she became the elusive puddle in the desert.

tiamat saelyn: ranger, my main character. i'm wiccan, and tiamat is my circle name. saelyn i just made up during creation, means nothing.
lara morgaine: necro. lara is just a name i've always liked. morgaine is a character from "the mists of avalon" who eventually became morgan le fey.
lydia delgado: mesmer. lydia is another name i've always liked. delgado was taken from the character susan delgado from stephen king's "the dark tower" series.
regina phalangie: ritualist. phoebe's alter-ego on friends the proper spelling was already taken unfortunately.
fierce kitten rawr: warrior. i originally wanted venomous kitten, but it was taken XD i think this name better fits a female warrior anyway.

When I started playing RPGs, I wanted to name my toons after strong women that I thought were a little nuts. That made choosing names quite easy. To me the choice was then obvious- Scarlett after Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With The Wind

I always choose last names that I think goes with the toon in some aspect or another.
Aurora- Roman Goddess of the dawn (nec)
Sage- wise and prudent person (monk...duh)
Dakota- Alli or Allies (ele)
Satira- Italian for satire (derv)
Stella- my grandmother's name- this toon looks like my grandma when she was young (par)

Now that I think about it, I've probably put a bit too much time and thought into this...