What's in a name? That which we call a rose....and all that jazz. Name's, more importantly player character names and myself. What drives me to choose the names I do and what names I choose truly vary from game to game.

I am a consummate roleplayer. I tabletop game at least 4 nights a week with friends and family I have been gaming with for years on end. And so for me, each character takes the stage in their own way. But I do have some regular names as well as naming conventions I can pop out there.

My names, the ones that mean something to me....Cailieg would have to be one of them, as well as Caille. They both have deep meaning to me. Cailieg, was my first mispelling of a Scottish Gaelic word as a child. I was the little girl who always spelled girl wrong. Caileag is little girl, but for some reason when my Grandfather was teaching me Gaelic, I always mispelled it. Later in my teens I would choose to use this as one of my first online handles. And it's been with me as my primary online handle since.

Caille on the other hand originates from my Browncoat Persona for con going. I'm a big Firefly fan, Can't Stop the Serenity every year and all that. But Mal Reynolds or a member of his crew I am not. It is not in my nature to mimic someone else's character. And so I am drawn to either nameless costumes, Stormtrooper, Royal Guard, Browncoat, etc or no costume at all. Because I cannot get behind dressing like a character I in no way resemble physically. To this end I always make up my own characterizations and my Browncoat ID and dogtags read Caille Jensen, Independent, Overlanders, 22nd Air Support. At Du Khang my unit supplied air cover and one of my ground men fought alongside Mal's crew. At Serenity Valley we were one of the units told to turn back and watch our men burn. Anyway I am waxy geeky here....

Other names I have used and the why's....

Draegoth- Respelling of Dregoth from Dark Sun Tabletop DnD Campaign Setting, used for my Belf Mage in WoW yes as a chick I sometimes play male characters, depends on my mood and the character creation screen.

Magnus Maximoff- also known as Mystik, made for CoX, and in a certain unamed game I might or might not be testing, based on a tabletop character I played who was the son of Wanda Maximoff, The Scarlet Witch.

Arya/Aryalla- Based on the character Arya Underfoot from Song of Fire and Ice.

Cyndane- Wheel of time inspired name.

Zamir- Used for a character who was inspired by Elric of Melibone on Aion only because Elric was taken and I was going for "can I make x character and make it look right with this awesome character creator.....(this name is the name of a Galactic Conciousness in our meta-cosmology explanation for tabletop crossovers)

Other than than I have a tendency toward names beginning in M and D. And Ending in A and I when I spit out random fantasy names.

Alexis Diana Dority

*smiles*

My name selection process is actully fairly simple.  I just keep pressing the random name generator button until something comes up that I like.  This can sometimes take a long time since I will not take a name I think is silly or does not sound right. 

Alternatively I will reuse a name from a previous MMORPG I have played if it seems to fit the new game.

I just try to make it brief.

Since Brif is brief for brief, I use Brif.

Originally posted by Torik

My name selection process is actully fairly simple.  I just keep pressing the random name generator button until something comes up that I like.  This can sometimes take a long time since I will not take a name I think is silly or does not sound right. 

Alternatively I will reuse a name from a previous MMORPG I have played if it seems to fit the new game.

I do that sometimes myself. That is if the name generator names they give you are any good.

 Went to wikipedia, searched "Celtic Deities" (I'm heavily in love with England/French/Irish history), and found some unknown god that no one truley knows anything about. Voila, I got Veteris which I use everywhere. I dunno why I don't have my name here as that though. Another name I use often is Manimhigh, though I usually get banned and have to change it in most games.

Originally posted by Brif

I just try to make it brief.

Since Brif is brief for brief, I use Brif.

best post, short sweet and to the point.

Originally posted by NeverLand7

I've seen it all , name generators , stealing names from popular series , using names from more abstract and underground fantasy books / games / movies , creatively coming up with a name from your head , linking words such as SilverWind or MiniDragon , taking a popular name from a well established series and putting a twist of your own on it. So I'm curious to know what you the player go about your name and why you choose the name you do. Afterall to me atleast , the name of your character is somewhat of an important aspect of playing the game. It represents you as an individual and gives a layer of meaning to your character. It's also something your stuck with the whole time your playing and have to look at alot and not something that can usually be changed so the decision is a big one. I always have trouble coming up with a name that I can agree on for more than a couple weeks after using it. So how do you the player come up with a name and why that name?

I have been a role player since I was 13 and I am 43 now. SO I tend to use names that I came up with back in the day of Strombringer and AD&D. I can usually make up a name. or if I am being lazy I will use a name gen. BUT I believe half the fun is comming up with something original

My names usually are not words, or anything known.  It's either a variation of my name, which is very uncommon, or my nicknames, which have no meanings. 

I use a couple methods for naming my characters. First I customize the character (Class, Race and look) then look at the character and think of a name that would fit them:

1. Imagining a name that fits the Race, gender, class and look of my character.

2. Use a combo of an English word + a word from another lanuage, or just use a full word from any language other than English.

3. There were some times where I had I blanked out on imagination so I used an Elven name guide from the intertnet, there are some names that I made from that guide that I still use every now and then.

4. Last but not least, use a combo of 2 English words (like my username here).

Sometimes I spend more time naming a charater than customizing the look!

I usually just roll sounds around till I find something that sounds good.

I do have some rules though

Races matters, I think elves names for example would have more vowels in them and sound more galic then say a dwarf which would be more consonant heavy and sound more nordic. Humans could be all kinds of things.

Shorter is better

No jumbled hard to pronounce names like Xydrondrian, real name I saw by the way.

I also hate when people just stick words together like Darkblade or write some phrase like Healzforu.

So I use names like Kayen and Steppenwolfe for human males, Hartagan is a dwarf name I use a lot.  Asrael and Amon are the male elf names I use often.  Female names include Kyrah and Miries.

 Used a random name generator for my first name (Hyanmensir), am pretty happy about it overall, could be shorter though.

For my next MMO I'll most likely use "Susanooh", the japanese god of sea and storm. Sounds good, not too long.. and not a Cloudstrife nick either. I like to take my names from various sources in general, like in few games I've used the name of some huge star, "Betelgeuze", as a nick. 

Been thinking of a more comical name too, "Pacifista".. I'd be some huge race and pick a Gladiator/Berzerker/Warrior-type class for it.

So many choices, haha.

The character I spent the most time on in WoW was named Kanos. I got it from the in-game name generator. He's a Blood Elf Warlock, and I thought the name fit very well. I retired him at lvl 70, pre-Wrath. When Wrath came out, I made up a little story about him pledging himself to Arthas and becoming a death knight named Darkanos (Dark + Kanos), so he's essentially the same character.

I mostly use in-game generators and tweak as needed. If I make up names from scratch, they follow standard conventions, such as -iel or --el endings for elves, Norse sounding names for dwarves, etc.  

I usually have a handful of names I've used in the past for fantasy games that I either use again, make a variation of the name or completely come up with a new name based on the character's appearance. I usually have only a first name and try not to make the name too long or complicated so my friends can call me by a shortened version of the name. If the game has a scifi theme I use a different set of names or come up with new ones.

I used to get really irritated with so many people that used over used names or ones of popular characters. Like when WAR launched I saw a bunch of withc hunters with the variation of vanhellsing (at least it was easy to spot the crappy players). Also when I was new to mmos I took them seroiously and only like having a real-like names and see others with names that also fit the game. Now a lot of people make their names as part of a joke and make RP immpossible, oh well.

Btw nice thread!

Guild Wars Kurzick Champion is SaintViktor from the Factions campaign. Other than  Diablo, Guild Wars is  my 2nd favorite game of all time. I even have a character in Guild Wars named after Mephisto. :D

Fun thread

I name them on a whim mostly. Coming up with names not been that much of a hazzle for me though. I usually go with same-sounding names if I'm creating an army of alts, as in my last session with WoW. All my toons there was names Sin-something, like Sinblade Sinmare Sinstab Sinflare etc. Last one before that was plays on the word troll and hammer. Incidently the first toon I created back then I called Trollhammer, but the other names where Trollpinch Trollblast etc.

CoH/CoV names just gave themselfes. Make up a word that play on their powersets, like Miniblast Darkeye Golden Iris etc. Other than that, hmmm. Hard to remember all the names in different mmo's.

Oh, had a female engineer in Anarchy Online I called Chinchilaa. Yes I know there is a typo there but it was on purpose cause some lowbie punk had the name already, with the real spelling. Sad part is, when I got her to max level, that same punk haven't played his toon at all. Kinda annoying. Other toons I had there, an adventurer I called Omgineverdie. Yes, adventurers where sickly overpowered in that game and probably still is. Ofc he was Atrox aswell. Mongo ftw!

Lastly my forumname. A slask is a lazy coachpotato in my native language(norway) and 777 cause 666 is just stupid. Oh, and I seem to remember slabberdask was taken(another spelling of the same word).

Keep em coming...

I just make them up. Usually Tyrscion...Tyrson...Tyrcionus...Erastus..Erastos..Erastrus...Erastriel...Trinnis...Ustaphis..JaraQuoi  ...Joros.....for males. Jaraquai...or Treccia ...rarely for female names. This is mostly for single player games..For mmos..COX...has a different process altogether and WOW is the only mmo I have many alts for with various names. Recently my favorite name is a 30th lvl undead rogue in WOW called "Soulstain"

Originally posted by lifehue

 

Sometimes I spend more time naming a charater than customizing the look!

Hah I hear ya. That usually ends up happening to me every time.

I found using Hawaiian names and words to make names works well for me.  Nalowahine or royal girl in english is one that I have used for many years.

I check out people's last names, and then sometimes tweak or modify them. Watching movie credits works for that. Also, my profession makes me privy to a lot of names.I have even written them down at times to use later.

I hate seeing names like Deathdealer, or Healingboy. It just ruins immersion and role-playing. I don't find it that hard to come up with a fantasy sounding name. My friends however use the same names over and over, and while it makes it easy to recognize them from game to game, I can't name 2 toons the same thing. They are different "people". Guess I am just a role-player at heart.

Typically I just hit the random fantasy name generator until something cool comes up, or something sorta cool and I just change a few letters around.  Unlike most RPers (yeah, I'm an RPer) I actually don't give -too- much thought usually on what my character is named. I certainly don't ponder it for hours or anything ;)  I'm lazy like that.