One curious component of my alt puzzle is the naming game. I like to find names that are totally unique, with bonuses if they have meaning like “Sendoku“, a portmanteau of Sendo (death/crisis in battle) and Doku (poison) that I used for a Death Knight. It was unique at the time, but has since been adopted by a pair of Trolls. Still, for a while, it was mine and mine alone, at least as far as the WoW Armory reported. (I wish there were such a tool for other MMOs, if only a repository of names, so I could see what has been used without firing up the client and getting a lot of “this is taken” messages.)
I’m not a heavy role player, but I like to at least have my handle in-game be something unique and interesting. Bonus points if there’s a literary or artistic allusion or race/class connection. Portmanteaus are especially fun, as a lot of high fantasy already dabbles in that arena with names like “Darkshore” and “Mindblight”. Smoosh two words together and you might just come up with something good, especially if there is overlap like there is in “Sendoku”, with the “do” as part of both words. It might be silly like “Toothchipper” or descriptive like “Shellspike”, but it’s still likely to be better than “Pwnzyu”. “Khopeshi” hints at Egyptian warfare, and “Gruntle” just has a great feel to it, as if the character is never disgruntled.
Tools like this online translation dictionary can be helpful in deriving meaning from words used in names. I worked backward for Sendoku that way; I dropped “death” and “disease” then “poison” into the Japanese/English translator, and looked for words that could interweave. I lean to Japanese because I’ve loved Origami and other Japanese art for a long time, but you could almost certainly get some great stuff out of other languages. Of course, I want to avoid naming violations and offensive names, too, so scanning ahead can be nice there as well, as well as understanding the random-looking string of characters that actually mean something. Accidentally including a curse word or crude term from another language can be troublesome. (To be fair, that wasn’t Larisa’s guildie’s only problem, but it was a trigger for trouble.)
“Ouroborough” has literary allusions in Ouroboros and “borough”, with a curious mixed meaning of a town eating itself. Death Knight, Shadow Priest or Warlock? “Eurydiced” is part Eurydice, part “diced”… Greek tragedies could get pretty bleak and messy. Rogue, maybe? “Portlying” suggests a fat, sedate sort of character (or maybe a fat untrustworthy one) … Dwarven Protection Paladin, maybe (or Dwarven Rogue)? Flicktwist and Knicktwist would make a great pair of Gnomes… a Mage and Rogue, maybe? Bilgork and Bolgork sound like a pair of Orcish Warriors to me. Gurubashed fits nicely with a stoner Troll Shaman. Malinvest might be a fantastic Goblin name.
I was surprised to see three “Ashriver” characters… I thought that one would be unique. It’s an intriguing portmanteau of “ash” and “river” with a curious effect of also having “shriver” in it. It’s almost begging for some sort of fantasy treatment in a larger story, a bleak river, always filled with ash, that a local village throws its dead into as they clean up after a local volcanic disaster, perhaps. “Charwater” is unique. So is “Orcrunt” oddly enough. “Dystope” is unique, and so is “Pointybit” (though we’re apparently not supposed to use phrases, for better or worse).
Not all of these will fit for roleplayers, to be sure, and some border on silly, but I’ll take them any day over “Cowzrool” or “Urmom”.
My current favorite though?
Aichiichisan
It’s a mouthful, but it’s effectively A113, and I can’t help but smile at that. That it seems almost like a Japanese familiar diminutive nickname makes me smile.
So… is it just me that does this, prowling the Armory for unique and interesting names? Do names mean anything, or are they just utility handles like “Il” for a Gnome Rogue to hide in the bushes with? They are one of the few things in these games that we have a high degree of control over. How do we exercise that control and why?
It’s noted in some fiction (and historical tradition) that naming something gives you power over it, or knowing the True name of something gives you power. It seems to me that names can be powerful things… and I want to get them right and have some fun with them.
*I wrote this almost a month ago, and since then Larisa, Rohan and Faeldray wrote about naming too. I’m sure there are other good articles out there as well. I know Mama Druid had several, but sadly, her blog was deleted. Names are important to a lot of people, rightly so, I think. It’s your “best foot forward” as it were in the digital space.*
I love unique names that have a deeper meaning; I never understood how players can pick names for characters they might play for years at random (via generators omg) or intentionally pick silly names. to me naming is a big deal and i can spend hours thinking of something suitable or browse etymology and naming sites – but then I am a sucker for language in general. 🙂 none of my toons has a random name, they’re all very personal and meaningful to myself as a person (rather than for ex. my char’s class). guess it depends on how much you identify with your alter ego.
I can bear with a meaningless name. After all, my real names are meaningless except as references to other names. Saints, dead relatives, these aren’t quite meaning the same as a mix of ‘real’ words. But I don’t mind.
I cannot bear names with bad meaning. Names which are obviously constructed and which seem less like names and more like poorly written phrases.
I mostly take names of side characters from literature and/or combine/change them slightly. What I really hate are misspelled names. The many Naruto, Naruuto, Narutoo, Naaruto Assassins in GW after Factions release for example.
I love interesting names too. If someone gets my moniker “elleseven” I know that they are a truly cool/smart/creative person.
The rest of my toon names are very quirky cute and all have a meaning behind it that is signifcant to me. But I daren’t say them as I don’t want anyone to steal them from me when Star Wars TOR comes out. 😛
All the names I come up with are from my real life family. It’s silly, really, because I take letters from one name, letters from another, mix them around, add one here and there until it doesn’t have 6 consecutive consonants and bam, I’ve got a name. For me it’s personal, all names remind me of a family member in some way. I don’t really care if others figure it out, the name isn’t for them anyway.
The only kind of names that irritate me are the stupid, childish phrase-names like Ipwnyoulol, Spongebobisdead, Thisismynamehaha, and crap like that. Other than that I enjoy the vast creativity of people’s names, even it’s it completely random to me.
My three year old daughter gave my Tauren Druid his name: Padgi. I asked her what it meant, but now I can’t remember. It’s a totally unique name, surprisingly, and it’s all the better that it reminds me of her. It reminds me to just play and have fun, with an eye for the whimsical and absurd.
I take a long time trying to come up with names for my toons. Sure they may not always be fantastic but often they give me a chuckle, hence my Tauren called Teebone, my Orc Hunter Sicks and my less whimsical human priest Goldstar and Death Knight Aetherstar.
Ooh yes. I still have fond memories of my baby Draenei shaman, Callamarie, and my troll discipline priest, Presit.