A Reference Tool: Choosing the "Right" Name

[Noblebeastx]

Tips to Choosing the "Right" Name: Characters

First and foremost always remember to choose a name that is appropriate and not disrespectful in any way.

Whenever I create a new character, I spend a good amount of my time at the Character Creation screen just trying to choose a name that just feels right. There are many different factors to consider when naming your character.Your character's name not only reflects on you as a person, but also has influence over how other players in-game relate to you as a player. I strongly advise against choosing a name for your character that you will possibly regret later on in your in-game career. For example: naming your Priest with any word tagged with the word "healer" may not be the best course. Naming your Warrior with any word tagged with the word "tank" may not be the best course. Players will know what class you are. Adding a class description to your name may be humorous, but in the end will just make you appear to be needing reminded of what class you are. Thankfully for some of us TrueWow has name change for only 50 voter points,in the event that you are unsatisfied with your current character name.


World of Warcraft Lore :

Whether you role-play, or not, I have found that researching your characters lore history can oftentimes lead to some very good possibilities for character names.

The area around you:

What is in the immediate area of where you are playing? Maybe something right where you are could be the basis for a good character name. Looking around my room at this moment I see: a box of Wheat Thins, desk lamp, a puzzle of a moose that I glued after completing and put on the wall, slippers, various different books, etc. So what do we do with all that then? Perhaps some wording on the box of crackers piques your interest? Desk lamp could lead to something associated with light, possibly heading towards a name for a Paladin. Moose puzzle could enhance ideas for a Warrior (tanking /moose); Druid (animal); Rogue (puzzle); Shaman (elements in the environment); etc. Slippers could contribute to the quiet, stealthiness of a Rogue. Books, ahh books! An endless sea of possibilities. I am sure you would know how to pluck an idea for your characters name from a book, no need to go into any in-depth examples there.


Now, I'm not suggesting that you name you character Puzzle, Lamp, Moose, Slippers, or Paperback. Just advising that you be aware of you surroundings. You never know when an idea may just pop out at you from seeing what is right around you.

I have found that researching the base word of the character/class/race/profession/playstyle of a character can prove quite beneficial.

Finding a synonym of the base word of the character/class/race/profession/playstyle:

The internet is your friend! Below are some links to websites that I believe may help you, as they have helped me in my search.

WoWwiki : http://www.wowwiki.com/Newbie_Guide/Character_Creation [WoWWiki is a wiki dedicated to cataloguing Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft Universe (with a focus, though not priority, on World of Warcraft), covering the entire Warcraft series of games, RPG reference books, strategy guides, novels, manga and other sources.]

Webster's Online Dictionarywith Multilingual Thesaurus Translation : http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/ [Updated definitions, thousands of images (one picture being worth a thousand words…), quotes, trade names, references, timelines, translations and any other bit of information that can help someone understand a word from as many perspectives as possible.]

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary : http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary [A free, searchable on-line dictionary and thesaurus, word games, a word of the day, and many other English language and vocabulary reference tools and resources.]

Online Etymology Dictionary : http://www.etymonline.com/index.php [A map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.]

Dictionary.com : http://dictionary.reference.com/ Dictionary.com is a multi-source dictionary search service. Also provides links to Thesaurus.com, Language Resources, Reference.com]

So just take some time, look around for what suits YOU, and you will find that perfect name for the character that is, in essence, an extention of yourself.

In closing, I just want want to thank you for taking the time to read over this reference tool document. I hope that you found this information useful.


Be good, be safe, have FUN!

[Minime]

Good Noble.

You should try to name your character just like it is your son/daughter. Give it a name, not like "Fakewizard" or "Cookieman". Such names maybe seem funny to you, but in time you will see, that they are disgusting.

Don't use your name, or the name of your father, mother, etc. Look a bit on wowhead.com, look at the races NPC's, which names they got, and then try to get the PERFECT name.

So for a Dwarf, a good name would be "Yorgen".

[Riku]

my character name comes from one of my favorite ps2 games lol and im still liking it :p

[Fey]

What I do is look up whatever race I'm making my character and look through their NPC names for inspiration on how I should tweak the name. I come from a legit RP realm, so a good RP name is essential for me.

[Noblebëastx]

I came up with my name from my old toon noblebeastx,The beast standed for Beastmaster since ive always been a beastmaster speced.noble went along with the whole dwarf when i was a dwarf hunter and X for coolness.I was thinking of girl names so i just switched noble with moon.

[Omri]

I usually like to just create a character with a name that acts as a slap in the face. It is something that incorporates the class name, and uses it like a pun. Something like Shamanyou (Shame on you) for a shaman, or Froguer (Frogger) for a rogue.

[Universe]

Names like minime cracks me up..
My names include :-
Universe (I'm a know it all of wow)
Shadowcraft (my old rogue, named after the set)
Green (Name of my RP toon Green Thunderfury)
Deathwingz & Deathwingzz (Names of my future rogue or shaman, pun to Deathwing)
Elf (My Troll DK, Pun after the Elfs (NE and BE) That a Troll owns a pretty name LOL

[Whatchya]

"Elf" for a Troll. ololololol that owns hard

[OkweL]

.....

[Acolyte]

Universe (I'm a know it all of wow)

The more often you will repeat that you know everything, the more sure I am you know nothing besides leveling.

PWND

[Sarcofagus]

Sarcofagus - the name speaks for itself

[Aquilusnex]

What I typically do is use names of characters in books that are less likely to be the main characters (sometimes) or things that kind of suit me or the character. Sometimes, I take two names and smush them together.

For instance, Tauren are kind of Native American-like. I tend to choose Native American names for them (there's tons of sites on the internet where you can search for some). Heck, I even use Native American names for Night Elf Druids. If the race (or character) is something similar to another race on earth... like Asian, Celtic, etc. I'll use names from there. Baby name sites are good for this.

My paladin here is an example of me taking names from things I like. I work with metal arts (which is why I also go the stone route because I do use stones in jewelry and decorations) and particularly, when I get my torch set up, I want to do some Japanese techniques. My paladin, Yosefuki, is an unchanged word from a Japanese metalsmithing technique. Kebori is a typical rogue name for me. The word kebori is a Japanese metal chiseling technique... fits, doesn't it? Another name I've used is iolalyral. For that name, I took Liriel, changed it a little and added the stone iolite to the beginning. (Some of you may recognize the name Liriel from The Daughter of the Drow trilogy of books.) I've used Zoisa a lot. I took Zoisa from Zoicite. Zoicite is a natural stone... with it shortened a little and the a on the end, it's kind of a feminine name.

Another thing I've also done is translated specific words (or a word) that describe my character into another language and use that. Where do you think I got the name Aquilusnex? Anything goes... just so long as it's clean! Another name like this I've used before is Atraesurio which is dark and desire smushed together. Words I typically use when doing this would be: colors or states of being, action, etc. Like blue, gold, black, death, desire, etc. All are clean.

If none of this suits you, the comedy route might be the best for you. I've been known to name a Gnome Minifleaz, Fleaz or Fleazes. I have a friend who names his hunter pets names like: Trashcan for a bear, Roadkill for a bear or wolf from Felwood, Friedchicken for a strider, Bait and Morebait for just about any pet. There's a lot of humorous names which are clean and can be used, like: Gotmilk for a Tauren... or Wheresbeef. I've used Sokea on an Undead Rogue before. While not really funny, Sokea in another language is something similar to blind in English (online word translators ftw) and I gave her the cloth (or whatever it is) X thing on her face, covering her eyes.

I've never had to use a random name generator and I've never ran across anyone else using the names I use. What things are you into? Can you make any names from that terminology? You might want to try! Just remember to keep it clean and- dangit- eleven characters is the max.

[Minime]

Books, internet and whatever... use your fantasy for names, copying from books, or a random name generator isn't as fun as creating a name for the new YOU.

[Kraith]

I literally just started typing things until I "discovered" Kraith. I just now googled it and it's the name of a series of Star Trek fan fiction haha.

[Stryke]

Stryke - Ninja'd it from a character in a book called "Orcs"
Renjai - I made this one up..kinda went like... "jai at the end sounds trollish lets add a cool syllable in front of it"
Moocow - What my lil' bro called cows when he was a kid

Take inspiration from things around you, things you see, hear, etc...