What's In A Name?
Posted by
Bastosa on
Thursday, April 9, 2009 -
151 Comments Tags:
guild chat,
name,
online identity,
paid name change,
princess diaries
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I don't know why, but I am terrible at it. Perhaps it's just the pressure of the whole thing, after all this is your online identity. People will identify you to this name, an in some cases even call you that to your face when you meet them in real life.
Let's face it, your character name is important. I think I learned this lesson especially well when dealing with the name of my Shaman. When I rolled up the toon I spent very little time putting thought into the character name. I was anxious to play, and try after try of "that name is unavailable" sapped all creativity from me.
Well as time went on I discovered I enjoyed playing the Shaman more and more, until low and behold she hit level 80. Level 80 in my mind was the big time, all the sudden you are in raids with your friends, people are yelling out your characters name over vent, and your identify is finally cemented.
With all that in mind, I ponied up the $10 and paid for a character rename.
Unfortunately my new name didn't work out so well. The name I thought to be a random formation of letters that had a cool sounds, turned out to be a direct reference to a Disney movie regarding a teenage princess... I didn't exactly see this as fitting to my face-melting conduit of the ancient forces of nature. And of course, my guild mates were more than happy to rub my unfortunate choice in my face day in and day out.
I did what any proud creator of a shiny level 80 character would do, and begged for help. Luckily the good people at Blizzard felt my pain and granted me an opportunity to correct my error.
After a half dozen Google searches for secret meaning, and running it by my circle of friends I landed on a new name for my Shaman: Jinxed. It only seemed appropriate after the first naming debacle.
This whole episode ended up bringing so pretty interesting gchat that I thought I would bring to you guys. How did you come up with your characters name? Are you happy with it? Furthermore what are some of the better names you have seen out there in the World Of Warcraft?
Reader Comments (151)
Eventime was the name of a character in the Sword of Shannara series of books. He was a noble king and I always loved the name. Cìrdan is the name of my druid, and is the name of an old hero (if I remember correctly) somewhere in the appendices of LotR.
Even if in-game I'm not an RP'er, I still feel like the name of my character is important to me and I always put effort into them.
Tarrawarra - Troll Shamen.
TARRA-WARRA: a polite way of expressing omitted bad words, a verbal asterisk.
Er, that's what the internet told me when I asked for slang Jamaican terms...
I'd like to come up with names that fit the race and class of my characters.
So for instance:
Grondoor - Orc Deathknight (my main) some stoned dude went all funny on that name and though I had the most epic name ever XD
Breakborn - Tauren Druid (born breaking a leg (since this was my first char), grown up to be a wise member of his race)
Dreadwing - Tauren Shaman (found out later on it's a dragonkin you can kill for a q)
Leaftray - Blood elf female rogue (don't know why I picked that, but it has a nice ring to it)
Barbarelle - Blood elf female warrior (you can see where that name comes from, she has of course nice high blonde sixties hair)
I thought this name for a Death Knight was clever at the time, but now it just seems corny. Most of my other toons were named something equally corny, but I have renamed all of them to something less predictable. I usually google for god/goddess names for certain things, and then drill down into lesser known gods. If I can't find one I like I will alter one to bend it into something that sounds better.
@Eventime
I think you are right with the Cìrdan, though you might have the spelling wrong. It sounds really familiar...
and to fix my previous post,
my dwarf's name is Mordil
@Jesse
you say 'Barbarelle - Blood elf female warrior'
i'm no expert but i thought you couldnt get Belf warriors?
yea rollld a DK(tank and main now) never seen naxx or even heard of it (i know i was pretty much nothin at the time) and since i'm a little bit german,scottish,etc over there in the upper parts of europe i decided on a name like that so after a long tiem of thinking (5 minutes) i decided that my character name is gonna be HEIGAN! i didn't even find out there was a raid boss named that till i armoried myself and saw a drop from him >.>
@Zumo
Must mean a Pally?
You are correct.
Well my friends Pala is named Fruitsaladin, one of the best names i have heard in a while. i name all my charecters after my pets done nicknames, so if you see anyone fatmit playing its one of my toons. im am eventualy going to change the name of my main, because it was my first toon and i tryed to make a serious name, and its anoying. now what to call him....
Well my dads name was always Alaric (form his faviorite book) and when i started playing he named me Kellrick (alaric's son in the book) so i stuck w/ it
I have a hunter called Dentistry (the only Dentistry in Europe apparently).
A paladin called Harmonic.
Another hunter called Seany
Another hunter (what can I say? It's a fun class..) called Dentistrytwo
I have a dwarf warrior called Mayhem
An undead rogue called Darren
Darkrus the priest
Hippy the druid
Hellhammer the warrior
Lockdown the Warlock
and finally, Prayer the priest
most of them are on Saurfang (eu).
My first ever character was a Troll Shaman with a pretty embarrassing name. After I raided with him for months in classic WoW, up until late aq40 and Naxx, I got tired of being called 'Johndownsyndrome', my guild's endearing nickname for me.
Luckily, I transferred and was able to rename him. Now he's known only as Earthshawk.
Ever since then, nearly all of my characters' names have been decided using the random name button.
My toons name is so original it is the only one with that name (US servers at least) I could tell you the complete name.. Fae is not it. But if I did then I am afraid I may cease to be original. =P
great Post btw.
Haha I've had this delema every time I roll an alt, I like my name to have some sort of meaning. My death knight actually involved some research and ended up being a spin off of the god of darkness or something like that. However, I normally steal from Anime but I like to use well-known Anime, I usually get compliments.
well my 1st character (dwarf hunter) name was based on how everyone mispronounces my last name, (Higareda) so i name him Higardega, which out of all the mispronunciations is by far the funniest and my favorite.
as for my other chraracter there is:
Karrado - saw a sign that said cerrado (closed) so i changed the C - K
Shakermaker - named after an Oasis song
Searuhm - cuz he is a priest and serum was taken
Deathins - cuz he is a undead mage (who would have guessed)
Bloodbins - my new blood elf pali
Well, I've always loved naming characters after Mythology or comic books.
My favourite name that is never taken, for an Orc, is Haarg. It translates into World Destroyer, the name The Hulk gave himself at the end of the Planet Hulk comic book series.
The best name I've seen that wasn't made by me would be Convertabull. It's a tauren druid I grouped with for most of Northrend, every mob he'd be in a different form until he decided to stick as Resto (tree form).
I'm kicking it old school with the name of archon. Named after a great game on the commodore 64 and amiga computer. I'm that old :-)
My way is my name+something
Eli+ezer
Eli+der
When I first started playing WoW I would take names of people I knew and spell them backwards. I was surprised at how some of them seemed to fit for the particular race.
Also, I am a Chemistry nerd, so I have taken to naming my alts after the names of the elements.
I like the whole comic book/video game charcter names, but not ones that would be familiar to everyone right off the bat (like naming an elemental shaman Raiden). Soooo, may characters have been named thus....
Killian - First character on my real/non-trial account was a human Warlock named after a guy from the Fathom comic book series my brothers and I started collecting as soon as they came out (actually had a few special edition 1st issues purchased from Australia)
Baek - My current main is a Blood Elf Paladin. This name is from the Tekken video game series and is one of my favorite characters. I'd get tells from time to time "Tekken?" or "where is your name from????" I like it.
A lot of my characters have had some form of Killian/Killien and I've taken to funny names like Shaek (SHAEK N BAEK!!!) and my DK's name is Joshinu (cause my name is Josh, creative ya).
And then there is Iolas (iolas not Lolas) who is my 2nd highest character as a Bloodelf Warlock. I named him that cause it sounded elfish but I should have stuck with video game names. Now when someone asks me something they call him Lola, and it's a dood. So either I may change him to a her and make it Lola or switch it to something else.... A friend and I went back and forth about some funny names but I'm not sure yet...
Two of my more witty names, imo, are on like level 2 and 5 characters I have yet to level.
Tanooki - A Tauren Druid (will be a tank). Mario's Bear suit in Mario 3 that has a stone form so I thought it was appropriate.
Donkykong - my level 5 Orc Hunter that will have every pet named some variation of Diddykong or just my first pet monkey....
My Holy Paladin's name is Kershocker.
I just like it ^^
I would go with Zuura for a drenia (spelt wrong) priest or any class and Nesingwary for a dwarf hunter and call the pet hemet
Got mine from Warhammer Mark of Chaos :)
"Eliphias" the Inheritor as it is in Warhammer.
Most of my other alts are randomly thought of names or names I find from looking around my room :)
Hence why i got a alt called Edexcel = College Examining Board :P
I just put my sister to pick me a nice name from the Japanesse language.
Himitsu = secret
(no she is not an anime freak , she learns this language in college)
My name is Churchill (lvl 80 Death Knight tank on Bronzebeard ) I love the reference to Winston Churchill and even more when people call me Church. I like how Church is a personal reference to Church from Red vs. Blue (not my favorite character, that would have to be sarge "lift with your back, its the strongest muscle in your body!") :)