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
Bastosa on Thursday, April 9, 2009 - 151 Comments Tags: guild chat, name, online identity, paid name change, princess diaries 
For me the most difficult part of World of Warcraft isn't raiding, it's not going after extreme achievements, and its not even struggling in the arenas. For me the most challenging thing to do well in WoW is successfully filling out the little box at the bottom of the character creation screen. You know, the one where you enter a name for your character?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)
The name I go with is Traax, as in, I make tracks, you know, when I walk.
My only annoyance with the name is that there's some guy out there with the name "Trax" who is a DJ and so whenever people see my name they automatically assume I like Techno. Which I don't. That doesn't stop them sending me links to all the newest techno songs out there.
grr.
Most of my names come from random experiences... I have a Shammy named Bealz (reference to a Steven Lynch song)
DK named Rickroll (currently my main)
A warrior named Reficul (Tried Alucard 1st though)
Toscc is my hunter (formerly my main)
Cinged is my Mage (singed, get it?)
Granddpa is my Pally (toon created after my grandpa died)
Stabbo is my rogue (do i really need to explain that one)
yes, i am and alt-oholic
oh, i forgot my warlock Gnomerci
It had to rhyme with Tank.
I usually spend most of my time typing in words like "death" and "angel" into a translator to get a name that means something so I can brag about it. I never find anything that sounds good enough so I just use those words with different strokes above/in the letters. I named my DK Ðoom because I couldn't think of anything else xD. Now everyone calls me that inside and outside of WoW.
I have gotten into the habit of naming my toons after people I know in real life. Banatar was just a name that i thought sounded cool for a tauren shammy, but Roney, Baurialis, Penni, and believe it or not, Bangface, are all named after, or inspired by my close friends and family. The only downside of my name on my main, Banatar, is really my own fault. I somehow got in the habit of saying "...more like Banatard", especially when i would lag and die on Heigen, and that somehow was the name that really stuck. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes, and it could much worse off.
haha i love picking out names for my characters. i currently have...
Banikk
Pathros
Munich
Rauros
Kiara
took me some time to get them though.
I just googled elven names generator, hit "generate" button few times, juggled few letters, and Amarua, teh smexy belf was born.
I named my Hunter Krashnor.
Why? He's an Orc and Krashnor sounded pretty Orc-ish to me :P
My main's name just kind of was made. I like short names and just found a 3 letter combo that sounded good.
But, pet names and now alt names are done with a language translator. Find an appropriate english word then try it in various languages until I find one that sounds good.
I also have a hard time picking my character names, but at the end of the day I'm always happy with the combination of letters identified as my character name.
Well personally If I was "ruler-master-pwner-director of WoW" I would hunt down those who call their characters:
"Superdraenei" - Draenei Hunter on Kilrogg
"Retpally" - Gnome Warlock on random server
"Shadowrogue" - bah wtv
Hehe, Jinx is a Pokemon!
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/newforms/more/jynx.jpg
It's the one that kisses to kill you ;)
and you have been Jinxed, so you have been kissed by Jinx ^^
Unain - Male Orc Warrior
Unoin - Male Belf Mage
Unaim - Male Tauren Hunter
Shail - Female Belf Priest
* They usually call Unoin -> Onion on vent :P
i originally started calling my toons words from other languages i learnt so;
priori - lvl 55 hunter - latin meaning: first
uvedoble - lvl 47 shaman - spanish meaning: letter 'W'
then i moved onto calling them by something that derfined them
kryo - frost dk
holydave - holy pala
flatlined - undead mage
my mains name is leonitis lol, like the main character off the film 300 except spelled wrong coz leonidas was taken.
but everyone in my guild thinks my real name is leon ¬_¬
Me and my freinds think im a beast name creator.
My account names are...
-Trojhan
-Crosslight
-Bloodbanes
-Sepulchor
-Kraonos
My not too bright names are...
-Soulslice...
-summerstrike....
-juggynauts...
They 're from when i could not think of anything so i had to resort to something available.. *-.-
I've only been playing WoW for a couple of years now so I don't have multiple toons. I have my main (80 prot warrior) and of course a DK. I'm on the Alexstrasza server and my characters are: 80 Warrior - Divinojuan (spanish for Godlike and John) and my 58 DK - Lovestospüge (play on name of toon in South Park WoW episode.
I want to know the disney name now. Usually I just steal names from things. The only name ive ever not stolen was "Nethya." other ones i have stolen- saix, lenus, rahkshi, neith, nevan, larxene.
hmm my charecters names... i started wow during the 1st month and have been playing ever since.
I started as a undead rogue, couldent think of a name so i randomly came up with Oragnos, fitting name imo, ive kept it all the way up to wotlk and i'll never change it :)
My second Charecter is a undead warlock called Naranaxuz, I randomly created this name from muddling up japanese words..
Ironic thing is i get many people ask me if i took the names from raids...
Orangos - Ragnoros
Naranaxuz - Naxxramass
Either that was purely luck or i have generally good taste in names xD joke
I was quite happy with my nickname Sardit, its the name form a character in a book i once read, Guy had a gentle mood and would rather stand aside helping out then be in the frenzy taking the glory. I liked that about it.
Then when i reached high lvls in wow i found out Sardit is bulgarian for "angry, grumpy, chagrin, enraged"
I'm not so happy with it any more. I would have to spec shadow to make it fit my character again :(
My warlock is Diablokitty. Picked it cause that is what I call my cat. It is a good name and something very easy for other people to remember.
Obvious name for someone who allways F*@cks things up =) ( Oops was taken )
i got my name a little strange, my old name mafiooz wassint allowed for some reason and i stil dont know why.( i play on a rp server) but when i needed to change my name i also had the problem about what to name him then. i told my brother about and he just bashed the keyboard as a joke and also pressed enter.
and so i got to my new name rhygfr. i obviously shouted at my brother but then again he didint know i have to pay money to change it. the people on the server dont really care about my weird name. only my old guild master hated it because he cant say it in voice chat
i kinda like it now and ever since i start every name with rhy.
For almost off of my newest chars i make what I name um is something that means something in another language. Its pretty cool if you use Google Translater and you can mind alot of cool names.