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
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?
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)
i made a hunter named xixhunter like 19 hunter planning to own the wsg battleground. but i found a quest w/ a really good reward (dont remember what the quest was or the reward) so i lvld to a lvl 20 hunter and now i just go w/ it and let people think im just uncreative
Well I dont know what i was thinking but "Hunterbozz" -.-
And I dont want to pay more then i already do each month for changing it...
i got the idea for my uber warrior's name just from learning about warcraft, a friend was sucking me into it, and when i saw there was a cow-person race, my mind immediately rushed back to secondary school. A geography quiz. and our team name?
Hoof Hearted.
happy days.
in fact the name's why i rolled cowman rather than deadguy or spikeface.
I usually do some research into names I choose:
Vanhell - Undead warlock, taken from Professor Van Helsing in the book Dracula. He was a demonologist as well as a professor. I thought the fact that my toon is undead made it fit even better.
Drest - Night elf druid. Drest was one of the earliest Pictish kings in what is now Scotland. They were a heavily druidic society.
Clarinnis - Human warrior. This was taken from my family's ancient war cry of "Clar Innis", which is an island that was settled by ancestors in Loch Lomond, Scotland around 1100 AD.
One other; human paladin named Volkenstein after Sigismund Wolkenstein, Hungarian king who began the medieval Order of the Dragon. The order was established to protect the Catholic Church during the invasions by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. This organisation was also responsible for giving Vlad Tepes the name "Dracula" or "little dragon" from his father's involvement with the order.
SPAM THE RANDOM BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! came up with the name i use here. :) not bad but it can be mixed up with a word that refers to a movie that SNL showed a while back..... (SNL = Saturday Night Live)
My characters name is moggafogga :o
My main, and undead Death Knight: Carrion.
My Alt(former main) Blood Elf Pally: Draegloth
just open a spanish dictionary and pick any word most people wont know it means something like my warrior was metano=methane
My toons names are as follows:
Rogue - Amusing
Mage - Ticklez
Shammy - Playful
DK - Cheerful
Other than the mage, my toons are all sorta named after different personality terms. Just sorta something that got started after I wanted to make a gnome rogue because i thought the class/race combo was well, rather amusing =p
I think scotchdoc's a pretty cool name, just saying.
My main Character came from Godfather, but since it was unaveilable I choose Warfather and Poff! I had my name done XD
PS. This is one of the longest blog i`v seen in PL in a very long time... And i have no idea how i managed to read it all.
Warfather, Human Warlock-Outland
My first was a mage named jetblack, i had a charecter in a book i was writing named Jet Thisle and jetblack just came to me, then my 2nd of coure was a hunter named Thisle. my Priest became Jetblade, and my shammy ElementJet. I digresed from my jet names with my dk, who i named deathsgate, bc he was the gate to which all enemys willl pass by on their way to death. lol i thought it was clever at the time. My warrior is named Sheldor after sheldons age of conan charecter from The big bang theory. i have a loch named dorra, bc im going to get the explorer achievment and i thought it would be cool to be dorra the explorer...pallys name is ichigokurosa which is as much of the main charecter from bleach i could get to fit. He recently just rezed himself and healed a huge wound on his chest in order to continue putting out pwnage so...pally=him. i have a druid named chronot which is mostly from chrono trigger, and a rogue named silentblade for the obvious reason. thats it =) one of everything.
I picked my names after my favorite drink Espresso/Coffee.
My name is Tetchy, and i've also used Calamitious.
I normally go on www.thesaurus.com and search something up which fits the class then get the one that sounds the coolest.
Calamitious - Someone who creates a calamity.
Tetchy - Short tempered.
i have a dwarf pally named Thunderstone
my nightelf warrior is named Sunbane(main char)
after that, most alts had the Sun part
Sunlock= warlock
Sunstrike=rogue
Sunstorm=druid
got tired of the same stuff over so my female priest name is Hevan, same as heavan
Torage-80 Tauren warrior (feahtermoon server), was actually Torag (one of the six barrows brothers from RuneScape) before I server switched and the name was taken. So I just added an e to it and its Torage (Tor-rage) I like it because it has the word “Rage” in it and warriors use Rage. He is my main.
Arkais-69 Human warrior (Executus server), was originally Arkio (a character for the Warhammer 40,000 universe that was thought to be the reincarnation of sanguinus, the primarch of the Blood angles chapter) this name was again taken when I realm transfers and I merged the name with kais (another warhammer 40,000 charater from the game “fire warrior”)
Megamoo- 77 Tauren druid (feathermoon server) this is just a goofy one because megamoo is a reference to megatron who is a transformer, so I saw it fitting to make him a druid so he can also transform. My friend also made a druid and named it starbeef, who fails me again and again.
Those are the only ones that have meaning the rest just sound cool.
Some of my favorites from over the years
Cobracomandr -Blef Rogue
Ospery - Blef Hunter
Momwasasaint - Undead Priest
Holysideburn - Blef Pally
Gse (Green Street Elite) - Undead Warrior
Kerosene - Blef Fire Mage
Soloist - Undead Rogue
Elemental - Orc Shaman
Cupcheck - Gnome Warrior
Buzkilington - Blef DK
Lixo - Dranie DK
Elder - Dranie Shaman
Monolith - Dwarf Pally
Tankinaintez - Human Pally
Boltthrower - Gnome Mage
I have always had trouble picking names for my characters. I got Tyrne/Tyrn when a friend opened a random book, closed his eyes and dared me to use whatever word he dropped his finger on as a name. He ended up on turn, and I just changed it a little.
For my dk, i was watching the credits after a movie (why i still dont know) and a guy's last name was reperage, so my dk became reaperage. fun stuff
My very first toons name was Undlock, (Undead Warlock) when i left my guild they were angry and proceeded to bash me for "such an original name", so i moved servers, I did some research into my new name and wanted it to sound good when people, as they typically did abbreviate it to the first 3 or 4 letters of your name in Wow. So i did some research and choose "Athesdan" which is Eldar for High Warlock (according to the website i found the name on), after that i've always chosen names that sound good when the are abbreviated by the first 3 or 4 letters, People call my lock "Ath", my Death Knight "DeusExMortis" (latin for God from/of Death) "Deus", and my Hunter "Synthamine" (taken from a friends enjoyment of music synthesizers), "Syn".
i got some names from my three mains.
Kagiss the Warlock(orc)
imholyurnot the priest(Undead)
and uncookedmeat the DK(tauren)
I found that I had no problem with naming my characters. I started with one letter and worked my way there.
My hunter is Mavtika
Druid is Elyyia
DK is Midwynter
(oddly enough, my dk is not frost which gets confusing in LFG/LFM)
Picking names should be something that takes more thought than class + role + joke in a combo. Even on non-RP servers seeing too many RetLol toons really a downer.
My DK = Mortigen, Warlock = Arkham (HP Lovecraft and batman ref), Druid = Quendalon, Priest = Yeira (old lore). Not a ret-lol in sight.
yeah i like Rp names too... even im not a rp'er ( that much)
my hunters name is Hunshat : unfortunately people thougth it was hunshot all the time ( what a lame name )
´. i never thougth of that possibility myself..
but mostly people shortens it to huns.. or Hat ( god i hate when they does)
it was meant like .. the shattering hunter : hunter = Hun Shattering = shat (im the only guy in wow with that name ?)
i think so.. it years since im made him..
then i made a toon called Xragerx ( in honor to the pre-tbc rogue Xravex )
and a paladin called :Ôwnage ( cant believe people didnt thougth of that before )
then i got my Deathknigth .. who ofc should have something wotkl/lich king reffering.. Frostmourne ? nahh.. Frøstmourne ? still nah..
Mourned ! yeaaah ! you got mourned you fussy bastard ! dang !
..
and then atleast i made Squinkypirql ( a Drood..it got to level 37.. then i deleted it in a fault ) but i love the name so hard... well thats my names.. i like names with a actual meaning.. x-etp Squinkypirql ofc.. hehe