How do you pick a char name?

Community General Discussion
41

I try to do names that are stupid but not too stupid.

References to inside jokes, memes, experiences etc. I like it when I have a short story associated with any given name that I have.

f.ex. Wwhelp -> wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhelp because someone whispered that to a friend of mine when I was ganking [the someone] and my friend was watching on the sidelines on his character at the opposite faction to mine.

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42

Name-paralysis is a legit problem in WoW these days. Everything remotely meaningful or good for RP is ‘already in use’.

I’d be inclined to say that you need a character to be level 20 to keep the name for more than 3 months. This is not a lot of time required, and nobody should have any problem with it - but if you want to reserve a name you might use, you’ll be far more selective with the ones you take, and you certainly won’t reserve it on realms you aren’t on.

There is, apparently, a 2-expansion activity timeout, whereby names automatically get released. From personal experience, everything that was on servers I didn’t log into from MoP-BfA is now flagged for rename. Characters on realms I used in WoD, even if I never touched them at the time, remain safe.

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43

When I started out I was horribly bad at naming, this character here for instance was abbreviated from “Alliance Draenei Hunter” supposed to be “Aldrhu” but I removed the H bc it looked stupid :roll_eyes:

Then i just went onto odd fantasy names and bird names and now the good ole name generator or odd latin names are my go-to.

44

My first attempt was something I enjoyed, from other Blizzard game, Diablo 2, Amazon as a name.

Couldn’t get Amazon (no surprise), or Amazone. Ended up with Amazoner.
Strange name for a Troll Hunter, but I never thought I would play her for 120 days …

Next name was for a Orc warrior, first one was from Unreal Tournament: Skrylax, on my friends account.
Created a new one on my account, tried this time a more Orcish name, this time asked my sister for help.
We ended up with Fang as the beginning, and Roth as end. Fangroth.

My Third character was a deleted troll shaman. I loved Valkyrie name, so I tried something similar, ended up with Valquirye.

My main in TBC, was named after what everyone in my vanilla guild, used to call my main. They usually called me Ama, sometimes Amy.
My Forsaken Priest was called Ammy.

Fast forward to Legion, I usually use the internet name generators or on case of Elves, elven names.
Problem is: I can’t remember their names .
…
Yesterday I had to logg off to read what was the name of my Blood Elf mage, since I haven’t played her since level 6, just to send something to her.

On this character name I went for something short and related to flowers.
Since Paladins are supposed to be the representatives of the good side.

On my Rogue’s case, it was different.
I gave her a poison flower name: Clematis.

Cheers.

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46

It’s not just RP realms. I can’t even make any new characters on this server that I’m on now because everything even remotely decent as a name is taken. It seems like I either have to have characters with nonsense names or sacrifice and play on a dead server if I want my characters to have names that I like. The whole name situation in this game is just so very bad. It’s about time Blizzard came up with a better solution than just releasing names every four years or so cause it’s not enough. :unamused:

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47

Oh, by RP I’m talking internal-RP and casual “heh, good name” reactions from your guildies on any server :slight_smile: Character names matter because they tell you a lot about the player. They are the first thing anyone knows about you, and you should have freedom to pick one you like.

Not everyone gets it, but those of us that do tend to be more in love with our characters when they have the ‘right’ name.

Pretty sure other games figured out surnames. Feels like time WoW did the same. The argument has always been that spaces confuse the /w command, but there is so much x-realm going on that nobody types another player’s name anyway. Either you can click them in chat or in the world, or you’ve got them in a community or guild. You don’t need to type a player’s name to whisper them. Worst case you type a forename and then get a dropdown of the surname options you might mean.

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48

gl…gettin an original name at this stage of the game :rofl::joy:

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49

I usually spend a lot of time to figure out a fitting name for my characters. And I have deleted quite many characters when I realize at some point that the name actually su… is not good. I have most of my characters in RP realms and we have a certain naming rules in RP servers, so i try to think something that fits for the race / class.

for some odd reason my humans have “Crow” in their name, Crowmoor, Crowmane, Crowbane etc. The dwarf I have is called Thorindar, which used to be my human DK’s name, but everyone kept asking me if it is a dwarf, so I name changed my DK to Crowmoore and Dwarf to Thorindar.

For my Draenei characters, they almost always have two same subsequent vocals, like Krooken, Reekus, Akraan etc. And of course, elven characters have elven names like Danathel, Naraian or Aronalen

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50

I feel the same way. really don’t like all the different accents used. I’d rather give the name doubble letters if I have to. E.g. I was gonna name a character Elani, but it was taken, and picked Eelani instead. Worked for me.

51

I just make up something that makes sense in my head… i have names like sinaaki, heera, kiraanu, nikaaru, miikah, kiira, alikah, rajaa, nooraki. U see the pattern there :stuck_out_tongue:

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52

I normally pick a character name which isn’t said in public constantly or Online. But sometimes i can also be lazy and just use a random fantasy name generator :grin:

53

I never thought about it!

54

Mostly in-game random generator, I often modify the name myself once I get the base from it. Sometimes I give them real people names if they’re human (I have a monk named Lesley, a mage named Ashleigh). My hunter used to have the second name before I server transferred but spelled Ashley (it wasn’t taken on the old server), it just felt a bit weird cause she is a night elf. She has a more fitting name now

55

I have two main methods:

  • Logging onto PTR or beta to get a random name generator the US folks have
  • Taking a historical or geographical name that makes me think of the character and modifying it a little bit. So, for example, if I was making a Scarlet Crusader, I’d name him Amalry, after the historical character Amalric (the alleged author of “kill them all, let God sort them out in Heaven”)
56

If it’s a roleplay character, then a lot of thought.
I usually look up suitable words in a suitable language and change that word a little bit or combine two words, a real drag.

57

Half of my toons are funny named in Finnish, the other half is seriously named as this one. Orodtaur meaning a woody mountain in Tolkienish language. Suitable for a Highmountain taureen.

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58

Picking a good name is like the biggest challenge. I’m very picky about it being lore friendly. First I try out WoWs random name generator, if it doesn’t give me one I like I look elsewhere.

There are a bunch of name generators so I look at them. If I still can’t come up with anything I look elsewhere again.

Say I want to make a blood elf character, then I check out elf names from other games. Say Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls games. Or even movies like Lord of the Rings.
I never take a main characters name, that just feels wrong. But a smaller character or some character with no story, no problems with that.

Sometimes I hate how picky I am with choosing a name, can take forever. But I want it to feel right. When I’m playing I want the name to fit the character I’m gonna spend time on.

59

I usually use names that I like or that are somewhat pertinent with the race and/or class. I never use edgy or “accent modified” names like Nightmàre because I don’t like them.

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60

I pick mine from all over, partly depending on class and what sounds thematic, but always something that fits the character.

This one as a priest, I wanted something vaguely religious, so picked a minor biblical character with a pretty action packed story (I am not at all religious, but there are some good names in religious texts, especially middle eastern ones).

My other ones generally riff on Arthurian names (Normally playing on Vivianne, the lady of the lake, or Accolon the archer - imagine my horror when I find out there was a YouTuber with the same name. Sigh. I had it first).

Or history is a great source, pick an awesome but lesser known (at least in the west) historical figure such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi or Cyrus the great, then riff on their Lieutenants and get something like Sheedah or Combys. This has the bonus of giving you a rough character sketch to work with if you care about that.

My fun ones are club legends from the football club I support (Wagstaff and Chilton).

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61

Had to google and try it. Best I got after 3 rolls was ‘gneefbeafsa’. This is absolutely hilarious and extremely bad :stuck_out_tongue: