Curse

Ashley Twig · May 18, 2006, 12:46 PM // 12:46

I was wondering how some people chose the names they give to their characters, if they care at all, if names might have a personal touch to them etc.

As far as I do know aNet, they clearly seem to favor (or, at least, are not worried about) names, that belong to dictators, terrorists and mass murderers.

So you can easily name your pet "Bin Laden" if you wish.
"Stalin" who killed more than twice as many people than AH did, is no issue.
You can also chose "Idi Amin" for your pet without getting into immediate trouble.

On the other hand they're not at all fond of names that go like "Jewel" e.g., because it contains the phrase "jew", which I find very confusing. Also the name of the messiah of the christian world "Jesus" is banned and cannot be used for a pet name.
"Jehova" on the other hand show no trouble.

But enough about aNet.

The names I chose e.g. usually have an element from nature or at least relate to it.

Ashley Twig e.g. should give her profession as a ranger away easily
Ocean Rivers should have no problem, being identified as a water elementalist
Heather May should've been Mayweed (a medical plant) but "weed" was banned at the time, but the idea of a plantname used for healing purposes was intended to identify her as a monk.

Later on I lost the plant <-> profession connection, but kept up the plant idea with
Rose Of July
Violet Yarrow
Samantha Sundew

My current char, a ritualist, Jezebel Amaya has not a plantname, but "amaya", so I've been told, is japanese and means "Night Rain" which, at least, is an element from nature.
Her original 1st name was supposed to be "Jewel", but since aNet seems to hate the term "Jew" for whatever sordid reason, I was forced to pick another.

So what about you. Why did you chose the name that you did?
Or are names totally irrelevant to the majority of GW players?
I sometimes get the impression when I read names like "pigfister" and the like.

Spazzer · May 18, 2006, 12:52 PM // 12:52

My mesmer, Rebecca Siddons, is named after a character from System Shock 2 that only those who have beaten the game would even remember.

Julia Riselem, Fiona Wevlum, and Vorlik Blade are all Skies of Arcadia references.

Golly Orby is a Perry Bible Fellowship reference.

Halbert · May 18, 2006, 01:00 PM // 13:00

first off, my first name is Hal, so I based all my names off that

my Warrior is Hal Berto after a school nickname

my Monk is Hal O Two after the other game that I frequently play(level 32)

Ranger is named Hal Nlne thousand after the robot in the movie 2001- a space odyssey

and my female ele is named Hal lelujah because everyone rejoices when I join their party

fiery · May 18, 2006, 01:42 PM // 13:42

All characters start with Fiery. Also with the certain profession I tend to add the last name as a trait they will do or relating to them. Such as a Monk combine something with healing and protting, which is so hard to think of a word for both :X. As for my warrior Fiery Battousai it's japanese, and not related to that Kenshin person. Level 4 Japanese FTL. >.<

X Bound X · May 18, 2006, 01:45 PM // 13:45

My Necromancer and my assassin both pull their names from the lyrics of
Nine Inch Nails song "Mr.Self Destruct"

And I Control You
All u need to know

Interestingly enough a couple of my guildmates have followed suit with

Denial Guilt N Fear
Religions Msg Clear

^Those two are both necromancer's as well, ineterestingly enough.

While my pvp character is named from the game Mechwarrior:4

Atlas S One A

Red · May 18, 2006, 01:46 PM // 13:46

Ranger - Angelo Ronin
-_- Yes, I'll admit it. I'm an RPer. *gasp* This was my first character's name, and I always use it for woods-y characters. It was perfect for my Ranger.

Monk - Daniel Highwind
Last name is a tribute to Kain from FF4 (called FF2 in America). I wanted a name that sounded all neat and monk-ish and holy, and I liked the sound of Daniel Highwind. Huzzah.

Warrior - Jake Lehnsherr
Jake's my German character ^^ Buff, with light eyes and blond hair trimmed neatly, hehe. Lehnsherr is the name that the germanic X-men character Magneto picked for himself--Eric Magnus Lehnsherr. When a comic-reading friend of mine was rambling, I was like OMG BEST NAME EVER.

Ritualist - Michael Caedmon
Caedmon is Celtic for "wise warrior". I like the sound of it--again, it's a name I've used in RPing before. Michael just seemed to fit.

PvPs - Commander Redly
Hmmmmmmmm.......

Rayinzar · May 18, 2006, 01:46 PM // 13:46

My main character is Rayinzar Stormcloud, Prince of Llanowar (From Magic

), son of Orion and Ariel Stormcloud, and descendant of the mighty Ravenshore Stormcloud. IT's a very old D&D Character I made (Cleric) and is now used for almost all my Fantasy outings

Being a MEsmer was a sort of necessity, the green was vaguely elven, and the Monk skin was just not right

....

My Elementalist/Monk is Ashaman R'anakha (' unfortunately missing from the name

), based on a healing Ashaman from the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, and mixing in Anakha from Eddings because I wasn't feeling very inspired

Now that I know Ritualists have "Channeling" I may well secondary class that way, or make a Rit/* someday as another Asha, with a more unique second name

My last is a Warrior/Necro named Nagash Londragath, that has for years been the dreaded Vampire Lord in my own fantasy world of such things and Ninjas

Of course he is just starting out, but there are great plans to make him carry out a proper storyline and good/evil development phase

Oh, and I made the name up in a random Hotmail name creation burst many years ago

My Mesmer's pet is named Luna and is a Melandru's Stalker. Name from Rayinzar's horse in D&D

Esprit · May 18, 2006, 01:51 PM // 13:51

Quote:

and my female ele is named Hal lelujah because everyone rejoices when I join their party

Haha, that's a nice way to advertise yourself.

My Ritualist is named Lirael Saraneth, from the Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix. Where in the books, Lirael is a necromancer that controls spirits, and Saraneth is a bell that is used to 'bind' spirits. I thought that was approriate for my Ritualist, as Ritualists bind spirits.

It's ironic how ANET bans words like 'Jewel', but permits words such as 'jizz'. I guess immaturity and crudeness don't hold a candle to a name that might have a religious word in it.

If I am forming a PUG, and I see a name like 'pigfister' or of the like, I won't invite them in my party, just because the name is immature.

Kaguya · May 18, 2006, 01:53 PM // 13:53

Well mine are based on Kaguya Houraisan from Imperishable Night, a vertical shooter. Aaand IN was based on Japanese folklore Kaguya-hime.

I kept the Kaguya-name on all my alts, tho some of the surnames are from IN as well, Kaguya Yagokoro who is my ranger, and Kaguya Kirisame who is my Ele, mainly due to the Marisa's Spark [Spark doesn't like direct linking, copypaste the url again and it works :P]. ^^

Rest of my Kaguyas are translated from English to Japanese, assassin Yorunoha (Blade of the Night) and mesmer Yumehari ("Dreamneedle") so they are more of less 'original'.. My warrior sorta deviates from the theme with English last name Dreamblade. Will see what names my new charas get when the new slots are available :P

mqstout · May 18, 2006, 01:55 PM // 13:55

Simms Agere - N/Me Named after a D&D necromancer I used, where latin-verb-y family names and monosyllabic first names.

Jiss Kege - W/R Same reason as Simms.

Tretin Claudius - Me/Mo I made him to look like an old dandy (gray hair included) and chose a fairly traditional name for him that seemed to match.

Zemfir Listya - R/Me Inspiried by the Russian rock diva Zimfira and the Russian word for leaf. I dropped the A from the first name to prevent both from ending in A.

Dristi Viraj - E/Rt I made her to look Indian and gave her an Hindu-y name.

Houn Ngana - Rt/N I made him look like a Vudoun and he has a name that elicits that.

Sagius Truthbarron · May 18, 2006, 01:56 PM // 13:56

I named my crab Mr Crabulous and my tiger Kittyfingers. <3

lyra_song · May 18, 2006, 02:01 PM // 14:01

I think my favorite name is what belongs to my ranger:

Bunny Faddenholsts

Im very happy with the name because its very playful (BUNNY! ^_^) and the last name is very unique. In fact, if you google "Faddenholsts" you will come up with GWG

When i got factions, i made an older sister for her, my monk Duckie Faddenholsts.

BlueNovember · May 18, 2006, 02:18 PM // 14:18

Got some nice ideas there guys. I'm a firm believer in theming your characters. Ltos of nice ideass ^^ about herbology, games, books there. The number of random char names in GW is a bit of shame. "Running Warrior" "Im an Elementalist" "Your Mum" etc.

My long-term alias is BlueNovember, so that's my first char's name. The rest are all welsh names with "The Welsh" suffixes. Makes it easy for people in the guild to tell who Anwyn The Welsh is without hovering the entry.

I dislike having to learn names of all the chars of other people just so I can recognise them. With a guild of 100+ people, 30+ of which you halls with regularly, it's a bit confusing.

WasAGuest · May 18, 2006, 02:20 PM // 14:20

I love Native American cultures (north and south) so I often choose names or use words from those languages to make my names. I just wish I was more adept at learning languages cause I would love to be able to speak them... /sigh

Maedai Amarth · May 18, 2006, 02:38 PM // 14:38

Ah, excellent. I was hoping one of these days I'd stumble across a thread such as this. It's nice to know that some folks put thought behind a character's name. I rarely invite the people with poor name choices, usually because their IQ goes right along with it. :P

That being said, non-rpg like names are ok with me, but as long as they are, at least, amusing. Here's a run-down of my character's names.

Maedai Amarth - Maedai (pronounced May-Day or May Die) is just a nice way of spelling what I knew I do do the most in my very first MMO (or rather...MCO?) - die alot. Amarth is elvish for 'doom'.

Lucas Mortporter - Lucas means light and it sounds nice. Mortporter is a combination of latin words meaning 'death carrier' or 'death bringer'. Yes, he's a necro. :P

Righteous Sarah I - My monk character. The name is the complete opposite of a necromancer, also named Sarah, who was in the guild for a long time. She was the evil one.

Adilya Endlewine - My ranger. her name just hit me out of nowhere and I decided that I had to name a ranger character right then! it flows rather nicely.

Quinn Darly - A former Harry Potter (don't laugh! :P) RPG character. She has a very scottish name for a not-so scottish looking elementalist (I tried though :P). Too bad we can't add freckles on characters.

Tobin Spirit Guide - She's my ritualist. My sister made a ritualist as well, Egon E Spengler. A Ghostbusters refrence, obviously.

No one ever gets it. :P

I really love some of the names you all have already posted. It's nice to see some creative names and the reasoning behind them. Cheers!

nitetime · May 18, 2006, 02:53 PM // 14:53

All my characters share the last name of Nitetime, which i've used as a nick for as long as I can remember. Their first names come from various resources, Anezka (monk) from Vampire The Masquerade, Amras (ranger) I got from some elven name translator website which derived from my real name, Wicked I guess came from a M:TG card, others are nicknames of friends for my own amusement.

baz777 · May 18, 2006, 02:56 PM // 14:56

Dr Baz
Male Monk (Dr) – my nickname (Baz)

Rite of Perception
Female Ritulist (Faction character)
Wanted ‘Rite of Passage’ but had already been used and this seemed a good substitute

Rite of Nature
Female Ranger (Factions character)
Wanted to keep the same theme (Rite of ……..) going for new Faction characters.

The hardest was trying to name my newly acquired white tiger. For ages I sat in font of the computer on the Internet looking for inspiration. Gave up so he’s ‘Intel Inside’ as this was the only thing staring at me for hours.

Markaedw · May 18, 2006, 03:00 PM // 15:00

I lately I've been picking my names from mythology, with the same last for a personal famlish feel

Prophecies: Dragonhart, with Hart being my grandmother's maiden name, and dragon, because it sounds cool

Ranger: Diana is theRoman goddes of the hunt, her pet Bastet is the Egyptian cat god of protection.
Warrior: Selene is from Grandia II
Necro: Lillith is the Jewish/Babylonia queen of the undead-succubii, stealer of children, all around not a nice woman (oddly enough I have more rage quits with her that the rest of my characters put together)

Factions: Nian: Chinese for beast

Ele: Fengh Huang, her name was misspelled it should be Feng Huang, one of the four Chinese holy creatures, a pheonix (I didn't catch it untill it was to late, Got my tengu mask)
Rit: Meng Po, the last beurocrat of the Chinese underworld, she gives a potion of forgetfullness the about to be reborn
Monk: Aslan is from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

jciardha · May 18, 2006, 03:02 PM // 15:02

Armand Leblanc (Mesmer) - Originally the name of one of my old White Wolf RPG characters. I needed something stereotypically pretentious and snobby for a mesmer, and thus picked something pretentiously French.

Desiree Delacoeur (Mesmer) - Same as above. Loosely translated, it can mean "Desire of the heart."

Elias Higharrow (Ranger) - Named after one of my favorite Star Trek characters (book series-only), and a surname from the Elf Name Generator.

Sir Binky (Warrior) - Friend's nickname in university.

Leeroy Mcwhammo (PVP Warrior) - ... I don't think this one needs much explaination.

Equus Asinus (Ranger & PVP Alliance Battle character) - Scientific name for "donkey." My packmule character, but I also use her in Alliance battles as a conditions ranger/warrior. Gives me an excuse to use all those spare weapons I keep on her.

Elaan of Troyius (Necro) - Another packmule, grabbed only for the name. Star Trek (Original Series) reference.

Tong Yi Sheng (Monk) - I'm Chinese, and my surname is Tong. "Yi Sheng" is the Chinese Pin Yin for "Doctor." So, "Doctor Tong."

lyra_song · May 18, 2006, 03:04 PM // 15:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by baz777

Dr Baz
The hardest was trying to name my newly acquired white tiger. For ages I sat in font of the computer on the Internet looking for inspiration. Gave up so he’s ‘Intel Inside’ as this was the only thing staring at me for hours.

I love it.