With the
Aion EU beta coming up this weekend, it's time to think about names and what I'm going to call my Elyos avatar. Names are important, right? I recently became an auntie and the name of my newborn niece will shape her as a person, the same can be said for our toons. Of course some are obvious, every server will have its
Legolas (and variants thereof). Sometimes names are more descriptive, like Banker for your level 2 druid who never leaves the mailbox and occasionally they are puns. For example, my level 4 Paladin is named '
Hikari' which is a Japanese word meaning 'light'. Quite apt eh? Meanwhile, Eshte and Auryn are minor characters in a series of novels I'm trying to write. As for Serisa, well it sounded good at the time and now I answer to it as much as I do to my own name!
So, constant readers, tell me how do you pick your names? Do you pick ones that match your toon's faction? Do you take inspiration from novels or computer games? Do you use the internet to pick a suitable moniker or do you just create one which sounds right? Are they puns or do they mean something specific to you?
Jun 3rd 2009 at 8:00AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Retropally said on 8:12AM 6-03-2009
Mine is rather strange to be honest, when I first joined xbox live when I got my 360 I decided to look at the random names...and the first name it came up with was perfect for me.
Its stuck with me through me in various different mmo's, including wow. Cant say what it is though, dont want anyone stealing it when The Old Republic comes out :P
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Retropally said on 8:13AM 6-03-2009
*Note to self...always read your post before you press send, not after :P
Anonymous said on 8:14AM 6-03-2009
I normally name my characters from mythical gods, such as Cotys, whom is my 46 hunter - She is named after the Thracian goddess of hunting.
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Lesley Smith said on 8:41AM 6-03-2009
As someone who did Classics at uni, I'm always delighted when people take the mythological approach! Yay for obscure deities with names that fit their class!
Calarius said on 3:31PM 6-03-2009
Nice to see other people who look up lesser known deities for their character names. My wife did the same, and found some quite appropriate ones for her various characters.
Achilles said on 8:15AM 6-03-2009
Having been a fan of classical literature for, well, forever I tend to dip into that realm for tags, names and ID's. Achilles being a favourite incase you hadn't realised from the handle here.
Have always found something appealing in the names of Gods, demi-gods and heroes... Cant think what though ^.^
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Drackni said on 8:40AM 6-03-2009
Well i usualy take names from books like discworld and call my character WindlePoons or somehting but lately ive been tryingt o be more inventivwe wuith my characters Drackni and Erazoth
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Poozle said on 8:54AM 6-03-2009
I have no idea where my main MMO name came from now but like you say in the article, I now go by that name as much as my real name (especially because if I didn't it would get very confusing in one of the groups I play with).
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Larithen said on 8:57AM 6-03-2009
I generally only have a couple of names I've used for years, no idea where they came from I just stuck with them. Though a couple of my lesser names belong to all the categories. Usually if I'm making a female healer type I will call her Cerridwen, as that is the name of the Celtic Goddess of Regeneration, if I remember right lol
And I also have a Paladin called Palanini, that came when I created it, got bored and went, hell why not?! and put it in the fated box. I also have a couple of names that fir the character, like my Frost Mage which I called Firebane. Or my Frost Specced Death Knight called Frostborn (now moved to blood spec though, so the name is pointless now lol)
Or if I really can't be bothered I use variations of Gemomo, I once had an account on a game (can't remember it's name for the life of me) with characters Gemomo, Gememe, Gemumu and Gemimi.
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decompiler said on 9:17AM 6-03-2009
I too like to take my names from other languages: Pallies: Gerecht (German for "Righteous") and Silencio ("Silence" in Spanish (duh)), 'Lock: Manorojo ("Red Hand" in Spanish), Dwarven Death Knight: Temorito (Spanish, roughly translates to "Tiny Terror").
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decompiler said on 9:52AM 6-03-2009
Oh, and Justos (pronounced oos-TOSE, Spanish for "Justice")
Rayingri said on 11:41AM 6-03-2009
I think Justice in spanish is Justicia and Justos means "fair" or something like that..i'm not sure though..
Cheers
decompiler said on 12:08PM 6-03-2009
Ah... well, the method use to get these names is by typing my chosen descriptive word into google translator and picking the coolest sounding translated synonym it spits out... so I'd imagine the outcome is often rough, but it's good enough for gov't work! ;)
Rayingri said on 3:10PM 6-06-2009
Ohh sure sure, yeah I agree and I've done that myself too eheh
Cheers :)
brendon said on 11:29PM 6-07-2009
just FYI "manos" is one of those quirky words that is feminine dispite its ending of "os". "las manos" not "los manos". as such mano roja is the correct way to say "red hand".
oops! you've been showing Spanish speakers you don't know what you're doing all this time.
Tyranor said on 9:31AM 6-03-2009
I generally stick with a couple of names...Either Tyranor, which is my usual fantasy MMO default, or Crimsoneer for all other games.
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Beatlebabe said on 9:36AM 6-03-2009
I always start off my first toon with my nickname...Beatlebabe.
Sometimes I pick something descriptive ie...like for my mage on WoW and my Bright Wizard on WAR, it was Firewoman (Cult reference too)
I also like ones that are funny especially in PvE...the spam of XXXX was just killed by "Obesity" or XXXX was just killed by "Parsnips" is always a good laugh.
I know alot of people do random ones that the game might provide for you but I could never do that. It's gotta mean something to me...and I'm not that clever when it comes to puns.
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Ben said on 9:51AM 6-03-2009
I jut remembered - I once wrote a PHP script that generated names based upon Tolkien's elvish language. It was very simple - you could choose between 2-4 different English meanings and then it would combine the elvish equivalents. Or it could be totally random.
It sometimes took a while to get a good name though!
I don't think it is online anymore - and I'm not sure if I still have the script.
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jesse.auciello said on 8:11PM 6-03-2009
I actually use the Bible quite frequently to find names. There are all kinds of strange names to be had. One particular group of names I like to choose from is David's mighty men, which was where I got the name "Elhanan" for my level 60 elf hunter in LOTRO. I thought the name even sounded a bit elvish.
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Ja said on 10:31AM 6-03-2009
I have two main names I use, the first one I randomly generated in the first MMO I played just after it came out, Everquest. I always play melee type characters with this name.
The second is for my mage type characters and is in honour of a friend who played a Wizard in Everquest on the PvP server and gave me his account when his terminal illness became too much for him to carry on playing. He asked me to play his character for him and since then I've used this character name on practically every MMO out there!
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