BA Shared Topic Idea: What's in a Name?

What takes the longest to choose, is the first thing people see, and is the one thing they always remember about you and your character?

Your name.

How did you decide upon the name for your character(s)? Did you delve into Norse, Greek, or Roman mythology? Did you choose a name from one of your family members? Did you mash the "Random" name generator button in vain until you stumbled upon something you liked? Is your name a play on aspects of your class, using spells or other traits? Did you play around with syllables, vowels, and consonants until you found something that you loved?

How long did it take you to come up with your name? Do all of your characters share the same 'theme' or naming convention? Have you ever run into someone who had a similar name? How did you feel? Does your character have a partner with "the other half" to your name (such as "Salt" and "Pepper"). Do any of your characters have a "themed" guild that goes along with your name? Do you have a nickname that your guild, friends, or significant other has given your character?

Has your character name become your online persona, or maybe the other way around?

Do you have any tips for naming your characters in WoW, or any other game? Resources, name generators, mythology websites, sources of inspiration, etc.

If you are an avid roleplayer, how was your name decided upon by family/friends? Did your character choose the name later in life or were they given it at birth? There are whole stories behind naming/birthday celebrations that I am sure are floating around out there.

So much can be said about names. What does yours say?

This week's topic sprouted from somewhere within my thoughtful mind, although I'm not quite sure when I thought of it. I think I had been reading several roleplay blogs and thinking about jumping into RP myself. I still have yet to do that; I've been dragging my feet a little bit.

So far it looks like people will enjoy thinking about and sharing their naming processes with the world this week.  I will update a list at the end of the post of all the people who participate in this week's topic.  I think this will be a good post for roleplayers too who would like to have their character reminisce about their name and where it came from/how it fits in with the rest of their friends and family.

To start with, I will give you a list of all my current character names and we will go from there!

Mains
Llani, my draenei shaman (80)
Mushee, my night elf druid (80)
Nelena, my night elf priest (80)

Alts
Myrani, my draenei paladin (34)
Natalie, my blood elf priest (5)
Sahteen, my night elf hunter (34)
Mushee, my draenei mage (72)

It looks like I've been favoring the letter/sounds of Ls, Ms, Ns, and Es!  Hmm.  I never actually noticed that.

When I Need a New Name...
The naming process for me can take DAYS.  First, I don't really follow any set theme with my names.  I find one that sounds good, has an easy pronunciation, and sounds feminine.  I have all female toons and just don't feel like playing a male toon.   Depending on what mood I am in, I start writing down the first ideas that come to mind.  Sometimes I want a non-traditional name (usually a combination of words) like Shadowfury, Cashmere, or Blubell. Other times I will go with traditional names you would see in the world like Karly, Jadsia, or Annabell.  And finally, if I want something mythological or a foreign language or culture I will search for anything Celtic, German, Roman, or the like.

Llani

Llani came about because I had been watching Smallville a little too much.  I wanted Lana to start with, but, it was naturally taken.  Lani was also taken, so I stuck another L on the front and it just "looked" nice and balanced.  That's another thing--my names have to look good. If they look awkward, chances are someone else is going to find it awkward also.  Nickname:  Llanibunny

Mushee

Mushee was a druid, first and foremost.  When I was naming my druid, I wanted something that said "I'm cute, cuddly, and furry, HUG ME".  I had intended for her to be a bear tank, and despite the wary feeling one might associate with a tank named "Mushee," I leveled her up as a tank anyway.  These days she is a tree with a cute name, but, still...I associate all druids as fluffy, furry, fuzzy, cuddly fluffballs of fuzziness that I can just squeeeeze and use for pillows.  Yep. Nickname:  Mush, Mushball

Nelena

Nelena came about when I wanted a name that started with an N, but that sounded sophisticated and chic.  And so, Nelena came about when I was moving my priest back home to her current server.  Her beta server name is Nalena, because the former was taken.  Sometimes I call her "Nuh-lay-nuh" and other days I call her "Nuh-lee-nuh".  Most of the time she is just... Nickname:  Nel.

Myrani

My paladin alt came about oddly as a form of Llani.  I chopped off the front of her name and started adding on other names that I thought would fit well. Eventually I came up with Myrani, "Muh-raw-nee" or "Meer-raw-nee", however way you want to say it.  So many times my names just come from other names that I squish together until I find one that flows off your tongue and is either relatively easy to say or easy to learn after some correcting. Nickname: Myra

Natalie 

Miss Natalie came from me desiring a normal, everyday name.  Thus, I managed to snag Natalie.  Nickname: Nat

Sahteen

This name is actually another shaman on my server, but I thought it was such a pretty play on Sateen that I saved it on my other server for my hunter, who is currently 34.  I love fabric names, and a previous name of mine was Cashmira. Chenille and Taffetta would be some other favorites.


Other names I have used in the past include:

Bretta, Zesti, Oregano, Shadowfrenzy, Sparkles, Chirabell, Litebrite, Cherished, Grace, Ziv,  and Faith.

The names I like the most come from these categories, if you want some inspiration:

• Girlie names, like Natalie, Bretta, Nellie, Anna.
• Anything with Dream, Sky, Wind, Leaf, in the name.
• Native American names.
• Religious/Faith/Clean based names like Grace, Peace, Hope, Poise, Adored, Elegance
• Herbs.  Oregano, Chamomile, Mint, Tarragon, Rosemary
• Sweets/Sugar.  Cupcake, Teacup, Sugar, Muffins, Sugarwings

Mmm. I made these Monday night for my Physics class.  German chocolate + Coconut Pecan icing.  Cooking can be a good source for character names, if you like herbs, certain foods or food types, or need a pool of names to choose from for a group of friends.  People always get a chuckle when they see Bleucheese from the guild <Salad Dressings>.  If you need something more formal/serious, I suggest sticking with the herb families...especially if you are a druid.

The list goes on.  My advice is to Google the type of name you would like, be it something from one of the above categories, a Native American name, a mythological name, a Chinese name from history past, a cutesy/cuddly name, pet names, three letter names, etc.  Google is your friend, use it often!

My favorite name generator is located at http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/.

I believe my names reflect the fact that I appreciate a balanced, easy to pronounce yet still creative name.  I do not think any of my names are overly unique as many of them are just variations of names that I stumbled upon throughout the last five years and liked.  In the future, some friends and I would like to create a guild named <Foods> and name all our alt characters after a food. I was going to do Blucheese, although I have a thing with "misspelled" names.  I am okay with them, much moreso than with those terrible foreign symbols, but I still like to spell things correctly.

My latest alt for the expansion will be Teacup, the gnome priest. =)  I am also thinking about Shadowpuff.  Imagine a cute little priest coming at you to dot you up into oblivion and then giggle with glee as you flop over!  Ahhh the possibilities.

In the end, your name is what you want it to be, so spend the extra time to choose something you love!  You're stuck with it until you fork over the 10 dollars to change it!  (And in this economy, who really wants to spend $10 on THAT!)

Other Thoughts So Far About Names!
Dragonray @ Azerothian Life
RestoDude @ RestoDude
VioletScribe @ The Violet Scribe
ecclesiasticaldiscipline @ Ecclesiastical Discipline
Syrco @ Syrco-Owl

More to come, I will add them every few days as they are posted.