Random name generators for the cool kids
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Mar 20th 2007 at 11:45AM
WoW's random character name generator provides decent mythical-sounding names for most classes by combining random syllables together. However, for those of us on older servers, the random name generator is worthless, as most of its suggestions have already been taken up by other creativity-challenged players. So what's a player with many alts to do? Here are five places you can go to look for random names -- if you're up to it ...
- Medical dictonaries. Stripped of their meaning, some diseases are quite pretty. Keratitis, Asystole and Alexia all sound like they could be female blood elves -- plus you have the option of appearing smart.
- Lists of world political parties. Keskarakond would be a great name if only it weren't so long. How about Tamanoir, the Green Party of French Guyana? Or the Russian Yabloko? On a similar note ...
- Words in other languages, especially curse words. Look up any online dictionary, or just type your guild chat into Babelfish. If you're going for swearing, make sure to pick a really obscure language -- Blizzard has long ago figured out what merde means.
- Ancient history and mythology. No, you're probably not going to be the first guy to name his warrior Leonidas, particularly since we all saw 300. Hadrian or Freya would serve you better. Picking a god or goddess that would have special meaning to your race/class is also a nice touch.
- Lists of trendy baby names. Nightblade, Deathtouch, and Darkhorn are so last year when it comes to evil names. The true manifestations of horror are Madisyn, Dakottah, and Neveah.
Can you think of any other good themes for character names? How did you come up with your name, and do you still like it?
Filed under: Virtual selves, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
RogueJedi86 Mar 20th 2007 11:54AM
Kengoh. A bit unwieldy, but in a moment of writer's block, I named him after a character in an anime(Eureka seveN), who was in turn named after a Japanese DJ.
BoBoTheChimp Mar 20th 2007 11:56AM
Mine is Alcarcalimo. It is Elvish (Tolkien's mind you) for Robert, which is my name in real life. I found an obscure website years ago when I used to play Shadowbane. I applied it to my Minotaur character. In that game's lore Minotaurs were sort of subserviant to Elves so I figured it would be fitting.
Lunamiora Mar 20th 2007 12:03PM
Gem/rock/mineral names can also be a good place to go for unique character names. One of my alt's is named Nephrite, a mineral found in jade.
Heymish Mar 20th 2007 12:11PM
Heymish was the name of a rogue gnome I rolled for Dungeons and Dragons. Seemed fitting since my guildies are also people I play paper and dice games with.
Gill Mar 20th 2007 7:02PM
My (main) hunter is named "Pwnstorm"... a pun on the "Bonestorm" video game from the Simpsons. Ever since then I've had alts that have a "storm" at the end of their names. I've also named other alts after NBA players (Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, etc).
I've also used some Tagalog (Filipino language) names, most of them for the pets I've had. I've had boars named "Tocino" and "Longanisa" and a cat named "Siopao" (fellow Filipino WoW players should be able to get the joke).
daniel Mar 20th 2007 12:19PM
my first character is kalled Kirigoe from the surname of the main character in the movie "Perfect Blue", unless you watch nothing but big blockbuster movies, there's a lot of good names to be found in movies. my new priest was named after an iranian friend named Behnors. the name is by far the most difficult part of rolling a new toon but luckily I still like my names.
Zuuler Mar 20th 2007 12:23PM
Most of my names have been from the random name generator provided with WoW. I just keep generating until I find one I like, then try to create it. If its taken, I just repeat the process.
The only one I actually created a name for was Deathfiend. I wanted to name a warlock after Gorefiend from WCII, but since I can't take the name of an NPC, I changed it to Deathfiend. Not very original, and if you look it up on the armory there are several hundred more deathfiend's out there.
After creating the character and joining a guild my brother was in, one of the guild officers set the note on my character as "how was this name not taken?"
Talitha Mar 20th 2007 12:24PM
My Locks name was Taylor(my middle name). But when i moved my character from Destromath to Nazjatar the name was taken. So i changed it to Talitha, which means "little girl" in arabic. Which is fitting for a cute human Warlock. My Hunters name is Ryanocerous, My name is Ryan and my dad's friend used to call me that when i was a kid so it stuck, best part is, nobody else has it.
Sal Mar 20th 2007 12:25PM
Pesticides. Yeah, you heard me right. Pesticides or derivatives of pesticide compounds give amazing fantasy names.
Malathion
Naled
Sethox
Mesifen
Piperon
Bromadio
Imaza
Flit Mar 20th 2007 12:23PM
Most of my characters get named after Album names or song names. Blackrider is my new BE Warlock
Bloodwings Mar 20th 2007 2:49PM
"Stripped of their meaning, some diseases are quite pretty." This has inspired me to name my next alt "Apoplexy" or "Lumbago". :D
Krystian J Mar 20th 2007 2:10PM
I found that in some books with architecture there are good names. But my names were either found in songs of bands I liked, funny (haxoore), or sounded cool.
Arceen - my druid
Arenara - Warlock
Haxoore - Rouge
Arson - Hunter
I like all of my names still though. But the next toon I roll I will prob have to resort to a book of some kind.
Imogen Mar 20th 2007 12:30PM
I called my small warrior gnome Knobnok that came out of a free generator. Just did a search for fantasy name generators on google and there are loads!
twh Mar 20th 2007 2:51PM
Slavic folk heroes.
Like mine, Iliya, named after Iliya Moroumetz.
Or even better, European epic peoms.
Check out some of the names from Elias Lennrot's Kalavala.
Illmarinen
Lemminkeinen
Louhi
Anaki
Vaidamainen
to name a few.
Those are some good names right there.
Matt Park Mar 21st 2007 9:43AM
There's someone on my server named Lagniappe. I racked my brains for months because I knew I'd heard it before. I finally found out yesterday it's a Cajun word for "gift given with purchase."
Ollej Mar 20th 2007 3:02PM
I find that spelling things backwards works well. My main is "Ollej" which is Jell-o spelled backwards (I'd have to say it should be pronounced as if it rhymed with "college"). But names spelled backwards works well too.
My name is Steve (Evets), and I have guildies named Amber (Remba) and Ben (Neb).
Glocky Mar 20th 2007 2:15PM
Vertebow - my green (verte in French) troll hunter alt (and she does use a bow)
My main, "Glocky" is actually a contraction of my CS & CS:CZ original name of "G|ockn|oad" a pun on the "Lock and Load" voice over at the start of each round. Still play sometimes (server maintenance, delayed raid start... lol)
Ryan Carter Mar 20th 2007 12:46PM
My names are all slight variations of my online screennames, and a few are just weird things I came up with on the spot. For example, I just created a gnome, which I randomized the look for. His name is Freakysanta, because that us what he looks like. Some kids you have their name all picked out, and some you name when they show their faces I guess.
Kayaus Mar 20th 2007 12:50PM
I get most of my names from this web site. I mean, if you can't find something here, I wouldn't know what else to suggest lol...
http://www.20000-names.com/
Chris Sutherby Mar 20th 2007 12:51PM
My main characters have and will always be named Superbeef. It's my long time nickname. I even have a tattoo of the USDA PRIME shield on my left shoulder.
For alts... I usually just take a normal word and then write it twice. Inventive? No. But they're never taken.