Character naming guide from Waaagh!
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Mar 31st 2008 at 6:00PM
Okay, so technically Waaagh! is a Warhammer Online blog, but we'll forgive Syp this time, if only because S/he writes a pretty good article about choosing your character's name. The first part of it is, to me at least, good common sense. Don't choose a name you'll regret or a name that looks overly bad to other people. Naming after real life celebrities can get a bit tired. Naming your character "something naughty" is probably just going to make most people think you haven't cleared puberty yet. And yeah, it might be funny to call your character Rickroll NOW, but when Rickrolling is the next "All Your Base", everyone on the internet is going to point and laugh at you for being old and busted.
The second part has some excellent ways to comb for new names, some of which many veterans already know, but it's a good compilation, and gave me a few ideas for my next name search. I can confirm to anyone who doubts it that Syp's Rule of Three really is true. I have known only 1 or 2 people who have been able to avoid having their name reduced to a 3 or 4 letter nickname that is used almost constantly in place of the whole thing. You can't avoid it, so sometimes it's not that bad to go with the flow and plan your name around it. Same thing with the similar names across characters thing. It works pretty well, if you like the idea, but woe to you if you accidentally take someone's naming scheme and join their guild or group of friends!
If you're having trouble thinking of a new name, or plan to roll a character at some point in the future, give the article a read. It's pretty keen.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Shelby Mar 31st 2008 6:08PM
This has always been the hardest part of creating a new toon. I've sat at the creation screen trying to come up with a name for over 20 minutes before, and even then I usually end up tired of the name after about lvl 12
Naix Mar 31st 2008 8:27PM
20 minutes!?! That would be fast for me. I have sat for up to 2 hours thinking of an original cool name that means something. I have four toons.
G Mar 31st 2008 9:34PM
Tip: Don't select your race, class, face, hair, etc. until you have a short list of names chosen. This page eventually times out and you'll have to do it all over again.
I now keep a list of possible names in my notes, along with their origins and meanings, for when I create new characters. Sometimes they just don't fit, however, so it's back to the baby names and mythology web sites.
Patyn Apr 1st 2008 1:05AM
Wow. I once spent an entire drive from Tampa, Florida to Nashville, TN thinking about names :)
Bosswally Mar 31st 2008 6:10PM
When i first got xbox live, i named my account Bosswallyworld(dont ask why i dont know either) But when i started playing wow, that was too long, so i shortened it to Bosswally, so my main and all my alts(Besiders my shamen alt Drspock) has Boss or wally in it, such as Bosslawly, wallyslaw, etc
Brownjohn Mar 31st 2008 6:21PM
I've gotten lucky a couple times with randomizing my character names. The two toons i've played the most are Veletar and Ashimbo, which can be shortened very nicely to Vel and Ash.
Ryan Mar 31st 2008 6:21PM
I just hammer obsessively on the "Random Name" button until I find one I like, see it's already taken, and repeat! I can usually get an excellent name in, oh, fifteen minutes or so. I have found that there's an exception to the rule of three/four: if your character's entire name is five letters and easy to spell (which is why I went with "Corit" instead of, say, "Eiliaialilianenen" (yes, random Blood Elf names, I am talking about YOU here).
On a side note, the random Dwarf names are as awesome as the Blood Elf ones are long and annoying: I once got "Grimbooze" when thinking about starting up a dwarf hunter, and to this day I regret not pouncing on it and claiming it as my own.
Adam W Apr 1st 2008 8:09AM
Haha, I ended up with Corit also on Arathor :)
blackwolf675 Mar 31st 2008 6:24PM
The guild calls me Rattle since my 70s have that in their name.
What adds to the difficulty is that they're both shaman. I have to qualify which one I'm referring to when putting a group together: "You want Big Rattle (Ele/Resto) or Little Rattle (Enh)?"
Hubby used to have "Noc" in almost all his character names, so it made it easy to see which were his alts. He's recently spread his names across the board, so I have to go through two or three before guildies recognize who I'm talking about.
Hurode Mar 31st 2008 6:27PM
I dunno, he may be on to something with the hamster thing.
mandaree Apr 1st 2008 10:47AM
I name almost all of my guys after small towns in North Dakota (including my main, whose name I am using for my handle here). I usually can get the name I want, although it wouldn't let me name my rogue Stanley.
Fireflash38 Mar 31st 2008 6:39PM
Well, I seem to have stumped my guildmates with one of my alts:
Happyhare
You can't really shorten it so they end up calling me by my main's name, Heph (aestion).
I actually like just the name Heph or Hephie a lot better than the full name, so I am used to it. I also attempt to get most of my new names from mythology, mainly Greek mythos or Norse sometimes.
Cap Mar 31st 2008 7:30PM
Why don't they just call you Happy? or Hare? Don't think Happyhare would stump too many people... Unless I just misunderstand what you're saying.
Fireflash38 Apr 1st 2008 9:05AM
The tendency is to call people by names aobut 3-4 letters long, and "Hare" just never seemed to have stuck (it just is awkward), and you can't shorten "Happy" to 3-4 letters without it being weird.
Cap Apr 3rd 2008 12:17PM
W/e, Hap.
Pål Mar 31st 2008 6:44PM
My main, also my first character, is called "Tutti". I'm fairly happy with not breaking any of the rules of that list despite never having gotten any prior naming advice. No, not even the immaturity rule, it's a musical expression that means "everyone", and I happened to like the word.
I've broken the class-based name rule with other characters, though. My twink mage is called Polygnome (level 19 gnome mage, the name's surprisingly uncommon), and I have a warrior called Protection (I didn't actually intend to name it after its class though, I just wanted to make a variation on its intended role). That's the only rule I've actually broken with any of my characters though, as far as I know.
Scrooge Mar 31st 2008 6:53PM
Well, I have Scrooge, Ebenezer, Fezziwig and Cratchet. A Dwarf Paladin, Gnome Mage, Dwarf Hunter and Gnome Rogue respectively. Don't ask me why I went with the Charles Dickens Christmas Carol thing. But it works out pretty well.
Aristide Mar 31st 2008 7:01PM
The 3 or 4 letter rule is a good one. Best not to choose the name Pissaro and grow to regret it later.
Oldbear Mar 31st 2008 7:02PM
I use Spanish or Greek, sometimes Latin. I have a white bull named Toroblanco (spanish if you can't tell) and a rogue named Klope " which is Greek or Hebrew for thief... just to name a few. I also named a character from what my wife told me one night as I sat at the character screen - trying to come up with a name. "Time to pack-er-in for the night." So Pakerin was born.
It helps if your an alt-o-holic.
Culhag Mar 31st 2008 7:45PM
If you lack inspiration another method is to use a name generator like http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/
Not all names are usable but with a bit of searching through the output you can find some good ones.
Personally I never use existing names from another universe, and I try to avoid common words.
I rarely come up directly with a full name, but I start with find the first letter or sound (sometimes by randomly hitting a key), i come up with a (few) sound that I'd like to include, then assemble all that together.
Another method is to distort an existing word into something new, like my bank alt Snobol which I created to keep my snow balls !