Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What's in a name?
by Robin Torres 
Jan 13th 2009 at 8:00AM
Then one day I Googled it. It's the name of a village that some people consider to have been ethnically cleansed [Edited to be more neutral--I had such a kneejerk reaction that I didn't even research it]. I immediately paid to change the name without even spending the time to come up with a good substitute. Robiness is a fun name for an It came from the Blog character, but do I really want it for my new main?
If I had slept on it, rather than changing my name instantly, I may not have changed it. After all, it wasn't my intention to commemorate anything like that. And you can't change it again for 30 days. So now what? Do I keep the name Robiness or do I change it again in a week or so when I am able? Have any of you gone through something similar?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 11)
Tordenflesk Jan 13th 2009 9:42AM
I used behindthename.com's random name generator and came up with Ljubica (Khadgar EU). Now there's a lot of east-Europeans who whisper me in all sort off Russian etc.
Oh, and my guild think I'm a girl :)
Theostratus Jan 13th 2009 9:16AM
I tend to use the same 5 or 6 names on any MMO I play.
Theostratus and Morsbih are my most used ones, both of which have latin origins (except the second part of Morsbih. Bih is mayan for road, making Death's Road).
Though, when I use names like Incubo and Velluto and Del Dio I always get whispers in itllian.
Calthas Jan 13th 2009 9:16AM
I never changed the name of any of my chars. I usually start by looking for a some syllaba or sound, and move from it. My main is named Calthas (I discovered recently that it happens to be an aquatic herb name...), my "main" alt is Artaneos, and my mage Kaelorann. I love all of them, and would really feel weird if I had to change my name.
Regarding your char's name, I wouldn't have changed it. It's not as if iti was on purpose or anything, and most people won't know about it anyway.
templefitzgerald Jan 15th 2009 6:52PM
I am thinking of giving my draenei shaman Belphor a make-over and possibly a sex-change and I may throw in a new name while I am at it and see if his name becomes as popular as the others I have created each of number between 20-30 duplicates on other servers...
Bigmamapain Jan 13th 2009 9:26AM
I think character names are important, and mine are sort of all over the place.
Bigmamapain is my feral druid main, who I leveled pre-BC as Milkteets, to see how long it would take to get reported. Surprisingly enough, it lasted well into level 60, and people *still* remember me by that name, even though I've been BMP since before BC hit. BMP was actually a name I had reserved for a tauren warrior alt, but when I had to change my name so I could keep playing I used it for the druid. I hated it for a long time because it didn't feel very druid-y, but it's grown on me. It makes me chuckle when people ask if I'm resto, too. Do I *sound* like I might be resto?
My rogue alt is Narcissism, my warlock is Acerbic, hunter is Semantics (with pets named for literary devices), and my shaman is Bilquis after a character that no one *ever* remembers from American Gods.
As far as the original issue is concerned, names do matter, and it's important to have a name you're comfortable with. Even if it's an obscure event, if it bothers you that your name is an inadvertent reference to it, then by all means change it--although Qira is certainly generic enough that I doubt that even people who know of the event would suspect the reference was intentional. If you don't like Robiness, go ahead and change that too.
I know from experience, though, that it's hard to change when people know you by a name already. People who are worth knowing, though, will still know you after the change.
Jyuu Jan 13th 2009 7:25PM
Dude, Bilquis was one of the more memorable characters in that book, at least for me.
...I'm not sure what that says about me, but then at least I'm not naming characters after her. ;)
Celestina Jan 13th 2009 9:56AM
I have never paid for a name change, and in this situation, I am not sure if I would or not. I could understand your impulse, but at the same time, its a lot of money (okay an extra months play) to change the name.
As far as names go, Merrick has been my online name since I first discovered the Internet. From Anne Rice's Mayfair Witch books. I was sad to see it had been taken already on just about every server I have a toon on. I take my names now from either books or baby name sites. The sites are fun and you can find some really original names (then again after a couple weeks I don't like my DKs name anymore, but oh well).
Cyanea Jan 13th 2009 9:25AM
I've rerolled characters because I didn't like their names (when they were still in starting zones, though. I'm not crazy. :P) The majority of my character names come from story characters of mine.
One thing that does kind of bug me is that I used this one name I use to represent myself in most video games for a character I rarely play anymore, and now my main is another character.
IE Jan 13th 2009 9:26AM
I chose Korran for my orc hunter because i thought it sounded like a good orc name. Didn't remember the religious text of the same name. It does not matter, a name is just a name unless you tout a specific reference to something else as intentional. I looked it up and there are many with that name anyway. I did come up with a character with a unique name, even if it sounds a little silly at times, Karndor. It would be interesting to see how many unique names are out there considering the number of wow players.
Xilnold Jan 13th 2009 9:28AM
My main named Prefect.
My alt is named Frod.
Not the most subtle of references, but it sticks in the mind and references one of my favorite books, so all is well.
Sarg Bjornson Jan 13th 2009 10:20AM
har har, if you had a pet you should call it FortyTwo
Rictus Jan 13th 2009 9:28AM
Ah, naming a toon, what a delicate and painful experience. I'm an old D&D player, especially the Dragonlance setting, so most of the time I choose names from that setting according to the race of the toon. That worked rather well for my dwarves and humans, I skipped Nelves 'cause I positively loathe them in WoW (damn you Blizzard for making me play one as a druid who incidentally has a name derived from Sindarin).
With the advent of draenei I changed my naming concepts. Some of the time they'll be getting names from books (Song of Ice and Fire is preferred) and some of the time I use Internet ressources for naming a toon (I recommend http://www.behindthename.com/ for real names from all over the world and their meanings).
Oh, and orc names? Try some Dutch words, they work great IMO.
Za Jan 13th 2009 9:32AM
When I played CoX, I got in the habit of looking for names on godchecker.com. These days, if it's a for-fun alt, I use an "around the room" name that I wouldn't mind using if they became my main, like Dasani the mage, or Chulula the rogue.
For a while, I was focusing on Zen-related terms. My main was Za, then there was Zen, Zazen, and Kazen. I realized Za was something really easy to say in both Vent and /g, and I made that my goal instead, leading to Ah the lock.
Then, when I'd run out of Zen-terms, I went the literature route. If you've read the Mars Trilogy, you know who Nirgal is, and if you haven't, just know that it's Babylonian(?) for Mars. But, making a female, I altered it and named her Nirgala. Not anything official, just the way I feminized it.
Now, the Druid is my main, and everyone calls me that, though the old guildies still often call me Za. This leads to /g shorthand of "nirg", which some people try and take offense to before reading it properly, and whenever the RL says my name in Vent, she sounds like she's speaking Murloc. But, I could never change it, because that's been my toon's name since she started. I'd definitely recreate the toon over paying for a name change, unless there were harassment issues.
Sarg Bjornson Jan 13th 2009 10:23AM
I used Harmakhis for a while to name a PnP D&D character :)
vocenoctum Jan 13th 2009 9:33AM
I wouldn't have changed your name for other people, but for yourself I can understand. For reference, in the time you were Qira, I doubt you got any whispers.
Mostly for my names I rip off Earthdawn, lots of nice names and doesn't seem as well known anymore. It did create a situation where I wish my druid had the shamans name and the priest had the druids name and the shaman just died (since she's just storing runecloth atm...), but I don'[t care enough to pay $20 for the priveledge.
I also made my rogue Gnommando, the gnomish commando. I should also have made Gnominja, a subtlety rogue, but too many rogues, bleh. Gnomassin, too, for the assassination tree...
I also have come across "ipwnu" or 'ubermage" mostly as "Corpse of ipwnu" when passing through Darkshire or whatnot, but once came across (IIRC) "boogereater of the shattered sun" or something, a level 70 (at the time) guy dressed in raid epics... I always wonder if that was the name he wanted or if he just didn't want to pay...
And last, my personal pet peeve, I hate characters with symbols that you need to alt 0123 or whatever to make. It's irksome to add to a buddy list when you need to (or, report wen they're being jerks) and I don't know why WoW allows it for general use. If there was a screen to "insert symbol" then maybe.
Piper Jan 13th 2009 10:50AM
"vocenoctum said... [snip] I hate characters with symbols that you need to alt 0123 or whatever to make. [snip]"
It's a pain on US servers because it has become the trendy way of getting around an already in-use name. Can't use Belgarath? Use accented vowels to get that name and, as a bonus, annoy everyone that wants to try to invite you to a group. ;)
It's a issue that will continue because WoW needs those characters to support their international users.
Esoteroth Jan 13th 2009 9:32AM
createing a name is one of my favorite things about making a new toon usually I find a core word and then i dig around for a prefix or suffix that makes it sound like a name
for example when I made my main I used the Word Esoteric as the core then i added roth to the mix to make Esoteroth
dlar3 Jan 14th 2009 7:28PM
I spend a lot of time picking out names. The only reason I spend so much time is i'm terrible at it and not very creative. That being said my first serious toon was a druid named Dysmal that I still play and would never change it. In fact i'd probably delete the toon before changing it if a GM made me. After 2 years of playing him he is now an extension of who I am. He is Dysmal and couldn't be anybody else. It just wouldn't be the same toon.
sosei Jan 13th 2009 9:39AM
When I make alts on new servers, the first name is usually 'Perasma'. Perasma is:
-The name of a dance music group
-The name of a municipality in the Florina Prefecture of Greece
I think when I originally thought of the name (which happened to be my third character on Eredar two years ago) I might have been listening to a song by the band, but I was probably thinking of 'Miasma' - which was taken. I end up getting called 'Pear' more often than not.
Piper Jan 13th 2009 9:47AM
If a name has associations that bother you then by all means change it. You should like your toon, be it the name, the looks, etc..
That said, you can find unpleasant associations with almost every name if you research the history of the name. The question is where are you going to draw the line because almost all names are bound to be problematic in some regard. Whether it is historical association, word-twisting, slang terms in other languages, and so on and so forth, your going to have problems.
Sometimes names are deliberately offensive (a 70 male blood-elf paladin with the name Rapeadin on my server -- got reported and GM changed). Those should be changed. Accidental ones, well, that is up to the player and the GMs (if reported).
In the end, context matters. On a US server I would assume Qira (other than the chance for immature types to change it to 'queer' as an insult) was unintentional, whereas, as a prior poster commented, Auschwitz would be picked knowingly as an offensive name. On a hypothetical Middle Eastern WoW server I'd assume both were picked as knowingly offensive.