Breakfast Topic: What's behind your character's name?
by Michael Bouklas 
Jan 5th 2011 at 8:00AM
Strolling through Dalaran, you see all sorts of characters with all sorts of names -- everything from Knaush to Xxarthasxxlol. But have you ever stopped to wonder why a character is named the way he or she is? There might just be a significance that you miss.
For example, my priest, Flintte, was named after Flint Fireforge from the Dragonlance series; I wanted a recognizable dwarf name, and with my having no creativity, I named him after the dwarf (though of course, Flint was taken, and so I had to modify it). Once I started raiding, no one could correctly pronounce my name over Vent; they always called me "Flintee" or "Flinette." So when I decided to roll an alt shaman, I named him "Flintee" just to confuse my guildies. (It worked.) And then I named my warlock "Flinnte." And my DK "Flinete." And pretty soon, I had a roster of characters all with names differing by a letter or so.
Anyone who knows me on my server can instantly tell who I am, thanks to my naming scheme. What started out as an unoriginal allusion to a novel became something that defined all my characters. Except Bellboy, who also has a significant name. When I played in the pit orchestra in junior high school, I was dubbed "Bellboy" by the conductor, since I was the percussionist.
Even randomly selected names can have significance. I know someone who just used the name generator to name her character, and then she got curious and looked it up. Apparently, the name they gave was her first name in Gaelic (she also happened to be Irish), and so that started a Gaelic naming trend for her.
So what's in a name? Why did you name your characters the way you did? Tell us in the comments.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 20)
Jim Jan 5th 2011 8:05AM
Tgauchsin - this was the name I was given in the order of the arrow it means good natured one in the Lenni Lenape language.
others just looking through various books and using the names
marauder Jan 5th 2011 11:03AM
Awesome. I would have loved to use my vigil name for a character, but it's too long. So for lack of any better ideas, I named my paladin alt Nutiket.
Rapskallion Jan 5th 2011 11:23AM
More OA members! Very nice. It's been at least 15 years since I thought about that... thanks for the refresher.
On Topic... I used to be very big into home brewing. Zymurgy is the scientific study of the fermentation process that creates beer... hence my rogue's name Zymurg.
Mummrah Jan 5th 2011 3:39PM
Mummrah, my hunter main named after...well if you don't know and can't figure out why I have Liono and Snarf pets as well I feel for you. Even though not asked I'll share, I have a fox pet named MichaelJ, a corehound named Cujo, and a monkey with a tiny mining axe named Bubbles (RIP MJ).
My pally's name is Mjöllnir, the name of Thor's hammer in norse mythology.
My druid is Lughnasadh, one of the 4 major druidic holidays.
My Shammy is Trillyan. I was in the middle of re-reading Hitchhiker's guide when I started that toon.
My new worgen is named Lonchaney (yes, I know I am referencing LC Jr. but I didn't like the jr at the end)
My DK is named Shrubbery ..... Ni was already taken.
My undead mage is Jiangshi which is a reanimated corpse in the Chinese culture.
My rogue, which I haven't played in years and was a failed attempt at trying to make one of those annoying twinks that used to decimate me in BGs is aptly named Bleedyoudry.
Mahgo Jan 5th 2011 8:05AM
Well my hunter (which is my main) was my first toon. I was so eager to play I didn't care about the name ^^. To this day, I have become attached to that name, it is even my WoW Insider name :D.
Mahgo Jan 5th 2011 8:06AM
I forgot to mention that it was a random generated name ^^
Michael Austin Jan 5th 2011 8:23AM
High five for randomly generated names, Mahgo! I random'd my name till I found one I liked and created my first character Xandrix back in Vanilla. One of my friends named his character Thuis and then would just use that name plus whatever class he was, e.g. Magethuis. So I just name my characters Xanmage, Xandruid etc... Except for my shaman, Xanman sounded too silly so I went with Shaxan but now people all call me SHAXAM. Lose lose situation of silly names I guess.
Nagaina Jan 5th 2011 11:27AM
Same here. I really, really suck at coming up with names despite being a roleplayer of many years long duration -- when naming characters, I look up websites like Kate Monk's Onomastikon and adapt something or else use random name generators. My RP main, Solivar, got his name that way.
Now, of course, he's the latest 'Sol' name in a long-running Quel'dorei/Sin'dorei family tradition of naming kids born into his particular branch of the clan that are destined for some sort of religious profession after philosophical aspects of the Holy Light. And a death knight. He considers this proof that the universe is mocking him personally.
Panduh Jan 9th 2011 8:18PM
I never could bring myself to get a randomly generated name, for some reason, not to say its not for everyone but I came up with names that felt right, I would even go so far as to level my characters to 20 and if I still felt that funny feeling that the name wasnt right for the char, I'd delete them and remake them.
(Main, 85 BE Paladin) - Panduh - My nickname is Panda because I used to be very heavy and I'm asian.
(82 Orc Warrior) - Bellscream - Inspired after my favorite character in WCIII, Grom Hellscream.
(80 Tauren Druid) - Raar - Rawr was taken :P
(80 Blood Elf Death Knight) - Hudnap - Just my main's name spelled backwards, I wanted to go for an "opposite" kind of character, and I saw DK's as the opposite of Pallies, I also had an Arthas-like transformation in mind when I made this character, making his hair long, skinny, and silvery while Panduh's hair is Golden and a bit more majestic, that one that looks kinda like a lions mane.
(80 Undead Warlock) - Whelp - This character I race changed from human, who was named Whelpling, I figured I'd just make the name simpler because Whelp decided once he was raised he still wanted to grasp some of who he was in his past life, but also to reinvent himself xD.
(42 Troll Shaman) - Shampoo - Wanted his name to have "Sham" in it, being a shaman, and "Shamwow" was taken.
(33 Undead Priest) - Seake - Freshly risen undead after the Cataclysm hit, given the Forsaken's new stance on letting the freshly reanimated choose their path, I wanted "Seek" as if he was seeking his new path, but that was taken :P.
(31 Goblin Mage) - Managrubber - Hes a mage, and hes a greedy lil Goblin, so he cant get enough mana!
(15 Goblin Rogue) - Sighlent - "Gangreen" and every variation of that was taken lol.
(6 Goblin Hunter) - Huntlin - This is one of those names I'm not entirely sure of I created him rather hastily because a friend just got cata and I wanted to create the last class on my "One of every max level" list, his name might be changed in the future, but hes a GOblin hunter... so yea just mash those two together.
brunolasombra Jan 5th 2011 8:17AM
my name is Löthlórien, from Tolkien novels, The Silmarillion, is the name of Galadriels forest, and the land of Lorien, an valar.
ninjivitis Jan 5th 2011 8:39AM
DEATH TO SPECIAL CHARACTERS!
Guladian Jan 5th 2011 8:45AM
My first main was a Pally named Ossgiliath, Tolkien FTW
Boz Jan 5th 2011 9:29AM
This is what I call "Compound Geeking." You're taking one nerd culture reference and combining it with another, and I endorse it.
Sure, the RPers might not like it much, but I love getting whispers whenever someone gets the joke in one of my pet names, like Solid (my Snake), Grimlock (Devilsaur), Tektite (Silithid), Sarlacc (Worm), etc. I'm pretty sure Blizzard endorses clever references too with Adam Eternum in Shattrath, Harrison Jones, the Turtles in Dalaran, etc.
And while there might be a few too many LoLegolas characters out there, I still appreciate and get a chuckle at every Tolkien and R. R. Martin reference.
Eternauta Jan 5th 2011 9:45AM
@ninjivitis: May I remind you that some names in languages other than english need those characters in order to be correctly spelled.
The most obvious example are the names taken from Tolkien's books (Barad-Dûr, Fëanor, Lothlórien..) but it also applies to names taken from other languages (Tuatha Dé Danann, Ragnarök).
Adam Fasoldt Jan 5th 2011 10:57AM
Yeah, no need to downrate someone for using special characters the right way.
Michael Martine Jan 5th 2011 10:58AM
WRONG STORY.
LOTR is down the hall, first door on your right.
carlisimo Jan 5th 2011 11:28AM
I have a shaman named Tarelendil and a dk named Tartelemnar. Of course these are Tar-___ names of the kings of Numenor in the land that JRR created. I know it is super geek city but I can't help it.
As for my main, paladin Carlisimo, I figured that I should honor the amazing wife who lets me play this game all the stinking time. Her name is Carli and she if ftw!
Cheers
am0363 Jan 5th 2011 1:05PM
I wouldn't mind all the special characters if you would at least put the first two characters as normal so that i can get a shorter list when i tab-complete!
Vladeon Jan 5th 2011 1:12PM
@Boz
A lot of my characters are named after chemical compounds that sort of make sense for the character. It's good when you get whispers from people that understand. The best whispers are from people who understand what my main's name means. His name is Loperamide.
Per Jan 5th 2011 3:39PM
i love literary names.
my main is Peredhel, also ganked from Tolkien.
i have a Sin'dorei paladin named Manwendil, also from Tolkien, but a character that not many know about/remember because he was minor.
Grantaire is my drunken moocow, named from Les Miserables with the character for him in mind.
Jekyll is my undead hunter with an appropriately-named diseased wolf, Hyde.
i really like literary names and i do often grab ideas from their namesakes for starting points of their characters. it's mostly as a starting point for them and their personalities and i build from there. naming is really important. with my other toons, i do a lot of staring at their finished models and then letting my fingers do the naming. what do they look like? a Zivvix? a Raija? a Canaeli? i'm when i'm pleased with a name/model combo, that's usually when i keep them forever.