Breakfast Topic: Will your pandaren fit into your character naming convention?
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 24th 2012 at 8:00AM
I've written about my naming conventions before, using the prefix Gen- or Genz- for most of my characters because of my own affinity for my middle name. Every character but two fit this mold and use some sort of variation on the theme. Thankfully, my pandaren monk easily fits into the Asian-themed culture.
The pandaren monk that I made at BlizzCon was named Genzji, and I liked it, so I'm happy to use the name come live. Will your pandaren characters fit within a predetermined and established naming convention? Or will you take this opportunity to break the character-naming mold?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Quinto Mar 24th 2012 8:12AM
My main is called Rar, and every alt has to have "Rar" in there somewhere. Like my worgen, Rargen. Or my bank alt, Rarbanker.
Or my panda eventually: Pandrar.
shadowhowl1900 Mar 24th 2012 1:39PM
would your main be called your winrar?
MikeLive Mar 24th 2012 8:12AM
I haven't yet thought of a name for my Pandaren toons. I'll probably keep my Shaman's name unchanged after race change (it's rather unspecific to race, been using it on Draenei, Orc, and Goblin Shamans across servers).
Daisyfizzi Mar 24th 2012 8:13AM
My Monk's name won't fit in with my usual naming convention. I don't use a particular prefix or anything, but every one of my characters has a Welsh name (aside from my bank alt). I couldn't find a Welsh name for my Monk that sounded right, so she's placeholdered as 'Tsingtao' no idea what it means, but it's a brand of beer my local Chinese restaurant sells.
Gendou Mar 24th 2012 8:25AM
It's the name of a city. The meaning is something like "Green Island," - so not too farfetched for a Pandaren.
Noyou Mar 24th 2012 11:20AM
Surprised you got that. I went to name my turtle Corona and got an error message that it was "reserved" or something like that. I tried other names of brand specific alcohol and those were reserved as well. A few months later, I found the magic of alt codes, so now my turtle is Coroná. It's the light blue/yellow one from the sandy shores of Tanaris.
Daisyfizzi Mar 24th 2012 11:25AM
I was surprised too, but it's usable, for now at least. I have a stash of alternative names if it gets reported or I'm unable to use it, but I hope it'll stay usable. My Brewmaster/Mistweaver Monk will suit it.
robsmith77 Mar 24th 2012 3:41PM
The only Welsh monk I know of is Cadfael, from the novels by Edith Pargeter. If you check out a few of the books you may come across a few other monks with Welsh names.
notsofarfetched Mar 24th 2012 8:14AM
My characters are either from favorite old names from my own story-writing, or from latin roots where the meaning of the word has to do with the type of character I'm creating - my DK's name means destruction, for instance, and druids and the like get names with roots like "verde" and "luna" - it's fun, and the name feels more meaningful when I'm done.
Plus one "Krowe" - a tribute to the most awesome druid ever. Go team Thisalee! Stabbity in the name of good!
I don't see why it wouldn't work for pandas, too!
Ysonia Mar 25th 2012 2:44PM
Wanted to point out, for those that aren't aware, that when you are "saving" names now, we have quite a bit longer to wait before that name is free for use with other accounts. Once a name is associated with an account, even after deletion, instead of one hour, the name is reserved for NINETY (yes 90!) DAYS. So if you plan to save the name with a free account, count on relinquishing it 3 months before you are going to be using it to create your pandaren, or whatever your monk of choice will be.
Gendou Mar 24th 2012 8:19AM
If I can get the name on my server.
Gendou Mar 24th 2012 8:31AM
Since I already have ten characters on my home server, I have to wait for the expansion to come out to 'reserve' my name.
/sigh
Mycroft Mar 24th 2012 8:48AM
Tip: You can create a "starter" account that doesn't expire, and use that to "reserve" names on your chosen server. Though that would most likely only protect it from casual namecheckers, who give up after the "That name is unavailable" message. Players can still petition GMs to ask to free up names. I'm guessing that, being on a free account instead of a paid account, they'd be more likely to do a forced namechange in hopes that someone else would pay extra money for a namechange.
(You can also run two wow clients simultaneously; get a toon on your server/faction up to 10 and invite it to a group from your main account, can then convert to a raid for an easier time getting into old instances without having to bug friends/guildies. For performance reasons, you can quit the other client after the raid group is formed.)
Nathanyel Mar 24th 2012 10:03AM
A warning for reserving names with starter accounts though, if you create it in your main Battle.net account (which is easier if you also use that account to form raids for soloing old content)
Once you *log into* a character, their mailbox is filled with all the CE/store pets your account has purchased, but you cannot access the mailbox on a starter account. Since you can't delete a character with mail, you'd have to wait 30 days for those mails to expire before you can delete the character.
So either don't log into the character after creating it, or reserve the name long before (in this case) the release of the expansion so that the mailbox is empty again.
Philster043 Mar 24th 2012 10:23PM
A friend of mine did me a kindness and reserved the names I wanted on her own account (she has characters on many different servers, but not too many on mine.)
Jaq Mar 24th 2012 8:29AM
I don't really have a pattern. Some of my characters have names from books. Some of them are just named by the random option (I have a goblin named Indizzle. That's BEYOND perfect for a goblin, and it came from the random option.) One of them is a troll druid named Gratzmon. (I love the Mandokir fight, what can I say?)
The high likelihood is that I'll just use the random option until I get something I like, unless something perfect for a panda monk (which is what I'll be rolling) hits me.
Shepherd57 Mar 24th 2012 8:33AM
my characters names all begin with a J so I am sure a panda name can come out of that.
Tanya Mar 24th 2012 8:36AM
I usually use Book somewhere in a characters name. Such as Naturebook for my Druid or Bookocurses for my warlock. Been considering Zenbook for my monk, but I'm not set on it yet.
RobynM Mar 24th 2012 8:38AM
It should do, but then my naming convention's pretty basic - it has to be or sound like an actual name, and it has to feel right for that race/class combination. I tend to trend toward Celtic and plants, with the occasional Asian name, which I suspect will be the case here.
cyno01 Mar 24th 2012 12:16PM
Yeah, i use gaelic for quite a few of my toons when appropriate. I dont RP, but yeah for the most part they have to sound like names that fit the character (and sound at least a little badass).
My NE rogue = Cyno = My handle for ~15+ years.
My Draenei shammy = Tsyanis = Tibetan for fear, another old handle for when Cyno was unavalible.
Hooman dk = Dubhlann. = Gaelic for ebon blade. Well, ebony blade. Well... negro blade, technically.
Worgen huntard = Cascorrach = Mythological irish king who killed werewolves.
Bank alt = Airh = Gaelic for gold.
BE huntard = Daoine = gaelic for elf sorta.
Goblin lock = Gandino = italian goblin creature from mythology.
And i have my panda name all reserved. Chengdan = chinese for bear, very simple.