What's In a Name - Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

Hello there. This post is based on this week's shared topic at Blog Azeroth.

What takes the longest to choose, is the first thing people see, and is the one thing they always remember about you and your character?


Your name.

How did you decide upon the name for your character(s)? Did you delve into Norse, Greek, or Roman mythology? Did you choose a name from one of your family members? Did you mash the "Random" name generator button in vain until you stumbled upon something you liked? Is your name a play on aspects of your class, using spells or other traits? Did you play around with syllables, vowels, and consonants until you found something that you loved?

How long did it take you to come up with your name? Do all of your characters share the same 'theme' or naming convention? Have you ever run into someone who had a similar name? How did you feel? Does your character have a partner with "the other half" to your name (such as "Salt" and "Pepper"). Do any of your characters have a "themed" guild that goes along with your name? Do you have a nickname that your guild, friends, or significant other has given your character?

Has your character name become your online persona, or maybe the other way around?

Do you have any tips for naming your characters in WoW, or any other game? Resources, name generators, mythology websites, sources of inspiration, etc.

If you are an avid roleplayer, how was your name decided upon by family/friends? Did your character choose the name later in life or were they given it at birth? There are whole stories behind naming/birthday celebrations that I am sure are floating around out there.

So much can be said about names. What does yours say?

I have had wonderful times creating character names and was really excited to contribute to this weeks topic. Here is where my bountiful list of names derived from.
Normally, if I don't fall across a name I like, I run through the random name generator to see what Blizz thinks that races name characteristics should be, such as the double "i" at the end of draenei female names. Every once in a while I will seek out translations of words, as you will see.

Alliance
Zabine - human warlock, derivative of Sabrina and the German Sabine. Wanted to give her a decidedly unique flair and went with the "Z".

Moondream - NE warrior, I thought this followed the standard last name convention already established in the game. This is actually her last name and her first name is, as yet, a secret. I felt that a last name reference made sense for a warrior.

Naohm - dwarf paladin, Irish Gaelic for holy, which she is. I have found that this seems to be a male name but I like it, and pronounce it Nah-ohm instead of Nome.

Brennii - draenei priest, a combination of Brenwyn which I had used on another server for a dwarf priest along with the double "i" from the draenei name generator.

Sephyrea - draenei mage, this is a derivation of zephyr and Sephyra, the dragon from...omg I can't remember the movie!.... fail. Sephyra and other derivatives were taken so this was my change up.

Lynei - draenei shaman, this is actually taken from my middle name Lynn, and is the closest to my actual name of any of my toons. This toon was created during a particularly difficult time when my husband needed open heart surgery and I needed something easy (like a new toon) to keep focused on when I wasn't at the hospital.

Bluhighway - human death knight, I'm actually not so happy with this one. My idea of her was as a rebel so I really wanted either Blue or Highway but both were taken. This was my concession.

Horde
Vashee - troll hunter, this name came from the naming convention for trolls that I'd seen around and I really wanted it to be Va'she. Blizzard doesn't allow you to use apostrophe's or other punctuation in the name so I opted to add the extra "e" so it would be pronounced the way I thought it should.

Erfrieren - orc death knight, the name is German and it means "death by freezing". I thought it was pretty cool. I had simply looked up a translator in German for death and came up with several verbs.

Maica - orc warrior, love this name and its one of the few that came directly out of the name generator with a minor change in vowels.

Rozwyn - undead warlock, this one was a name I had bouncing around in my head for some time and was seriously considering using it for a dwarf. An undead seemed just as good, kind of old fashioned but with a twist again with the "z".

Zallania - BE priest, this name was just a random one I quick thought up at the moment. I was looking again for a "z" name and took the last half from the naming conventions through the random generator.

All in all I am partial to names that are names and not Oneshotyou or something like that, with a few exceptions. I tend toward unusual letters such as "z" or different spellings while retaining the elegance and look of a name. Lately I've been trying to find the shortest name possible and have one set aside that is 4 letters long. I also have a name set aside for a worgen. I appreciate names that have double meanings or are true to their race. Of course that is pretty subjective.

So that is what's in my names. :)