How do you guys decide on character names?

gdavie01

I have been finding myself getting later and later to the party when it come to name registration. For years I pre-ordered games and jumped into the head-start period, which would usually guarantee me one of the two or three names I had always used. However after being burnt about 7 times to many, im no waiting for reviews to land and watch far to many videos before jumping on board.

This means I NEVER get the names I have used in the past . I have started down the path of throwing extra vowels into or onto the end of these names but often these are gone as well. And I cant bring my self to create 'Creeedenceeee47569822'.

I have tried using a number of random name generators like
Random real world name generator
or
a fantasy name one

But again these names are nearly always used too...

Games that force me to pick a first and a last name, while I find them annoying at character creation almost never give me this problem.

Anyone else struggle with this or should I just learn to embrace the leetspeakification of my old names or stop caring and just mush the keyboard...

Grunty

I have a few names and naming conventions I prefer. On the rare occasion I can't get the name I want there is always http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php .

Wizardry

I tend to think of rare,legendary weapons or names from  Latin or mythology.I might also use powerful effects as a name,example ThunderQuake or IceComet etc etc.

Volgore

If your favorite name is taken, add one X at a time until it works.

Over the years of playing online games, i made up a nice collection of names that i like. Naming a character in a new game is never a problem to me and it never happened that even one of them was taken.

Either use your imagination or go with XxXLeg0lazXxX.

Daikuru

I mostly choose names which sounds japanese or i take words from japanese and combine them.

Quizzical

The key trick is to want names that no one else does.  Personally, I tend to pick real English words that start with Q.  Sometimes they can get to fairly obscure words.  But so long as I'm the only person in the world who chooses MMORPG character names this way, I can get names I want.

Bloodaxes

I had this problem before when I used commonish names.

Then like mentioned, I started fusing latin words with english words or a diminutive of my real name in a another language. Games with name and surname it's easier to get what you like but I honestly have a harder time finding a matching surname than getting a name.

Grunty

Quizzical said:

The key trick is to want names that no one else does.  Personally, I tend to pick real English words that start with Q.  Sometimes they can get to fairly obscure words.  But so long as I'm the only person in the world who chooses MMORPG character names this way, I can get names I want.

G also works well. 

holdenhamlet

I usually come up with 3 or 4 good ones.  I find those are taken, so I come up with something stupid that I later regret because I just want to start playing the game already.

filmoret

Slap my face agains the keyboard and bam.    Sapghoid

Tintagil

If there is lore for the game, I generally try to draw inspiration from that. Also I'm a creature of habit and have been using the name Tintagil since I read Le Morte D'Arthur as a kid (Tintagil/Tintagel is the supposed birthplace of King Arthur), so in just about every game I play one of my characters has that name.

Octagon7711

I have a list.  If I hear a word that would make a good character name, I write it down and refer to the list as needed.  If my standard names aren't available.

Aethaeryn

For wow I used all names that started with Gil. . Gilandis, Gilnor, Gilathan, Gilthas etc.  That worked out okay because people knew who my main was when I logged as an alt and always just referred to me as Gil.

Aethaeryn was something from the DAoC random generator.  I was just going to use that character to feel the game out but then stuck with him.  

Aeolian was the name I used to use but is more popular.  I saw it in an old 2nd edition D&D book for bards or something.  It was the name of a harp but also a people.  AE names then stuck. . so Aethaeryn, Aethus, Aeolus etc.  

Sometimes I just jam the keyboard like filmoret and add a few vowels and take some other letters out like:  Aspashid  or Hasog

Nasa

I know I will most likely use many alts, so I have "invented" a basic name with 7 letters and only need to change one vowel letter when I need to name a new alt.

rojoArcueid

I spend more time thinking on a good name than creating a character to fit said name. I look everywhere i can for inspiration. If i don't like the name, i delete the character. If i think a name is funny, then i create a character based on a person(real or fiction) and after a while i realize the name doesnt fit, i delete the character.

Character naming is a nightmare, specially on games like WoW that dont let me do proper alterations.

If a name i want is already taken i dont add an extra letter or change to alphanumeric because it makes me feel my character is fake(an impostor?) within that world. But thats just me. I think i have deleted more characters in mmos than misspelled words when typing.

filmoret

I found a name that is always available so I always use it.  Shadow Ninja

Akulas

A medieval name which is not in modern use.

Acornia

The Doom's day book of names is one that I use, other times I  do a web search for names from forgien langues.  One that I use is the hawaiian langue.

Mardukk

I found out when I played darkfall that only smartass try to be funny names are cool.  Before that it was people randomly making things up.

Anireth

I usually try to make names that fit the game. So if i create an elf in LotR, i'd try to make a "real" elven name that i like. If i'd create an orc in WoW, i would make it fit with that. Sometimes, games are inspired by a real culture, be it Egyptian, African, Chinese..so i'd create a name that fits those.

Over my time playing games, i obviously created a few names, so i often already have one that fits, depending on the limitiations. Like, having both first and last names or one only, or with/without special characters (like a dash or accent).

Inspiration comes from the names of NPCs in the game with the same race as my character is gonna be, from name generators, or from any "official" language rules such as for Tolkien elves or D&D elves and such.

If a name is taken, i might try changing a vowel or so, but if i can't get it to work because all versions i like are taken i'll simply try to make another name.

I almost never have problems getting the first name i want though. Only if i accidently end up with a existing real name in some language/culture that is more or less common or somehow popular, or if someone else years later comes up with the same or similar name and this somehow gets famous, like when it's for a manga or a product by some company. Not that the later is often the case, but it happend. Unfortunaly, even if the saw my character and thought "huh, thats a nice name", which i doubt, i don't get any money from them using it 

BigRambo

BizmoNutless   works great for me on any game.       Got a dozen more, but I'm keeping them for myself.  Any game I ever played, character name takes me a minute, lol.   

waynejr2

It really depends.  CoX for example, I had a rad-rad defender named Adam Baum for a golden age comicbook guild.  Sounded Appropriate for radiation/radiation to have Atom Bomb as a name. 

Back in the days of dnd, I often would point my finger at something written (even soda can) and spell the word I pointed to backwards.  But that was in out throw away a ton of characters per night game.

Appropriate to the setting is first choice.

Antiquated

I loved CoX for the sheer creativity of matching concept, costume, and name.

{Insert nasty hiss at NCSoft here.}

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For guys who just can't find any name that fits (wail):

You could try combining several names, OP. Break them down into syllables, grab two-to-four letter roots, mash 'em up and rearrange.

Simple, easy, be your own random generator. Smooth it out until it doesn't sound so random.

Proper Names rarely use more than a couple of syllables, but you can go for sixteen (if you like.) People will shorthand it down to a nickname anyway, so give them something obvious to work with.

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(After your 90th alt or so, you will probably stop agonizing over perfectionist trivia.)

Don't use Abalamalahalamatandra. That's copyrighted (believe it or not.)

Kyleran

I usually can find unique names, but when I can't bastardized spellings have worked as well.

I don't mind being Torrment, or Reignman.

hercules

weirdly enough one character that always makes it into any new game i have and is actually my user name for some sites is actually a computer generated name from everquest
back in those days i could not pick anything which was not taken that i liked so went with this random generated characters and  died so many times until eventually a druid i made made it past first 5 levels and never had the heart to re roll
he was not my main but was logged in regularly thru my who everquest character and then became a name in all my games

mgilbrtsn

I used to do Dr. Who characters, but they are hard to get.  I now go for 80s arcade game characters.  They can also be hard to get, but easier than who.