What game names do you choose?

I'm curious to what names people choose in either RPG's or text adventures, or almost anything that requires a name inputted.

I thought about this becuase my handle (AP Erebus) isn't really a good name for an RPG but it's a good handle style, so if you have seperate names, why?

Currently I use Roch Harkanar or variations on that (Rocharan in Lotro)... I can't remember where I got it from but I started using it in Morrowind. I found out later that it's very similar to the Jewish festival Rosh Hashanah, completely accidental...

Ever since then I have always called my characters names Roch.

But my FPS handle is AP Erebus, AP being my initials and Erebus just a cool Greek mythology thingo...

So what do you use? Where did you get it from and why?

PS, no research or anything here =P Just curious.

AP

I never use my own name. The majority of protagonists in gaming are male so I always go with the default names. If there's nothing else I can change about a character but the name then I don't see the point.

For MMOs and more open games, I'll create a name that has meaning for both the world and the character. Age, race, gender, special abilities, hair color, etc. all play a role when I'm naming a character. I like to search through behindthename.com for ideas and inspiration. How much thought I put into a name depends solely on the game.

One of my naming quirks that I started back in the Dreamcast days was name characters after variations of the color purple. My characters on PSO were very uninspired: Violet Myst, Lylac Myst, Lavender Raine and Purple Haze. I thought it was cool at the time. Unfortunately, AoC hasn't inspired me much at all so I ended up using the exact same naming method: Vyoletta, Lylac, Lavendros and Purplonius. I know it's lame but I don't care. Nothing about AoC makes me want to put any thought into my character's names. However, WoW does... for some unknown reason. At least those guys won't have issues with self esteem.

Usually Quintin or Stone, which are both pseudonyms any way. If the character is a dwarf, Ragath.

Never use my own name. Seriously. Who would ever surrender to the Dread Pirate Colleen?

As far as the source of the others, they're often drawn from classical sources. I have a save-game of Final Fantasy X with Tidus renamed Absolom, and another with him named Titus (as in Andronicus). I don't have much use for the little twit. Can you tell?

I have some leftover names from my pen-and-paper days I use when they're appropriate. Khyurika is one from the fantasy realms. I had one memorable Space 1889 campaign I went as Sir Adgerton Percival Blatherskite, as well as doing the voice for the NPC but still honorable Lady Agatha Kensington-Blatherskite. The Dowager Duchess Melinda Grantwit was another character from that one.

I have a standard throwaway character name. Sprog McNutt, he first appeared as a Dwarven mad scientist in Arcanum, he's now a lower league manager in Football Manager.

More serious names I usually come up with off the cuff. Jardan Khan had a good run.

Basically I delve into my brain and pull something out.

Using Daidan at the moment (fiancee's initial D and my given name Aidan)

Dhelor (with Aqari as a surname, if the game allows/requires it). Gee, big surprise. Sometimes, however, I choose Krevantis (Helbrant). Sometimes other names, but they're always names of my own creation (I have sort of a knack for coming up with unique names, a good skill considering I write fantasy and sci-fi stuff).

I just make up whatever I feel like at the time. If we're talking about a game with a default character name, like the Final Fantasy games, I leave it as is. If it's a game that forces me to create a character name I either go with generic (my mass effect character was named "George") or the utterly ridiculous (my SMT: Persona 3 character was named Daddy Pimp). For MMOs I used to choose names that meant something to me or were part of my real name, but after a few alts I gave up and just named them whatever sounded neat and was available.

I have a few I use, often DeVillius for more sci-fi themed games. My name for my main Guild Wars char is Zul Aronos, so I use Zul as a fist name for male chars, and Zula for female.

I used to use Dazed or d@zed, based on my own name (Dave) or Asharak from David Eddings, named after Asharak the Murgo.

Like Rabbit and Rob I tend towards female characters.

momgamer wrote:

Never use my own name. Seriously. Who would ever surrender to the Dread Pirate Colleen?

I dunno, it could be good, understated like Black Bart. Could work.

momgamer wrote:

I have a save-game of Final Fantasy X with Tidus renamed Absolom, and another with him named Titus (as in Andronicus). I don't have much use for the little twit. Can you tell?

In Final Fantasy X, I named Titus "Conan", because I couldn't justify spending 40+ hours with "Meg Ryan".

I usually name characters in RPGs after myself and friends and family. But sometimes I get frisky and name them after Futurama characters, or garden vegetables. Example: My current save state in Secret of Mana has a sprite named "Radish".

Just something I do to make the more angsty JRPGs feel a little less over the top. After all, you can't help but giggle when an NPC says, "You have to save the world from evil, GokuOMG!!1!"

In Final Fantasy games, and most RPGs that have default names, then default names. Final Fantasy 1 and 2 are the only games in the series which I put in my own names. I forget what they were in FF1, but in FF2 I went with Chin, Patsy, Food and Batman.

In Zelda games, Link.

In games where I'm supposed to play myself, such as a faceless, ever-present tactician in Fire Emblem, I just use either my name (Richard) or my dog's name (Jake).

In games where I create my own character who is not supposed to be me, I usually make up a new name. For whatever reason, in Oblivion I named him Kurt Kilbain. He was a magical viking, and the name made me think of a murderous grunge singer. In Mass Effect, since the last name is Shepard no matter what, I just went with Richard.

I bought Pokemon Pearl just so I could name a lot of characters. Most of the Pokemon I just named random words, such as Bread or Soup or Couch or Hospital. I caught a Tentacruel and, in honor of Japan, I named it Rapist.

Sometimes I like to name the character something so that it looks like it's just another word in a sentence when characters speak to them, like, "you jerk" or "'cause I'm gay".
"What are we going to do, you jerk?"
"I haven't the faintest idea, 'cause I'm gay."

In Final Fantasy 4, I name Edward "Spoony".

I now use Hemidal for just about every character now. If it has a last name, Stormbreaker (first last name from DAOC). I used to use Mr. Clark for shooters (Counter-Strike, Battlefield 2, etc...), but not anymore.

Basically, my character name stems from a MMO in 2001, and has followed me ever since. Oh well.

It really depends on the type of game for me. If it's a game where there is a name already given to a character, I don't change it at all. In games where there's no specific character or role to play (old tony hawk games, guitar hero, etc...) I've been using the name Leroy for years. In MMO's I have a stable of character names that I've built over the years. Many of them used to start with Aeo- with varying suffixes attached per gender. I've moved away from that in the last few games, in a effort to come up with "new" names for my characters.

However, as you can see, anytime I'm registered on a forum, xbox live, or anything that is just a profile for myself. I follow my standard naming convention of first name followed by last two initials.

It depends on many things. If its just me and versus the PC I tend to go with "Digger" or "Judge" or both. If its FPS I used to go with "Somebody" or "Nobody". It was always cute in Unreal Tournment seeing the message, "Somebody killed so_and_so".

For some reason I chose not to do that on GWJ TF2 server. I think it was that I thought it would make me more of a target. "Hey look, everyone shoot the smarta$$". I went with "Judge_Digger" instead but people were shortening to just "Judge" anyway becasue it took too long to say the whole thing when trying to warn me of something. So I shortened it to just "Judge".

If its a puzzle game that only my wife and I will see on our PC. I use "Better than You" just to annoy her on the High Score chart.
(Yeah, I'm evil sometimes.)

Most sports games, where I name the coach of my team, I call him Jay Hawker. I also use JHAWKR as my license plate in PGR.

Games like Zelda, where there is a main character, I choose that name. I am always Link.

When I need make up a name in a game, I go with Jay Hawker or Silas Lang. Silas Lang was the name of a Syd Barrett song that he recorded the day I was born, according to the liner nots of "Opel". I used Silas Lang as my on-air name when I was a DJ at KJHK in Lawrence.

When I need one word, I will use Hedge, a nickname I had for awhile in high school after an unfortunate haircut made me look like a hedgehog to my foreign exchange student girlfriend. Hearing her call me a hedgehog in her Finnish accent was pretty funny, and people latched on to it.

Now, in Civ, I name my cities after my family and friends.

For MMOs or any online multiplayer games I go with some iteration of "Montalban." "Montalas" usually for MMORPGs because it sounds a little less 20th century.

For single player games, I usually change the spelling of my first name slightly. Add in a few vowels or a "k" at the end. Enough to maintain my identity but still admit that I'm inhabiting an imaginary space.

One of my favorite books of all time is "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". Consequently ever since I read the book when I was 18 I've usually named my characters "Stephen" after Stephen Dedalus from the book. It kind of stuck and became my game persona.

I just started Final Fantasy Tactics, in fact, and I was severely tempted to name my character Ramza (since that's his name throughout all FFT lore), but I still named him Stephen.

Caledrin was the name that I came up with out of nowhere when I started playing Guild Wars. Since then, every MMO I've played has used that name. Mainly for consistency, since I usually end up playing different MMOs with the same people, and it just helps identify me right away. Although my main in WoW for a long time (a troll hunter) was named Ulerech. But that's okay, since I will never play him again. I think, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering this correctly, when I abandoned my hunter (really got sick of the class, and PvP) my Blood Elf paladin was named Caledrin. Had a lot more fun with that class.

Typically I go with Rambo, regardless of the setting. It was my nickname in college. The story of how I got it is brief, but outside the scope of this discussion. (Though I feel compelled to note that I did not carry a large knife or an M-60 to class. I kept them at home.)

The irony is that I only just saw the movie (First Blood) on May 31. I wonder if the guy who first called me that was thinking of the guy from the first movie, or what most people think of when they think Rambo.

Sometimes I'll pick a name more in keeping with the setting. My Sins of a Solar Empire TEC commander pseudonym is Thurl Ravenscroft (because I think the game is GRRRRRREAT!). My character in Sid Meyer's Pirates is Rothbard, because that seemed appropriate to a philosophy nerd like me.

If the setting's high-fantasy, and I'm not feeling imaginitive, I'll do some pseudo-medievalization of my own name. If there's room, I'll add a ridiculous superlative. "Grieg the Unhinged" or some such.

For team games, depending on the number of people in my party, I'll pick names from TV shows, books or movies I like. Back when I was playing 50 Mission Crush on the IIE, I used to name everyone after Sgt. Rock characters.

My band in Guitar Hero is, of course, Limozeen.

I use Dalat Umbrye, Richter, Jackman, or Vector. Why? I don't really know. The first one is kind of a pseudonym I created and use on occassion. Richter is based off the New York Rangers goalie Mike Richter even though I hate the guy I respect his hockey skills during the '94 Cup run. Jackman is similar in that it's named after defenceman Barret Jackmanl; a tough bastard. Vector is me, I am Vector.

I'm very random with my naming conventions in single player games. I usually sit in front of that naming screen for ten minutes picking which letter the name will start with, and rambling to myself.

When it comes to multiplayer, especially one with the GWJ crew, I have some version of Aries. In WoW, I have my little gnome named Ariesminor, and my Draenai is Ariesmajor... creative, huh? Less confusing for all involved, as I see it.

I'm pretty boring. For single player games, if there are default names I use those, if not a male character is Nahte and a female character is Ymme. Folks who know me will probably be able to determine why. For multiplayer games, I always use something that can be easily understood to be me -- zeroKFE if possible, or some variation thereof if not -- since in a multiplayer context a name's primary purpose is so that others can identify you, and I want to make that as easy as possible.

This thread reminds me, however, of a hilarious series of screenshots I encountered a few years back, but can't for the life of me find now. Basically, this guy meticulously documented all the funny things that NPCs would say in RPGs when he gave his character an off color name, generally "my penis." Then the dialog would be printed out with people saying things like

"my penis is quite a hero!"
"Where did my penis go?"

and in many, many cases some variation of

"Did you sleep well, my penis?"

since so many RPGs start with the main character being woken up by their mother or sister or something.

Since I started WoW, I use Veloreyn in just about every game requiring a name (with variations along the lines of Velorayn or Veloraen). I'll also use Syllana (Syllanna, Syllenna, Syllanic) if I start up an alt. The oddest thing I've found myself doing is keeping certain names for certain classes. Veloreyn is nearly always a caster. Syllana is typically a hunter/ranger type class, and Syllanna tends to stick to healing.

None of the names are typically taken on servers, and I like both sets, so I just stick with 'em. PurEvil is often against naming rules due to the upper case E in the middle, so I tend not to bother. Not to mention, though I've been using this handle for well over 10 years now, I've seen a lot of variations of it. Just the other day I happened to see a Pure3vil.

My FPS name was deadmeat for a very long time. Toilet humor is not out of the picture. I remember renaming Link Wormfood more than once.

WoW names are a bit more interesting. Grendwar is my 64 shammy. Sounded decently Horde-ish. I stopped trying after that. Alts are Goquelyrslf and Flochart.

I usually keep the names for RPGs, but McChuck and I were checking out FFVIII for the first time and though we thought this would be a thowaway game until I got serious I ended up taking PZIMP and crew all the way to Ultemecia's Castle outside of time.

momgamer wrote:

Never use my own name. Seriously. Who would ever surrender to the Dread Pirate Colleen?

Mom, your name is as fierce as your reputation. At first getting gutted by a Dread Pirate named Colleen would just be another twist of the knife. After 5 years of pillaging, women would stop naming their girls Colleen.

After all, Cthulhu was just a funny name to call the drunk guy at a party until you learned it was one of the Old Ones who could steal your soul at a glance. Or maybe that's just here in the sticks.

For single-player games I just choose something that is easy or similar to my RL name. In multiplayer actiony games, I try to use my preferred internet handle georob.

Deciding on MMO names is the most difficult for me. For the first MMO I played extensively, WoW, I clicked on the random name button over and over till I saw something I liked, Cinster. I was happy with this until armory came along and I saw that there are many Cinsters on other servers, but I can't change his name now. He's an old gnome, set in his ways.

I did something kind of similar for LoTRO, they had lists of recommended prefixes and suffixes, I used one of the suffixes but used Geo as the prefix. This led to the unwieldy name of Georandir.

For AoC (possibly due to the hype) I spent a few hours working on a name before it was even released. I remembered that a character in William Gibson's book Spook Country worshipped Orisha (a kind of saint) and liked some of the Orisha names. I didn't want to steal them outright, so I did a little research and altered some of the Orisha names I liked best to use in AoC. Ochumare became Geochumare and Oxala became Geoxolo. I actually have a few more names on standby for potential alts.

In RPGs I usually use some variation of "Telo" (got it from the starwars galaxy name generator back in the days)

In pretty much everything else I am Raven, or Falkuse (mnemonic for pre-mission preperation in the danish army) since raven turned out to be waaaaay too common

I used to use obscenities, just for the silliness of my character being addressed as such. Can't be anything as bad as "yo, what be this sh*t?" from FFVII.

Elliottx for anything but MMORPGs. Even console rpgs I'll go with the characters default name or Elliottx. With MMORPGS I have my list of "role-playing" names:

Jozak
Ezzamar
Saelin(rarely used as if I don't like my primary or my alt, why am I playing?)

I use dejanzie, or Fritz when I'm feeling frisky.

When there are multiple characters around to be named (or in D&D games) I go for RPG-cliché sounding names that are funny in Dutch. Like Amoëder (Your mother in Dutch) for example.

And in Pizza Tycoon I used to give my pizza's appropriate names. My customers would then, upon query, tell me "I just ate My Nipples" or "Crispy Toenail is really yummie!". Disclaimer: I was 14 at the time

Hey... Is this just a clever ploy to get name ideas for that fantasy novel you've been writing on and off since 10th grade?

Well, if it is a mage type character : Raistlin is my choice. From the Dragon Lance series.
Excellent read, awesome character.

Otherwise, most of the times : Sparhawk... from David Eddings. A very cool knight, that I think has being crafted after my persona lol

Quite often I'll use "I say" as a name as it tends to make the npc's talk like Foghorn Leghorn. If i'm in a more serious mood I'll use Aerstan which is an old AD&D name. If I have to give Aerstan a last name I usually go with Majere as a tribute to the Drangonlance novels I enjoyed in middle school. Dr Mindcrime was the name of my favorite character from City of Heroes back when I used to be addicted to it. I tend to use it as more of a forum name than a character name now.