Guild Wars 2

One of my favorite subjects around Guild Wars 2 was the Sylvari naming.
alot of people who wanted to be Lore friendly faced an issue because there were not hints like with Charr or Asura naming.
So there was a debate on how do you choose a lore friendly name.

how did you choose and what did you call your Sylvari?

How about SunRain? I got some more creative ones for you:

GrassPlant
BrownDirt
Weed

For me the greatest problem was that Sylvari generally don’t use surnames, and creating original one-word name that doesn’t use the typical fantasy process of combining two words can get kinda challenging .
But I didn’t really think about it, as my usually used Cayline sounded fine to me as Sylvari name, only it was already taken so I was forced to use a surname.

So I ended up with Cayline Myrinael. There wasn’t any complicated thought process behind it, just to find something suitable for the first name.

the uprising.6317:

How about SunRain? I got some more creative ones for you:

GrassPlant
BrownDirt
Weed

suprisingly when i started SunRain was taken, and i called my charecters by a slightly more um.. northren names?
Dreove – my main
Xeove – my other Sylvari

my human got the name Suns Rain actualy.

I’d argue that there were hints, but perhaps not as obvious as Charr or Asuran naming. From reading the books, the names Faolain and Caithe alone gave me some pretty strong indication that I needed to look into some double vowel names.

I considered plenty of nice enough Irish or Welsh names, but ultimately went with an old myth favorite of mine which still fit pattern – Leuke

Leuke (or Leuce) was a white popular dryad, and basically Pluto’s wife before Persephone. Pretty good for my lady Necro, I thought. I was prepared to do ‘Leuke of the Cycle of Night’ or Leuke Nightbloom if I couldn’t get the first name alone, but luckily I chose my obscure Greek well and it didn’t come to that.

I believe their names take inspiration from the Celtic families. They also don’t have last names unless emulating humans. This is only as I understand it though, and is not based on some grand knowledge. I chose Broin as it fits this theme.

There’s a lot of info on naming here http://guildwars2roleplay.wikispaces.com/Naming+Conventions

I wanted to name mine Rotten Tomatoes but someone took it. I settled for Olive Oil on my thief. My Sylvari mesmer is Devoted to Deceit though, not really lore based but Devoted is a name I often use in my MMOs.

Back when GW2 was announced in 2007 and I learned of the sylvari I created a name and five years later I am using that name in-game. My sylvari mesmer is named Sarvyinea. I created it before actually hearing any other sylvari names but I do think it fits ^^;

No real thought process, it just kinda got created.

Nythaenae for my ranger and Tyrvaenal for my mesmer.

I used Willow. I thought that was a cool name for a plant race.

Yeah, I’ve been planning on rolling a female sylvari, but I’m having a hell of a time trying to come up with a name. I’ve been going through all that stuff in Warlock’s link, and more, but nothing seems to click., it’s really starting to annoy me.

I ended up going with an elven inspired spin with Nyare. I think it came from a Quenyan translation (yeah) of Satu? Satu means fairy tale or fable and I thought that was an appropriate name meaning for a mesmer.

Mine ended up being Illushia. I’m not sure exactly where it came from, to be honest. But I did end up making an alt, and naming her Lynshier. It was originally going to be Lynir, but I thought changing it to be Lynshier made it sound a little closer to Celtic or Gaelic or whatever they call it. =x

My Mesmer is named Tahlaer, my Ranger is named Rhovanor and my Elementalist is named Aerendyll. The first two I’ve used many times before in other games, the last I got off a site.

My sylvari main is called Maibh. After Queen Maibh who started the battle of Culloden because she wanted a pretty cow to match her husbands.

I love the old Gaelic stories.

A friend of mine mentioned that some Arthurian lore was used for the sylvari (The Green Knight for example) so I used that as a bit of a starting point and a random name generator. After finding several names I liked and finding them all taken I decided to use a surname despite their sparse use among sylvari. I figured a fitting source would be something plant based so I looked up the “language of flowers” on wikipedia for something that fit my character’s personality.

You can have 2 words names, it’s just that the second name isn’t a family name. It could be something significant to them or an additional descriptor. I choose Aedan Nightshade with a little lore based story to go with it for fun. Nightshade is not his family name or clan name or anything like that, it’s kind of like a 2 word first name.

Bessebozz (translates approximately to Berryblue) for my ranger she is mainly dark purple with bright green leafs in the branches on her head
Frambrosa (framboos Dutch = raspberry in English, rosa in Latin = rose, she is my pink sylvari) for my elementalist
Riverdew for my blue/pale green sylvari mesmer (no Dutch used)

I had read in a few other forums that Sylvari names were based on Irish, Gaelic, and Welsh names. I’m a fan of Welsh names to begin with, so I did a search and found Ffion. It felt weird having a one-part name after GW, so I went with Ffion Auryl. Not sure where Auryl came from – just thought it fit nicely.

If you do a little digging you will see some of the names of the sylvari are actually names of our plants or plays on them. It seemed to me Caithe is a play on Caltha palustris, you can see a bunch of scientific plant names – http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/php/plants.php?action=indiv&byname=scientific&keynum=21

For my Thief I was going for Camas initially but 20 min into pre-launch that names was taken. I tried 20 other names that you will see if you look at that link and they were all taken. I had to settle on Death Camas which is an old name I used years ago. I really wanted the single name for this guy but oh well.

I wish I could change my name after I created it. I am new to Guild Wars (and MMOs in general) and was trying to think of something ‘different’ but I see at least one sometimes 2 characters with my name every time I play. (name picked was Nyx Forest, NightAngelX is my human’s name)

Will there ever be an option to change your character’s name?

Regardless I love my slyvari ranger! I played a human necromancer at first but didn’t really like her and was getting bored with the game after only a week and thought I’d try a new character and race and I absolutely love the sylvari storyline and starting levels thus far.

Thanks!

I chose the name Lanach for my Sylvari Elementalist. I took it from the word Dealanach, which is Scottish Gaelic for lightning.

As you may have guessed, I stay mostly in Air attunment.

Gramen Nox for my sylvari thief. It’s Latin for “plant of darkness.”

I went with the name Erin Macha for my Sylvari Ranger. The Sylvari seem to draw from celtic/gaelic styled names, and to my knowledge, Erin is sorta celtic for Peace, and Macha is War.

Of course, I could be completely wrong on that, but if I am, I don’t wanna know and have her name spoiled. So shush.

I named my ranger Arviû Aïsolon. It’s a combination of two names form a fantasy book I recently read and somehow found them fitting for a Sylvari.

I named my Sylvari earth elemtalist “Strawberry Sue”… Mostly because I only knew they were plants and have never been really good at roleplay and lore :P

Sylvari names are Celtic/Gaelic inspired, yes.

I had it stuck in my head for whatever reason that my Sylvari’s nickname would be “Pie” because someone misheard its name, so I called it Paidragh. That word doesn’t actually exist, but it looks proper enough in my opinion.
If the name had been taken, I would’ve added an “of Night” to it, since it’s night-born, but luckily, I didn’t have to.

I have one character of each race, and I admit Sylvari were my least favorite before creation.

So I gave my guy the mushroom head, painted it red, and named him Redcap Sky. Very original, subtle, and deep… I know.

Sameri is the name of my sylvari mesmer. I write stories myself, and one of the main characters has that name. ^^" My other ingame characters ‘resemble’ characters from my own stories too

My Sylvari Ranger is named Apachtree.

Daegan the Dreamer, I figured out the Celtic/Gaelic naming the minute I saw Niamh, which is the name of a Roman-Catholic Friend who’s family is from Ireland. Sadly, just Daegan was taken from the minute the headstart started, so I figured I’d descibe him a bit more.

Caleus would be a good name, and also Melandria!

I ended up calling my character “Deadly Delphinium” since the the color scheme of my Sylvari is based on the Delphinium plant

I named my Sylvari Requiem. Pretty much nailed it.

My sylvari’s name is Virgo. I’m not really sure that suits lore though. :P

My sylvari’s name is Casanovess. I named her that cause that’s what I name all my first female characters in MMOs. =]

My first is Esya Silverwind. My first and biggest love in MMO’s was an elf character named Esya. I felt it fits a sylvari as well, even though it does not follow the naming convention used by Anet. And the character does feel a lot like that character back then again. Then Esya is a name that is used often, and rather than trying to be the one getting that name first, I decided to add a descriptive name. I wanted Whisperwind, but as I have many characters and run a guild I thought it would be good to go with a recognizable theme which ended up to be “Silver”.

My second one was also an elf in another MMO named Naevia. I googled the name before creating the character as it has a Latin ring to it and it turned out there is a plant with Naevia in the name. She got Silverblade as “surname” as she is a thief.

My mesmer’s name is Cestrieus Nocteir. The name gets it’s roots from the scientific name of the lady of the night flower, I changed a few letters around to make it sound more like a actual person’s name though. I’m really fond of this name to be honest.

I see a couple of sources for Sylvari names—the Celtic stuff mentioned above, but also the broader, weirder, less single-source realm of Arthurian names. They clearly have King Arthur in mind for at least some of their content (I’m thinking of Bercilak, named after the relevantly colored character from “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”)

My Ranger is Ailyn Bramblethorn.
I love that GW2 allows for multiple words in names so all of my characters have a 1st & last name.

My mesmer is named Riaghan, Celtic for ‘little king.’ it’s where we get the english Ryan from.

My sylvari’s name is Aegrahm, which I made up lol. I wanted it to sound Celtic or Gaelic, but didn’t want to use an actual Celtic name, so I hope it does the job. For inspiriation, here are some Welsh names that fit the bill rather well:

Aneirin or Aneurin(Welsh for “noble”)
Braith (Welsh for “speckled”)
Cadfael (Welsh for “battle prince”)
Cadoc (from the Welsh “cad” which means “battle”)
Drystan (Welsh form of the name Tristan)
Rhiannon (Welsh for “great queen”)

These are just some of my favs, there are a lot out there! And, as others have stated, check out some Arthurian names, along with Irish, Breton, and Pictish names. They are all great places to find some inspiration!

*I would like to point out, however, that most Sylvari only have one name, which is why mine is only called Aegrahm. So, if you want to fit the lore better, maybe try and stick to just a first name.

Mine is Sylsin.

Syl from Sylvari and Sin from my “internet name” SinisterNL

Mine was originally going to be Myron but since it was taken I named him Myran instead. Thank God for the headstart :P

My reasoning was that a Sylvari should have a tree based name. I am also South Asian and wanted to give her a name in my native tongue and of a plant native to South Asia. So I wikied Native Indian Trees and picked the Asvattha Tree, aka Sacred Fig, to name my Sylvari after. She’s female so I changed Asvattha to Asvatthi. I am really happy with her name!

Sylvari are my favourite race in GW2, and I try to give them plant names that match the colour I’ve made them. My yellow/orange Mesmer is Fritillaria. My blue Ranger is Anchusa. I was hoping they could be names of plants I have in my garden, but most plant names had already been taken by the time I made them. At least I have a fritillaria, but not an anchusa (will have to look for one next spring). I have a blackish necromancer I would like to rename… hopefully that will be possible in the future.

I have a group of names I tend to re-use from game to game. But it seemed to me that sylvari should have a one-word name. I was lucky enough to get my top choices for my two sylvari, Arazmus and Micaelan. They may not be very lore-friendly but I’m happy with them.

AstroCat.7628:

You can have 2 words names, it’s just that the second name isn’t a family name. It could be something significant to them or an additional descriptor. I choose Aedan Nightshade with a little lore based story to go with it for fun. Nightshade is not his family name or clan name or anything like that, it’s kind of like a 2 word first name.

That’s fun, because my necro sylvari is named Noxxi Nachtschatten
Nachtschatten is german for nightshadow/ nightshade
:D

My other sylvari (an engineer) is named Lya Wurzelchen (the german -chen makes the name, in that case the word root, more cute.. like Aunt → Aunty/ Auntie)

per the lore and the strategy guide they lean toward Celtic naming patterns
Last names are not a big thing, but I couldn’t resist giving my 2 Sylvari a last name