Guild Wars 2

I like names that get a rise out of people or just names that are silly.

Broken Bottle Cap – It’s my warrior for PvP, when people rage I ask how useful is a broken bottle cap anyway.

Ice Bank Mice Elf – Some people get this, I like hearing the lolz

A Moist Squirt – Some people think this is dirty.

Ellieanna.5027:

Daventry – Originally my valk from DAOC, taken from King’s Quest 5

Awesome! Loved that game, it’s a classic… along with all the other adventure games of that era.

I love using names from classic games. I doubt that anyone here would remember it, but my warrior is Julian of Tambry, named after a character from an old Amiga game called Faery Tale Adventure.

I have a few other characters from random series or games that I enjoy. I always get really stoked when I see someone in-game with a name I recognize from my childhood gaming years. Anything pre-Ultima 8 (or really, anything related to Ultima at all) will very likely see me messaging the player to ask if that’s what their name is referencing.

I’m a sucker for gaming nostalgia.

i name my characters based on their story line, worshipped gods, profession, etc
here as an example:

For most of my characters, I name them based partly on lore. Others I try and justify their names by creating some backstory for them.

I used to play Dungeon and Dragons and I kept a list of NPC names to quickly generate a character if it ever became necessary. If I am totally out of ideas, I roll my d20 and pick from that list.

I have deleted more characters than I can remember because something about them wasn’t right…usually the name. 4 of them have been level 80’s. I actually just deleted another 80 guardian last night to replace it cause I was unhappy with the name…that and I was still mad about deleting the first guardian who was 100% map complete and I blamed the human replacement for it (totally their fault right?)

I try to stick with cultural names mostly or something that I think fits the characters purpose. My mesmer is Asura but named Crisis Averted. Not a really appropriate name for them culturally, but since my wife hates jump puzzles the character is aptly named.

/blinks

You can get a name change kit to fix the name, and save all that leveling.

I’m a role player at least in GW 2. I have mostly humans (5) and a charr, a norn and an asura. All my humans are Canthan-descent, casue I love Asian people (especially women) but I also like Greek and Roman culture, so if I had a non-canthan, maybe an Ascalonian, they may have Roman (Latin) or Greek names and possibly could fit lore.

All my humans are female except my necromancer and all have Japanese names cause it fits Imperial-Canthans (Kaineng) and they are literally based off characters from my own story I’m writing.

Humans:

Yumiko Ishida: My Elementalist (now Tempest) main and had her since head start and prior. She is pretty much my first ever character I made back in 2004, so she is made in every game I play and follows me everywhere. She was one of two main characters of my story I’m working on. She is like my muse— keeps me going to my end goal. She is very beautiful. https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/229356/gw486.jpg

Hikari Kyoko Ishida: I plan to ditch the nickname in the middle and shorten it to just Hikari Ishida. The daughter of Yumiko and a guardian (now dragonhunter). Arguably the cutest character I have on here.

Tomoko Izushi: Yumiko’s twin sister and my engineer, she is very much like Yumiko just more of a you-know-what to people.

Isamu Senda: A nobleman Necromancer (Reaper now) that lost his whole family to the dragons. He seeks to find his own life and not meet the same fate. He is supposed to be a ladies man, but fails at it hard.

Mizuho Kagami: A Revenant that is is the Ishida House’s most trusted servant and rules over all other servants in the household. She is also part Kurzick and is the palest girl I have.

Norn:

Sigrid Almstedt: My norn mesmer that dreams of being a big mist hero. She was planned to be my only WVW character and RP her life as a mist warrior. I never got back to doing that sadly. I don’t even like mesmer that much.

Asura:

Master Admoddix: Admoddix is my Asuran Thief and he has a job, and one job only: Steal back anything stolen by the inquest by any means necessary! He is a statics professor by day and an Inquest harasser by night. He took in Hikari when she was a toddler to raise her into the smart and beautiful young woman people know today.

Charr:

Gagreza Vilefur: A charr Warrior based on a feline-race villain of mine, he is not a bad guy in GW 2, but he is sure mean and nasty to everyone that crosses his path— he only respects Tomoko though.

Images attached: Yumiko (Top) Hikari (Middle) Mizuho (Bottom)

Every character except the first two I made have lore-appropriate names. Even the throwaway characters I just use for storage / home instance farming. Heck, yesterday when the character slots were on sale I created a new Sylvari and spent literally like an hour going through name databases for Celtic names before I found one I liked that wasn’t taken.

The first two I made before I knew much about the lore or that there WERE lore appropriate names. I had never played GW1, and the first though I had about starting GW2 obviously wasn’t “Oh man, I totally need to look up how to properly name my characters on the Wiki!”. If name contracts weren’t so expensive I may have changed them long ago, though I have come up with RP reasons for their different names (my single-named Charr I just consider to be a gladium, and my Sylvari with a “surname” just took the second name to copy Charr and Humans and sound more mystical and mysterious since he’s a Mesmer).

This one’s easy. I name all my male characters after myself and all the female characters after girls who have emotionally tormented me in real life.

Sometimes I just can’t let to ya know.

All of my characters have Tolkien-inspired names.

My 3 sylvari have plant names: Laurelin was the golden tree of light, Nimloth is a type of white flower, and Lavaralda is a green-leaved tree. So, their names are Laurelin Goldtree, Nimloth Whitebloom, and Lavaralda Greenleaf.

My 2 norn are named after Maia: Goldberry, wife of Tom Bombadil, was the River’s daughter. Arien was a fire spirit and the guardian of the last fruit of Laurelin, so their names are Goldberry Riverborn and Arien Fireheart.

My human is named after Galadriel’s ring, Nenya, the ring of Adamant. Her name is Nenya Stonewill.

My charr is named for a legendary elvish spear, Aeglos. The spear shares its name with a plant Aeglos, which was also known as Snowthorn to the elves. Her name is Aeglos Snowthorn.

My asura are the only 2 who don’t follow my tradition of first-name two-part-last-name. They are Ungwe Lianti and Fuin Daedelos. Ungwe Lianti is one of Ungoliant’s names in Tolkien’s many reworkings of his lore; it was my Necromancer’s name in GW1 and I carried it forward to my Necro in GW2. Taur nu Fuin and Taur nu Daedelos are 2 of the names of the Forest of Mirkwood. It seemed appropriate for my GW1 Assassin, so I recycled the name for my Thief.

For me, My Characters names are a hybrid mixed with both Human and Charr Names in one name. Like Allena Whitetail for example the last name always refers to the charr or other races I picked out.

Only one character who don’t follow the game is my asura named Thomas Norsetien this is just a refrence to Digimon Data Squad and not really part of GW2.

My Main Character named Rathsphere dose not follow any naming rules, Actually he has no known names at all, His Chararacter name is just a title.

Below in the picture is Allena (The one with the mask)
The other is my Main, Which follows a title as a name instead.

I always try to follow names that fits with a slice of names that fits the GW2 Universe casually I don’t nit pick at whatever name people choose, Hey as long as the name sounds cool who am I to judge right?

Danikat.8537:

I recently got around to creating my final 3 permanent characters and spent what my husband tells me is an absurd amount of time coming up with names for them. But to me the name is at least as important as their appearance and I want to make absolutely sure I get something I’m going to be happy with.

But it did make me curious about how much thought other people put into this and what kind of things you consider when choosing a name.

For me the most important factors are:

1) It should mean something, reflect the characters appearance or personality, even if no one else will understand that without me telling them.

For example my asuran necromancer is called Ambage. Which is an archaic English word that means a long-winded and overly complicated description. I stumbled across it while looking up Latin words (more on this below) and decided it was perfect for an asura, and especially the one I was planning.

It can be a lot simpler than that though. My yellow/orange themed sylvari warrior is called Aurhedyn which means ‘gold seed’.

2) It should look interesting. Which to me usually means not using English words. English isn’t the prettiest language and it’s also my 1st language so it’s a bit dull to me.

For example I wanted to call a GW1 character Holly but it didn’t suit her. I remembered liking the Latin word – Ilex. I added the Latin for ivy (Hedera) and got a name I liked so much I reused it in GW2.

3) Ideally it should be lore-appropriate.

At least it shouldn’t stand out too much, but I’m willing to be flexible. Like the above example of Ambage for an asura. It’s longer than most asura names, but inline with ones like Batanga or Hrouda.

But sometimes sticking to the lore can help. I was really struggling to name my norn revenant until I looked up norse names. Then after a bit of debate over my favourite I picked Vanirar Corvusson (‘spirit warrior’ ‘raven son’).

So that’s me. How do you do it?

Glad to find a kindred spirit. Agree with all the above save that English can be pretty, you just have to be in the right spirit of it. Not exactly florid, but with its own grace, nonetheless. Check noble house names. Possibly applies only to humans.

Norn… It took me four days to name my Norn.

How on earth to make a Viking name that didn’t sound boorish nor offend any real Vikings online, yet sounded right for the spirit of the character you want to play?

A language outside one’s own, extant, with its own flavour. Working with that is far harder than making up airy-fairy names (which I am good at) out of the aether.

For the characters that matter the most to me, I’ve named them after my real life family.

Tara Bosatsu my female Norn Warrior is a female Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism who appears as a female Buddha in Vajrayana Buddhism. She is known as the “mother of liberation”, and represents the virtues of success in work and achievements. She is known as Tara Bosatsu

So many interesting posts. I usually do not really follow lore when naming a character. I prefer to give them an overall theme and get along with what inspires me. I also try to fit in an appropriate citation and/or a joke that could amuse me and at the same time somehow represent the character (also on the appearance level, if I find it appropriate).
Examples:
- Annatar the White – Necromancer, Charr – I am a Tolkien’s fan, for those who get the citation. The pun is that this White one really has a mostly black fur… with white stripes. All the while he wears white armor… and is a grim Necromancer who asks blood from friends and strangers alike for his experiments.
- Nazgul Tracker – Ranger, Sylvari – ok, I really am a Tolkien’s fan. Well met, Laurelin.
- Gear of the Plot – Engineer, Asura – a wordplay. In my mind, this is an enthusiast and devious schemer, very smart but very paranoid. Plus, the “gear” part fits his professional mechanical theme.
- Odium Rising – Guardian, Charr – I am also a fan of Brandon Sanderson’s work, this one coming paraphrased from the Stormlight Archives. The pun is that, for all his nasty name, the character is a Guardian with so much protective abilities… who is also a bloodthirsty Charr with a very bad attitude in general.

Sorry for resurrecting this thread but I didn’t want to duplicate.

I tend to use Japanese words for the given (first) name and Athel for the family (last) name. Athel is Middle English for Noble or Hero. Why Japanese? Too much anime, that’s why.

Kyudo Athel, Human Ranger. Kyudo means “The Way of the Bow” in Japanese
Miseria Athel, Norn Reaper. Miseria is Spanish for misery.
Kawaii Athel, Asura Guardian. Kawaii is Japanese for cute.
Kage Athel, Sylvari Mesmer. Kage is Japanese for shadow or shade.
Asa Taiyo, Sylvari Ranger – Japanese, roughly translates to Morning Sun. Asa awakened during the cycle of dawn.
Yukanna Neko, Charr Guardian – Japanese, roughly translates to Valiant Cat

Side Note: Kyudo was originally name Caith which is an Irish name that means battlefield or “from the battlefield” . I have used Caith for characters since my D&D days in the 80’s. When I created the character in gw2 I wasn’t aware of the Sylvari Caithe. I hung onto the name for almost two years, I’d used it first after all! But after he became my main I knew it was time to change it.

All of my characters’ surname/lastname is from a gemstone/jewels.

Such as..
Skarlet Ruby
Pamela Floruite
Kris Helidor
Karl Topaz
Ida Aquamarine

And I have 70 characters, so I’ve used quite alot of gemstones

For the first names, I simply uses my favorite characters from other games.
Such as..
Michelle, from Tekken.
Kael’thas, from Warcraft.
Aaragon, from Lords of the rings.
Pamela, Posion Ivy’s name from Batman.

DeadTreeJig.6714:

Why Japanese? Too much anime, that’s why.

At least you admit it. XD

Side Note: Kyudo was originally name Caith which is an Irish name that means battlefield or “from the battlefield” . I have used Caith for characters since my D&D days in the 80’s. When I created the character in gw2 I wasn’t aware of the Sylvari Caithe. I hung onto the name for almost two years, I’d used it first after all! But after he became my main I knew it was time to change it.

I have a mesmer (human female) named Scarlet the Tease. This was before Ceara/Scarlet became a thing, so I had it first! I refuse to change it, no matter how much the usurper is reviled.

Endless Soul.5178:

I don’t really go for joke or clever names (but I do appreciate them on other player’s characters), so I go with what sounds interesting to me.

Zerina In Aeternum – Asura Necromancer – She is my first character, and my main, and I decided that she dropped her original Asura name in favor of something more exotikittentle did I know that I would see several other “Aeternum” names out there. (The censorship is lame: “exotic” and “Little”)

Thorsimund – Charr Warrior – I wanted a strong name, so I used the name of a Visigoth king, and switched a couple letters around. I get a lot of compliments on this name.

Jaxxi Deus – Asura Engineer – I liked Jaxxi, but it was taken so added something extra.

Embrace of Midnight – Human mesmer – I don’t play her much, in fact, she’s still only level 44. I do have big plans for her…someday.

As you can see, I don’t really stick to one naming convention.

Wow, what a difference a year makes.

Since my last post in this thread, I still have these characters, but my asura family has grown..a lot.

Bekka, Feyyt, Rissa, Akee, Tylee, Sixx, all nice and proper asura names.

I’ve also added Aeslin just to have a sylvari, and Drifa just to have a norn.

Rauderi.8706:

DeadTreeJig.6714:

Why Japanese? Too much anime, that’s why.

At least you admit it. XD

I’m too old to worry what people think.

Alga.6498:

And I have 70 characters, so I’ve used quite alot of gemstones

70… I can barely give all 6 of mine screen time.

Rauderi.8706:

I have a mesmer (human female) named Scarlet the Tease. This was before Ceara/Scarlet became a thing, so I had it first! I refuse to change it, no matter how much the usurper is reviled.

I’d rather be associated with Scarlet than Caithe. You knew Scarlet was up to no good. Caithe on the other hand… As the former pack commander I still don’t trust her.

Race dependent.

Human: Any unusual, seldom-used, American/English/Australian name. All have the same last name for consistency. Albion, Yeriel, Quinn, Lochlyn

Norn: Usually all typical old Norse names for the first name and a combination of old Norse words to form a last name. Sigrid, Dainn, Yngvarr

Charr: I try to keep them discriptive like the Charr names in game. Sirocco Emberwind, Snowwight Driftborn

Assura: At least a double consonant and one word. Oomann, Punnk, Rhizz

Sylvari: All old Welsh/Irish/Celtic names for both first and last. Most Sylvari in game have only one name, but I prefer two. Morlyn, Ianto, Heilyn

DeadTreeJig.6714:

Rauderi.8706:

I have a mesmer (human female) named Scarlet the Tease. This was before Ceara/Scarlet became a thing, so I had it first! I refuse to change it, no matter how much the usurper is reviled.

I’d rather be associated with Scarlet than Caithe. You knew Scarlet was up to no good. Caithe on the other hand… As the former pack commander I still don’t trust her.

I’m still waiting for my chance to plant my flag in another bush, if ya ken.

Mostly I prefer single-word names, although when the mood strikes, I will go to two. I mostly use one of three different approaches.

- Most often, I try to come up with combination of letters that produce a good “sounding” or “looking” name. Example, I have a guardian named “Valynar.” One of my favorites.

- Sometimes I look for foreign language words that have a meaning that I might want to associate with this character.

- Occasionally, a single word with meaning fits nicely. My very first character, created on launch day, is an Asuran engineer named “Oodles.”

I’ve added a couple more since my post a year ago and I’m sticking firmly to my standards of no lore based names, just names that amuse me. So my 2 new chars are

1) Another revenant, a male Charr named Prinzz Charr Ming
2) another Ele alt named Not Myself Today.

I pick names that sound good to me mostly (Motsuri, Sotsuki, Scatty Cat, etc.) Sometimes I make them the names of characters from stories that I wrote (Master Zie, Mana Gansaku), or names that mean one thing but sound like something else (Coy Oni – sounds like coyote but is a combination of the English word ‘coy,’ and the Japanese ‘oni.’)

I like to be a little creative with my character names but sometimes I get lazy and reuse variations of old names lol.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’ve added a couple more since my post a year ago and I’m sticking firmly to my standards of no lore based names, just names that amuse me. So my 2 new chars are

1) Another revenant, a male Charr named Prinzz Charr Ming
2) another Ele alt named Not Myself Today.

Was my old Prinz Charrming taken?
Who stole the name I gave up? /fistshake

Rauderi.8706:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’ve added a couple more since my post a year ago and I’m sticking firmly to my standards of no lore based names, just names that amuse me. So my 2 new chars are

1) Another revenant, a male Charr named Prinzz Charr Ming
2) another Ele alt named Not Myself Today.

Was my old Prinz Charrming taken?
Who stole the name I gave up? /fistshake

It’s a great name. I’ve had several people message me about it. I’m still working on a look for him at level 80. I’m thinking lots of pink with the Chicken Glider and the Chicken minipet.

Seriously, i pick my names to be normal and lore fitting. Even though i dont RP, i hate to say names that make absolutely no sense. Came across a fellow, a charr, called crispy bacon. What parent in their right minds call a cub that.

Human, Nikeita,
Human, Rodgort Reddo,
Human, Abraham Marriner,
Human, Primum Adversario
Asura, Peacemaker Cpn Enma,
Asura, Eibon,
Asura, Aviann,
Asura, Bstasz,
Norn, .. kinda forgot his name.. rarely play him.. something somethingsson
Sylvari, Thornne the Jagged,
Sylvari, Jendayi Karimah,
Charr, Bruur Frostmane

Most of my legion have serious names, but a few are humorous:

Err Orr
Mo Zart
Whipp Lash

1] I either choose to make the name srs or not. if not srs, its either a joke about whatever or a lore name. if srs, it represents something intrinsic about the profession and what it does. a sorta third category that doesn’t completely fit into the previous two is something witty.
2] I make it original. I never use or add xColdx, P U R E, Awesomeguy or anything like that. the names are ideally one or two words.
3] I take the process srsly even if the finished product is not. if I want it to be funny I think of something that’s funny, I don’t half ass it or choose something that is common or bland.
4] I usually use a thesaurus and/or dictionary, and since I’m English I use English words.

some of my names:
norn male guard srs: pivotal resistance
human female rev witty: baal tha czar
asura male mes not srs : treacherous lozenge
charr male engi not srs: cpt sparkraze
sylvari male necro srs: necrotic osmosis

Charr necromancer in beserker gear- Caterpillars. Because it’s fuzzy and squishy!

I have a few most are names of fantasy novels or games that I’ve enjoyed over the years. Latest addition was Perturabo (Iron Lady Perturabo), took a few tries to get a way to make it work without special letters though I’ve done that for other characters. For Susan Sto Helot I had to use a alt code letter as one of the letters. The one I’ve had forever is Alucard F Tepes no special characters it was one of my earliest toons. I really love my toons and try to find a profession that fits the character.

Searing Purge – Charr Elementalist

Named after one of the most bad### spells I’ve ever seen and one of the coolest moments in GW.

Naming characters can be quite challenging sometimes… I tend to follow a few general guidelines though…

1) Lore – I look at the ingame lore for the race and any real world cultures that the race might be based on to help determine names.
2) Class – Even though realistically a person’s profession as an adult would have had zero impact on what their parents would have chosen to name them… When it comes to good storytelling, heroes tend to have names that reflect their strengths.
3) Aesthetics and Phonetics – Not only does a name need to look good on paper, but it also needs to sound good when spoken.

The norn are based heavily on Norse Mythology and are essentially the Asgardians, they even have an ancient enemy of the Jotun (Ice Giants). So my Norn have names that are either derived from Norse names or actually are Norse names. As a result I ended up with my Norn Ranger Sylryn named and my Norn Warrior named Ashilda Dawnsong.
The Charr was an interesting one… I couldn’t think of any real world cultures that they reflect. So I ran around looking at the names of the more notable Charr… That honestly didn’t help me one bit… I don’t really remember how I ended up with the name I did on her in the end, but I wound up with a Charr Engineer named Myrar
My Asura, I honestly kinda skipped guideline #1 for the most part… I made a Mesmer and had already decided in advanced I was going to name her Vexi. I later discovered that if I were to have followed Asura naming standards her name should have been either Vexxi or Vexii. When I made my Guardian I did apply Asura naming standards and gave her the name Agamii.
Humans were easy… Even though GW2 takes place in Kryta (currently) we know that there’s also Cantha and Elona, and of course a good portion of the Krytan population is descended from the remains of Ascalon. So we’ve got 4 cultures in one to work with. Canthans being based on the Oriental cultures as a whole. The Elonians are largely based on African and Arabian cultures. The Ascalonians are very heavily based around the ancient civilizations of the British Isles. And the Krytans had a bit of an Aztec culture. So for my two Human’s I decided that my Thief would be of Canthan origin and named her Kanomae. My Elementalist who is of Ascalonian descendancy got named Kirrea, which was an alteration on the Irish name Kerri.
Finally my Sylvari… for them I decided to do the same thing that ANet did for many of the Sylvari names… I based them around plants. I have a Sylvari Ranger who I named Roserin, a pretty self explanatory name… and I also have a Sylvari Necromancer who I named Cypryss… For her I wanted a name that was both botanical and related to poisons. I threw out the more obvious names like Nightshade or Hemlock… tried a few other names, but they just didn’t feel right, eventually ran across Cypress Trees in a list of poisonous plants… The name sounded perfect, but it was taken… I didn’t want to give up on the name so I tried various spellings and wound up with Cypryss.

I can say what I have a problem with when it comes to people naming their character – just random “cool” or theme names with no commonality like a first or last name.

I mean sure it may sound nice if you have a sylvari thief named “Salladblade Kalehead” and a human ranger named “Legolars Fauxelf” but when I look at those two characters I have no idea who the player is unless I start looking at account name details

Thats why all my characters are named “Wafalls Tjoinsertrandomshortwordhere” (dont ask for name logic). I am easily recognizable by anyone on my server no matter the character I choose to play as, because everyone refer to me by first name.

If one only have a single character then sure, a unique name works but yeah… altoholic… GW2 heavily encourage that.

Sorry just a rant because some players naming schemes make me confused :p

“Hey love, what should I call this catbeast?”
“Sweet Noodle”

Panda.1967:

The Charr was an interesting one… I couldn’t think of any real world cultures that they reflect. So I ran around looking at the names of the more notable Charr… That honestly didn’t help me one bit… I don’t really remember how I ended up with the name I did on her in the end, but I wound up with a Charr Engineer named Myrar

In case you’re in the market for another lovable murdercat:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Charr#Names

The names are mostly rough and/or Latin in origin, to match their war-oriented military structure, similar to the Romans. The warband is the core of their social groups, and their surnames have a common root word (ie, Thunder, Steel, Shadow), paired with a descriptor of their personality (Thundersnarl, Steelbane, Swiftshadow).

Also, enjoy what is probably the most tryhard, canon Charr name ever: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talon_Killpeace

My naming conventions change over the years.

On the first year I wanted to make it easy and memorable for people to refer to me. So all five characters of mine were named with Iris and a second word describing the characteristic race or class. For example: my human elementalist is Iris Spellsinger, my sylvari mesmer Iris Flutterleaf, my asura guardian Iris of Synergetics (refer to group play synergy).

On the second year, I made my characters after movie chacharacter and pop cultural figure. They are also dressed after their names: Rita Vrataski (Edge of tomorrow), Saoirse (Song of the Sea), Hit Girl (kittenet), Black Canary (The Green Arrow).

On the third year, I payed homage to Guild Wars original skills. My sylvari ranger was Frozen Soil and revenant Flesh of My Flesh.

On the fourth year, I was inspired by the many nationalities surrounding me, their different vibes and voice accents on communication platform. I have a hot brown Latino mesmer named Luis Esteban and a Russian Sylvari colored after wild rhubarb called Alyy Tryasina (Scarlet Mire).

All my charrs have names with cat puns: Barrtholomeow, Wilhemeow and Once Bitten Mew Shy.