Guild Wars 2

Hi forum!

Just curious how does everyone feel about lore/race relevant names?
Do you stick to them somehow?
Or how do you name your characters?

Some of my guildies have gotten into the “wordplay naming” which has swiftly become a pet peeve of mine.

What lore drive or race relevant names you proud of?

As I side note, I do have only 1 tribute character to a different franchise.

All my characters have names that make sense for their race.

Human:
Claire Bennett (ranger)
Evelyn Chastity (ele)
Pandora Ossa (necro)
Luna Nix (thief)
Cassandra La Fiera (warrior)

Asura:
Quorra Aetherwalker (engi)

Norn:
Lola Blackraven (mes)
Frauke Olafdottir (ranger)

Charr:
I forgot O.o was a warrior, though

Sylvari:
Forgot both of them >.<
something something Moonglow (guard)
and another one, a necro

Mental Paradox.3845:

alot!

Interesting though.

Asura have honorifics for “first” names : Sevant for example.

Most Sylvari have no second name but choose to adopt one in time if they do have one.
Any idea how their actual name is chosen/given? Never could find info on this.

I alway Main a character named Nichol Fairchild. I was pretty surprised to see NPC “Cousins” ingame Yay for Lore-relevant name ?

I try to make my names lore-friendly, especially since I’m on Piken Square and being a casual Roleplayer. I think all but one or two of mine are lore friendly I’ll try and remember them all:

Human
Tony Hannibal (Thief & my main PvE character and my name IRL)
Aria Hannibal (Thief & my main RP character)
Penny Black (Mesmer)
Sarah Ceron (Warrior & a Seraph)
Minister Thatcher (Mesmer)
Slip Digby (Engineer – the slip is meant to be “Slip” but you can use quotation marks!)
Arlon Rhamari (Elementalist but really a concept character ‘Dervish’)

Norn
Robyn Swift (Ranger named after a human who saved her as a baby)
Petre Stalborg (Necromancer)
Livia Hjerte (Thief)

Charr
Hannibrawl (Engineer – taking the micky out of my own name & not lore friendly!)
Glabius Quickbow (Ranger)
Vesta Cogbreaker (Engineer – she breaks a lot of her inventions)

Sylvari
Zinnia Thorn (Necromancer)
Griffae (Guardian)
Craenor (Ranger and my main PvP character)
Caerven (Elementalist)

Asura
Memp (Warrior and oldest character)
Mempfí (Memp’s sister – Mempfi was already taken so had to use accented í)
Wintt (Guardian)

Skritt
Skrittbags (Another RP character of mine who is really an Asura but I never use him without a skritt tonic – he can’t remember his own name so his friends call him Skrittbags)

Sylvari & Asura are definitely the hardest to name nowadays, as traditionally they are only Single named unless you include a prefix like Warden or Peacemaker. I managed to single name most of them as you can see.

Humans are by far the easiest to name I think. Norns & Charr are fairly easy, but it also too easy to use a name that is a ‘stereotype’ or ‘fashionable’ – especially the use of -dottir or -sson in Norn names. Nothing wrong with that, but I personally think there are too many -ssons and -dottirs!

@penelopehannibal.8947

RPing is a whole new level of Lore relation. :P

But you must be fun at DnD binges!

nichol.3810:

I alway Main a character named Nichol Fairchild. I was pretty surprised to see NPC “Cousins” ingame Yay for Lore-relevant name ?

Haha that must have been a pleasant little easter egg to find for you.

More like a personal easter egg to find a NPC with the same last name, funny though.
One in Nebo-Terrace and one in the Stronghold of Ebonhawke

Novuake.2691:

Mental Paradox.3845:

alot!

Interesting though.

Asura have honorifics for “first” names : Sevant for example.

Most Sylvari have no second name but choose to adopt one in time if they do have one.
Any idea how their actual name is chosen/given? Never could find info on this.

Pherick in The Grove might have an answer for you:

Pherick: “Pherick.” “Pherick.” “Pherick.” Isn’t that the greatest name ever? Because it’s my name, but it also sounds like a song. “Pherick.” “Pherick.” “Pherick.” Especially when I sing it like this.

Player: What do you mean?

Pherick: No one “gave” it to me, it’s my name. How can someone give you something that’s already yours? Are those your ears?

Player: What? Uh, yes.

Pherick: Who gave them to you? The answer is that no one gave them to you because they were always your ears. Just like nobody “gave” me the name “Pherick.”

Player: Then how do you know that “Pherick” is your name?

Pherick: Because when I first awoke from the Dream, Dilys was there and she said, “Welcome, my name is Dilys” and I said, “Hi, my name is Pherick.” How do YOU know that those are YOUR ears?

Player: It was nice chatting with you, Pherick.

Back onto the topic, I try to name my characters so that they don’t see too out of place with their race.

Asura: Caerii, Pusheen
Sylvari: Kaleryna
Charr: Evkina (I admit that I stole that from the tree in Divinity’s Reach – I was feeling really uncreative when I made my charr)
Norn: Gavrille
Human: Serenaire, Evlina, Alzareth

charr: egyptian (old egyptian, not modern arabic egyptian), as egyptian devoted cults to cats early on the History
asura: italian sounding using a technology/mechanical part name as a base
sylvari: plant or plant-like latin scientific species name
norn: nordic (scandinavian, danish, icelandic)
human: parts of english|latin|elvic sounding or arabic or chinese|japanese depending on the character appearance. Funny enough, I am french but never use a word of french in my character names.

Most names aren’t real names and are made up from adjectives/item nouns.

@Dying Infinity.4805

Thanks! Good info.

Still creates questions, but suffice it to say that the dream instills a sense of being in Sylvari (we knew this already) and we can assume that with that same sense of being comes a name.

I have always had much difficulty with my character names. I have never been able to stick to any one scheme when creating then. And I don’t think I have ever been able to stick to the lore of the particular game I was playing when thinking up a name. I always let my love of literature or tv series be my guide.

Obviously, Stargate has always been a huge focus for me. Among my gaming community, I have held the name Kree since 2004. So I try to incorporate it into at least one of my characters in every game I play, hence my Ranger, Kreejaffa.

I used Stargate as my theme for my Ele as well. Seeing as she is a user of the elements, I chose to name her Oma Da Sala, aka Mother Nature.

For my character that has become my main, I went to the world of Middle Earth, and after pouring over words and translations in the Elven language( and remaking the character 3 times because the game kept timing me out at the naming screen), I came up with the name Ryn Uin Duath. For those that actually know the nuances of the language, I know I killed the structure of it horribly. Properly, it should be Duath Uin Ryn, but it just did not have the same flare to me. Roughly translated, it means chaser/seeker of the night/shadows. If I would have structured the phrase properly, the translation would have said the same thing in reverse, which is what lead me to make it Ryn Uin Duath instead.

My Mesmer was a fun one. For anyone that has read the Elminster series from Ed Greenwood, you should recognize the name Myrjala Talithyn. It was the name used by Mystra, mother of all magic, Goddess of mystery, when she took human form to tutor Elminster when he was young. I thought it fit my Mesmer rather well.

And just for giggles, when making my Norn Thief, I decided to use a bit of a pun. I named him Sharkbait Brewhaha. I thought it was a clever little pun myself, and it’s gotten a few laughs over the years.

Several of my other female characters have used the Elven language for their names as well. I am not too creative when it comes to names, so I have never been able to really be specific to the lore of the game in question when naming characters.

@Kreejaffa.3682

Those seem creative as hell to me, although they do borrow from other universes.

That’s my problem mostly. I take from everything else, without ever actually coming up with my own creation. I am a master copy/paster though!

My characters names come from their GW1 ancestors. Except my warrior, I gave him the most basic, unoriginal name I could think of.

I was never really big on the whole “Have to have a lore appropriate name” thing.