Guild Wars 2

So, just bought the game. Went to make my first character and everything was all good until choosing a name.

Literally spent 2 hours and STILL haven’t found a name that wasn’t taken and I’ve tried hundreds. Figured I’d try a different server but like a 10 minutes wait to do that and then another 7 days if I can’t get a name on that one?

All servers are “very high” in population too, are they gonna add more. 2 hours and can’t get into the game. What a pathetic experience so far and what a waste of my time and money.

Uh… I’ve never had this issue. The game has been around for over 2 years though, so if you’re trying to get some one-word normal format name like “Mike” you’re going to have a tough time. Also, names have to be unique across all servers, as the servers play together, so switching servers isn’t really a fix for that.

Names are shared cross-server so a transfer wouldn’t help you.

Names are unique worldwide, so other server doesn’t change anything.

However you can take a first and lastname, and that makes it much easier to find
a name.

Personally i have 17 characters without a lastname .. just be a little creative.

You can have up to 19 letters in the name, including spaces. Add a last name, an honorific, a title, double a letter. Design a name that is lore appropriate rather than something from modern Terran popular media. Use sites like http://www.behindthename.com/random/?number=2&gender=f&surname=&all=no&usage_ita=1 for ideas, and modify the sound of names you find until they suit you.

Server makes no difference, names are game-wide.

Here are the names I’ve got, to give you a sample of what’s doable. Only four of my alts didn’t get first choice of name. I will concede some were made in the first seconds of early access, and most in the first year or so of the game:

Human
David Raffino – made in Sept 2013
Donari Mal Di Bette – made at launch
Jin Macklin – made in Oct 2012
Lord Arlos Victor – made in April 2013
Mirth the Mouse – made at launch
Salvina Lucia Bette – made in July 2013

Sylvari
Andret – Oct 2012? 2013? — did take several tries using http://philriley.tripod.com/otngarthur.html for ideas before I found an untaken Arthurian name
Briamor – July 2013? 2014? — Also took some tries before I just mushed together syllables on my own
Briara – made at launch
Ysethe – May 2013

Norn
Altdragg Splitstack – Feb 2013 – “Altdrag” was taken so I added a g.
Ylfa Aetlaveidr – May 2013? 2014? – used http://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm to find names for her and all her pets. This one loosely means She-Wolf Fated Hunter.

Asura
Froblekk – June 2014 – “Blekk” was taken so I tossed on a syllable
Merra – made at launch

Charr
Talani Stormburn – made at launch as Talani Razorstorm, name changed when the Razor Warband guild collapsed a year or so later.

YES! i agree with you! one of my in game character is called Mayko Lee, i was in game playing and saw someone with that same name!!!!!!! Mayko Lee…. i was like wow! this is my name too!

Welcome to the game and to the community.

I never encountered trouble with a character name, and mine aren’t even that creative.
Following the racial conventions can help.

Eg.
Charr: “latin sounding name” “warband+something”
Norn: “nordic sounding name” “title”

I understand it can feel frustrating not to be able to get a particular name you desire, but I find it hard to believe you can find even a slight variation of it that suites your taste.

I believe it’s a bit soon to decide this is your worse MMO experience, just based on this…

Be more creative with your names? Seriously, I’m able to name most of my characters off of song titles still. Just be a teenie bit creative. I’m not saying that “Legolas The Archer” isn’t creative, but it took no effort on your part to make. Honestly, if you think the Guild Wars 2 naming scheme is a blockade…may you never try WoW. Even with the name lift during Draenor you still have to name your character something god awful like “Asqwepatta” just to have it not be taken.

Bet i can get up with 10names in one breath that has not been taken by now. But yea legolas and Nemesys arent among them.

If you are complaining about it in this game alone, then chances are you might have the same problem with every major MMO in existence as every character name is as unique as a fingerprint. Though if you give your characters last names (applies best for humans, norn and charr), that should help make things easier for you.

My biggest advice is to be creative. Use clever mis-spellings and create names with multiple meanings and interpretations. You may also use ASCII characters featured in any European or South American languages such as ì and ï in your names as they are legitimate characters/punctuation in other languages where GW2 is sold or references to historical names.

Adding a sir name or last helps. If charr, make up a warband name and use that for last name.

If anything else, change a letter, like a y to an I, or vice versa.

Perhaps a variant spelling of your name of choice?

Or perhaps another language version. I wanted to use Scar of the Night in Gw1. Ut it was taken. Cicatrice del Noche was not.

Wish you well on your search. Its something I have run into in every MMO Ive played with one exception.

I just made 5 new characters on an alt account this month. Using no special characters, 3 of them were a single or compound word and 4 of the names had specific references.

Prime names were taken a long time ago but there’s plenty others to be had.

Like others said, character names are worldwide so there’s no point switching servers to try a name again.

LOL…you are 2 years late to complain on that.This game have millions of accounts with more then 1 character on it.You think its easy to find normal name?

Asura don’t use last names, but many add their job title in front of their name.

Why can’t we have duplicate character names? We have unique account names. Maybe limit to a finite number of duplicates as there will always be celebrity name abuse.

Sandpit.3467:

Why can’t we have duplicate character names? We have unique account names. Maybe limit to a finite number of duplicates as there will always be celebrity name abuse.

One reason I can think of, the mailing system and the whisper chat. It’s world wide, not server linked. So if you want to mail something to, party up with or whisper to your friend Bob Teh Ranger, and there’s five Bob Teh Ranger worldwide, you would need to know and use the display name (Sandpit.3467 for example) instead of the character name.

Most people don’t offhand know the display name with the correct numbers attached. It’s possible that making the names non unique means you would always need to know and use the display names, for mailing, whispers and partying up with someone.

While it may sound silly at first, try using a baby name website. I especially like this one:

http://www.babycenter.com/baby-names

You can search based on cultural origin, meaning, sound patterns and syllables.

If you look up the different races on the Wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Race), they give tips on each race’s naming conventions.

So if you’re making a Charr (who have Latin names) Warrior, you could search for a male Latin name that means “strong”, or whatever.

And as others have said, remember that you can include spaces in your name – so you can use surnames and/or titles (for a sylvari: Warden Cedric, Cedric of the Dawn, Cedric Duskborn etc).

Or spell a name slightly different: Jacen, Jaycen, Jhaycen, Jayson, etc.

If you’re really stumped, post on the forms with your race, profession and what sort of name you’re looking for (fierce, mysterious, sneaky, etc), and some folks can probably make some suggestions.

Everchanging Book of Names (EBoN):

http://ebon.pyorre.net

A name generator. Comes with 12 name sets by default (you can download more).
Also check out the linklist there for even more names and name related sites.

Use whatever name you wish for as ’firstname’ and then choose an unique ’lastname’.
I had trouble with finding names too but after lots of thinking during the Beta time, I got the idea to use ’lastname’ in gemstone names..

Ex. Michelle Ruby
Albert Topaz
John Onyx

I would also suggest using a translator. Think of a word you like, throw it through a few translations and see how it looks in other languages. It might give you ideas.

I know there’s even Draconic and Klingon translators out there if you search for them, so I’m sure there’s more than that for odd stuff.

Palador.2170:

I would also suggest using a translator. Think of a word you like, throw it through a few translations and see how it looks in other languages. It might give you ideas.

I know there’s even Draconic and Klingon translators out there if you search for them, so I’m sure there’s more than that for odd stuff.

Translators are great. I especially enjoy Google translator…it butchers the translations to a point that by the time you get something that sounds cool…that’s really all it is – something that sounds cool. It’s no longer a translation.

I am curious what name you are trying to get.

My names are somewhat common, they are from real life sort of.

It usually goes… (My Real Life first name) + (Common/Friend’s/VideoGame Character’s last name)

Then again, my real life first name isn’t common at all.

If I am desperately looking for a new character name, I look into one of my books on my shelf. There are a lot of names in them. Don’t look at the main characters, since they might be too well known for popular books, but look at all the other ones. Mangle the names a bit, shuffle characters, shorten/combine parts of the names.

An example is my forum name, which is also the name of my main GW2 char. I looked into my book shelf and found the Silmarillion from J.R.R. Tolkien. I shortened it a bit, so I got “Silmar”. “Alech” on the other hand is the short form of my first name and exchanged “x” for a greek “ch”. Put together, they are a good character name for a computer game. And even I don’t know how to pronounce it.
The complete story behind my name is a bit longer than this post, though

Try not to use “_______ The Great”. Every possibility for that has been gobbled up by the adolescent crowd. But you could do other prefix/suffix stuff such as “_______ Of Shaemoor” or “Captain ________”.

Keep in mind that you can buy a Name Change Contract once you’re in the game, so even if you level up a character with an unacceptable name, you can alter it when you find an available one you like. Keep a character slot open specifically for seeing if a name is available. If you find something good, create the character and then delete it. The name is reserved for your account for 24 hours after deletion of the character. (Can someone confirm that time limit?) So play your poorly-named character, and when you find a name you like, you can delete the temp-character and use a Name Change Contract to rename your existing character 24 hours later.

EDIT: It might be possible to use the Name Change Contract right away and not risk losing your desired name to someone who might snatch it up before you after 24 hours have elapsed. Go ahead and try it… if the desired name shows up as in use, you can always back out of the Name Change Contract without making a change.

best bet is to make unique names, not names you see in games, movies, tv etc. I also had this problem in gw1/2, every character I made, had like 20 names, each taken, just decided to go unique to me, and never had a problem since.