Guild Wars 2

Hello Tyrians,

So with the new expansion coming out, I’ve been nothing but addicted to this game for the past few weeks. I’ve been thinking about my main, an ele sylvari who I see as the hero in my story. Now granted, his personality is different in my mind than what is presented in the game itself, but that’s besides the point. (Also, even though the story is human centered, I’m invested in this guy since the HoT events and what happened to the Pale Tree. sob)

I’m posting to ask for some advice about his current name and whether it should be changed. When I first created him, I wanted him to be me, but as a sylvari ele. I named him Kanoaa, an edited form of the Taino word “kanoa” which means canoe. It was to tie in my Caribbean heritage and all that. However, now I’m thinking it may not sound very sylvari-like, so I was thinking about some new names for him. I have a list of some I thought of, mostly Welsh words scrambled together in ways that I thought sounded nice.

Corynder – hurricane + water
Calder – rocky river (I believe this is an actual name)
Calderyn – rocky river + fair/blessed
Taewyn – blessed thunder
Taranyn – blessed thunder
Calomyr – I just like it
Cassian – I just like it
Ciaran – I just like it
Caolan – I just like it
Tyrandyr – thunder and water
Calomor – heart/spirit of the ocean
Calotyn – gentle spirit

Which should I choose, or should I keep his name as it is? I’m not fond of Welsh as a language as a lot of the syllables sound a bit more throaty or guttural than what I would like for my guy. So I wanted softer sounding words, based on water, storms, and maybe something suggesting his personality. (I see him as a gentle, kind, and loving person with a dangerous temper that is very hard to get to.)

Thanks for reading if you got this far and I hope this post wasn’t too long. This is my first one lol. Any other name suggestions will be very much welcome as well!

If you’re not fond of Welsh have you looked at the Gaelic languages (Irish, Scots, Manx)? They share similar origins but the modern languages are quite different so you might find some good alternatives there. A lot of sylvari names are Gaelic or derived from it.

I love Welsh as a language (although I’m far from fluent) but I know what you mean, it’s not necessarily the prettiest language and can look a bit of a mess written down if you’re not familiar with it.

Having said that I like a lot of the names you’ve come up with, both the name and the meaning. My first choice from your list would be Calderyn, with Calomyr as a 2nd choice.

BTW have you checked whether all/any of these names are available in-game? It’d be a shame to decide on one only to find you can’t have it.

Danikat.8537:

If you’re not fond of Welsh have you looked at the Gaelic languages (Irish, Scots, Manx)? They share similar origins but the modern languages are quite different so you might find some good alternatives there. A lot of sylvari names are Gaelic or derived from it.

I love Welsh as a language (although I’m far from fluent) but I know what you mean, it’s not necessarily the prettiest language and can look a bit of a mess written down if you’re not familiar with it.

Having said that I like a lot of the names you’ve come up with, both the name and the meaning. My first choice from your list would be Calderyn, with Calomyr as a 2nd choice.

BTW have you checked whether all/any of these names are available in-game? It’d be a shame to decide on one only to find you can’t have it.

The suggestion about other languages is a good one! I’ll check up on those. And yeah you’re right about how Welsh looks in text. It’s quite intimidating! I’ll definitely have to run a check for those names and make sure some are available. If they’re not maybe I can add a second word like “Valiant” at the beginning or something? Hopefully they’ll be available. Thanks for your reply! It was helpful

Another possible source of inspiration can be Celtic and Arthurian mythos, since a lot of plots have a similarity or inspiration from there (Caladbolg, for example, is a mystical weapon in Celtic mythos).

I think Kanoaa its a pretty good name, has a good ring to it. Myself I named my sylvari Gwynleaf (Used Gwyn from Dark souls, added leaf as the sylvari reference), as long as its one name it’ll be close to sylvari culture, they use one name only.

Tolkien Elvish, ( derived from Finnish ) seems to fit Sylvari. As for PoF, my new PoF Mesmer has an Arabic name. That might be worth considering or Farsi.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Another possible source of inspiration can be Celtic and Arthurian mythos, since a lot of plots have a similarity or inspiration from there (Caladbolg, for example, is a mystical weapon in Celtic mythos).

That’s a pretty good idea! I suppose it would be pretty cool to combine elements of both of those as well as a few others suggested in the thread. I’ll see what I can find. Thanks!

Pax.3548:

I think Kanoaa its a pretty good name, has a good ring to it. Myself I named my sylvari Gwynleaf (Used Gwyn from Dark souls, added leaf as the sylvari reference), as long as its one name it’ll be close to sylvari culture, they use one name only.

Haha Thanks! I like Gwynleaf as well. And I guess it really is as simple as that too. I knew I didn’t want him to have a last name for that reason. I was just torn because he’s had the name for almost 5 years. (That benchmark will be met this December ) I’m starting to lean more on the keep it side, but I haven’t decided yet. Your comment makes me a bit more comfortable with his name now though!

Ithilwen.1529:

Tolkien Elvish, ( derived from Finnish ) seems to fit Sylvari. As for PoF, my new PoF Mesmer has an Arabic name. That might be worth considering or Farsi.

Oh that’s a fun idea! I would do that if the character were a human (the Arabic name). I’m not sure how my guy might come to have a name like that. Though this IS a fantasy game so I suppose anything is possible. It could be fun to mull over I could also look up some Tolkein words or names for ideas.

When naming elves (eg in WoW or LotRO) I generally went looking for an extensive English→Elvish dictionary. Then I’d select some words that seemed to fit and find the Elvish variant that was easiest to spell and pronounce (I never use special characters in names, too hard to type later). Eg my blood elf mage’s last name became di Anar, ie “of the sun.”

For Sylvari I prefer to use Arthurian name generators, proc enough names to get my mind thinking in those syllables, then mash some syllables together to make a custom name I like. I tried finding Celtic/Gaelic plant names but hoo boy are those taken!

The names in the OP are all just fine for sylvari imo, but if you want more melodic ones then I’d say use the Arthurian generator of your choice (I like http://philriley.tripod.com/otngarthur.html but am currently trying to load it to verify it still works and am just getting a spinny circle) and keep in mind Edgar Allen Poe’s essay advice on using lots of l’s, m’s, and n’s.

I’m a little concerned that the suggestions of Celtic and Gaelic naming isn’t going to do much for the OP, if they didn’t like the sounds of the Welsh names (I believe throaty and guttural are the words you used, which I can sorta see...hear) as Welsh is a part of the Celtic language group, the Brythonic sub-group to be more specific. Gaelic is the other Celtic sub-group, and while the two subgroups are very different, they are also probably going to sound very similar. You may have the same problem as before.

The Greyhawk.9107:

I’m a little concerned that the suggestions of Celtic and Gaelic naming isn’t going to do much for the OP, if they didn’t like the sounds of the Welsh names (I believe throaty and guttural are the words you used, which I can sorta see...hear) as Welsh is a part of the Celtic language group, the Brythonic sub-group to be more specific. Gaelic is the other Celtic sub-group, and while the two subgroups are very different, they are also probably going to sound very similar. You may have the same problem as before.

Oh yeah, the same issue can happen, but with more languages there’s a lot more choices for each word.

For example I wanted to call one of my sylvari ‘silver birch’ (because it fit the white and black colour scheme and I like those trees). I like the Welsh word for silver – Arian. But the Welsh for birch is Bedw, which didn’t look great. So I did some investigating and came across the Old Irish equivalent – Bethe.

So she became Bethe Arian.

Danikat.8537:

The Greyhawk.9107:

I’m a little concerned that the suggestions of Celtic and Gaelic naming isn’t going to do much for the OP, if they didn’t like the sounds of the Welsh names (I believe throaty and guttural are the words you used, which I can sorta see...hear) as Welsh is a part of the Celtic language group, the Brythonic sub-group to be more specific. Gaelic is the other Celtic sub-group, and while the two subgroups are very different, they are also probably going to sound very similar. You may have the same problem as before.

Oh yeah, the same issue can happen, but with more languages there’s a lot more choices for each word.

For example I wanted to call one of my sylvari ‘silver birch’ (because it fit the white and black colour scheme and I like those trees). I like the Welsh word for silver – Arian. But the Welsh for birch is Bedw, which didn’t look great. So I did some investigating and came across the Old Irish equivalent – Bethe.

So she became Bethe Arian.

Well, like I said it was just a possibility.