Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone! I’m at step 10 of character creation and I can’t think of a name! My character is human, male, and a necromancer. Does anyone have any good ideas? I’ve been scanning fantasy name lists for almost an hour and I’m stuck! Every name I like is taken.

Thanks!

Hair, skin, eye colors?

^^ How about Azrael?

If I don’t already have a name in mind my fall-back stratergy is to think of words I associate with the character and then try translating them into other languages until I find something that looks/sounds good. Usually I try Welsh, Latin and Quenya but any language will work, as long as you can write it in the latin/english alphabet.

Alternatively I go completely free style – I start with a name, word or sound that I like and experiment until I find something that fits and isn’t taken.

For my asura (female) for example I started with the sound/word Xix and the idea that it had to end in a vowel to fit the lore (not always important but it was to me in this case), played around with it and checked what was taken and ended up with Xexxi.

Did you try giving your character a surname? That widens the pool a lot. Also, try using names from your own imagination, not famous or infamous names.

I always go with what feels right for that character with the one exception where I crafted the character based on her name. The names of mine have just come to me as I work on it. Fantasy name doesn’t have to be ‘fantastical’ in my opinion nor does it have to be related to the profession of the character. Unless it is a title type of aname they earned later, they got their names as babies before choosing what to do with their lives. Which is why I find some people’s names so odd. I cannot imagine what parent would call their child Rotting Rat (not the exact name I saw) or names no Tyrian would ever have heard of before.

All my chars have the same surname, which reduces the difficulty a bit. For the forename, I try to find something that seems vaguely related to species or in keeping with canon names: Rrala Varss for a charr, Lilli Varss for a sylvari. All of the Varss sisters except for Lilli end in “a” as well—that tends to be a more female/feminine sound to me.

The sole exception is Terminally Depressed, who I created as a bit of a joke; she’s got that runny-mascara face, which looks a bit emo, hence the name. I didn’t expect her to actually stick around.

Its been 12 hours and I suspect at this point the OP has made a name. Or uninstalled the game. ^^ Either way, I doubt he needs help anymore. :-)

Astral Projections.7320:

Its been 12 hours and I suspect at this point the OP has made a name. Or uninstalled the game. ^^ Either way, I doubt he needs help anymore. :-)

That might be true, but at this point it’s more of a general naming topic anyway.

Although, you never know. With the Asura I mentioned above I actually made her several times so I could try out different names and see if they were taken and if they suited her. Then I either cancelled out of the character creator or deleted her.

Garambola.2461:

Fantasy name doesn’t have to be ‘fantastical’ in my opinion nor does it have to be related to the profession of the character. Unless it is a title type of aname they earned later, they got their names as babies before choosing what to do with their lives. Which is why I find some people’s names so odd. I cannot imagine what parent would call their child Rotting Rat (not the exact name I saw) or names no Tyrian would ever have heard of before.

Unless they’re like my main character who was named at birth and then not-so-subtly raised with the idea that she was obligated to fufil the role the name implied. Although in that case no one but me would notice because she’s named after her ancestor, my GW1 character.

You can also do a bit of both – combine a profession/appearence specific name with something else. For example I have a GW1 character, a pet focused ranger, called Beastmaster Kelvar. And obviously there he would have just been called Kelvar as a kid and earned the Beastmaster part later.

This is especially fitting for Charr (and Kodan if we ever get to make them) who will change their name based on their current situations. Usually their profession and warband.

Thank you everyone! I ended up settling on the name “Marenek”. I will definitely keep all this in mind when I make my Charr and Sylvari.

Marenek’s a good name!

If this is more general in topic now, I think I shall weigh in. I vastly prefer names parents would have given the child, suitable to the world setting and lore. Parents can be cruel, though! Also someone might be hiding their real name behind a nickname or other self-promotion. Given the 19 character limit and the use of spaces, there are so many possibilities out there that it shouldn’t be impossible to find a good, believable name (Asura and Sylvari being a bit harder). So, my names:

Donari Mal di Bette — a series of names taken from a random generator of Italian Renaissance male names and strung together in a manner I found pleasing.

Mirth the Mouse — a street rat tagged with “Mirth” as a child because she never laughed (irony), and sometimes “Mouse” for her always being unnoticed on the edges of things. I do know her birth name and it’s come out in RP but since I don’t have it reserved on a character I’m not listing it -grins-.

Briara — My sylvari. It’s a name I used for my plant-fae being back in DaoC. I like the fact that it has “briar” as part of it. It’s not very Arthurian, and I nearly went with an Arthurian name instead (again, not reserved, so not naming). But it’s just one word, which fits Sylvari lore, and it’s not completely outside their naming conventions.

Jin Macklin — I checked some web sources on Chinese girl’s names, as when I made her she came out Canthan in appearance. Still, Cantha’s been gone a while, so her family is Krytan albeit with Canthan looks and a few hand-me-down names, and some time in the past marriage got the Macklin name in. I got that surname just by mouthing a lot of words to myself until something sounded nice.

Talani Razorstorm — The first name was one I used for my first ever WoW character, a nelf druid, given the “talon” sound. It seemed fine for a Charr. She was made to join the Razor Warband RP guild, and I consulted with them on last names. Storm sounded good for an elementalist. The downside is that I’ve been so active in my main guild that I’m no longer ICly part of the Razors due to inactivity (sadness) so now the name needs to change.

Merra – Not yet RPd or even played much, but female Asura need a soft ending name with a double letter. I had a tabletop character named Mera, thus an easy adaptation.

Altdragg Splitstack – The first time I’ve had to compromise on spelling to make a name. Back in beta people were learning how to break stacks of items. It wasn’t intuitive, and I jested that we needed someone named Altdrag Splitstack, a great Norn name, just so people could remember. For the life of me I don’t recall if I did that just in my guild or on 2RP’s site or in map chat or what. But when I finally decided to make him a bit after launch, someone else had done so. Either they heard me and took it, or they independently came up with it. I finally felt the need to make him anyway, so I added a g and now he is my lowbie engineer.