Guild Wars 2

I am a very picky person. Ever since I started playing Guild Wars 2 back in September I believe, I have remade my female elementalist Sylvari up to ten times already and I’m still unhappy with the results. I got her look right but I just can’t figure a name for her. I have tried so many combinations but they just… suck.

And now I discovered that Sylvari, according to the lore, do not have a surname. That made me think of a title like “Sarah the Unworthy”, something like that. I like the name ’ Seana’. I just can’t think of a good title to apply to her.

Seana is an elementalist. Her hair is red and she’s very curious and likes to explore. She was born on the Cycle of Dawn and her favorite element is fire.

I know this may seem dumb for some people, but it is not for me. I also roleplay and names are a very important aspect of a character’s story and personality.

Hm, did not know sylvari did not have a surname, might need to rename my revenant now….but onto your problem, you might try a name generator, or look into Celtic lore and see what you can find, that’s usually how I name my characters.

How about

Seana Fire Dream

References the Sylvari dream and you can role play that her wyld hunt has to do with the dragon Primordus. Also references her being an Elementalist primarily attuned to fire.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Hm, did not know sylvari did not have a surname, might need to rename my revenant now….but onto your problem, you might try a name generator, or look into Celtic lore and see what you can find, that’s usually how I name my characters.

I tried that and also the Sylvari name generator. I really wish to stick with the name ‘Seana’ as it sounds good to my ear and also fits her, somehow. The name has been taken sadly.

I understand wanting to get a name just perfect. I have used a surname with my Sylvari, but it is the name of a tree, and I prefer that to titles. Like Seana Birch, or Seana Willow. But if you like titles more, I have a couple of ideas for you.

Seana Of The Wylde Flame
Seana The Flamesinger or Firesinger
Seana Of Dawn
SeanaThe Dawnsinger
Seana The Dawnseeker
Seana The Skyfinder

Anyway, I don’t know if that helps at all. Good luck on finding your perfect name!

Seana Of The Dawn
Seana The Flame

Of course, saying that a sylvari doesn’t have a last name is like saying that a human doesn’t have a computer. Yes, they’re not born with one, but that doesn’t mean they can’t pick one up later. Especially if there’s a reason behind having that last name, much like the norn and charr do.

Seana Brightflame
Seana Dawnrose
Seana Brokenstaff

RandomWolf.3986:

I tried that and also the Sylvari name generator. I really wish to stick with the name ‘Seana’ as it sounds good to my ear and also fits her, somehow. The name has been taken sadly.

Try using a special character for the e or a (e.g. Seána) . Maybe swap the S to a C instead as well. Should still be mostly true to the Gaelic origin of the name and compatible with the naming rules.

Seana the Dawnflame as a little example (simple but effective, a no brainer just to say …)

Sylvari may be by lore without surnames, but this doesn’t forbid you to give them anyways a surname if you want.

Sylvari are a very young and curious folk. You can always say to yourself, like I do it to myself when i play as my Sylvari Chronomancer with the celtic name “Merridyll Cailleach”, that shes an very curious Sylvari ,that explored early really alot the world and came very early also in touch with Humans for whem it is very normal and “natural” to have a surname and that your character learned that way for his/her life, that a surname makes it easier for every person to differentiate between peoples “identity” simply and that a surname is just for everyone a tool that helps making yourself more unique and that your character learned from that experience from the humans also, for why they strife for being “unique” as everyone might have for that a different reason perhaps.

If you play a sylvari character only after lore, it makes naturally character creation for a slyvari character only unneccessarly much harder for yourself than it needs to be.

This lore saying, that sylvaris usually have no surnames, is absolutely no rule and nobody will also say something about/against you, if you make yourself now a sylvari with a surname…
Any serious Roleplayer surely will recognize it, but say nothing about it.. they just move on and adapt to the situation and maybe will say only something along the line like this:

“Oh, a Sylvari/ someone of us with a surname, how unsual, how this, whats the reason??”

just to get into discussion with you and break the ice as intro line to get the talk starting somehow…

Here are a few ideas:

Destroyer of Worlds
Eater of Cereal
The Most Excellent
Oakenshield
The Defiler
The Celestial
The Pyromaniac
The Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot
The Morning Person
The Ember

Or if you just can’t pick:

The Indecisive

Wow, I wasn’t expecting this many posts. Thank you guys so much!

RandomWolf.3986:

I *B*elieve, I have remade my female elementalist Sylvari up to ten times

Seana The Eleventh. There you go, problem solved.

RandomWolf.3986:

Wow, I wasn’t expecting this many posts. Thank you guys so much!

Some of the examples given are pretty long. Just remember that there is a 19 character/space limit to a name, so you’ll need to count the number of letters and spaces before you set your heart on one.

Lol at the fact that the two posters (not counting OP) after mine have names related to things I referenced in my suggestions.

What about simply Seana the Red?

One option if you can think of a word where you like the meaning but not the look or sound of it (or it’s taken) is to try translating it into other languages. Google Translate is free, has a lot of options and for individual words or short phrases it’s pretty good.

Also there are ways around the no surname thing. I believe the lore behind it is that since sylvari don’t have families (or more precisely they are all siblings) they don’t have family names.

But there are a lot of other ways to have more than 1 name. Like nicknames, titles, places you’re from or associated with etc. or simply having more than 1 given name (first name). And more than 1 of these can apply to the same individual.

I personally know an American man with 4 names: 2 given names, a nickname and a family name; A British woman with 6 names simply because her parents couldn’t agree on 1 first name so they gave her 4 and a Nigerian man who has 8 different names that all mean different things. And I once read that in ancient Rome men could have 10 different names for different purposes.

So, coming back to sylvari I currently have 2 who both have IMO lore appropriate(ish) 2 word names. One is Bethe Arian who simply has a two word first name (it means silver birch).

The other is Alleria Wildrunner, where Wildrunner is (besides a reference to my GW1 character of the same name and a character from another game) a nickname/title she got for awakening with a wild hunt that inspired her to run off away from the Grove almost as soon as she got out of her pod and rarely go back because she’s too busy going everywhere else.

Why should I ? xD You made the best decision ^^ jk others

Have fun with your Sylvari, thats all what counts, names are just secondary.. when people make themself too much thought about names as seen as like in that taken names thread… then you know, that there isn’t something going right and people forgot whats important for gaming … once people start to think they have rights over others for names >.>

PS: hmm, post deleted from OP, before I could write the answer.. or mysterious posting disappear forum bug? don’t know ^^

Time for me to tease ya a bit, Orpheal … Names are just secondary, you say?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Ele-Elite-Specialisation-The-Tempest/first#post5005324

What we name our alts becomes part of the identity of those alts. We don’t want to wince every time we click on them in Character Select. One does need to be creative and flexible to come up with a solid name not already taken, true, yet it still matters that one be happy with the name chosen. And if one is “picky,” like the OP, wanting to do right by the lore, the name isn’t secondary to the alt, it’s part of the package.

You did suggest an excellent title, imo.

OP, as others have noted there are RP reasons a sylvari might take on an actual last name. In my guild we have one who was “adopted” by a human family soon after she left the pod, and she gratefully added their name to hers. Granted, that was how the player dealt with applying a GW1 heritage name to a GW2 alt (name change kits were not available at game start), but it still works within the game lore possibilities. Perhaps Seana encountered someone who left enough of an impression on her that she wanted to share, honor, or preserve their name.

yay, tease..oh wait..thats no tease you!!

You twisted my words :P Or better said, I meant that with “names are secondary” in a different way here..

Also theres a difference between a “character name” and a class term, just to be said.