Naming characters - npc names

Cirantille

UPDATE:
So to update (if anyone else have the same/similar issue in the future and comes across this topic):
They checked through all my characters across two servers
4 of my characters flagged that have exact name and got rename option
Other ones with even 1 letter is different/extra they do not mind
Also apparently userIDs are safe to use even if it is exactly the same with lore characters, names as the support team told me rest of my characters and my USERID have no issues to use the way they are
I guess their concern is if someone acts like NPC in game or confuse/scam people (impersonating)
Hope it helps to questions

---

So it has recently come to my attention by a forum thread that this was a rule however I was not aware of it

I mean as a common TES fan I picked names from uesp some changed letters - some unchanged and named my most characters this way (Not something like Nocturnal, Meridia etc but names from eso, franchise etc.)

The problem is I was using these names from uesp while I was a Skyrim player and there was no such rule so I never thought it would be an issue while signing up for eso

I was not trying to impersonate an npc, just thought lore friendly names would be cooler/more fitting and didn't meet these npcs in game anyway

I dont mind being to forced name change (I cant pay a lot of money for name change tokens) though did not run into any troubles in 2 years, should I contact support or something? Where do they draw the line or you have any in game names like this that was said to be ok?

Sylvermynx

Well, I can tell you I built a new character just before W Skyrim released. His name is Tanvar Storm-Hawk. In W Skyrim there is a place known as "Storm-Hawk's Altar". I was surprised because I hadn't done PTS or even looked at stuff about it prior to release, but I wondered if that would be an issue.

I input a ticket, explained the situation, got the usual idiot bot reply, responded again, and got a fairly disjointed response telling me there wasn't a problem with the character name.

*shrug* YMMV - I haven't had any further contact about the ticket.

Nestor

Pretty much unless someone reports you, your name will not be an issue. Also, you have to pick a pretty "lore famous" name for ZOS to really care. So, no naming your character Sheogorath or Divyth Fyr for example. Naming your character so your say related to a character in the game (spouse, sibling, parent etc) is going to be fine. You van be John Fyr for example.

VaranisArano

As with a lot of name-relayed things, it's not a rule that's actively enforced unless someone reports your name and Support asks you to change it.

Aside from rude names, most of the name issues I've seen come up have been dealing with IPs owned by other companies (though enforcement is spotty, given the many Drizzt Do'Urden and Geralt of Rivia clones there are running around) or impersonation of a real person.

Cirantille

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Well, I can tell you I built a new character just before W Skyrim released. His name is Tanvar Storm-Hawk. In W Skyrim there is a place known as "Storm-Hawk's Altar". I was surprised because I hadn't done PTS or even looked at stuff about it prior to release, but I wondered if that would be an issue.

I input a ticket, explained the situation, got the usual idiot bot reply, responded again, and got a fairly disjointed response telling me there wasn't a problem with the character name.

*shrug* YMMV - I haven't had any further contact about the ticket.

I issued a ticket as well, let's see what will I get

I don't mind changing if they say so ^^

Sylvermynx

Cirantille wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Well, I can tell you I built a new character just before W Skyrim released. His name is Tanvar Storm-Hawk. In W Skyrim there is a place known as "Storm-Hawk's Altar". I was surprised because I hadn't done PTS or even looked at stuff about it prior to release, but I wondered if that would be an issue.

I input a ticket, explained the situation, got the usual idiot bot reply, responded again, and got a fairly disjointed response telling me there wasn't a problem with the character name.

*shrug* YMMV - I haven't had any further contact about the ticket.

I issued a ticket as well, let's see what will I get

I don't mind changing if they say so ^^

I didn't either. I had this issue a time or so in WoW and RIFT, and had to change character names - but names are absolutely NOT a problem for me to come up with, so I just changed them and went on my merry way!

SeaGtGruff

Nestor wrote: »

Pretty much unless someone reports you, your name will not be an issue. Also, you have to pick a pretty "lore famous" name for ZOS to really care. So, no naming your character Sheogorath or Divyth Fyr for example. Naming your character so your say related to a character in the game (spouse, sibling, parent etc) is going to be fine. You van be John Fyr for example.

Yeah, I haven't run into any issues (complaints) over any of my character names, but I guess that doesn't mean I never will. My procedure is to pick the first name and last name separately, so hopefully I'm not inadvertently using the exact same name as some NPC. I know for a fact that my PC NA main's last name is the same as a hemi-demi-semi-significant NPC in Glenumbra, but they aren't closely related-- possibly related by extended family, but not immediate family.

Cirantille

Nestor wrote: »

Pretty much unless someone reports you, your name will not be an issue. Also, you have to pick a pretty "lore famous" name for ZOS to really care. So, no naming your character Sheogorath or Divyth Fyr for example. Naming your character so your say related to a character in the game (spouse, sibling, parent etc) is going to be fine. You van be John Fyr for example.

Yeah, they aren't really famous which is why I did not realise until now, apperantly one of my character is a Khajiit beggar for example haha

VaranisArano wrote: »

As with a lot of name-relayed things, it's not a rule that's actively enforced unless someone reports your name and Support asks you to change it.

Aside from rude names, most of the name issues I've seen come up have been dealing with IPs owned by other companies (though enforcement is spotty, given the many Drizzt Do'Urden and Geralt of Rivia clones there are running around) or impersonation of a real person.

And some of the names are so mundane, so this kinda enforcement seems odd to me too
Like Kassandra it is very possible someone picks this
I guess it depends on the discretion of enforcers too

Cirantille

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Cirantille wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Well, I can tell you I built a new character just before W Skyrim released. His name is Tanvar Storm-Hawk. In W Skyrim there is a place known as "Storm-Hawk's Altar". I was surprised because I hadn't done PTS or even looked at stuff about it prior to release, but I wondered if that would be an issue.

I input a ticket, explained the situation, got the usual idiot bot reply, responded again, and got a fairly disjointed response telling me there wasn't a problem with the character name.

*shrug* YMMV - I haven't had any further contact about the ticket.

I issued a ticket as well, let's see what will I get

I don't mind changing if they say so ^^

I didn't either. I had this issue a time or so in WoW and RIFT, and had to change character names - but names are absolutely NOT a problem for me to come up with, so I just changed them and went on my merry way!

I dont know how it works in wow or rift but I hope at least they give free tokens or something?

Cirantille

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Pretty much unless someone reports you, your name will not be an issue. Also, you have to pick a pretty "lore famous" name for ZOS to really care. So, no naming your character Sheogorath or Divyth Fyr for example. Naming your character so your say related to a character in the game (spouse, sibling, parent etc) is going to be fine. You van be John Fyr for example.

Yeah, I haven't run into any issues (complaints) over any of my character names, but I guess that doesn't mean I never will. My procedure is to pick the first name and last name separately, so hopefully I'm not inadvertently using the exact same name as some NPC. I know for a fact that my PC NA main's last name is the same as a semi-demi-hemi-significant NPC in Glenumbra, but they aren't closely related-- possibly related by extended family, but not immediate family.

Probably because not so important
The reports I saw one was sheogorath, who is a pretty big deal in Tamriel I guess
I will be sure to tell here the result of ticket so once and for all we can get correct info :P

Athan1

Didn't know that was a thing. Just keep a decent and lore-friendly name imho and the rest should be fine.

Ingenon

Most of my alts have names copied from the pages of names on UESP. For example, both of my Altmer character have NPC names that can be found on https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Altmer_Names
Other folks must be doing this, because the character name screen says the name is already in use for many of the names listed on the UESP pages.

Fennwitty

If the game REALLY didn't want anyone naming characters to overlap with NPCs, it should really enforce that at character creation.

But then, it would have to be a two-way street when devs were making new zones, so I don't see it happening.

Probably comes down to whether you were reported and how the customer service agent's feeling, unfortunately.

Cirantille

Ingenon wrote: »

Most of my alts have names copied from the pages of names on UESP. For example, both of my Altmer character have NPC names that can be found on https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Altmer_Names
Other folks must be doing this, because the character name screen says the name is already in use for many of the names listed on the UESP pages.

Same
This page is a gold mine
I guess like other people stated, it becomes an issue with most important npcs like ayrenn, molag bal etc
Because also most names I tried from this page was taken indeed.

Ackwalan

It will only be a problem in 2 scenarios. If ZOS decides to use that lore friendly name for a quest npc, they will probably give you a name change token to change your name. The second, someone complains about your name, then it will be a coin toss to see if ZOS makes you change your name.

phaneub17_ESO

In most cases, its not something to worry about, they don't constantly scan for names and anything they don't want people to have will have that combination of letters "reserved" preventing a name from being created in the first place. As others have said, most of the time it comes from other players who report the name do they investigate.

Wise_Will

I just come up with my own names, here are some of mine

- Wilbo Baggins
- Wise Will
- Wicked Will
- Souless One

Danikat

Using UESP's name lists and changing letters or mixing and matching is not a problem. I think it's only a problem if you give your character exactly the same name as an NPC, and even then I think it would have to be a fairly well known character for ZOS to care.

I think that rule is in there because in some MMOs (Ultima Online and The Matrix Online are the ones I know did this) staff from the company would sometimes create player character versions of NPCs and role-play them in the game. So players doing the same thing could be an indirect way of impersonating ZOS staff, and that runs the risk of discrediting the company by saying inappropriate things or gives you an opportunity to scam or troll other players.

As far as I know ZOS have never done that, but new players wouldn't know that so if they see Razum-dar or High King Emeric or someone walking around a town they might assume the person controlling them is from ZOS. (I think the note on the loading screens that ZOS employees will have a tag next to their name is there for the same reason. We never see them in the game but it means if you see someone claiming to be an employee you can tell they're not.)

VaranisArano wrote: »

As with a lot of name-relayed things, it's not a rule that's actively enforced unless someone reports your name and Support asks you to change it.

Aside from rude names, most of the name issues I've seen come up have been dealing with IPs owned by other companies (though enforcement is spotty, given the many Drizzt Do'Urden and Geralt of Rivia clones there are running around) or impersonation of a real person.

I think that's only enforced if the IP owner complains. If someone wants to sue because their IP is being used without permission it's both easier and more likely to be effective to go after ZOS than try to find and contact some random player who could be anywhere in the world. By saying in the rules it's not allowed ZOS are protecting themselves - they can show that they don't allow or support the practice and it only happened because they weren't aware which makes it much harder to build a case against them, and it gives them justification to force a name change because the player is breaking an existing rule.

Cirantille

So to update (if anyone else have the same/similar issue in the future and comes across this topic):
They checked through all my characters across two servers
4 of my characters flagged that have exact name and got rename option
Other ones with even 1 letter is different/extra they do not mind
Also apparently userIDs are safe to use even if it is exactly the same with lore characters, names as the support team told me rest of my characters and my USERID have no issues to use the way they are
I guess their concern is if someone acts like NPC in game or confuse/scam people (impersonating)
Hope it helps to questions

Sylvermynx

Thanks for the report @Cirantille! Now we know.... more or less anyway!

zaria

VaranisArano wrote: »

Yeah, they aren't really famous which is why I did not realise until now, apperantly one of my character is a Khajiit beggar for example haha


And some of the names are so mundane, so this kinda enforcement seems odd to me too
Like Kassandra it is very possible someone picks this
I guess it depends on the discretion of enforcers too

More fun if the character predates the expansion. Remember Zaria as an alchemist in Falcreach hold in Skyrim.
In real life its pretty common for people to have the same name in an class as an example.
However for important npc the smartest for ZoS would simply be to reserve the names.

Iccotak

Try; Philip MaMouf-Wifarts

Context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz_V4lRdtjo