What's In A Name?

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Lore-Friendly Names

Muizer wrote: »

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

The closest NPCs will come to calling you by name is putting it in a lore book, sadly.

I've named a couple of mine after characters from Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" stories. One of them is called "Liane the Wayfarer". NPC in Alik'r call him by name all the time. I suppose the same is true for the character "Five Claw".

Okay, fair enough!

merpins

Lore-Friendly Names

I like lore-friendly Argonian names because you can both be lore-friendly and make a joke. Stands-in-Stupid, Rolls-When-Trading, or my user here Moves-Like-Jaguar, are examples of some argonian names that can be a bit funny.

ResidentContrarian

Other Media Names

My favorite name was "Skyrim-was-a-lame-game" , heh it brings me tears recalling the reaction every time I said something in zone, esp. EP territories . Too bad I deleted character

AzuraFan

Lore-Friendly Names

Not lore-friendly in the sense that I've done research or taken names from a list, but I do try to come up with names that aren't jarring. As a long-time ES fan, nothing about them would make me think they don't belong in the world. Now, my ESO user name is a different story. If I'd known it would be visible to everyone...I guess I didn't read whatever popped up to tell me when I created my account lol.

francesinhalover

Lore-Friendly Names

I just name them something that's cool and edgy.

idk about lore friendly, couldn't care less about lore

whitecrow

Lore-Friendly Names

I always at least choose a name that sounds like it would be from a fantasy story. It isn't always in line with lore, because I am not always aware of what lore is when I first start playing.

I am not a fan of joke names per se, but my third character's name is a Japanese word that sounds exactly like a typical Khajiiti name. I'm not sure if anyone's gotten it yet (though I did have to insert an apostrophe because the original word was already taken.)

ectoplasmicninja

Lore-Friendly Names

My least lore-friendly name was probably Ults-On-Trash. He was sadly short-lived, but someone else has the name now. I also had and really liked Gazes-Into-The-Sun, who also got deleted and whose name has since been taken by someone else too. You can do pretty neat things with those lukiul names.

peacenote

Other Media Names

My names are usually ones I like that I take with me from MMO to MMO, or ones based on an attribute of the character but with a fantasy twist.

I almost never use joke names or ESO lore specific names.. when I started playing ESO I knew almost zero about the Elder Scrolls world. I do put dashes in my Argonian names but then sometimes I need to change races so even those aren't really lore friendly anymore. They might look like I'm being funny but it is just me not wanting to change my name because I like it or I don't want to spend the crowns. 😛

Lysette

Lore-Friendly Names

peacenote wrote: »

My names are usually ones I like that I take with me from MMO to MMO, or ones based on an attribute of the character but with a fantasy twist.

I almost never use joke names or ESO lore specific names.. when I started playing ESO I knew almost zero about the Elder Scrolls world. I do put dashes in my Argonian names but then sometimes I need to change races so even those aren't really lore friendly anymore. They might look like I'm being funny but it is just me not wanting to change my name because I like it or I don't want to spend the crowns. 😛

You can always claim that (s)he was raised by parents of another race though - and out of respect for his adopted parents (s)he isn't going to ever change the name, these parents gave him/her.

aurorable

Joke Names

The best kind of names is the ones that makes you laugh or put a smile on your face! I'm a big sucker for the silly names or other media references names. (Not all my chars have joke names).

LalMirchi

Other = The missing poll option.

I name my characters for their class and main role, lore is not a big part of this but as an example my big bad DK is a tank with premade groups or DPS in all other contexts. An Imperial so some kind of ancient Roman terminology is quite appropriate, so in this particular case "Fuegro Durius" (Fiery Hard man - roughly translated)

I take a very long time in the character design screen and choose my names rather carefully as it is quite costly and frustrating to change later.

JamuThatsWho

Lore-Friendly Names

I always go for lore-friendly names in whatever game I play.

I looked at the Ta'agra dictionary for my Khajiit, and my other characters are Tamriel-ified versions of my family's names; Sul-Mael Hlarothran is me, Rorbakh gro-Khraag is my brother and dad's names (following Orcish conventions), Ushaar-Ixaht are from my kid's names, etc. My Imperial is named Travanius Braelia after my grandad, who died a few years ago.

It makes me feel much more connected to the world, and more personally invested in all my characters.

DarcyMardin

Other Media Names

I sometimes use names of my characters in books that I’ve written or am in the process of writing. More commonly I use a last name from one of my novels, but a more lore appropriate first name.

ADarklore

Other Media Names

Where is the 'other'?!?

I sometimes use anime character names... but otherwise I prefer to just come up with my own name that isn't necessarily a direct connection to anything/anyone else.

drsalvation

Other Media Names

I name my characters based on characters from the game I'm making.
But I have a higher preference for lore-friendly names.

I can take joke names as long as they're also lore-friendly, which pretty much only happens with argonians. I got in a PuG with an argonian healer called heals-frog-hinds.
It took me a while to realize that it's a reference to our mexican healing spells "sana sana colita de rana"

That said, I feel really sorry for orc roleplayers who want a lore friendly name...
I don't think I can come up with an orc name that's memorable... urgroburshurogerberg, larbursherdurg, grorgorberborg, or whatever... I'm not a fan of orcs at all.

Malyore

Lore-Friendly Names

I made a name for my character I've used through the series. I didn't even really think of it, it just popped in my head as a word. I looked it up, and a different spelling of the word meant "blue" and if you changed a letter of the original name it meant "lady of the mountain", and it just happened to be a dark elf character, so I thought it fit perfectly. Being a blue-skinned lady from red-mountain

Not exactly "lore friendly" as I didn't make it from dunmeri, but I think it still fits

Gaebriel0410

Lore-Friendly Names

I always go with lore friendly names without exception, in basically every game I play.
Whenever I feel like making a new character I usually think about what to name him or her for days in advance.

With the exception of funny argonian names, I will never really understand joke names. For me that would stop getting funny after a day or so, and then I'd be stuck with a horrible name in an MMO, which is by its nature a long term game.

And I admit I totally judge other players on bad names too haha.

Holycannoli

I have some lore names and I have some joke names to hang around with, like Auridon.

BloodyStigmata

Always lore-friendly names, though I do take some liberties here and there based on the individual character and their backstory. I'm fairly well familiarized in various racial naming conventions being somewhat of a TES lore scholar and I put a lot of thought into it before making a character, especially since my characters share a world and are all a part of an ongoing narrative.

Danikat

Lore-Friendly Names

Blinx wrote: »

I gave up on lore friendly names on my last 2, was spending too much time trying to get a name, only for it to be in use, or worse the game times out, and have to start the creation process all over,.
Seemed all the names I liked from UESP lore friendly pages were taken, my last alt is named after a character in a bugs bunny cartoon...

Lore friendly doesn't have to mean copied exactly from an existing NPC. If there's a name you like which is taken you could make some minor changes, often swapping out one letter is enough to get an available name which is still lore friendly.

For example when I was making a dunmer I didn't like any of the names on UESP, but I noticed a lot reminded me of old Welsh names so I went looking through those and picked Ilorwerth, a variant spelling of Iorwerth. It's not official a dunmer name in that Bethesda/ZOS haven't made a character with that name, but it wouldn't look out of place on the list, and there's nothing we've been told about dunmer names to say it couldn't be one.

GoldenGirl

Lore-Friendly Names

I definitely go with lore-friendly.

I don't RP so much as have a sorta-backstory in mind, so my character name has to fit that as well. I usually check UESP's Lore:(Race) Name page to find one... sometimes I'll switch around a letter or two if I don't quite like the look/sound of it as is... and make it less likely to already be used.

Tornaad

None of thee above.
If I had to pick one, then it would be lore friendly, but that does not quite fit my process for creating a name.
For me, it will vary depending on the character and my mood. Sometimes the name will be created first and that will spawn the character, other times the background will be created first and that will spawn the name.
The name has to feel right is the biggest thing for me.

TwinLamps

Lore related joke names that will result in a ban eventually

theendoftheriver

Going to need an all of the above option. I have lore friendly names, I have names from random other places, and I have funny names that are neither lore nor other games. One character is named for a game I used to play.

DMuehlhausen

Lore-Friendly Names

I hate seeing the xxxxxblahblahxxxx stuff, but a lot of people use names from other fantasy worlds, or something they have been using for years. I still make one character based on a name from my original Everquest character. So while it's not "lore friendly" to Tamriel it doesn't exactly not fit with the game either.

Mesite

Lore-Friendly Names

Names depend on the mood when the toon is created. If sad, then Woe will be in the name. When I was angry, my Argonian was named preys-on-the-weak, but generally lore friendly. Although according to the internet each TES game had slightly different lore for names anyway.

ArchMikem

Lore-Friendly Names

Beast Races are fun and easy. Make some exotic sounds and put them together.

My Nightblade was at first, am experiment to see what the class was like, so I named her Kat Blade. (Get it?) But once I got devoted to her I gave her a proper name. Ka'atali. Kat and Tali. (The LOVE of my life from Mass Effect).

Destai

Lore-Friendly Names

I prefer something lore friendly, but I love going through the game and seeing really cheeky joke names. It's a shame many of them face punitive action.

I used to name my characters using "Dest" as a prefix to some word from LoTR Elvish or UESP Dictionary that thematically fit the class. I've since gotten away from that and tried to make my toons something lore friendly.

DP99

Other Media Names

My one and only character, is inspired by several versions of Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda, which is my favorite game series. She's a Bosmer Nightblade who uses dual-wielding and a bow, which is inspired by Zelda's alter ego, Sheik, and her often using the bow of light in the games.

I named her "Zelda Greenlink" as not only a nod to the eponymous princess herself, but also as a way to get a nod to the "Hero of Hyrule" himself in there, but as also a bit of a clever nod to the Bosmer's link to the "Green Pact" and nature in general. Although, ironically, she doesn't follow the rules very well if at all, lol.