My first character is always Artemis- inspired by the Greek goddess.

For my characters in ESO I use UESP to look a lore friendly names. Most often I use a first name I have created and pair it with a lore friendly last name.

So for ESO she is Artemis Renault

Some of my other characters are:

Onistka Valerius
Gonk gra-Ugrash
Zercon at-Rusa

I also have one silly name, Boulder, just because I put Morihaus and Eternal Hunt on her and had some fun in Cyrodiil

My first character, now retired, Hayden Heartbreaker, I brought from Skyrim, so there's not much meaning on it. I just wanted a ridiculously pompous name XD

Then came Alzzll, a stamina Nightblade which, according to my researches is the arabic transliteration for "the shade"

No very creative so far... <_<

Then came my current main character, Maryon Telvanni, an egocentric Dunmer like everyone of the Great House Telvanni.

Finally, my recently created character, Khalisah al-Jilani, I named her after the Mass Effect b*tch interviewer, because she's a Redguard, people very close to the Arabians as far as I know and, "Khalisah" means"sincere" or "pure", which is everything Mass Effect's character is not.

I name mine after my Daggerfall, Morrowwind, Oblivion, Skyrim Argonian, but after that I borrow names of other famous Argonian's and the rare character from other games.

I have
1 EggbertNoBacon
2 BansheeBait
2 BlazinSquid
4. WizzardSleeve

I love the Dunmer lore, especially the Tribunal stuff after sinking far too many hours into Morrowind.

I have 12 characters but my favourites are:

Almalexia's Fallen - a former hand of Almalexia who became afflicted with vampirism whilst serving as her protector. Being in Almalexia's favour, he was banished from the lands under the influence of the Tribunal rather than being executed for his vampiric corruption. At least that's how I legitimise him being AD. There's more to his back-story but I'll stop now before I go full nerd.

Similarly, I have another AD Dunmner called Lost Hope of Sotha Sil, who is going to be in some way linked to Kagrenac's Tools and the Heart of Lorkhan - though I'm not sure how yet!

Oh, and my mNB saptank is an Argonian called Stands-like-Mountains. I never knew that lizard-folk could look so cool.

My main is named after a character I created in another MMO. EyeTalon. The original was kind of a joke. I'm Italian and so my friends would often tease me by over pronouncing it and calling me "EYEtalian"... So when I started playing Kingdom of Loathing years ago and saw that one of the classes you could make a character was a Pastamancer... well, I thought EyeTalon was funny enough to work.... that game offered custom avatars and this became my character...

I have a text file of about 50-60 names of various male/female characters I've used over the last 20 years. Some names are good for humans, elves, orcs, dwarves, and other things depending on franchise. Whenever I get stumped on a name, I'll refer to that list.

The great thing is about 90% of those names are never taken. I'd list some, but I haven't used alot of my character slots and like to keep my options open.

The current forum tag is a name I'm using currently. Riejael is a elvenization of Rachel (pronounced either Rye-gel or Ray-gel). But its also had the side effect of those speaking latin based languages to call it Ray-hale, which isn't how its pronounced in english, but I never bother to correct them since it sounds cool with an accent.

I try to keep my names in some sort of RP fashion, matching lore as best I can (but even if it isn't perfect I figure names would be unique or weird in cultures). Not making modern references or leetspeak. And I do this even if I'm not going to RP. RP'd in the past.. not currently now. But hey, I always like to keep options open. You're not likely to get much RP playing an Orc called Votes-for-Pedro after all.

@JamieAubrey's characters named after Molag Balls made me laugh. Seriously!

Pull up a seat by the fireside. Order yourself an ale, and yes one for Santie too please.

Khajiit she was named for being birthed at Fishmas - possibly the least returnable Fishmas present this ones Mother she ever received yes.

The little orc sister of mine, Rosiebelle, whom we found by the side of the road trying to eat rocks, was named for a pen pal of Mothers from Middle Earth. Mother thought it amusing to name an orc after a dwarf.

Interestingly one of the apprentices of Khajiit he is also named after a Dwarvern friend of his parents, Hodorf.

Another apprentice Azizom is named for a Persian word meaning beloved which is said in a song that this one she likes - if the bards one day start singing Parishaan then Santie will be filled with delight.

Sherlock Gro Bones, the orc apprentice, was named because his mother wished him to be smart. She may have meant intelligence perhaps but the boy has spent his life obsessing over his clothing.

Luckee, young apprentice kitten, is so named because of the colour of her fine black fur.

Skybright, my young Khajiiti cousin, was named after a character in a book.

Wenxue, my Redguard cook, was a name picked from a Chinese dictionary.

Nommie, the Bosmer girl, likes to eat things that no one should be willing to have go near their mouths.

Spiny Tim, the little feeble Argonian serial killer child, is named for his appearance and his resemblance to a famous fictional child.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Most of my characters are random lore friendly names. I use UESPWiki for ideas, and I think others do too because they're often taken.

I think my only 'historical' name is Zeno of Citium. And the other non-lore friendly ones often took a decent amount of trying one variation or another to get one that wasn't taken (Fishes-the-Fish, Khajiit with Wares, Carries Heavy Burdens, you get the gist).

I used UESP's Lore names for all my characters. It's what I've used to name my characters since Oblivion.

The title for all but two of my Characters has a 'Dragon' connotation, taken and adapted from Skyrim's "Thu'ums".

Their actual names are those of ancient Dragon Queens, Kings, Lords and High Priestesses.

MINT IMPERIAL, for those who did not know, is a small white peppermint sweet (in England) that is quite often there for the taking when leaving a restaurant.

You probably guessed it; I named my Imperial Mint-Imperial because she is actually a bit of a sweetie.