What do you do if your name is already taken?

Davor · July 2017

I am curious what people do when the great name they have designed is already taken. Did you just take a new completely different name, or come up with a unique way to still use the name you wanted? For me, I was disappointed that my name was already taken. I have been using it for a long time and would have loved to use it for ESO. I like using my real name Davor. Lots of people think it's a fake name, so in a world where people use fake names, I could use my real name. I have tried, Davorine and Davorkkiin for the characters of Morrowind and Skyrim, but just wasn't happy with it. Finally I figured out to us Davvor. The double vv just like in Vvardenfell.

So how did you get around when you wanted to use your name and it was already taken?

svartorn · July 2017

I haven't had that problem yet.

Tho I do marvel at all the various misspellings of Ragnar Lodbrok. I saw one yesterday with 4 g's in Raggggnar.

Mitrenga · July 2017

I usually take another name or check the elven name generator web sites to find some original names.

Personally, I do not like the names such sa Gerald of Rivia 132 or Khaleesiii; which are just a reminder of the original name.
In your case, Davvor is a good option i think.

SantieClaws · July 2017

The newest little apprentice of Khajiit, Aydani, should have been Aydane after a friend of this one in another lifetime in Middle earth yes.

The name it was taken - impossibly it seems yes as it was totally made up in the first place.

So this one she fiddled with it until she found one the same but also different yes.

Yours with paws - and a full set of apprentices
Santie Claws

Riptide · July 2017

Gnash my teeth. Cuss. Try other things. Cuss some more. Try other things.

Out of six toons, half I kept trying till I found something else, half I used ascii junk to be a different version of my own name.

I still gnash my teeth every now and then over it. Oh the shame when people see ascii variants. WHAT MUST THEY THINK OF ME

Tandor · July 2017

In the case of ESO you can usually get around a taken single name by adding a second name.

Alucardo · July 2017

I cried when Fap Essence was taken. Whoever you are, well played Sir. Well Played.

Aurie · July 2017

Do you guys with this problem just have the one name? If so the chances that it is taken must be quite high.

All my characters have two-word names.....that is a first name and a 'family' name....and I've never once in any game found it already taken.

rootimus · July 2017

Think of a different name, which may or may not mean a couple of weeks delay in creating the character while I wait for inspiration.

Riptide · July 2017

Aurelle1 wrote: »

Do you guys with this problem just have the one name? If so the chances that it is taken must be quite high.

All my characters have two-word names.....that is a first name and a 'family' name....and I've never once in any game found it already taken.

Yeah but I've got a hangup about how garishly large names+titles are on nameplates. I don't want to be the dude with a haiku for a nameplate.

I'd just roll with no title, but I have fancy ones.

So I'm all kinds of variants of "Ryo" for half my toons.

BTW, whoever took "Haiku", damn you

Orjix · July 2017

all my toons have a unique last name, so its never a problem for me

GDOFWR420 · July 2017

For my main it was easy as no one had it,

Hellish j they call him and he was one he'll of a fire mage till MW.

The rest took some creation cause lots of names were taken

Danikat · July 2017

It doesn't happen to me often. Apparently I have different taste in names to most people so the majority of the time when I come up with one it's available. But when it is taken I'll change it slightly. Whether that's changing a few letters around or coming up with something new that means the same thing depends on how I decided on the name in the first place.

For example when I wanted to make a mule called Holds-All-Things and that was taken I changed it to Holds-All-Stuff. Whereas when I wanted to make a character in another game called Alleria Windrunner after a character in Warcraft 2 and it was taken I changed it to Alleria Wildrunner.

Sixsixsix161 · July 2017

Add an X at the beginning and the end of the name.

So, Broken Arrow becomes x Broken Arrow x

You can even add two spaces between each X and the name (maybe more, I haven't tried that yet lol)

You can also add a hyphen/dash between two names to set it apart, like Miller-Light.

emilyhyoyeon · July 2017

every name I've wanted hasn't been taken, which made me think a long time ago that repeated names were allowed LOL. two of my characters' names are long so I guess they're unique, but the other two are one word. all are lore-friendly khajiit style names. If either of the small ones had been taken I would've just added a last name/title

Tryxus · July 2017

It wasn't taken on the EU server, but someone did have it alrdy on NA server

Fine by me, didn't want to play there anyways

Prof_Bawbag · July 2017

I've been told my list of character names reads like the credits that roll after a *** film. Shows you how good i am at thinking up names. Also, who knew *** films had credits at the end? I certainly didn't.

Betsararie · July 2017

You just use a different one

idk · July 2017

I create a thread to find out who has my name and complain about it because it is my name and everyone should respect that fact.

Fishoscandi · July 2017

I use alt codes

For example if Steve is taken, I put Stevè.

Wing · July 2017

alt code in the vowels

like if you want Selene and its taken:

Séléné

etc.

though I also tend to either prefix or suffix my names:

Wing of Eins
Wing of Zwei

Eins Le Fay
Zwei Le Fay

etc.

though some people to just come up with completely original names as well.

MaKTaiL · July 2017

You know what grinds my gears? When the game logs you out because of inactivity while you trying to find a good name for your carefully crafted new character that took one hour to be made and it's just gone forever.

Shardan4968 · July 2017

When they asked for my ID I typed "Shardan", but it was already taken so I'm Shardan4968 now. Then I needed to name my character, so I chose "Wanan-Tei", it was taken of course so I changed to "Wuleen-Ze". Maybe I should be more original...

UrbanMonk · July 2017

Well i get creative-

Khaleesi---> Khäleesi
Right Foot Rock---> Right-Foot-Rock
Sir Procs A Lot---> Sir Pröcs Ä Löt

and many other

Elsonso · July 2017

Fishoscandi wrote: »

I use alt codes For example if Steve is taken, I put Stevè.

This used to drive me nuts, before we had easy access to account names.

I only get into used names when naming Argonians using the "Pees-on-self" style of names. Sometimes with Redguards. Never with the other races. All my names are "lore friendly", so that really reduces the conflict. A lot of people don't bother with that. People trying to name their character after the latest popular game, TV or movie character probably have troubles, as does anyone trying to name themselves after their prowess in Cyrodiil. For example, I am pretty sure that every possible combination, variation, or misspelling of "PVP God" is already taken.

Hallothiel · July 2017

I am a sad neek who likes to name their characters appropriately so after getting timed out the first time as I was ill-prepared, I generally have the name I want already before I make the character. And having 2 names has ensured I never get a duplicate

I probably have given it more thought than I did naming my children, tbh.

DBZVelena · July 2017

I'm an RP-er. so my toons tend to always be lore friendly. I also research names either on the eso wiki or just the various baby names websites.
As a result in all my long long years and many many many toons in various games (and i'm an altoholic, so that's a lot of names) I've only ever encountered the name taken one once, when i wanted the name of an apparently not so obscure as i thought historical figure.

My advice, the more creativity you put in your name and the longer it is, the higher chance its not taken yet. Any and all names with only 5 or less characters are usually already taken with in the first month of a mmo going live.

Agobi · July 2017

In a pinch,use Lh3goolaa$ ..or maybe gH@nndalff

theher0not · July 2017

For character names I'll either try and do it with alternative spellings (for example adding a slitent h somewhere, or use use apostrophes on some of the letters) or come up with a new name.

But since I mainly play khajiit I have the option to change the prefix/sufix in their name if needed.

notimetocare · July 2017

Never had it happen, can't say.

Danikat · July 2017

MaKTaiL wrote: »

You know what grinds my gears? When the game logs you out because of inactivity while you trying to find a good name for your carefully crafted new character that took one hour to be made and it's just gone forever.

That happened to me once.

I'd decided to make a dark elf sorcerer and had his whole backstory sorted out and a fairly good idea of what he'd look like, but took my time carefully choosing each detail, then got through to the end and realised I had no idea what to call him, other than I wanted something lore appropriate(ish) that I liked the sound of.

I had a look at the list of dunmer names on UESP but none of them appealed to me. I noticed a lot of them reminded me of Welsh words/names, so I started looking up old Welsh names and finally settled on Ilorwerth, an alternate spelling of Iorwerth (both pronounced Yor-worth).

Somehow I was surprised when I went back to the game and found it'd timed out. But fortunately it didn't take me as long to make the character the 2nd time since I'd already decided on hair, accessories etc. I just had to make sure I got the sliders in the right places.