Most of my characters (see signature) have relatively lore friendly names that I "spit out" at character creation. I rarely tend to come up with a name before hand, so once I've got a decent looking character I consider: race, whether they're male or female, and what I want out of them or what I want them to be.

Some of them are a bit different:
- Rosheda of the Red Asp is a reference to Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne.
- Describes-The-Taste is a joke character, referencing one of my friends habit of asking us to describe the taste whenever food is mentioned.
- No-Situational-Awareness is poking fun at several people I know who... Well, lack situational awareness. I'm considering deleting him.
- Eats-All-Potatoes is another character I'm considering deleting, but she was created as a reference to my guild, Order of Large Fries.
- Bowl-Harvest was a suggestion from another friend and is a twist on the NB ult Soul Harvest. Instead of harvesting souls, he's harvesting bowls... And has a gut to match.

I usually name my chars after the ones I made in skyrim or just check NPC names of the same race my new char will be and try to find something with a similar sound.

Elriyah - Bosmer, named after my first skyrim char (Elriah) but the name was already taken so I had to spell it differently.
Eliriyah - Bosmer, uncreative variation of the same name.
Paneera - Khajiit, named after an Indian cheese. I have no idea how that happened...
Lost-In-Thoughts - Argonian, why not.
Talea Sorathi - Dunmer, tried to create a lore-friendly sounding family name.
Amren al-Attaron - Redguard, named after the guy in skyrim because I like the sound of his name for some reason and combined it with another name I used in skyrim.
Dalaeneth - Altmer, after spending more time thinking about the name than creating the face I just chose a random idea.

Character one...character two...character three...Bill... character five...

http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/elder-scrolls.php#.WsFjAhpE2hA

Easy peasy.

My Werewolf character is named Hircine. My healer is named Mends-wounds-well(Argonian) and the rest are typically name generator solutions. Before ESO I always used the same name throughout MMORPGs, for ESO I went more lore friendly.

srfrogg23 wrote: »

Character one...character two...character three...Bill... character five...

The imagination is strong with this one!

Redguard DragonKnight named: Tariq al-Mansor
Orc Warden named: Ghatul-gro-Nagrum
Breton Sorcerer named: Lelie Pentelie

Most names were tanked from Eso name lore and some were inspired from real life.

Like my redguard name Tariq which is isn't in the lore of names but is an Arabic name. Means striker inspired by the Moorish leader Tariq ibn Ziyad whom conquered spain.

Originally I had two nords. One was Anne Claire (named after Guano Apes' song) and other one was Satanic Sister as my username. Now I have some bretons too and I decided to give them more lore friendly names. One is Clarice Jemane and the other one is Beatrice Reynard. I also have an imperial called Avresa Darana and because I recently started playing Oblivion (particularly Shivering Isles) again, I made my first argonian character called Wades-through-entrails. Haven't played with her yet but had much fun creating her.

Here's my character list, in order of creation; but, like everyone else, I wish I could change the order in the character login screen.

1. The Dark-Mage - EP Dark Elf Sorc (DPS) - Also Former Emperor
https://imgur.com/oMYzHF7
2. The Undying Nightshade - EP Dark Elf MagNB/BombBlade (DPS)
https://imgur.com/AQ5V6AM
3. The Moonlit-Knight - EP Imperial Templar (Tank)
https://imgur.com/Vsb2p3a
4. The Ironwood Kid - AD Wood Elf StamNB (DPS)
https://imgur.com/jumQPJ9
5. The Dawn-Bringer - AD High Elf MagTemplar (Healer/DPS)
https://imgur.com/4Hl5phK
6. The Khroma-Ore King - DC Redguard DragonKnight (Tank/DPS)
https://imgur.com/43nx2HX
7. The Storm-Shield - DC Breton Sorcerer (Tank/DPS)
https://imgur.com/zVifvNf
8. The Killionaire - EP Dark Elf DragonKnight (DPS)
https://imgur.com/4XDMJNF
9. Swims-Among-Slaughterfish - EP Argonian Warden (Healer)
https://imgur.com/MHu6d26

As for each individual characters' name,
The Dark-Mage (Title: Former Emperor) - My account name, and a vampire Dark Elf Sorcerer; which, in ESO, uses Dark Magic. Not much explanation needed there, but I have a long history of using the name Darkmage (see below). This
The Undying Nightshade (Title: The Merciless) - Stemmed off of The Dark-Mage, but in vampire Dark Elf Nightblade form. Also a BombBlade in PvP. (5/5 Vicious Death set, ftw!)
The Moonlit-Knight (Title: Starmade Knight) - Stemmed off of being an Imperial Knight/Templar becoming a Werewolf (White Pack Leader morph). "The Black-Heart of the Moonlit-Knight" was also the title of a real nonfiction story about myself that I wrote in a Creative Writing class back in college. It basically touched on my experiences of living alone, thus becoming depressed, as well as my experiences with having epileptic seizures (a side effect of having brain surgery) and sleep paralysis (being asleep but conscious and unable to move any part of your body, as a result of mental stress [like college, etc.]) -- but these are all tangent topics.
The Ironwood Kid (Title: Master Thief) - Stemmed off of me listening to the song "Iron," by Woodkid, from watching the Assassin's Creed Revelations E3 Trailer. During the trailer, the song "Iron," by Woodkid plays. Assassins are similar to Nightblades, and I simply just reverse the words to create The Ironwood Kid, a tiny Woodelf Nightblade archer/thief.
The Dawn-Bringer (Title: Paragon) - Stemmed off of my main endgame Linkshell (Guild) in Final Fantasy XI, named "Bringers of the Dawn." I reversed it to The Dawn-Bringer, a High Elf Templar. Templars use plenty of Sun/Light/Fire magic abilities. Also, AD 'eventually' wins the battle for Cyrodiil, according to the Lore. Though, I have still yet to make The Dawn-Bringer into an Empress. She came very close a few times!
The Khroma-Ore King (Title: Battleground Butcher) - Stemmed off of a nickname that I received from my online friends in Final Fantasy XI. Khroma Ores were semi-rare drop from an ISNM battle/boss fight, and they went from anywhere between 250k-500k gil during their prime economy. I had a record of doing this fight daily (you could only do it once a day), and my overall record was something like 350/420 on getting the Khroma Ore to drop for me. When I stopped playing FFXI, I had a stack of 99,999,999 gil (gold).
The Storm-Shield (Future Title: Stormproof) - Stemmed off of being a Sorc-Tank in ESO, with constantly using the Lightning Form Sorc ability, as well as using my Storm Atronach Senche mount in conjunction with my Storm Atronach Transform Memento ability. And using the Storm Knight and Storm Fist gear sets. A very niche build that is surprisingly fun to play and works out well in many scenarios.
The Killionaire (Title: Executioner) - Named after the "Killionaire" medal/achievement in the Halo franchise first person shooter games. The "Killionaire" medal/achievement is received after killing 10 enemy players within 3-4 seconds each of each other. And since "The Killionaire" is an angry EP Dark Elf Dragonknight, in PvP, well, he'll speak for himself!
Swims-Among-Slaughterfish (Currently no Title being used) - My 9th character broke with the tradition of starting my character names with "The" since Warden was released way later on in the game instead of at launch; and, because it is an Argonian, I went with a traditional Argonian name. Argonians seems to have silly names that relate to themselves in a weird/funny manner, and since I PvP a lot, "Swims-Among-Slaughterfish" seemed fitting. It also took up the exact character-limit in the name-creator; so, it was perfect.

The first 8 characters' names were made within the first few weeks of ESO's launch on PC/NA. I had a master-plan of splitting my 8 free/default character slots between the 3 factions and the 4 classes, so I decided to have 2 characters of each class, for 8/8 characters total. Then, from there, I chose to have 1 faction have 1 of each class; so, naturally, EP had 4 (now 5) characters, 1 of each class, then I did 1 of each class split between the other 2 factions; so, AD got Templar and Nightblade, DC got Sorcerer and Dragonknight.
Then Warden came out with the release of Morrowind, as well as with the new option of purchasing more character slots. So I made an Argonian Warden Healer on EP since EP is what I played the most, and I continued my original tradition of playing 1 main faction and having that faction have 1 of each class. Plus, Of my 4 original EP characters, none of them were Healers. So Warden being the 5th class fit my niche nicely.

As for my account name,
I've been using "Darkmage" since 2001, with Phantasy Star Online (Episode 1 & 2) on the original Xbox, all the way through Phantasy Star Universe (2006-2012) and Final Fantasy XI (2006-2013) on Xbox 360 as well as World of Warcraft on PC (2008-2013), and I was a Dark Elf named Darkmage in Oblivion (2006) and Skyrim (2011). "1337" was the name of my first "clan" that I was ever in, in PSO and PSU. I went from "Darkmage" to "1337<>MAGE." But, you didn't have to pay to change your characters' names back then, at least in PSO.

Even my guild, Abolsute Virtue, is a tribute to "Absolute Virtue," a very notorious and elite mega-boss enemy that went undefeated for several years after its initial release in Final Fantasy XI, which was the first cross-platform MMO-RPG. Details, here: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Absolute_Virtue (Scroll down to the Trivia section).
When Absolute Virtue first reached 500/500 members for the first time, 2 months after ESO's initial launch, Absolute Vice was formed. "Absolute Vice," as an antonym and sister guild with the same acronym. Then, years later, (now), I am beginning to form a start-up company named "AVEN" for Absolute Virtue ENtertainment/Absolute Value Enterprise Network.
So, in the end, I guess everything is connected and has hidden meaning or some kind of background story, haha.

Player One,
Player Two,
Player Three,
Player Four

The first one is Ready.

When i åick a race, i plan for the role and type of that character and then read a bit of various lore wiki's.

For example, my thief, a dashing young Khajit bachelor is named J'Raz-Dar (Also to honor Raz in my head hence the similarity ).

If i do a redguard, i often check for oriental/arabian names, and then mix from these and add a last name to represent a relative to certain other redguard, possibly an NPC somewhere in the world. For examåple, last name Af'Adar would suggest that the character is related to someone named Adar.

If Nord, i look at scandinavian names, like Saga or harald for example.. If i would be an frost mage Nord, i could name myself Harald Iceborn or just the first name of sorts.

I don't role-play but I do like to give my characters personalities and backstory and lore friendly names (or near enough that it doesn't stand out). Even one of the ones with a silly name is subtle enough (or rather obscure enough) that to most people it should look lore friendly. The name is usually inspired by the character - I get an idea of who they are as a person and that shapes the name I give them. Sometimes I have a name in mind by the time I've decided on the other aspects (race, gender, class, appearance etc.), sometimes I have to go looking for one, but I always start planning my characters long before I go into the character creator so that's not a problem.

I've never worried about giving them a theme or shared surname or whatever unless it fits the characters, my guilds manage to recognise me anyway and it'd be weird to me for them all to have the same name.

If anyone's interested here's the list:

Danielle Aurorel - breton warden. Not her real surname, she changed it so she wouldn't 'embarrass' her family with her stupid ideas about being an adventurer. (Also it's a name I've been using in RPGs for about 15 years now, but apparently it sounds French so it also works for a breton.)

Danika Aurorel - khajiit templar. Also not her real surname, she's friends and housemates with Danielle and adopted the name as part of an effort to fit into Highrock culture. (Also amusing to me because Danika means morning star and Aurorel means dawn star so it's kind of redundant.)

Dawn's-Star - argonian nightblade. Yes this is the 3rd variant of the same name (and 3rd variant of the same character actually). It was going to just be Dawn-Star but that was taken.

Sagittam Ad Genu - imperial dragonknight. This is the joke one. He's an older guy and a retired soldier turned crafter, which should make the joke obvious...if you know Latin. But since most people don't - it means Arrow To The Knee. Like I said I like descriptive names.

Sayel - bosmer nightblade. This is the exception in that it doesn't mean anything, it's just a word that came into my head which I liked the sound of. But apparently bosmer names don't mean anything either, so that works. No family name, because he's been disowned.

Ilorwerth - dunmer sorcerer. It's a variant spelling of Iorwerth, an old Welsh name. I did look up dunmer names but none of them seemed quite right, and a lot reminded me of Welsh so I looked up old Welsh names instead. Only problem is apparently there's a character in the Witcher books called Iorweth and occasionally someone who doesn't know it's a real name thinks I'm a fan who didn't bother to check the spelling and whispers me to tell me I got it wrong, or to talk about the books which I've not read yet.

Ember Wolfbane - nord dragonknight. Her real name is Eleanor, after her mother but she doesn't like that. She got called Ember both because of her red hair and because she can be a little hot headed. She actually started off as a temporary Dragon Age: Origins character, but I liked her so she gets re-used. And no, she's not killed many wolves herself but her great grandfather lead the defence against a werewolf invasion and the family kept the name.

Holds-All-Stuff - argonian dragonknight/mule. Another joke name, but it's on a mule so I think it's ok. Was going to be Holds-All-Things but that was taken.

I come up with my IGNs whenever I make the toon. Back in the days before ESO, I would often try to pick a theme - Viking saga names, Gaelic/Celtic mythical/legendary names, whisky brands with Gaelic names, song titles ...

Once I started playing ESO, I had this idea that every toon of mine should have a name ending with -stone. Gods know why. There was Grindstone and Headstone and Flagstone and Livia Soapstone, but I ended up deleting them all in the end, as there was something about each of them that just didn't sit right with me. So, the only one left of my stones is Cornerstone.

Currently, I have a full set of 15 toons, and as I have already explained Cornerstone's origin, here are the 14 others:

Joanne E Smokes - went with the title of a Butthole Surfers song and made it feminine.

Dervande - Originally, I wanted Verdande - one of the Norse myth Norns, but that was already taken, so I swapped a couple of letters.

Sonic Teenage Guenevere - another song title, this time by Motorpsycho

Marquis des Carabas - From Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere", and also the old "Puss in Boots" tale. Tried to make him look as close to the Marquis in the "Neverwhere" TV series as I could. The s in "des" is a deliberate misspelling, as someone had already laid claim to the name with just "de".

Murmandina - An important antagonist in the first volumes of Raymond E Feist's Riftwar cycle is named Murmandamus. This was my attempt at making it sound feminine.

Catach Chatutchenn - From Celtic mythology. Does roll off the tongue, doesn't it?

Makes-good-slaughterfish - Argonians just have to be named like that. This bloke replaced my first Argonian, which was named Allergic-to-cats (and ofc had a senche mount and cat pet).

Macalla Brogannagh - My attempt at making something that sounded Gaelic.

Hallfred Vandrædaskald - One of the bards of the Norse sagas, as spelled in Norwegian.

Zaniah Adzari - Khajiits need names with z's, I feel. Looked up a list of star names (like those in space, not those on stage), and mangled a couple of them.

Gudrød Veidekonge - Another name from the Norse sagas as spelled in Norwegian. A king this time.

Viljar den hugtunge - My gf asked me to find something suitably Norwegian and Viking-ish with a dour twist. So it became Viljar "of the burdened mind"

Sigrid Gudulheim - Name picked from an extremely obscure epic poem from the 1860s about an equally obscure myth from the Viking era.

Tuma Jelani - Why not go African when making a dark redguard? Looked up African names with various meanings and settled on this.