If I make a necromancer it will most likely be by deleting and restarting my existing 'generically evil' character, in which case I've already got the same: Sayel, which is just something that sounded like an appropriate name for a wood elf.

If not then I'll have to think up a character before I can name them because I like the name to suit the person, but for whatever reason I rarely have trouble finding names which aren't taken and when they are a slight variation solves the problem so I'm not worried about saving one now. I think it helps that I often give my characters a last name, and I look at real names and languages for inspiration rather than copying names from books, movies etc.

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Eh, I never make pun names. SO not my thing. I have a friend who ONLY does pun names. Each to her own.

I give joke names to joke/temp characters. For example my mule was an argonian called Holds-All-Stuff and when I wanted a temp character just after the Undaunted event I called him Ports-To-Fungal-Grotto. But if I want to actually play the character I give them a name which at least looks lore appropriate.

Although my crafter is borderline. At first glance he's got a lore appropriate Imperial name. But in the unlikely event someone knows enough Latin to translate it and recognises he's a (mostly) retired adventurer Sagittam Ad Genu is definitely a joke name. (And I like to think a tired old joke is quite fitting for a tired old soldier.)

rexagamemnon wrote: »

I dont understand why people cant use a name if its already being used, we have gamertags to identify people we play with not the character names themselves

I don't understand it either. I know it's because the character name is used 'behind the scenes' as an identifier in a lot of databases but I don't know why more games don't use the account name, or a combination of the two.

There are other issues too, for example if multiple people have the same character name how do you know which one to send mail to? But there are ways around that too. I think the database issue is the main one because that's usually the kind of thing which is extremely difficult to change after a program (or game) is created, so it would need to have been thought of before release.

Christopher Walken

Jimmy wrote: »

Caligamy_ESO wrote: »

Already did this :x But yeah I agree were all basically on the same server except for the EU folk and names are getting SCARCE. I was a bit surprised how many tries it took me to find an acceptable name, I even poured over LOTR lore for like 3 hours figuring out something lichy and most of the obscure things I tried were taken. XD

I ended up using https://www.elfdict.com/ to create a name in Tolkiens Elvish

This is ES not LOTR.

/shakingmyhead
/facepalm

Yeah but one area where TES lore is surprisingly lacking is languages and, for many races, naming conventions.

There's lists of NPC names from previous games on fan sites, and some notes on naming conventions where they're known (like khajiit prefix/suffix meanings) but I suspect every name on those lists is taken, and there's rarely enough info to make up your own and trust that it's lore-friendly, so its not surprising people tend to look elsewhere for ideas.