Just use a lore friendly surname...

I have mostly 1 name & a unique surname on my alts

Agreeing with the rest here, pick for a lore friendly surname to go with it.
One day there will be a title to accommodate your wishes and be 'High Priest <First name> <Surname> / The Cleric'

Friar Tuck an'Roll

I think the best options are always to have lore friendly names, sometimes with last names (mainly for Dunmer or Breton).
Not using English in your name will make it work better for people that have their game in an other language (immersion !!).

I used to sometimes play with French people and I wanted my names to work in both languages (including my guild's name), the only exception being "modern" three-parts Argonian names. You can just go for ancient Argonian but it's less funny.

You should consider racial Names as well as Titles. Frere Jaques, for example, if your Templar is a Breton.

I try to use lore friendly names so all my characters have last name of sorts.

- Nord, female: Elbereth Elf-Born - Elbereth is a name I've been using since TESIII, the Elf-Born part is to explain why a Nord has an elven name. Simple, she has a Dunmer dad. Technically "Elfborn" would be more proper, same as a trait in CP tree and akin to "Titanborn" but I like the version with a dash in it better.
- Dunmer, male: Dranos Athrys - The Dunmer dad mentioned above. Ranis Athrys was a guildmaster from Balmora in TESIII, I lifted the last name from her. Dranos is a Dunmer name from another npc that I liked. This is really my MO for naming most of my characters, pick a name from an npc that I like, pick a last name from another, mash them together and et voilà! You got yourself a lore friendly name.
- Argonian, male: Wears-Women's-Clothing - Argonians are easy, they don't need surnames. It can be harder when you want to give them Xanmeer names.
- Breton, male: Detritus Fortesque - Detritus is a name I lifted from some breton in TESII and Fortesque is a homage to Sir Daniel Fortesque from Medievil. It sounds kinda French so I think it fits a Breton and is quite lore friendly.
- Dunmer, male: Dralas Andrethi - Just a name and surname lifted from two sleeper npcs from TESIII, since I was planning a House Dagoth story with my rp guildmates at the time.
- Khajiit, female: Ajira Moon-Walker - Ajira was my favourite Mages Guild cat from TESIII. Moon-Walker is a homage to Michael Jackson. And it does sound Khajiit, doesn't it.
- Imperial, male: Septimus Closcius - The Romans had a trend one time for naming their sons with numbers, Primus, Secundus, etc. Septimus is my seventh character ergo his name. On can hardly say it's not lore friendly, right? Last name is lifted from Bacola Closcius, a tavern owner from, you guessed it, TESIII. I thought Cosades would be too cliché.
- Dunmer, male: Patus Laserbillahemmi - Both parts of this name are lifted from killable Ashlander npcs from TESIII. As a bonus the name is a common expression for a particular kind of a lowlife in my native language, and the last name has "laser" in it.
- Bosmer posing as Ohmes Khajiit, male: Jobasha Moon-Dancer - Once again a name from TESIII. Jobasha was my favourite bookseller from Vivec City. Moon-Dancer is just a variation on Moon-Walker. Jobasha's supposed to be Ajia's brother.
- Dunmer, female: Ranis Llervu - Ranis Athrys was mentioned above. Llervu is a Dunmer last name that turns up in the game few times, there's even an Ancestral Tomb of that family.

Welp, that came out longer than I thought. I hope I gave you some food for thought.

Edit: some censored profanity, I just deleted it.

When I can't think of anything special, I usually just pick a combination of characters names from other games and movie titles in my DVD collection.

Anything is better than those names where someone seems to have had their cat walk across the keyboard and called it a day though.

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

based on the poll why is everyone so against the cleric part wtf? I love titles in names like that they feel really high fantasyesque to me

I have nothing really against it, but we already have titles in game.
So for example if we go with 'The Cleric' behind it:

The (grand war)lord title:
- (Grand war)Lord Bob The cleric
Vcr achievement:
-Bob The Cleric the shadowbreaker

It doesn't really have good ring to it then, does it?

Using an accented letter as a replacement probably works on NA servers, and if you never use voice chat, but if you're on an EU server and use voice chat you need to be prepared for the fact that people will understand how to read accented letters and will pronounce your name differently as a result.

(Like when Mötley Crüe first went to Germany and found out everyone called them Mutley Cruh because they didn't see umlauts as purely decorative.)

It's not a reason not to do it, but I think it's something to bear in mind if you do. (Unless of course you can find an accent which indicates the way you want it pronounced, which in English is usually inferred from the spelling...or just has to be remembered because English doesn't do consistency.)

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

based on the poll why is everyone so against the cleric part wtf? I love titles in names like that they feel really high fantasyesque to me

Of course it's a personal thing, but I hate names with accents that are only there to bypass the name taken thing lol. To get around that I always add a title for mine. I can see how not everyone likes in-name titles though and would prefer the accent method. To be fair to me I think the game should allow two ''Darien''s or ''Vanoril''s. First names repeating is normal and, gamewise, we have user IDs.

I was actually going to say Blank the Cleric would be my second choice. But I think adding a last name is the better choice because it's more versatile, if the characters build or gear changes over time you don't have to worry about hitting a point where they're not really a cleric any more.

Also in TES lore what the OP is describing sounds more like a battlemage. Clerics do exist but they're usually non-combat mages or what in real life would be known as a clerk or administrator. (In real life the two used to be sort of interchangeable because it was mainly priests who learned to read and write.)

Finally putting a title into their name can then look weird if you want to use an actual title as well.

So it's not a bad choice, but I don't think it's the best of the options available. A last name serves the same purpose while allowing for a lot more variation.

The last name option seems like the best, but 2 and 3 would work, too.

The first option doesn't work with "Cleric" in my opinion, but for other titles it would, like "Predicant Maera".

I vote:
Cle Ric
EriCleric
Eric the Cleric
DerriCleric
Derrik the Cleric
Or
Bob

The fun of lore-friendly names...

Not gonna pretend that this isn't something that stops me from making characters, since I'd like a lore friendly name and Altmer, Bosmer, and Reachmen don't have surnames, and a lot of Nords and Redguards don't either. I also don't like random accents for no reason, so it tends to be tough to get a good name.

At least for the races that have surnames, it's easy enough to get a unique combination even just looking at the UESP's names page. I do favor taking relatively inconsequential NPCs so you don't recognize the name right away - my main is an Orc, and his first name is from a lorebook-only character from Skyrim who eventually showed up in Legends, and his last name is from a minor antagonist character from one quest in Oblivion.

For the others, hope and pray? I had a Reachman character I was trying to make soon after Markarth dropped (that DLC really got me into their culture!) and it took days to get a name that wasn't taken. I even went into lists of Scottish Gaelic names to try to find something, but nope. Eventually got a name to go through, and funnily enough it was an NPC added with Markarth.

Ryuvain wrote: »

Why are names limited anyway when we have an account name? There can be only 1 Bob?

The game allows direct messaging via character name in addition to player name, so both have to be unique. Many players don't even care to see account names.

Most of my characters have only a single name for ease of communication.

I'd love more titles available though.