What's the story behind your character's name?

[Ramesses]

Ramesses - From Ramesses II, one of the greatest Egyptian Pharaohs. When I was a kid, I was into old classical films and watched "Ten Commandments" starring Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Ramesses... loved the movie and everything about egyptian ancient history ever since.

Btw, research historians explain he is likely not the pharaoh indicated in the Exodus but the movie still remains the sixth most financially successful films ever made, grossing over $65 million back in its time which, adjusting for inflation, is over $1 Billion in 2013.

Atreides - From House Atreides, one of the Great Noble Houses of Frank Herbert's Dune universe (an epic series I first read when I was about twelve), also eventually watching both the six-part Sci-Fi movie version and the old classic 1984 version. Origin of the name actually ties into ancient Greek history and Homer's "The Iliad"

[Cedri]

I think it was Wednesday when I made my character. Wait. It could have been tuesday. Hmmmmmmm

I love it when lurkers make quality posts.

[Rapture]

Stella = Codename for FFXIV 1.0 component (memory layout)
Rapture = Codename for FFXIV 1.0 project as a whole

During 1.0 alpha, I was at a loss, since I've always been horrible with naming characters. The requirement of picking both a first and last name just made it worse. At the time, I was already aware that Rapture was the codename for FFXIV, but I was hesitant to use it without a fitting first name.

Any of you programmers out there are likely aware of how directory locations of your source code often gets embedded within your compiled files. Out of boredom, I decided to take a look is any interesting strings were visible. I quickly came across Rapture multiple times as expected, but on closer examination I also found Stella.

Stella was a nice female name, and with those two being the only codenames within any of the FFXIV files, I thought "Why not?", and went with Stella Rapture for 1.0 alpha. It was intended to be a nod to the devs about the hidden meaning of Stella, if they every came across my character in-game. After 1.0 alpha/beta had concluded, the name Stella had really grown on me, so I stuck with it into 1.0 Release, and I'll also likely continue to use it into ARR as well.

[Kiroh]

Ok bear with me here, this may take a bit of explaining.

Now, back when I played ffxi I knew someone named Sougetsu who was elvaan. So when I made an elvaan I thought I'd name it after him as sort of an homage, so I named my character Souge.... it took me longer than I care to admit to realize that when I sounded that out it became "Sooo Gay". So I wanted to keep the same name structure and I ended up changing the g to a b, so my elvaan was named Soube.

Now my favorite zone in FFXI was Lufaise Meadows/Misareux Coast. I didn't want my last name to be Misareux Coast, so I shortened Misareux into simply Miseux.

And Voila!

[Nix]

Irina gaias, my old character was named after a song (Irina - Pascal ponceau) and Gaias was a throwback to ancient rome (I'm an absolute sucker for roman history >:3. But Gaius was too manly, so switched it up to Gaias to be more feminine.

Moro Saraneth (What irina became on a server transfer) was named after Moro (The wolf-goddess from Princess Mononoke) and Saraneth was from Garth Nix's Abhorsen series (Sabriel, lirael and Abhorsen). Saraneth was one of the necromancer bells known as 'The Binder', it had the power to bind the dead to its will.

[Kyri]

KYRI
(otherwise known as Kyri Elizabeth, Kyri Sagitta, Ciara Snow and Sukasa Saffron)
________
Hmm I believe I started going around as Kyri back in 2003..? I loved Kingdom hearts and thought the name "Kairi" was a beautiful name but wanted to make it more me, thus Kyri was born. Kyri has been hopping around games along with my alt, Sukasa(shes taru-lalafell-small races, almost always a cook). Now a days I go by the name of Kyri Sagitta, Kyri Elizabeth, Ciara Snow and Sukasa Saffron. Sagitta standing for my passion for archery, and Saffron for Sukasa's passion for cooking. Ciara was a whim choice I made up to try out a elvaan so nothing special there(But I love to roleplay her!)
Sagitta was also a nice way that Kaetara and I could pass off being a married couple in game, whether SE approved or denied us marriage rights.



(This pic is various shots of Kyri and Kaetara in the last 5 years, as well as some wonderful artwork for us made by amazing friends<3 Click here for a fuller version)

KAETARA
_________

My first graphical MMO was FFXI. I had played MUD games prior to joining FFXI and had various names, most of which just seemed "fantasy" or had been borrowed from JRR Tolkien's various works, or by combining various forms of Tolkien's elvish language to create a new name.

I elected to be a Mithra because I liked dextrous characters in D&D, as I liked performing acrobatic combat moves and liked being evasive. Mithra also seemed very well-rounded in case I went into a mage or tank role, as I didn't know what I ultimately wanted to be, and Tarutaru and Galka were far too specialized to appeal to me initially. The name "Kaetara" popped into my head on a whim, and that's what I've been ever since.. although with male Miqo'te coming I might have to change that up. "Sagitta" was chosen as a last name because I wanted to be an Archer.

[AneraRhea]

Anera was created by taking all the letters of my full real life name and assigning numbers to the letters. Than I would pick 5 numbers (because i wanted my name to be 5 letters long) and that would spell out a name. It took a few trys to get something I thought sounded nice. Someone in game pointed out that Anera backwards is "arena". I so didn't mean to do that, but its cool.

For my last name I wanted something related to moons since I was making a Moon Keeper. Rhea is Saturn's 2nd largest moon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_%28moon%29)
Also in Greek mythology Rhea is Cronus's wife and mother of the Greek Gods. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_%28mythology%29)

[Yrusama]

Yay! I can have this archived somewhere, and link it in case someone asks again! (which they will) No, it is not pronounced "Why Are You?", and yes I get this a lot. I've often described it as "yiRU" or "yuRU". The reason behind this pronunciation, rather than "Iru", should be clear after reading this. It is also not spoken with a Japanese rolled R, a common misconception. I overlook many of these mistakes as long as I am not addressed as "Y.R.U." or "Why Are You".

My name comes loosely from Yura, a non-summonable plot-related Esper in Final Fantasy VI. This name was one of the randomly selected names for the Warrior class in remakes of the original Final Fantasy, but I deemed the name too feminine because of the A at the end, and switched it around to Yaru. This later became my avatar of a few months in Final Fantasy XI.

I am a big lover of the Dragonriders of Pern novels, wherein any male character chosen by a hatchling to become a Dragonrider earns an honorific contraction of his name. Thus Yaru became Y'ru when I remade my character on another server, fully intending to become a Dragoon. But FFXI doesn't allow apostrophes, so it became Yru and I became a lifelong White Mage due to DRG's "lol" status and a loss of obligation without the apostrophe.

In other instances where I used the name, I continued to include the apostrophe for years until eventually settling into Yru as my alias in all media. While I may be nothing special, the name is short and strange enough that people tend to remember and contact me first if disconnected from a party.

As for my surname, Ejk (pronounced either Edgk or Ejshk), these are my real initials. (You'd have to do some stalker-level digging to find my true name). I chose this route because I wanted a name that was three letters long and difficult to pronounce, like Yru before it. I am seriously considering changing this name if given the option, as it is a bit too difficult to pronounce, even for me. Any future surname can't be much easier to pronounce than Yru lest strangers opt not to address me as desired.

In short: Yura > Yaru > Y'ru > Yru > Yru Ejk

Further Details/Hypotheses on Pernese Naming Conventions
In the Pern series, Dragonriders' names are contracted to include only the first letter and a portion of the last part of their name (e.g.: Famanoran = F'nor, Coltov = C'tov). I don't remember if the reason behind this is ever fully stated, but the manner of contraction is established by the hatchling dragon at birth (dragons are telepathic). I figure it's because in thoughts words aren't as clear and tangible as when spoken aloud. The only parts left after the truncation are the more prominent sounds (the first sound and the strongest syllable or, if the name is only two syllables long, the end of the name). The baby dragon, either too lazy or not cognitively developed enough, passes over the least interesting parts of the name, much like how "Mother" becomes "MaMa" when first spoken by a human baby.

The honorific contraction is reverted to the name's original state (e.g.: L'tol reverted to Lytol) in the event that the rider's dragon dies, leaving the rider behind. Such "Dragonless Men" suffer from endless grieving of their lost partner, as Dragon and Rider share a telepathic bond.

The majority of Dragonriders' birth names are never provided in the books, and many (particularly the aforementioned Famanoran) aren't given until much later in the canon.

edit: I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the various strangers with whom I've crossed paths in my 8 years as Yru for not calling a GM on me for my name. I know it looks like scrambled letters at a glance, but as shown above, there have been very complex reasons behind the otherwise simple transition from Yura to Yru.

I would also like to note that while there is no relation to Y'da nor Y'shtola, I was thoroughly pleased to find so similar a name in a prominent NPC, let alone a bubbly female Hyur and eloquent Miqo'te.

[Valmonte]

my mains a combination of my first Name "Ivan" and the sword of legend "Durandal".

My alt is a combination of a Felix the cat clock i used to own and Valmonte "Hill of the vale"

[Yashnaheen]

It was the name of a guitar I used to own. Sold it on ebay years ago. Jackson SL2H if you are curious.