So, you named your character after lore conventions. What did you name them & why?

[Lunaxia]

Rin is my usual online alias I had even before knowing anything about lore-appropriate names, which by a stroke of luck also fit Raen naming conventions. I chose Aomine ("blue peak") because blue is my favourite colour, and I liked the imagery and kanji associated with it (青峰.)

I'd never actually seen or heard of KB before choosing it, which is where most people assume it's from, lol.

[Austratus]

My main is a Sea Wolf Roegadyn, and his name means "Bent Choir, son of Hollow Castle". I did have the help of a (now-defunct) name generator, but there wasn't any particular reason behind choosing his name other than the fact I wanted something authentic sounding for the official launch of the game-- I had named the same character in Beta as Hyurrim Greysky.


My alt is a Midlander by name of Chaucer Shawnes, named after the famous English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

[lycropath]

Ahldruht is a fairly veteran adventurer, one from the beginning of the Age of the Adventurer some twenty years ago so the name Old Smoke seems quite appropriate.

[WhiteArchmage]

Whenever I start an MMO I make a "trial" character based off of one of my own characters, without looking at the Lore, so my first, Johannes Lenneth was mostly named after myself and as a nod to Valkyrie Profile. Afterwards I made my "alt" which became my main in Faerie: Samniel Atkascha, first name is made up and one of my fictional characters (I wanted a gender-neutral form of combining both the male Samuel with the female Samantha, the -el suffix normally being angelic in use and which means "of God"), last name is a reference to Ivalicean Royalty, specifically Princess Ovelia.

Then in 3.0 I went Au Ra and wanted a more Lore-appropriate name so I changed it to Ranmaru Stormcaller, Ranmaru from Mori Ranmaru, Nobunaga Oda's page/alleged male lover, and Stormcaller as something similar to Yugiri Mistwalker's epithet: as a (then) Summoner, I wished to convey that I was calling up the storm against my foes (was then hoping for a Ramuh-egi). When Stormblood, and more specifically, Ivalice, got announced, I switched back to the now-somewhat-lore appropriate Samniel Atkascha (XIV and Ivalice-lore wise, the Atkascha bloodline would have gone extinct with Ovelia, and most definitely be hyuran instead of miqo'te but I'm bending that one as far as it can go).

[Valan]

I never follow the lore conventions, but sometimes I can change my character's background in order to justify it.
The lore-friendly, birth name of Meru Aradan was Merune Vergel. There is no hidden meaning in this name, I only try to fit it in the convention.

The names of my lalafell and au ra are another story.
Since the times of Lineage2 I call my femal dwarf as Itemspoilerasi (an enzyme for farm spoil of hunt), so the lalafellin name formed from the word "Item" was Itetemo Temo.

The Au Ra's name is a full compliancy xaela name: Shunai Torgud. Shunai is the Google-translation of flame becase the fire is her theme. Red and yellow the flame, black the ember. Torgud... I just pick one clan from the list, without looking. It's turned to be the nudist clan. Oh well...

[duvvvv]

I followed the Sindarin naming convention because...well, Elezens are like Elves..? xD
Duv started as a male Duskwight, with deep dark blue skin, so I named him something like "beautiful darkness" "misty ocean"--> Duvainor Hithaeron.
when I fantasia'd to female, had to change the first name to Duvaineth

[Johaandr]

I like bell and elvy is a elf warrior... i dunno...
My old name was Evan Ornitier as BLM when i first started this game.
And then changed to hyur and changed name to evan rosen cuse it fitted more to a hyur.
Now im bell elvy... krile is my inspiration for not using name convention lol.
Kinda wish they had more npc not following convention but im not bothered anymore xD

[New_Game_Plus]

I named my lalafell Kurumi Kururugi. It was actually the name I used for my character in the Inuyasha: Secret of the cursed mask game. It just so happened it was a conventional lala name.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

"Ryuji" was constructed following the Naming Conventions claim that "For the most part, [male Raen names] have a strong link to things in nature which are believed to be strong, agile, or even uncontrollable." I wanted it to be an actual existing name, and I liked contrasting imagery, so I ended up with 流 (Flow) and 地 (Earth), which together can be read as Ryuji. In backstory terms, this is a reading that Ryuji gave to his own name, the original being 龍二.*

As for "Hinoto": during the lead-up to Heavensward, it was suggested that old Japanese battleship names might make a good starting point for Raen surnames, and though there isn't one called the Hinoto, there is one called "Teibou" (丁卯). I was drawn in mostly by the meaning - it's an astrological term for part of the Chinese sexagenary cycle - but I also liked the sound of its alternate reading (Hinoto) as a surname. Using the Naming Conventions, I constructed a backstory of the Hinoto clan once being a part of a warlord's Sixty Armies, each of which was named after one part of the cycle; though he was defeated and his armies scattered, the Hinoto army was one that banded together as a clan and continues to exist as such in the present time.

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*"Dragon" and "two." Backstory stuff!

A fun bit of head-canon I adopted when writing Ryuji's backstory was that, in the times of antiquity when they first encountered and assimilated into Hingan/Doman culture, many Raen were given names that began with 龍 because of their appearance. Meanwhile, 二 - pronounced "ji" in this case - was a common suffix for second sons in the Edo period, where Raen names take influence from. Ryuji is the second son in his birth family, and his father was a traditionalist, hence 龍二. Some time after Ryuji was disowned by his birth family and adopted into the Hinoto clan as a ward, he selected the 流地 version himself. Incidentally, his original family name was Akinai (商), which means "trade" or "business" - this was a name selected by his previously-nameless father, a man who had risen to become a very wealthy merchant in pre-Garlean Othard and thus a part of the surname-having aristocracy, meant to evoke a sense of complete domination over his profession.