How did you choose your name?

[Sudenmarja]

I’ve been wondering about this every now and then. I thought about my name carefully when I was first making my character and recently a friend of mine changed her character’s name and she pondered about it for a time as well.

How do people choose – or have chosen – their character names? Of course you like your name (I hope), but are there other reasons? Is there a backstory to your name? Does it have a meaning? Or did you just have some fun while thinking of a name for yourself?

For my name – Sudenmarja Villilehto – I did have a little fun with it and it sort of has a backstory and a meaning as well.

I’m Finnish and I like plants - I use plants as an inspiration for names a lot. So sudenmarja is a Finnish name for a poisonous plant called herb-paris or true lover’s knot – except that it’s name is much cooler in Finnish. The direct translation for sudenmarja would be wolf’s berry. The last name is a bit of a nod to the fact that my character is a wildwood elezen. I translated wildwood to Finnish so wildwood became villilehto (if we’re being picky, the proper translation for wood would have been metsä(wood, forest) while lehto means particularly a grove. But lehto sounded better in my ears plus we can’t use ä, ö or å letters when naming the characters).

As a bonus, I later realized, my character name is a silent announcement to everyone that I am in fact a Finn and the other Finns can safely talk to me in Finnish (Not that it has happened that often apart from the occasional wave or greeting, we tend to keep to ourselves)

[SomeRandomHuman]

Mine is for the sake of the pun

[TitaniaZero]

Amaterasu Aleria was a character I made in a pen and paper RPG. She was an adventurer and somewhat of a matchmaking looking for her match. Her family was a large one too, and it believed in a Sun god. And being a little enamoured with the sound and style of Amaterasu at the time, I used it. Initially, way back in 1.0 I felt it fit my character who was simply that, an adventurer that I could make a lot of stuff up for. Of course things have changed since then so she doesn't quite fit her old name now, so I've been thinking pretty hard on a new one that I feel will match better.

[Aruru-Aru]

I chose "Aruru Aru" (My main) because of lalafell naming conventions.

Though i do have a funny lala dude called "Imnotshort Imfunsized" purely for the comedy value.

[Kurando]

IThough i do have a funny lala dude called "Imnotshort Imfunsized" purely for the comedy value.

That's pretty good. So funsized for one lalafell, but if there is a group of them does that make it a party-pack?

[Hash_Browns]

That's pretty good. So funsized for one lalafell, but if there is a group of them does that make it a party-pack?

"Potato Patch" is more appropriate I feel.

[Aruru-Aru]

That's pretty good. So funsized for one lalafell, but if there is a group of them does that make it a party-pack?

ahaha Perhaps. I like to stick to lore friendly names if i can but at the same time I'm certainly not against funny lala names in fact i encourage them. I saw one called "Cranberry sauce" once and another called "Olive oil" xD but yeah i approve of party-pack reminds me of multipacks of mars bars and other chocolaty foodstuffs. lol

[Xau]

me name... errrm was made by mixing random words and hope i sounded well(in me head)

[Ceallach]

I take inspiration from various mythologies when I create characters for a fantasy setting, and I hadn't used Irish/Scottish/Gaelic in a long time. I checked a name dictionary ("bright-minded" "storm") and an index on mythology, choosing names for my retainers and chocobo that fit (e.g., my chocobo is snow white and named Lugh). I chose my jobs the same way (paladin, dragoon, and white mage are among my mains).

[Sevrenichi]

Stole it from 2hu