How did you choose your name?

[Noitems]

I have been using Atlas for a very long time named after the Mech from Mechwarrior/Battletech.

Oh jeez, that brings back throwbacks as to when I used to watch Mechwarrior games on G4 when they had the show arena. My brother ended up getting Mechassault for the OG Xbox (didn't have a PC at the time) and we played that game for weeks.

[Eloah]

I wont mention my original name, we dont speak about the dark times. But with my current name I wanted something a bit more lore appropriate. I liked playing a dunesfolk, but the naming convention was meh for my own personal name, especially since the first and last name are usually said together. I lucked out with lalafell lore stating the since the clans mix frequently the names arent set in stone (at least for males) and a dunes folk or plains folk could have the opposite name; like Pipin and Papalymo. So I used my knowledge of Japanese to find a name I liked and shared it with the guy who was helping me at the time. His only input was to drop the extra "mi" from my first name. So instead of it being written as Tokimi it's just Toki. I still use "lore" to say it's still Tokimi, but it sounds to much like a my sisters name/girls name so just call me Toki.

Plus I can now make all the time pins I want since Toki means time in Japanese.

And no I didnt get it from Metalocalypse.

[Cincierta]

All of my character names I've had since I've played FF11 or other games waaaaaaaaaay back in the day, or primarily DFO. Though I will admit having to come up with last names that fit them had me thinking for a while. Some were actual characters I had made, some were pet names I made up on the fly. DFO gave me a bit more flexibility with creative naming as you could only have a singular name to name your character/pets with after one of their updates.

My forum name I've had since my high school Spanish 4 days, as my real name really didn't have an actual translation over from French to Spanish, and the one my teacher gave me for the class didn't fit either.

[Iscah]

In the order that I came up with them:


Aurelie Moonsong (female Midlander)

"Aurelie" was just a name I had in mind as something that would be cool to use for a character sometime. With more lore-knowledge it probably should be an Elezen name, but I'm going with the excuse that she's Gridanian and there's got to be some degree of crossover with naming ideas.

I think I just started throwing different words together to come up with a surname, but I'd very nearly settled on "Riversong" until I realised it would be taken as a Doctor Who reference. The actual intent was referencing a few different overlapping-in-my-mind things together, but most linkably the song "When the River Meets the Sea" and the closing poem of Alice Through the Looking-Glass.

(I had no idea the Moon would actually be somewhat important as a plot element, but in the end it's been a neat coincidence of Dalamud and summoner's association with Bahamut.)


Brynwyda Tidesong (female Sea Wolf)

Far too much time was spent re-re-reading the Roegadyn name dictionary trying to find a name that sounded nice, had a good meaning and didn't look dauntingly unpronouncable. Starting with the relatively limited choice for female name-endings, I picked "-wyda" (willow) as an association to her tank role via the Bole card.

In the end, her name means Spring Willow and I'm happy with that. No desire to go through the process again to work out her actual surname.

As with Moonsong, Tidesong started with throwing words together - loosely on a sea theme this time. I did want to find something else so they wouldn't have matching names, but I kept coming back to how those sounded together and decided to go with it. Moon and Tide. It seemed appropriate.


Sylviel Terrechant (male Duskwight)

I just ended up browsing NPC names this time, by looking up the NPC lists on Garland Tools in locations where there would be lots of Elezen. I wanted something that wasn't too long or reliant on French pronounciation (because I'm sure I'd mispronounce it), and preferably not found in the character creator. "Sylviel" ticked all those boxes.

And surnames - there was a pattern for them now. So "Earthsong" for Duskwights' links to caves, and then I thought I should maybe translate that into French (and hope I didn't mangle it)...

...and of all the luck, Terrechant is an actual Duskwight surname in the generator.


Haru Kazeuta (male Raen)

A race that uses real-world names? So much easier. Went browsing through this list for ideas. Haru has a few different meanings including "light", and I liked the sound of it.

Surname "Windsong" (for an easy-going 'travelling for fun' character) again possibly-mangled though online translation, and with no lore excuses this time. Hopefully the Japanese players aren't looking at it and thinking "yeah, you must a clueless English speaker who doesn't know how apply Japanese grammar to that"....

[Melichoir]

I just named mine after some characters I had written a long time ago. I tend to like names that are bit sing song-ish/rhyme like.

[HyoMinPark]

I understand your feelings. I thought about making this post a good while since it is personal stuff, but in the end I thought that nobody has to answer my (possibly intrusive ) questions so I made the post. And I'm glad you chose to answer, all of your names have so interesting backgrounds (yes, I read them all)

Awh, thank you. ^^ If at least one person enjoyed reading about them, then I’m glad I shared! I don’t dislike sharing, but sometimes I just wonder if others will understand things like why I chose the name I did, and/or why they mean so much to me. X3 As I said, I’m a bit of a nerd with names, and could spend forever just thinking up of the perfect name for a character.

[Hugowulf]

I used to love playing a fighting game called bloody roar, the boxer woofman was my all time favorite. Though since his name was yugo, I thought Hugo would be more fitting. I used to main monk but I enjoyed tanking a lot more.

[Fawkes]

I've been using the name Fawkes online since 2000, when available. So that's what my FFXI character was named. I got the name from the sci-fi channel original series "The Invisible Man", which I'm fairly sure nobody else on earth liked. People usually thought it was because of the phoenix from Harry Potter or the V for Vendetta guy's mask, which would probably both be more respectable choices to have taken a name from.

In FFXIV I needed a last name, and I knew someone with the last name Macleod, and I liked the combination since it didn't feel like an overt direct reference to one thing, like maybe people would think I just like the Highlander. Also I think some people probably mispronounce it and don't get that it's Star Fox, I get a lot of mid-dungeon "Oh lol, I just got your name". Which is preferable to people constantly telling me to do a barrel roll.

[Alestorm]

Oraina was the name of my main character in WoW and I just hit random on the last name until I had something I could easily remember how to spell. Nothing too fancy or cool, I just grew to like the name.

[Malzian]

Honestly I just come up with random names, no real rhyme or reason. Basically all I do is imagine what the character I want to make is like and let the name develop in my head organically. Guess it's years of RPing... The only time I ever followed a formula was playing LotRO where i wanted the name to fit the very specific lore... "Giltharan DarHalven", elf from Edhellond... I still love that name.