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

[VoltaAsura]

For me the easiest part to explain is my surname, which since my character and account are linked with Final Fantasy XI, my surname took the name of my Final Fantasy XI server at that time, Asura.

My first name is a different story...I'm a huge Björk fan and most of my internet life I've usually used a song or album title for a username. Around the time I started Final Fantasy XI, the teasers for her new project featuring Timabland, Antony (from Antony and the Johnsons), Toumani Diabaté, Min Xiaofen and Konono Nº1 were starting to surface, and the album title had been announced a few days before I created my account. So I considered it, and thought it fit. It's easy and fast to spell, pronounce and isnt necessarily feminine or masculine. I don't think anything else could've worked better.
I'm the type of person that normally takes forever to name a character, even moreso than it takes to create them. But Volta was a easy pick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJRiB...PR4oBjQ0fVCSmw

[WednesdayEve]

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

[VoltaAsura]

I'm really enjoying this thread. Keep them coming guys. =)

[Exn]

The first time I can remember being ever asked to create a "username" was waaaay back when I got my first AOL instant messenger account and I sat there trying to come up with something good but couldn't. Finally I decided I wanted to put ???? because I just couldn't commit and for some reason this had somehow become the hardest decision of my life (I was prolly around 12).

Of course it wouldn't take ????, so I tried 'Mystery'... because that's what the perfect name was to me.. a complete mystery. Anyway, that was of course taken already, so I thought I'd try Enigma, same meaning but also ended up being taken. I really liked Enigma and wanted it to work so thought if I added a cool letter it would still be good enough. Tried 'Enigmaz' but that was somehow already taken, so THEN I tried 'Exnigma' and got the dang thing to accept.

That was prolly 15+ years ago. I've used Exnigma for every game, and practically everything else since then. In XIV beta I decided to shorten it to what people usually call me in voice chat (pronounced 'exen' or 'X-N') and due to having to add a surname as well. Because I didn't want to use my full name from XI (Exnigma) I couldn't use Phoenix as my last name, even though that was my XI server. But since I wanted to make it work and really liked that last name (it does also happen to be the best mythological creature evar! Life, Death, and Resurrection.. It doesn't get much better than that) I dropped a letter so I could get the dang thing to accept.

[Atoli]

When I played Final Fantasy I on GBA there was an optional boss named Atomos, I thought the name was pretty cool, but I decided to change the 'o' by 'a' and this is how my name was born.

You scared me SO many times last autumn with that name xD
I thought "omg Atomos!!" ALL the time
Only after a while it would be: "Oh wait, it's a player..ah, the name is a bit different as well.."

[GodseijuroHiko]

Only the best anime ever!!!!!

[Obsy]

My name in XI was Obsydian. I decided to take its phonetics and put it into a semi canonical-sounding Miqo'te first and last name.

[Vanguard319]

My character is a recreation of my 2nd character from XI.



As for where the name came from, It was inspired by a photomorph I did when I was learning Photoshop. When I made my character, the hairstyle I picked reminded me of my "spiny sea kitten", so I took what limited Japanese I knew at the time and named her "Sea Urchin Cat".

[Vahn]

I used Gustav because it's what I named my Automaton in XI and I loved Puppetmaster. Lapis is an optional boss from my favorite RPG, Legend of Legaia. My path companion is Shantotto and my retainers are Ovjang and Mnejing (because automatons).

[Aislin]

This thread is really interesting to read. I can see a lot of thought was put into most characters' names, or for some it's just very clever.

As for my character's name, I'm thankful for babynames.com that I was able to make it up. I wanted her name to be fairy-tale like, but not sound odd or too long. I picked out her last name first; Aislin is a Gaelic name, meaning dream. I thought this would be her first name, but it was difficult to think up of surnames that flowed with Aislin. I was thinking so hard about it that the name resounded in my mind, until I eventually thought up of Echo. To break down Echo Aislin's meaning, it means a resounding dream. I liked it, until I learned of this game's use of echo. Now I feel like some wannabe. QQ

My chocobo's name is Horse. I know, it's really good. JK His real name is Kowloon, I wanted a racing-horse sounding name. He was named after the notorious walled city in Kowloon, Hong Kong. I think it's even better than Horse.