Naming your Character

[Mathy Stockington]

Over the years playing Planeshift I have learned it takes patience. Ask anyone who knows me, I have none, but I am learning. In any case, I wanted to write another story so I needed names, but I did not want to use a name already used by someone. So I spoke with my friend |Adrian| on IRC and we found names. It took a long time to do this.

This is what we did: I googled names of boys and he tried them in the character creation to see if they were used. Then we talked about girls names that I googled until we found good first names also. I needed appropriate last names fitting into the idea of the story I had in mind. So he helped me by putting the last name in also. Some were used and others were not, but they had to fit into my story so it took time to find the right ones. In almost an hours time of googling names and trying to see if they were used we got five names for my story.

I suggest finding a name, spelling it backwards, adding an extra letter, maybe ending it in a “O’ or an “A” for male or female. I also know a few people who used their real name and spelled it backwards. Realizing for a new player who knows nothing about Planeshift it might be difficult to find the right name at first, but a good role play can develop any character in game. That takes patience also.

Also please look at this link for naming policies. http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=31960.msg367015#msg367015

Any other suggestions are welcome.


Planeshift is great fun and I hope you enjoy it and welcome.

[Dajoji]

Interesting thread. I, for once, am the kind of player that takes forever to pick a name. It has to sound right, feel right and if suit the character well. Even when I change names of players who say "just use a name generator, I don't care about the name" I take my time to pick something good, most of the times I change a letter or two to make it sound better. I do the same with the characters I create for my events. I have spent a good deal of time thinking about names, and sometimes I have just created characters because I liked the name and wanted to "save" it. Who knows when you might need it, right? I can't help it, but there are two things I always take the time to get right for my characters: their name and their description.

I often wonder how other players go about this...

[Shaman]

I'm pretty picky about that, myself. I'm just bored of creating characters, though, so nowadays if I need to make a new one, I just pick a random name that I can pronounce and go along with it. My second character (the first being deleted), "Roboki Nashiki", it took me a while to come up with it, and it sounded pretty damn good.

[Parallo]

The best named characters are ones that incorporate real names but interesting ones. Like Rexford Fortune and Roderigo Mantooth.

[Mathy Stockington]

When I picked the name of my character(s) I thought about the character type I picked so that it would go together. The last thing I wanted was a big masculine for a small female dwarf.

'Huge Manis' would not fit my female dwarf  You get the idea.

It can be hard for a new player though.

[neko kyouran]

"Hugley Manis'

"huge" violates the naming conventions. 

[Mathy Stockington]

It was only an example neko, but I like Hugley for a Kran. Good job!!

[Pizik]

I would question naming a character on their personality/appearance. After all, all babies (of a race ;op) look pretty much the same, and all act the same, so presumably their name would have no real reflection on who they actually are in adulthood.

[Vannaka]

I would question naming a character on their personality/appearance. After all, all babies (of a race ;op) look pretty much the same, and all act the same, so presumably their name would have no real reflection on who they actually are in adulthood.

You.....  are boring.....         

[Parallo]

You.....  are correct.....         

fix'd

Unless of course there are somehow strangely accurate fortune tellers in Yliakum which I doubt there are.

[Bragan]

I would question naming a character on their personality/appearance. After all, all babies (of a race ;op) look pretty much the same, and all act the same, so presumably their name would have no real reflection on who they actually are in adulthood.

Hmm? It is well known that names have power, and that children pick up attributes based on their names. 

[Mathy Stockington]

Back on topic: any suggestions on how to pick characters names?

[Pizik]

When I rename a character I will take their current name and try to make a decent -sounding- variation to it. As a really bad example, Pwnzor would become Pwenith, Pwenil, Pwenick or Pwenir. I try to keep the first couple of characters the same as the original as best I can and keep some characters further in the name also.

As for original names for events and such, I will work a similar way, think of a starting sound I want, then elaborate on it until it -sounds- good, then decide on a spelling that works as well as possible.

[Mathy Stockington]

You know I forgot about last names. How do you choose a last name? Any suggestions?

[Pizik]

Exactly the same way, I avoid things such as "Bloodaxe" amd "Redbeard" purely because I don't like names like that ;o)