I was always wondering about the psychology behind picking the name for your character. From my long-term experience I can observe that there are at least three distinct groups of people naming their toons. It can be:
1) A serious name, which actually attempts to correspond with the warcraft lore, race language, be immersive etc. (i.e. Thor - dwarf warrior)
2) A cool looking contemporary name, which is neither too corresponding, nor too out of place (i.e. Razor - undead rogue)
3) A meme name, which is provoking, funny or simply silly (i.e. Pewpewlol - gnome mage)
Which group do you belong to? How do you come up with the name? Do you tend to stick with the same or try to come up with the new one every time?
I belong to the first one. I cannot play as a character without proper name and looks. My character creation usually takes me about 20 min. I like making generic names that suit the races. Although this time when Classic comes out I'm probably gonna stick with my signature name Faendor.
If I'm to make a:
Night Elf - Faendor
Dwarf - Faendur
I also cannot play as a female characters as I need to identify with the character.
I have the same naming convention across all online games I play. Something followed by ‘ling’.
Eg Teebling, Screbling, Goonling, Chubling etc lol
If I make an RP toon (which I have been reading about btw) I’ll give it a serious name that goes with the character I want to play!
I always try to name my characters something believable for that universe. It just feels right to me, and gives me that extra immersion.
I'm in the #2 crowd, usually using something related to my username.
I actually DO secretly think of "real" names for my characters, and backstories too... but in game, I'm just me. I do this mostly because I'm always brainstorming things about my characters, so I become dissatisfied with names sometimes. (I would hate to be stuck with something I no longer like.) Not to mention, I don't actually roleplay, I keep my stories to myself.
Cuppa
I like to name my characters in-game as characters from novels I have read. I like to think that maybe someone out there gets the obscure reference or has read the same book as me.. kind of weird but I like it :)
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I'm going to try to name all my characters after my favorite scotch
-
teebling • Alnir • Selexin • MasterDupes
At some point of my life I've even had the notepad file sitting in the documents folder called "names". Basically it was the list of names that randomly popped in my head and which I liked a lot, therefore wanted to use someday. It was never an immersive name, always more of a thing - like "Razor, Sunfall, etc." - which would more or less suit the character class.
You know guys, my suggestion is just to go for it and create a main character with the name you never used. Something completely different. First - it really gives some sort of the fresh feeling. But what is the most interesting - it also influences your play style, as subconsciously your brain is no longer flowing through the engraved patterns of action related to that particular name. Try it. You might be surprised. 
Interesting point there. I usually do choose different names but this time I wanted to make a reputation based name which I never did.Razor wrote: ↑7 years agoYou know guys, my suggestion is just to go for it and create a main character with the name you never used. Something completely different. First - it really gives some sort of the fresh feeling. But what is the most interesting - it also influences your play style, as subconsciously your brain is no longer flowing through the engraved patterns of action related to that particular name. Try it. You might be surprised.
What do you mean by reputation based name?
I mean that I would use name that I use on forums, discord etc. so I can build up my reputation.
This actually might be a thing. Or at least it was back in the day. Direct connection of WoW gameplay and the forums. Hope this returns with Classic.
I like this because it indirectly gives you kinda feel that you are unique and have your own place in the community.
There were many more aspects of WoW that gave you this feeling. E.g. Southsore vs. Tarren Mill, World boss rivalry, city raiding, Kazzak in SW, Blood Plague from ZG and many more. Those events were indirectly created, important to specify By Players, which gives the game feel alive. Those are some of the main reasons whyI love Vanilla so much.
Anything that doesn't break the fourth wall too much is fine by me.
An example for a rogue with bad imagination listed from best to worst:
- Stabron
- Stab
- Stabby
- Istabyou
- noobgotstabbed
I guess after "Stabby" is my cut-off point for names that are just "too much"
I'll just call myself by a name known to my buddies, sorry for the boring post 
This list actually goes along the categories of naming a character
The last one is pretty funny though. I feel that such name as "Noobgotstabbed" would make me somewhat overly-aggressive in the game, comparing with "Stabron" which sounds kind of noble and not pulling into brainless gankfest (corpse camping included).
I generally go for a name which sounds plausible within the universe even if it doesn't actually have a meaning or a use elsewhere. For example, I had a warrior called Reysal as a kind of twist on the more common name Ray or Raymond. I like things to be immersive as much as possible personally, I don't get naming yourself something outlandish it just diminishes it for me.
Also I know I'm reading way too much into this but when rogues have names like "Stabby" something as res previously mentioned it reminds me of the people who are like "Lol u fukn gey with ur rp sht get rekt lel kek"
I always try and keep names as short as possible, although I'm not totally certain why. I suppose it's partially because I believe that with a shorter name it's easier to remember. For example, if I was selling something in the trade channel that I'd soon have more of, a player may not want to add me as a friend but in an hour or two they'd remember about me and very easily 'w/ Slud' due to it being such a short name.
Another benefit of having a short name is that it looks and sounds great. Having one or two syllables in a name really makes it seem more genuine, and perhaps even more intimidating, if done correctly.
These may be my own thoughts, and perhaps others disagree, but I've always used short names - even though this can prove very difficult at times as shorter names are usually taken.
William Munny , the unforgiven movie, just perfect name for the rogue!
Long ago I just came up with it for my Death Knight alt in WotLK. I suspect - though it was not intentional - that the name was subconsciously inspired by the all-popular Nyhm at that time, but I wouldn't say it's a complete ripoff and there's plenty of other people with this name as well. Since them, whenever I did decide to make alts, I just went with derivative names (Nymesis. Nymexis. Nymerial. Nymix. etc.).
To me. it's a cryptic word, born out of "nemesis" and "nimble". I stuck with it because it stuck with me over the years.
I use Toastea because ever since I played Mortal Kombat I have always said "Toasty!" When doing something awesome. An amazing head shot in a shooter or a crit in D & D etc. Toasty is usually taken by someone less deserving, so I usually go with Toastea. I also like Toast and tea coincidently
Vikernes - Human Warlock - Arugal
