Name sources

Character sheet archiving. Help with characters can be solicited here. This is also the place to talk Philsys or other RPing systems.
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PriamNevhausten
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Name sources

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Tue Jul 15, 2003 2:32 am

Where do you people get your names for characters and such?

Mine is pretty simple. I get people's names from people's names. Every time I take an order at work where they pay for a credit card, I look at the cardholder's name, and steal it if it sounds cool. Milo got named this way, as did my newest character (to be revealed later, perhaps), and I've begun simply writing down a list of neat first names and neat last names.

Your tactics? <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"When I started training in Gung Fu, a punch was just a punch, and a kick was just a kick.
After training for a few years, a punch was much more than a punch and a kick was more
than just a kick. Now that I have trained a long time, a punch is just a punch and
a kick is just a kick."
-Bruce Lee, "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do"</span></p>

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Endesu
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Re: Name sources

Unread postby Endesu » Tue Jul 15, 2003 2:58 am

End was out of random selection. Reshiki, too.

Okan, made it up. Astrynax, made it up.

Etc etc <p>

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Darkphoenixfri13
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Darkphoenixfri13 » Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:21 am

Made up, names of friends, mythology, other languages.. <p>

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Uncle Pervy
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Uncle Pervy » Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:40 am

Depends on what sort of character I am making.

I gank from Mythology when the characters themselves are somewhat mythological in scope; Save for Enlil. Her name was a result of her creator's madness at the time.

Generally, I lean toward very simple names; English or sometimes simple Japanese or Latinish names. If I don't, there is generally a reason for it. Mostly English ones.

If a character does not fit the naming scheme, it means they have changed from their original roles. Choko outgrew (No pun intended) her original role as background to Zemekis when she came to Second Gen. Darrow did so as well; I never intended him to be a major antagonist when he first came to be.

And sometimes I toss it all out the window :D


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Shinigori V2
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Re: Name sources

Unread postby Shinigori V2 » Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:46 am

Similar to Pervy. Very similar, except alot more random then based on anything. Usually though, when I come up with a character from a certain country, I try and come up with a suiting last name. The exception to this is Jaeko, whos Barian, and should thus have a slavic/italian last name, but instead has "Williams" for a last name, as he aquirred his surname from someone else. <p>

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Besyanteo
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Re: Name sources

Unread postby Besyanteo » Tue Jul 15, 2003 7:48 am

I just make them up. Always. Some more original than others... Jeridan, Derek, Saedeus, Bes, Anteo (previously Besyanteo), Kevin, Henry, Darrel, Nameh, ... Feisal actually got named by Phil, and is the exception.

whee.


Rainbow Fright
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Rainbow Fright » Tue Jul 15, 2003 10:36 am

Rainbow Fright....is obviously a pun. I've been using it for an age and a day, so I stuck with it. Of course, her real name is Japanese in origin.

Nearly all my characters have names that are Japanese in origin, I think. Sometimes I come up with ones that have a meaning behind them, other times I take the stage names of two J-Rockers and stick them together to form a full name. An example of this would be Yuzuki, Rain's schizo crossdresser cousin. I took Yuzuki from Beata and Hakuei from Penicillin and there ya go. Yuzuki Hakuei. <p><div style="text-align:center">"Hey mother look at me,
I made my connection
As I'm steppin' into heaven
Hey, don't you pity me
I'll put on perfection
As I'm steppin' into heaven"
- Zilch,"Into Heaven"</div></p>

Koneko
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Koneko » Tue Jul 15, 2003 11:24 am

Any number of ways, really.

Pelm, Zixon, Gathoniel, and several others I made up.

Culat, Vorit and Ticon, I looked down at my keyboard and saw "cal*culat*or," "fa*vorit*es," and on the board, "pos*ticon*s." ^_^

Jenna happened to be the girl sitting in front of me in class when I made her character.

Hippolyta is a character from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Maglor was given from a site that took your name and gave you an Tolkien-esque elvish one. Tom Bellinger = Maglor Saralonde.

Selynu was made from a fantasy name generator that Jak linked to in a different thread, and Coulson is the last name of the actor that plays Tom Riddle in the second Harry Potter movie.

Kazuhiko Aoki (thought I'd mention him, just for posterity's sake :{) is the producer of Chrono Trigger.

And Koneko has been my handle for three or four years, now. <p>
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Jak Snide
 
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Re: Name sources

Unread postby Jak Snide » Tue Jul 15, 2003 12:50 pm

Jak Snide was made up when I was young, dumb, and didn't know what "snide" meant, beyond the fact it sounded cool. Jack Soloman (Jak's real name) was created because no sane parent would name their kid Jak. As you might guess, I just took some normal names.

Kilraianjja was, simply, made by mashing the keyboard and adding a few vowels, then edited slightly so it was pronounceable.

Otherwise I just tend to make stuff up, with a little keyboard mashing to help out. As of late, though, I find that random name generators often produce suitable names, although I keep generating till I find one I like.


CaptainCommando
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby CaptainCommando » Tue Jul 15, 2003 1:27 pm

...I make up all my names, in every game I play. I can stand to use random generated names. <p>

Clothes do make the man. As naked people have little or no influence in society.- Mark Twain.

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Blaze Yamato Spirit
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Blaze Yamato Spirit » Tue Jul 15, 2003 1:42 pm

Generally I make them up. Occasionally I steal names from people I know/meet if they sound cool, however.

Trae is my only character who was named by use of a generator - but Trae isn't his real name, anyway. <p>Best Quote Ever: The treat of Keet grabbing his crotch worked last time, but... *shrugs*

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Re: Name sources

Unread postby FlamingDeth » Tue Jul 15, 2003 2:11 pm


Divinegon2130
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Divinegon2130 » Tue Jul 15, 2003 2:15 pm

Okay, I'll admit it, quite a few of my characters' names come from cartoons, video games - heck, popular culture in general.

The vast majority, however, are either randomly generated or made up. One rather strange example of this is as follows: one time I was fooling around with an NPC generator for Dungeons and Dragons, and I decided to make some kobold NPCs. One of them happened to have the name "Banlix".

Among the ones ripped from (semi-)popular culture, there's Belial and Azmodan (these two came from the original Diablo), but some other examples include Zorak (who most people know as Cacelal; the name "Zorak" comes from Space Ghost, I think) and Miles (AKA Igasayi; "Miles" is a reference to Tails from the Sonic series). A lesser-known example would be Dravis (who I believe comes from the Descent series).

In addition, a few names were based off cartoons and such. The example I think of most distinctly are the demons Thompson and Jeremiah (whose names are, incidentally, based off the cartoon character duo of Tom and Jerry).

.......okay, I'm gonna stop with this now, as I can't remember every character name's origin. <p>

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Lord McBastard
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Lord McBastard » Tue Jul 15, 2003 2:56 pm

Much like FD actually as seen here

I take an aspect of that character and search it up. Example;

Abigail - God is Joy

Or if I need a French sounding name I search for all names French in origin and browse the list until I find a pair that fit.

Martel DeFrayne is a good example.

Or just two names that fit together nicely.

Byron - Cottage or barn.
Tavarius - Misfortune.

Byron Tavarius - Barn misforture.....huh? <p><div style="text-align:center">
Yeah with enough cheese we could blow up just about anything.-Tyler Durden (misquoted)</div></p>

Banjooie
 
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...I put too much thought into most of the Neo Vanists.

Unread postby Banjooie » Thu Jul 17, 2003 11:15 pm

Hm, let's see.

Diran Ilsvire - I was making names up really quickly, and for some reason I was stuck on 'ends in a vowel and n', as you could see in Lavoran, Diran, and Navin. >_> Poor Navin, and that poor poor SeeD RP. But anyway.

Ilsvire came about because I decided I wanted a name that sounded sort of seedy. Like the guy down the street who you don't really want to talk to but you do anyway. Maybe it didn't come out that way, but that's how it started.

Nagan - Well, it was on the spot, and I sorta went 'Diran, Diran..uh...um...Niran...no, Nigan, no...um...Nagan. There we are.' Wilthere sounds kinda snooty in my opinion, so, yeah.

Meldon - Yeah, Meldon got a bit part at first. I went sort of for an aquatic theme. Palith? Well, that came from 'pale'. o.o Since he was like, the weak sort of wishywashy (ooh, pun) one.

Fenron - Meldon and Fenron are opposite elements. So, in typical Neo Vanic style, I have them act almost the same. Fenron's vaguely sort of fire elemental related, and Malgmar, well...um, Malgmar. So yeah.

Hzar - Ripoff of Microprose's MTG game, which had some Black-using wizard with a Z as the second letter in his name. Danill? Well, I wanted a normal sounding last name for him.

Pelos - Mercedes Lackey, Pelagir Hills, and Pelos sort of sounded vaguely angel-ish to me. Don't ask. Nothalin, well...um...Nothing. >_> I'd sorta hated how little work I'd put into Pelos, and still do.

Jinto - ...Okay, I was running out of ideas. And I thought 'Hey, I need a good name.' So I looked at a Jinjo from Banjo-Kazooie and thought 'Well hey.' So there we was. Ernpol, well, um, came from 'Urn', which sort of made me think ceramics and earthy.

Yinnea - I couldn't have all the Neo Vanists be guys. Especially since Vane had girls. And well, Yinnea just sort of sprang up out of nowhere. Now, Daysom came from Daytona beach. Big yuppie bubbleheaded female area. Exactly what Yinnea would have us believe she isn't. :D


Oh god I have DF chars okay

Derek ..I can't remember his last name. - ...Well, Derek is a really really non-criminal sounding name. You don't hear about evil Dereks, because they don't exist.

Syllius Arthialus - He needed a really big fancy name, and well, this was an opportunity to dig at you guys. 'Silly Art Ye All' with a bit of Latin put in there. Since there was the big thing about balancing stuff, and, well..anyway, yeah...


This post is too long :(




Zephie57
 

Re: Name sources

Unread postby Zephie57 » Fri Jul 18, 2003 8:46 am

For the really desperate, there's always the Everchanging Book of Names (EBoN). :)
<p>Usually, I just think up random names myself, sometimes basing them on existing names of people I know or from books or such. I don't have any chars here yet, but other RP chars I've had were Shanna Lowaine, Ryana Lowaine (not related in any way, just forgot that I'd used that last name already, heh), Caeryn Arisarn, Jia'lar Chalas, Tivana Welchon, Mina, Ari... just to name a few examples. <p><div style="text-align:center">"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein</div></p>

LadyDragonClawsEDW
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A tale of a fateful trip...

Unread postby LadyDragonClawsEDW » Fri Jul 18, 2003 10:10 am

I take the letter A and add other letters to it.


Dark Xia
 

Re: A tale of a fateful trip...

Unread postby Dark Xia » Fri Jul 18, 2003 10:20 am

Ethra came from the word "ether" somehow.

Devi came from Devil (kind of obvious)

Elijah came from the bible (another obvious)

Usually I just use whatever sounds good to me. <p>Image
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Reako Somner
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Re: A tale of a fateful trip...

Unread postby Reako Somner » Fri Jul 18, 2003 11:18 am

I don't know how I came up with Reako Somner. One day I just.... did.

As for Hamilton, he's a knight in my FFT game, who had a habit of not dying no matter what the odds were against him. Heck, he even defeated Velius. So when Jak ran a temp character RP long long ago, I used Hamilton.

Salith Bradshire.... got the name "Salith" from a character in Exile. Pretty tough guy, him. As for Bradshire, I was reading LotR at the time and Brad+Shire just sounded cool to me.

Valzar Du Lac, the Bane Lich, lord of evil, and a lvl 125 Pure Evil Alignment character a friend of mine had in thieves world. One day I needed a villian for a story, and he filled the part nicely.

Marius Tristam, a character I've yet to use and probably never will in RPGWW. Got the name Marius from french class, and Tristam's a guy from FF:MQ. I thought it sounded good together

Marse Ruglia, ok, honestly, I did NOT see Ramza's fake last name until someone brought it up. Well, whatever, Marse is another one I just came up with on my own.


Archmage144
 

Re: A tale of a fateful trip...

Unread postby Archmage144 » Fri Jul 18, 2003 7:23 pm

Hakaril was some random name that happened to sound good that came out of my brain when I was thinking of a name for an Everquest character way back when. He picked up "Silvar" derived from "Silver" when I joined RPGWW, and I gave him the middle name "James" when it occured to me that he looked (vaguely) like James from Pokemon. Likewise, James Paynus Silvar gets his name from his father (and his middle name from his mother, who insisted he have a demonic middle name to keep with the family tradition).

Chandler is taken straight from a friend of mine who we decided looks like Chandler from Friends. XD "Sablemech," his surname, is derived from Mechwarrior, and is a stereotypical-ish fantasy sounding "compound name."

Fenn is somewhat like "Fern"--somehow, I associated the name with nature. Again, "Foxfire" is a fantasy compound name.

Kage is Japanese for "shadow." Sentan is Japanese for "lance." Yeah, that should make sense. Likewise, Makura is a word for "darkness"--and "Kuragari," his surname is also darkness related.

Karisuma, shortened to a more Chris-like Karis, is Japanese for "charisma." Obviously a foreign word adapated for the language. Heru is Quenya (or perhaps it was another Elven language, but I think it was Quenya) for "tongue/language" if I remember correctly.

Xzar'il is something random that sounded good for an illithid--which is the case with many of my NPCs and villain types. They often get names from generators or that just happen to sound good at the time, though I often come up with really crappy names if I'm not thinking well. <p>
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