Ugh! Name Problems

[Jesulus]

I dont know how everyone else feels about this, but I feel that my characters name is just as important as the build. Its your alias for the lifespan of your character, it defines you, it is you. And I find it extremely hard to find a good name for toons these days, I spend literally near an hour trying to create a name for my character only to find that all of the names I think of are taken, and I get stuck with one I dislike. I love originality, and I can easily think of original names, but if I'm not feeling good about the name I wont take it.
I personally think that all of the old characters that are between lvl 1 - 3 and haven't been played in awhile should be deleted as to make more names available for people.
What do you guys think?

[xanvar]

I think deleting and changing names is up to the player and not the devs. They have enough power to mess the game up, lets not give them more. If you really want a name, try using myddo, if the person that owns the name is on the forums and does not use that character you may be able to convince them to give the name up. Pretty unlikely but worth a shot.

[DoctorWhofan]

I am of two minds of this: on one hand, those people may come back, there are alot of people who came back after a few years on the other hand...

It sucks not having the name you wanted.

However, glass half full option...outside single letter changes that I have on several servers (and on LotRO for that matter) I find trying to find a name that is cool and unique became a new game for me. Orinell is an example, and Lennieral for me was another.

Then again, I got Names that i wanted on my server, so you can say I am pretty happy with that!

[Stormwine]

I know how you feel My first choices of Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet were taken so I had to settle for Pinotnoir. I mean that stuff is really bad but at least its red! Am I right! (And yes this is a serious post just look at my Sig)

[brandywine]

if someone has a name you wanted i guess you werent original they were.and i also guess you are f2p, if you had joined back when the game launched or soon thereafter you would have your name.another guess is the name you want is one used in a book or tv series again not very original.

[katana_one]

An hour per name? You must have some very high standards (or unrealistic expectations).

I've never spent more than five minutes on one, and I'm pretty happy with all of my characters' names. Granted, I've only got 5 at the moment, but I'm pretty happy with them.

[Jesulus]

if someone has a name you wanted i guess you werent original they were.and i also guess you are f2p, if you had joined back when the game launched or soon thereafter you would have your name.another guess is the name you want is one used in a book or tv series again not very original.

Its never from a book or TV show. And I'm not free to play.

[DToNE]

Is it really that hard to become natural? It kind of reminds me of a small joke I heard a while back.

Sephiroth110: Hey, have you seen Sephiroth985 today?
5ephiroth539: Nah, I heard he's hanging out with Sephiroth887 today, that bastard.
seph1r0th987-5: Psh, not like he can be a real Sephiroth anyways, not like 655.



You get the picture. Originality sure has it's benefits.

[Jesulus]

Is it really that hard to become natural? It kind of reminds me of a small joke I heard a while back.

Sephiroth110: Hey, have you seen Sephiroth985 today?
5ephiroth539: Nah, I heard he's hanging out with Sephiroth887 today, that bastard.
seph1r0th987-5: Psh, not like he can be a real Sephiroth anyways, not like 655.



You get the picture. Originality sure has it's benefits.


Haha, yeah I really enjoy that.

[PopeJual]

and i also guess you are f2p, if you had joined back when the game launched or soon thereafter you would have your name

This is true. No ViP players or Premium players have been added since the game was launched or soon thereafter. All players who came in since then have been f2p.

[jwdaniels]

I had a claw scrapper in City of Heroes named the Jaguar. My buddy (the Id) and I were catching the train in Paragon City and walking out of the train car was the Jaguar2.

Needless to say, we followed him around Paragon City pointing out to everyone that I was so great that normal citizens were trying to be just like me.

[Dragonhyde]

Also never assume that because you myddo a name and it is low level that it is an inactive account. I know several that have mules and nameholders.

[Memnir]

Opinions on this are irrelevant beyond Turbine's opinion... and they've repeatedly said they will never purge names. See, they want players to return - and taking away their names will ensure that some players would never come back. And they're right. I know that if my character's names were removed - I'd be hard pressed to enjoy the game after taking a break.


Try Thesaurus.com (http://thesaurus.com/) or any number of fantasy game name generators if you are truly stuck. But, there are tons of great names still available, as I'm amazed to find each and every time I roll up a new alt. And I tend to roll up a lot of new alts...

[Loki]

I know how you feel My first choices of Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet were taken so I had to settle for Pinotnoir. I mean that stuff is really bad but at least its red! Am I right! (And yes this is a serious post just look at my Sig)
I'm a fan of Viognier, myself.

[Jesulus]

Opinions on this are irrelevant beyond Turbine's opinion... and they've repeatedly said they will never purge names. See, they want players to return - and taking away their names will ensure that some players would never come back. And they're right. I know that if my character's names were removed - I'd be hard pressed to enjoy the game after taking a break.


Try Thesaurus.com (http://thesaurus.com/) or any number of fantasy game name generators if you are truly stuck. But, there are tons of great names still available, as I'm amazed to find each and every time I roll up a new alt. And I tend to roll up a lot of new alts...

Yeah, thats my favorite way of doing things, thesaurus.com helps a lot when you just want a one word type of thing.

[DToNE]

Dunno, names like Isentier, Debryuugis, Kyrlintor, Abagus, etc etc etc. It's really not that hard to create new names, just have some template in mind, like "I want it Norse Sounding" or "I want it Greek sounding".

[PopeJual]

You could also put a one word constant with another changing word after it as your name.

JesuslusFTR
JesulusCLR
JesulusXPLTR
JesulusFvS
JesulusEvasionPaladin

I'm sure you could do a better job of coming up with the different names to put at the end of your name.

You could also surround your name with a signature character
abcfighterabc
abcclericabc
abcexploiterabc

[Symar-FangofLloth]

You could also surround your name with a signature character
abcfighterabc
abcclericabc
abcexploiterabc

How dare you suggest this?
I despise all those Xxxvv~~~sephirothdo'urden~~~vvxxx Or however they do it.
I mean, it generally looks bad as a screen name. Let alone a character name.
:p

[Jesulus]

How dare you suggest this?
I despise all those Xxxvv~~~sephirothdo'urden~~~vvxxx Or however they do it.
I mean, it generally looks bad as a screen name. Let alone a character name.
:p


Lol, yeah, I think he was trollin.
Thanks for the help from anyone who did.

[Symar-FangofLloth]

Lol, yeah, I think he was trollin.
Thanks for the help from anyone who did.


You could also put a one word constant with another changing word after it as your name.

JesuslusFTR
JesulusCLR
JesulusXPLTR
JesulusFvS
JesulusEvasionPaladin


His first response is fairly common, at least. A lot of people keep a word or a portion of the name the same across all or most of their characters.

[itatchi83]

My experience with names:

I do become fairly annoyed when I spend time on a name that sounds epic, but then I find out it is already taken.

On the other hand, I just found out that Afroman was not taken (immediately rolled a toon lol)
So I am happy for now.

At least ill have a toon for when they finally put afros into this game :D

[samthedagger]

I have the hardest time coming up with warforged names. Simple stuff like Slash, Cutter, and Chopper are taken. But if I am just an eensy bit creative, I can find something. Often two words put together works great. I recently came up with Spellshock and Greatswing. Very warforged-sounding names and original too.

With other characters, I do my best to avoid popular names and variants based on popular names like the plague. I will never name any of my characters Alminster, Dryzzt, Raystlen, or Gandaalf. I sometimes use a name generator until I come up with one I like. Or I consult manual name generators to pick a combination of meanings I like. Malhallian Firath, an elf necromancer was one that I particularly liked. It means "War Pale Master of the Dark" (or Pale War Master of the Dark). Guess which prestige path I set him on. There are plenty of ways to come up with unique and original names that don't take an hour. My guess is that you are trying names like Bob, Sam, George, and Howard, or something to that effect. Sorry, but if the name you want is taken, you aren't as original as you think.

And it's just a game and just a name. How you play your character is going to be far more memorable to other players than the name you chose. They will likely remember your name only if you are a very good player, or a terrible one.

[Jesulus]

His first response is fairly common, at least. A lot of people keep a word or a portion of the name the same across all or most of their characters.


Indeed you do see that often, in fact I was going to make all of my toons have "esh" at the end of there name, like Presh, and Phresh, and so on, but I decided I didn't want that.. someone in my guild has flash at the front of all of his, works out nice if they make a new character, because you know who they are right off the bat haha

[Uska]

No they should never be delted I have know people who have quit for a year or more and if they came back to find their characters names changed or their characters deleted they wouldnt stay. It's not hard at all to make an orignal name and thats counting one the fits as a fantasy name and not some stupid thing like notgonahealu like some people do. just dont use a common choice simple.

[PopeJual]

How dare you suggest this?
I despise all those Xxxvv~~~sephirothdo'urden~~~vvxxx Or however they do it.
I mean, it generally looks bad as a screen name. Let alone a character name.
:p

I'm not fond of the people who get crazy about it, but I do like when I can recognise a person based on their naming conventions. All of my characters are Pope[something mildly inapropriate]. PopeQuagmire was the first character that I made where I was taking the character seriously with intent to cap.

Any opportunity for me to recongise the player behind the character is welcome as far as I'm concerned. As long as it doesn't have any Drizzt references in it.

[suitepotato]

A little creativity would mean you don't have a problem with names. If all the names you want are taken, you're not being creative. Haph Pint, Aneeda Pint, Downa Pint, Catcha Risingstar, Inspected by Number Thirteen, Uninspected by Anyone, these were not hard to come up with in under one minute.

People tend to get hung up on RP, or on vicarious living, pretending they are some character for the moment. It's really counterproductive. Chill out, and widen your horizons.

[DoctorWhofan]

My favourite name:

adflasdfjlseruf

[Sweetsoul86]

My favourite name:

adflasdfjlseruf

Gah, I hate names like that. I'm cool with super original names but make it something that I can pronounce even a small portion of it so I know what the heck to call you. All of my toons start with Kai and most of my friends and guildies just call me Kai for short since some of them are a little different to pronounce like Kailai (Ky-lye) is the pronunciation but I'd never expect a pug party member to get that so I just tell em to call me Kai.

Back on topic.. it's easy enough for me to come up with names, I have 14 toons in total right now and every one of them starts with Kai.

My bf on the other hand never names a character anything similar to another of his toons. His most recent creation is a wf barb named Puggernaught. He comes up with a list of names before he goes into character creation and like you he gets really frustrated if he can't find even one of them that isn't taken so I totally understand where you're coming from but as others have stated they will never alienate previous customers from returning by taking their names away.

[Beherit_Baphomar]

Have you tried Drizzt?

I'm pretty sure that's available.

[DoctorWhofan]

Have you tried Drizzt?

I'm pretty sure that's available.

what? with 2 "J's" and a silent "Q" ? I took it last week on all the servers.

[phalaeo]

How dare you suggest this?
I despise all those Xxxvv~~~sephirothdo'urden~~~vvxxx Or however they do it.
I mean, it generally looks bad as a screen name. Let alone a character name.
:p

/invite Vvvvvi+~~Drizz...........
Oh, screw it.

[Daliyn]

I only take names which don't sound too silly in voicechat. And I very much dislike names which are better suited to the newest version of a highpressure cleaner or an electrone microscope than a fantasy figure.

[Sweetsoul86]

I only take names which don't sound too silly in voicechat. And I very much dislike names which are better suited to the newest version of a highpressure cleaner or an electrone microscope than a fantasy figure.

High pressure cleaner name? Now I'm curious...

[Emili]

Emili Of the Mist and Rosewood Fretboard are pretty significant to me ... used to use variants of my own Eimile... i.e. Amilia, Emily, etc... though got to point I had
to start using my own tongue and and some other native names and play on words - Ainee Failte O Chroi i.e. "Aine" is Irish form of Anne (the name means Joy) the rest "Fáilte ó ChroÃ*" (a hearty welcome) - an Ode to Arkat. Ailiae Lui Le Chiele is "Ailia" (light) "luÃ* le chéile" (.... well let's not go there. ;))

[Daliyn]

http://www.karcher.com/usa/Home.htm

http://my.ddo.com/characters/?sname=karcher

Highpressure cleaner fanatics on 5 of 7 servers :D

[Mojo]

I agree with the OP. I recall signing on after the server merge to find my Rogue, Hasan, had been renamed to Hasan-Agonessen. Imagine my suprise, I was the first (and only) Hasan on the server, yet I was the one being renamed?! I have to say, it really put me off.

To this day, he's now Hassan (which is adequate, but not quite the same).

People didn't understand why I couldn't keep playing my Star Wars Galaxies character when they closed his server. It was because his name was unavailable on every single other server. I preferred to qut rather than rename him.

Some people do take this kind of thing personally, and seriously.

[Sweetsoul86]

I agree with the OP. I recall signing on after the server merge to find my Rogue, Hasan, had been renamed to Hasan-Agonessen. Imagine my suprise, I was the first (and only) Hasan on the server, yet I was the one being renamed?! I have to say, it really put me off.

To this day, he's now Hassan (which is adequate, but not quite the same).

People didn't understand why I couldn't keep playing my Star Wars Galaxies character when they closed his server. It was because his name was unavailable on every single other server. I preferred to qut rather than rename him.

Some people do take this kind of thing personally, and seriously.

I'm sorry I must be reading your post wrong....it is nearly 7am so I may just be braindead... you said you agree with the OP but you said you don't like having to give up your name? How is that agreeing that names should be purged? :confused:

[visionary1977]

I was pleased when I moved from EU - Devourer that all my names were available on the Cannith

Blackseed - YAY
Fondin - YAY
Religion - YAY
Annoura - YAY - Since deleted.. you better not steal my name, or I will hunt you down and tell you your naughty as I am the original Annoura.. then you will have to give me my name back out of guilt :P
Annaria - YAY
Dorstin - YAY
Bladevenom - YAY
Spellvenom - YAY

But dont go stealing any of the future names I just thought up in 30 seconds.. cos i will be miffed :P

Ragevenom (TM)
Healvenom (TM)
Whitesilk (TM)
Blacksilk (TM)
Greensilk (TM)
Redsilk (TM)
Malkontent (TM)
Seedy (TM)
Canny Findaname
Reely NotCreative
DoNot UseANovel
OrAny BookHero

:)

hehe

[Spookyaction]

It really is a double edged sword, I would love for them to recover some names but I would hate to be on the loosing end of that deal, however at some point i think its acceptable to delete unused toons or at least rename them. Anyways what ive noticed is, if you can name you character with 2 words people will always call you the 1st half anyways. So if you want to be called piker and piker is taken user pikerdelux and people will prolly just call you piker.

[Mojo]

I agree with the OP. I recall signing on after the server merge to find my Rogue, Hasan, had been renamed to Hasan-Agonessen. Imagine my suprise, I was the first (and only) Hasan on the server, yet I was the one being renamed?! I have to say, it really put me off.

To this day, he's now Hassan (which is adequate, but not quite the same).

People didn't understand why I couldn't keep playing my Star Wars Galaxies character when they closed his server. It was because his name was unavailable on every single other server. I preferred to qut rather than rename him.

Some people do take this kind of thing personally, and seriously.

What I mean is, I agree that people get attached to their names and want them. In a Free to Play game, I'm not sure a purge would be a good idea unless it was for LONG unused characters. Otherwise, you risk deleting a name from someone who might play again.

[katana_one]

DoNot UseANovel
OrAny BookHero


Aw, man! Now I have to go back and re-name 40% of my characters! :(

[Hambo]

Dunno, names like Isentier, Debryuugis, Kyrlintor, Abagus, etc etc etc. It's really not that hard to create new names, just have some template in mind, like "I want it Norse Sounding" or "I want it Greek sounding".

Or you could be goofy, like I try to be...

The name for my first rogue, for example, was to make fun of a common spelling error concerning the class. I wanted the name to be cheezy, hence "Frommage le Rouge"... could just as easily have been "Queso de Rojo", I suppose, but the pun lies in the fact that rouge is French for Red.

As you can see in my sig, my first FvS follows the pun pattern: Favored Soul, "Fillet O'Sole".

I also have an entire clan of Halflings on Orien: The D'Eggs. There's Boyle, Frie, Scramble, Merangue, etc. None of these names took me more than 5 minutes. Any that had already been used I just 'adjusted' the spelling a bit, as in Deville, and voila! Uniqueness!

[ArichValtrahn]

Do not delete players who havent logged on. Thats just wrong.

Make it so that the entire name has to be unique, not just the first name.

[uhgungawa]

Have you tried Drizzt?

I'm pretty sure that's available.

Nope, taken. But I hear Drizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt is still available :p


Or was it Drizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 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Can't remember which :D

[uhgungawa]

Do not delete players who havent logged on. Thats just wrong.

Make it so that the entire name has to be unique, not just the first name.

No, give the saps that haven't logged on in a year a name change token and free it up.

[ghettoGenius]

This has been argued over and over. At one time I tried to champion an effort to release unused character names or expand unique names to be both first and surname combinations. The only people with any real ammunition for this argument are people like me who were taking a break during the server merges and came back to find their names changed.

However I was generally greeted with disdain and outright hostility for supporting this idea and have pretty much let it go. I still have fun and have found other names to use, but I will always feel slighted in that sense, especially since all those names I lost were stolen by players who are long gone (never once seen them logged in), and it seems I missed the boat on the whole "your name and character will always be preserved" thing. This obviously turned out to be untrue in my case.

[DelScorcho]

Drizzt? **** taken!
(an hour passes)
Drizzzt? **** taken!
(an hour passes)
Drizzzzt? **** taken!

All the good names are taken!

[Mojo]

Heh, during closed beta at LoTRO, I saw a "Ggaannddaallff."

[HumanJHawkins]

I dont know how everyone else feels about this, but I feel that my characters name is just as important as the build. Its your alias for the lifespan of your character, it defines you, it is you. And I find it extremely hard to find a good name for toons these days, I spend literally near an hour trying to create a name for my character only to find that all of the names I think of are taken, and I get stuck with one I dislike. I love originality, and I can easily think of original names, but if I'm not feeling good about the name I wont take it.
I personally think that all of the old characters that are between lvl 1 - 3 and haven't been played in awhile should be deleted as to make more names available for people.
What do you guys think?

Meh. Just be more thoughtful. All of my names seem like they could be fairly common. Maybe not your cup of tea, but you have to admit that someone out there besides me would want them. And yet, I went through no more that 10 to 15 options for any of them.

I skimmed a dictionary around "blood" for my barbarian and saw bloodbath... I thought "That has to be taken", but it wasn't. I rolled a ranger (not too long ago) and thought of the lone ranger, called Kimosabe (Faithful Scout) by his friend tonto. Tried it. Bingo.

If those names hadn't been taken (on an OLD server that endured a merger of three former servers), then there are still plenty of good names out there. You just have to find them.

[Dark_Helmet]

There are people who want you to use fantasy names, but you have to recall some of the earliest names in the D&D mythos were plays on certain (Zagyg anyone?)

I try to think of a name where it is easier for someone to use the short name:
DarkHelmet (Dark)
Out Of Mana (Out)
Fleshlings must die (Flesh)
Slinkette (Slink?!) :p

[7-day_Trial_Monkey]

My opinion has always been.. who cares about names. I like a short name, 3 or 4 letters preferably. Other than that, I really don't care at all.

Bix
Wux
Gedo
Modo
Bebot
Wixy
Mashmo
Bani
Bulk
Ugee
Clin
Mucksy
Feem
Gets
Mantu

It hardly ever takes me any time to come up with a name.

[Cernunan]

So the other MMO i play designed a very elegant way of dealing with this.

In CO you have an account handle, say Bill. These are unique, everybody has one, you can't have Bill if there is already a Bill.
Each one of your characters has a name that is unique to your account, so you can have a Viper, as can everbody else have a Viper.

The way the game designates the character is Viper@Bill, with the option to hide the handle part of the name. The mail system works via the handle system, you can't send mail to Viper, you would have to send mail to a Viper@Bill, or Viper@whoever.

The advantage with that mail system is that the mail goes to the @Bill account, so you can open said mail on any of your characters.

[Myriam]

Heh, during closed beta at LoTRO, I saw a "Ggaannddaallff."

My favorite name in LotRO beta 1 & 2 was "Leggofmyeggolas".

Not my character, I was Glimpse, but still, it was a funny name.