EpicBattleAxe

Either I just call them SunDancer, leave the default or just randomise weird stuff… like "Waaaghboss" or "Gitthegreat"… (I have some "Couriers" and "Prisoners" ;))

Someone has a little RP neck eey? :P

Picking names has always been difficult for me as well. The first MMO I played was Final Fantasy XI on PS2. At the time, I had just finished reading Hamlet for the first time in high school and ever since then, it has been one of my favorite plays. I didn’t like the idea of just naming my character Hamlet, so I went with the pseudo-antagonist: Fortinbras. The coincidental thing at the time was that either the first or second Onimusha game had come out, and other people I ran into liked that I named my character after the main villain in that series. And it’s stuck with me all this time, so now with SWTOR I have two characters named Fortinbras, both for my main in a guild on another server and for the EBA guild. I didn’t play FFXI long though and it wasn’t until several years later that I tried out WoW. I went with Fortinbras again for my main, and continued the trend when I made an alt, Laertes after another antagonist in Hamlet. So when I made alts, for both of my SWTOR guilds, I named them Laertes as well.

Brent, the real problem that you might run into, and this is for anyone thinking about making multiple characters, is the Legacy system once you beat you Chapter 1 in SWTOR. This creates a surname that will carry across all your characters no matter the faction. It does not carry across servers though. When I hit that point with my first character, I had three other ones all around level 10 that I had to take into consideration. I needed to come up with one last name for Fortinbras and Laertes but also (and any EBAer should like these next two) Parzival and Daisho.

After talking with someone in my main’s guild that was good at picking names he suggested that, given the Nordic influence of Fortinbras, I could go with dane followed by some kind of descriptor, suffix, or prefix. That’s where I was inspired, his suggestion reminded me of a line in Beowulf where someone refers to their troops as Speardanes. Literally, a dane who wields a spear. I liked that but it didn’t seem right to me for all four or for the SW universe, so I thought on it some more and decided to go with Sunspear. It seemed vaguely familiar after I picked it, so I looked it up online and saw that it is the seat of power for House Martell in the George RR Martin books (I’ve only made it through the first two books so far). Best of all it seemed to fit all four, and I will likely use it again for the EBA guild. So if anyone has a character on Shadowlands and you see Fortinbras Sunspear, Rider of the Maelstrom (that’s my current title) feel free to say hello or done bear. Thus ends my ramblings.

@Brent
Honestly, half the time I'll use the random name generator and sound out the word… then keep hitting the randomize button while sounding out words, and then combine parts of the words until I hit on one that sounds good. Sometimes I'll look into mythology as well, but not quite as much as what you went through.

@Tannermh
The Legacy name is the one I mull over the most. Even though, it adds the surname to all of your characters on the server, you can still hide the name in the options menu though. You can also display it as a title ("The ___ Legacy") under your character's name. On my first character, I actually tried just closing the Legacy window when it asks you to enter a name, but every time you zone it pops back on screen again =/

@Serafym Oh god, that was annoying. It took me about a day to choose Sunspear so I came to know that screen very well. It was like the game was taunting me…

Well the name for my character is important but i never realy go as in depth as you do Brent. But i sometimes whip up ranom leters or a random name just pops up in my head and i sometimes stick a ´ or a `and sometimes a ' to the word and it instantly looks and sounds beter. Sure i cant say the damn word half the time but im my head is tounds cooler. And as of sometime in march we will get a legacy addon like thing whare we can make a famely tree for our character. And the legacy name is your characters last name. I belive its called surename? Or somethin like that idk. But i DO have a name in mind for a sith character on the Hanharr server but i dont know what race she is goin to be but i have figured out a neme that i want. Just hope its avaible.

I started off on an RP server, so I'm very much into putting a lot of thought into my characters, I've been roleplaying on sites such as livejournal much longer than I've been gaming online, so I take acuracy and consistency of my character seriously. I have a male human jedi knight, a female rattaki bounty hunter, and just made a male imperial inquisitor, who I really didn't expect to become so interested in.

I'll just describe my inquisitor for the moment, easier if I break this up across the thread.

Chapter III – Slave Names and Latin

I was just looking through the character creator when I saw the slave brands in place of scars, and realized that it was a great basis for a character to play. I made him with the leanest body type, not muscular, not trained, just fit enough for labour but not a warrior honed for combat, and I careully chose a complexion that had signs of sunburn and tan lines implying he'd been working in a mask or goggles for long periods of time in the sun, and his slave brand covers both sides of his face and his neck, not obtrusive enough to obscure his features, but still impossible to hide.

So I set about looking for a good name for him. A slave of the sith, given a chance at bloody freedom through toil and sacrifice, he'd be hateful, and violent, but not without cunning and guile. His hate and agressiveness would be reserved mostly for nobles, sith, jedi, beings that were considered "above" others. (When I hit Alderaan, he's going to kick it up a notch for sure) He needed to be comparably rather understanding and empathetic towards slaves and common soldiers, and at best a wary ally of the sith masters he encounters, with a plan to kill every master he's given. So how do I name an inquistor who persues personal power at the expense of the empire's upper caste? I could just name him Daniel Kaiser and be done with it, but I decided to find an authentic Star Wars universe name, so I started to look at the languages of the universe.

Enslaved by the sith, bitterly resenting the figures of authority, I needed a name to signify wrath and revenge, a new slave name he marks himself with as resentment of his past, a bitter taunt to the other sith lords to spit on their privileged positions and self-entitlement. I looked through huttese, sith and even bocce for good words, but revenge was beyond the vocab of these words. I'd used Mando'a for my bounty hunter, since Mandalorian is now a perfectly usable conlang thanks to good old Karen Traviss, but it wasn't appropriate for my inquisitor. So I looked back to (Get over the stigma) Phantom Menace, and looked specifically at the Tatooine sections for the slaves, and there at least, there's an awful lot of finnish being spoken. XD It seemed fairly consistent in the slave ecosystem there, so I took the Finnish word for vengeance, Kostaa, and shortened it to be more crisp, harsh sounding, and less reminiscent of my favourite coffee shop. And that's how he became Kost.

And his first name? One that reflects his newfound status and ambition. High galactic even predates ToR, originating in 17,000 BBY (before battle of Yavin), it uses a written format identical to latin, so I had either Adeo or Mereo to pick from. My trusty latin dictionary told me Adeo to represent an undertaking, that he's working to seize satisfaction in power over the sith that once beat him down. Mereo to obtain by service, earn completely, deserve well. To seize and obtain through service, to deserve and completely earn his victory, it echoed the sith code all to well.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
My name is Mereo Kost. And I will have my revenge. with a vengeance.

@Shin
That's a cool "behind the name" story. I've never known any role players, so that's an interesting perspective. Nice ending with the Sith code too.

I usually come up with strong names. Like Darius and Vash are some cool names, and then I do some variations depending on genre. Like Star Wars Vashaan, or Vashûl or some such. This time I made took my own name since it is old Norse anyway I chose the old spelling of my name, basically just putting an H in the middle an viola! My name on Hanharr is Frithjof, Jedi.. hoping to join Knights of the Axe.