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Appropriate names for character?


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PoE is coming! And as release is getting closer it's time to think about the characters we want to create. But there's always one huge problem for me:

 

What kind of name is appropriate?

 

I don't know these races yet. I know the names of maybe three or four companions and that's it. How can I know if my chain of letters passes as a name for the race I want to play? Heck, maybe at some point in the game it turns out that it's a vulgar insult in their language. :D

 

So how do you approach this? Where do you get your inspiration? Or do you simply not care and choose the name your characters always have no matter what RPG you're playing?

 

Also if someone knows a cool name generator that doesn't give me the most generic fantasy names imaginable, that would be awesome. :)

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I usually look to existing mythologies/folklore/religion just because I think that's neat.

 

Making a mindflaying (cipher) death godlike, who I'm going to play from a stoic half evil-half neutral half villain (or chaotic neutral I guess), so I picked Samael for his name.

 

Samael, wrath of god. angel of death, has been regarded as both good and evil in jewish texts.

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Thanks sparklecat! That list is a bit short, but it's better than nothing. The notes about the frequency of certain letters are useful.

 

By the way, I think this name generator is excellent: http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/?q=namegenerator

It uses names from the world of The Elder Scrolls though, so depending on the race you select, they may not be appropriate. But the selection is huge - Morrowind alone had over 2000 uniquely named NPCs, if I recall correctly (because bandits etc weren't given a generic description like "bandit" in that game, but actually had a name).

I feel like some of the Redguard, Breton, Imperial and Nord names might be appropriate for PoE, especially if you switch out the letters a bit to match the names of PoE's cultures. For example it suggested "Kalortod" to me - in order to fit that into PoE, I guess I'd change it to "Calrthôd" and that'd be Glanfathan.

 

But as you can see, I'm really struggling. ^^ This is always hard for me because I have like zero creativity when it comes to names. I have to have some kind of source.

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Ask and ye shall receive.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Personal_Names

 

(The name differences are more by geographical area than race in this setting, I gather.)

Ok, ok that's difficult, read this  :grin:

 

What name would you suggest for a Godlike born in a small boreal dwarf colony in The White That Wends?

 

 

Hmm, both Boreal Dwarf colony and The White That Wends screams "Inuit-like culture" to me. So I'd go with something like that.

Here's a name generator for that: http://fantasynamegenerators.com/inuit-names.php

My favorite so far is Tiqriganiannig. Apparently means Arctic Fox. Actually, these names are quite awesome in general. Ataciara (Familiar Spirit), Irdlirvirisissong (Demon cousin of the moon), ... oh that last one is actually perfect for a Moon Godlike.

 

(By the way, I'm basing this on the one boreal dwarf we know - Sagani, who has an animal companion called Itumaak. Both sound like Inuit names. And The White That Wends is obviously a snowy frontier region with harsh conditions.)

Edited by Fearabbit
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Ask and ye shall receive.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Personal_Names

 

(The name differences are more by geographical area than race in this setting, I gather.)

Ok, ok that's difficult, read this  :grin:

 

What name would you suggest for a Godlike born in a small boreal dwarf colony in The White That Wends?

 

Um.  Me personally?  Because I haven't even named my own character yet, buddy.

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Ask and ye shall receive.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Personal_Names

 

(The name differences are more by geographical area than race in this setting, I gather.)

Ok, ok that's difficult, read this  :grin:

 

What name would you suggest for a Godlike born in a small boreal dwarf colony in The White That Wends?

 

Um.  Me personally?  Because I haven't even named my own character yet, buddy.

 

 

May I suggest xXxShadowAssassin420xXx?

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Ask and ye shall receive.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Personal_Names

 

(The name differences are more by geographical area than race in this setting, I gather.)

Ok, ok that's difficult, read this  :grin:

 

What name would you suggest for a Godlike born in a small boreal dwarf colony in The White That Wends?

 

Um.  Me personally?  Because I haven't even named my own character yet, buddy.

 

 

May I suggest xXxShadowAssassin420xXx?

 

Needs moar "k" sounds!

 

xXxShadowAssassinKillerKlown420xXx ftw.

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Ask and ye shall receive.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Personal_Names

 

(The name differences are more by geographical area than race in this setting, I gather.)

Ok, ok that's difficult, read this  :grin:

 

What name would you suggest for a Godlike born in a small boreal dwarf colony in The White That Wends?

 

Um.  Me personally?  Because I haven't even named my own character yet, buddy.

 

 

May I suggest xXxShadowAssassin420xXx?

 

Needs moar "k" sounds!

 

xXxShadowAssassinKillerKlown420xXx ftw.

 

 

A chanter named WeedWizard420Blazeit that uses Snoop Dogg's discography as his chants?

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Ask and ye shall receive.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Personal_Names

 

(The name differences are more by geographical area than race in this setting, I gather.)

Ok, ok that's difficult, read this  :grin:

 

What name would you suggest for a Godlike born in a small boreal dwarf colony in The White That Wends?

 

Um.  Me personally?  Because I haven't even named my own character yet, buddy.

 

 

May I suggest xXxShadowAssassin420xXx?

 

Needs moar "k" sounds!

 

xXxShadowAssassinKillerKlown420xXx ftw.

 

 

A chanter named WeedWizard420Blazeit that uses Snoop Dogg's discography as his chants?

 

Color him black with white facepaint and replace Snoop Dog with ICP, and you have the perfect XBoxLive character avatar.

Edited by Katarack21
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Needs moar "k" sounds!

 

xXxShadowAssassinKillerKlown420xXx ftw.

 

Also, moar ninjas and pirates.

 

 

 

And wow, imagine the possibilities:

"Oh Rapist, you saved my children. I will tell everyone about what Rapist did for us."

 

Then, when you come back to Trademeet Dyrford later, you will see a bunch of statues and when you click them, it says "Rapist, hero of Dyrford."

Edited by Zwiebelchen
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Okay, now that you all got that one out of your system, please get back to the actual topic which is not about stupid MMO names user names or childish names that are usually reserved for Blue from the Pokemon games. :)

 

Sure thing, fella:

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71478-serious-first-world-problems-how-do-you-name-your-characters/

 

Read all you want ;)

It would be of small avail to talk of magic in the air...

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That's a topic about what names people will giver their characters.

This is a topic about appropriate names given the setting of the game, and how to get inspiration for them. With the side question if that's something that's important for the people here (for me, it is).

 

This post, however, is very good:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71478-serious-first-world-problems-how-do-you-name-your-characters/?p=1592608

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Sir Stabalot. Lord Hackenchop, things of that nature. In FPS' I prefer titles like 'Bill from Accounting', 'Dave from Shipping'.

 

Edit: OP get off your high horse. Appropriate is whatever the player deems it to be. Just because you don't like it doesn't make it wrong, much less stupid. It just makes you the non-fun person with a large stick inserted firmly up their rectum.

Edited by Halsy

Midget soothsayer robs bank. Small medium at large!

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Huh? I'm not on a high horse. I'm not looking down on anybody's choice for their character name, but I'm looking for inspiration for suitable names given the cultures and naming conventions in the game, because those are names that I want to choose.

 

Messier-31 was implying that there's already a thread for character names, and I explained that this one is more specified because it's about names that fit the setting and where to draw inspiration from if you want to name your character this way.

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