I really like to name my characters something that fits in with the lore and culture of the race.
Example: In EQ the Dark elves tended to have names that began with a single consonant. T'something or N'something. Not all did though. The sur name having a consonant at the beginning was significant. It meant that you were born of a noble family. If you did not have it, you were of common breed.
Barbarians in EQ tended to have more Nordic sounding names. Not sure if that is accurate, but they sounded Nordic to me anyway.
I would absolutely love to see some documentation of naming conventions used in game for NPCs of each race. This way I could come up with a name that "fits" the lore.
I know not everyone cares about this and i'm not sure how many people would want this other than myself.
Do you like having lore friendly names? Is this information something anyone else would like to see? Would there be any chance of getting a write up of this type of information?
kellindil said:I really like to name my characters something that fits in with the lore and culture of the race.
Example: In EQ the Dark elves tended to have names that began with a single consonant. T'something or N'something. Not all did though. The sur name having a consonant at the beginning was significant. It meant that you were born of a noble family. If you did not have it, you were of common breed.
Barbarians in EQ tended to have more Nordic sounding names. Not sure if that is accurate, but they sounded Nordic to me anyway.
I would absolutely love to see some documentation of naming conventions used in game for NPCs of each race. This way I could come up with a name that "fits" the lore.
I know not everyone cares about this and i'm not sure how many people would want this other than myself.
Do you like having lore friendly names? Is this information something anyone else would like to see? Would there be any chance of getting a write up of this type of information?
I would frequently steal the surname of a guard or npc of that race. B'Dinn, Crystalwind, Binfurr, etc.
Krixus said:I would frequently steal the surname of a guard or npc of that race. B'Dinn, Crystalwind, Binfurr, etc.
thats what i'd like to avoid. I honestly don't like it when people do that. I would rather people not "write" themselves into the world by using a sur name thats already being used in game. Its a personal pet peeve of mine. Thing is, it's almost impossible to get a really lore friendly name without doing that.
I wouldn't mind a generator that did lore friendly names, but i'd end up modifying it anyway i'm sure. I'd just like to know before I make a character so I can plan it out for myself.
Glad to see i'm not alone in this. :)
I have no hopes of this happening but it drives me nuts when people name their characters with a name that isn't really a "name" in the traditional sense. Examples: Healzforu, Beatsyouup, Iamgod, etc. You see it in every game and takes the immersion that you are playing a role in a fictitious world down a notch in my opinion.
like I said, I'm sure there's no hope in stopping it but a boy can dream, can't he?
love the racial naming generator idea a lot
Some good info from Lore Master Istuulamae here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2349/naming-conventions
Bazgrim said:Some good info from Lore Master Istuulamae here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2349/naming-conventions
Thanks, I searched around for about 20 minutes and never came across this. Searching for either name, names, convention, surname and a few other terms.
I love that Kilsin passed it along. That gives me hope we might see something.
urgatorbait said:I have no hopes of this happening but it drives me nuts when people name their characters with a name that isn't really a "name" in the traditional sense. Examples: Healzforu, Beatsyouup, Iamgod, etc. You see it in every game and takes the immersion that you are playing a role in a fictitious world down a notch in my opinion.
like I said, I'm sure there's no hope in stopping it but a boy can dream, can't he?
love the racial naming generator idea a lot
You mean you won't be Urgatorbait in game?
kellindil said:Bazgrim said:Some good info from Lore Master Istuulamae here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2349/naming-conventions
Thanks, I searched around for about 20 minutes and never came across this. Searching for either name, names, convention, surname and a few other terms.
I love that Kilsin passed it along. That gives me hope we might see something.
No problem. The search function is pretty unforgiving sometimes. That's what I'm here for :P
I am not much of a roleplayer in MMO's, but I do definitely try to have my character names make sense from a lore perspective.
Krixus said:urgatorbait said:I have no hopes of this happening but it drives me nuts when people name their characters with a name that isn't really a "name" in the traditional sense. Examples: Healzforu, Beatsyouup, Iamgod, etc. You see it in every game and takes the immersion that you are playing a role in a fictitious world down a notch in my opinion.
like I said, I'm sure there's no hope in stopping it but a boy can dream, can't he?
love the racial naming generator idea a lot
You mean you won't be Urgatorbait in game?
absolutely not in game. Never ever ever.
kellindil said:Krixus said:I would frequently steal the surname of a guard or npc of that race. B'Dinn, Crystalwind, Binfurr, etc.
thats what i'd like to avoid. I honestly don't like it when people do that. I would rather people not "write" themselves into the world by using a sur name thats already being used in game. Its a personal pet peeve of mine. Thing is, it's almost impossible to get a really lore friendly name without doing that.
I wouldn't mind a generator that did lore friendly names, but i'd end up modifying it anyway i'm sure. I'd just like to know before I make a character so I can plan it out for myself.
Glad to see i'm not alone in this. :)
I did that for Dark Elves, also. All of my characters were in the X'Lottl family. I don't see how that's harmful, but I do think a race-specific name generator would be pretty cool. That said, I'm not sure how name generators work in games where you are forced to choose a first and last name at character creation. Has anyone experienced this?
urgatorbait said:it drives me nuts when people name their characters with a name that isn't really a "name" in the traditional sense. Examples: Healzforu, Beatsyouup, Iamgod, etc. You see it in every game and takes the immersion that you are playing a role in a fictitious world down a notch in my opinion.
You would love ESO (and the Elder Scolls universe in general), where the official convention states that Argonians often use descriptive names: Bathes-In-Blood, Catches-No-Fish, Slides-Down-Hills, Prowls-In-Stealth...
I made the most of it and named my Argonian characters (both healers) Mends-All-Wounds and Sings-Vas-Mani (Vas Mani was a spell in the Ultima games that translated as "greater heal").
Burnsmh said: Most mmorpgs have the automatic random name generator. But most of them are...terrible for lore naming conventions. I would LOVE for VR to put a random name generator in place that works lore specific.
I like the random name generator, then I take the one that appeals to me most and transform it somewhat, add something on the front of the name and something on the back to make it my own. Sometimes I have found however, that using the name generator, as it is, comes up with a name that someone has already taken for their own. That's why I always modify ..:) Also like to note that the name Canadina..was taken straight out of the name generator in the last phase beta for EQ1. Funny part of that name is, people who seem to be dyslexic read it as Canadian, which always gets me a few tells wondering if I am Canadian. Which I am, but wasn't the reason I chose the name. I just liked it..lol
I do like the idea of a lore based name generator but I would like to see one that could take an english word (for instance; Storm) and give the new character's race equivalent. However, I do have a couple of character names that I will be using before relying on a mechanic to create a character name for me.
(Krixus/Kellindil) I would have no problems with anyone using a name of a character (last name or first name) that has been documented in Pantheon lore or is an in game character. In the real world, you have plenty of people with the same forenames and/or surnames that have no family ties. Imo, it adds a bit of integration if you come across a player with a surname then bump into a npc with the same surname.
LOTRO has racial naming conventions discussed on the character creation screen. A helpful guide to those that want lore-friendly names.
If there is a roleplaying server I would love for it to go back to the traditions of the early days and actually enforce some naming rules. Not compliance with lore - that would be extreme - but at least avoidence of outrageously annoying names that really challenge immersion. Healing a tank named Ilovebigmacs isn't easy since I would much rather let him or her die, and not just because I prefer whoppers.
For that matter I would love even minimal naming rules on the "normal" servers - I mean going beyond the standard deletion of names containing profanity, racial slurs and the like. But I am not sure it would be good for the game - Ilovebigmacs probably paid the same subscription as I did.
urgatorbait said:I have no hopes of this happening but it drives me nuts when people name their characters with a name that isn't really a "name" in the traditional sense. Examples: Healzforu, Beatsyouup, Iamgod, etc. You see it in every game and takes the immersion that you are playing a role in a fictitious world down a notch in my opinion.
like I said, I'm sure there's no hope in stopping it but a boy can dream, can't he?
love the racial naming generator idea a lot
^ Yeah this. I've never understood why people in a clearly fantasy world game use a name NO SANE PARENT would name a child. Well, other than the fact they're not here to be a part of the world, but to accomplish X, X and X. Totally nothing to do with the lore the writers and creators spent so much time (and our money) to create. Frustrating. If I recall correctly, such Wehneer** names could be reported and were changed early on but then Sony took over and things became super lax and eventually didn't bother at all.
If they do a random generator it should default to a select bunch of names by race selected, maybe even faction if it is that big a deal at start. Can't be that hard, there are lots of sites out there that have generators. But also give a "general" generator for thos that want to break off from racial/faction inclinded or simply don't give a pffft.
I do like the idea of a lore based name generator but I would like to see one that could take an english word (for instance; Storm) and give the new character's race equivalent.
^ Now this in a game would be sweet but not sure they'd devote time/cost to it. Or any other name gen for that matter. They'd have to make a db of the lexicon for each language, which I doubt anyone but a writer has seen. Still, SWEET idea. I take words like "storm" or "leaf" and hit as many languages as I can to semi-match the racial language in game I'm aiming for, using mostly Google trans and a few conlang gens. Not sure that helps, but there you go, an idea. :)
As for the naming conventions of first and surnames. Have they said how that will work? Will it be like EQ1 where the first name becomes yours and only yours and everyone can have whatever last name (that wasn't against naming conventions)??? Certianly be more of a db programming stretch to vary from that but I love the idea. Some RL cultures work that way, but most we see are frist name can be given to many people. Interesting.
For that matter I would love even minimal naming rules on the "normal" servers - I mean going beyond the standard deletion of names containing profanity, racial slurs and the like.
^ Hate to have to play a select server just for this but I've been known to do it. Add in names that make a phrase or slang would help.
I chose my name back in 1999 when designing an enchanter. At the time I recalled the stories I had read about Cleopatra and Helen, among many others. I decided I wanted something from the real old countries and found myself looking at a list of donars to the Cairo Museum in 1995. The most popular name listed was Nephretiti. Close to Nefertiri but not really. And it really is a much more popular spelling today. Whenever anyone asked - I told em the truth. Never had a single complaint.