Friday, January 25, 2008

051: What's in a name

The best thing about killing Illidan is undoubtedly this. I don't know how I lived without it! Being able to HS to Black Temple every 15 minutes makes travelling around the worlds so much easier, not to mention the Netherwing dailies.

Todays blog is gonna be a refreshing break from all the raiding I've talked about lately - it's gonna be about names. I've actually wanted to do this ever since I joined Kamuf and saw the guild list, but I've been too busy. I'm sure that in you too, in your travels around Azeroth, have randomly come across someone with a name that was just plain awesome. Either incredibly well fitting or funny or simply really cool. Well I want to hear about it!

Personally I name most of my characters names I come up with myself, or in the case of elves names put together from various elven dictionaries. Kahdri, for example, was made out of the ElfQuest characters Kahvi and Ahdri. Nemnes is from the elven word Nem which means white (she's pale and has white hair) and -Nes which means sister or daughter or somesuch. My horde bank alt is called Korathem, which meas Dark Dragon according to a different elfin word list. My main, Tieryn, is entirely made up, so I was surprised to discover that other people use the same name. Oh, and by the way, when I came up with it I did so with Norwegian in mind. It's not pronounced Ty-rynn, and it bugs me when people say it like that. It's Tee-eh-rynn. Us Norwegians don't say 'tie' the same way English people do. And then there's my neglected mage, whose name is the Norwegian word for Pancake. Don't ask.

My point is though, that some peoples names are simply awesome. In Kamuf, there's a warrior called Tantrum. How fantastic is that? Tantrum! It couldn't fit any better!

Then there's a feral druid called Lettuce. She told us the story of how she ended up with that name last night: She was on the character creation screen, contemplating using the name of one of her old characters but didn't really want to. Her boyfriend asks her what she'd like on her sandwhich that he's making and she goes 'Uhm, lettuce and... oh, that'll do.' I think it's brilliant.

Of course there's a bunch of people named after objects or food running around as well. I know a rogue called Toad. I've also seen Motorsaw and Refridgerator running around Shattrah. The only other priest (at the time) in my old guild was Tard. When I went to create a bank char for my RP Horde, I was surprised to discover that the name Nemesis wasn't taken. All awesome names. I love it.
So share yours! Which names made you go 'Hey! That's brilliant!'? Which ones do you wish you'd thought of first?

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Saw a rogue named "Stabalicious".

I have 'locks named "Entropy", "Hemlock", "Lilac" and "Døt".

I have druid named "Obliette".

Jesse said...

My druid named Calthrop.

Anonymous said...

After a long absence (after conquering a heavy habit), I have returned to Azeroth as "Moderation".

Scott said...

My first char ever was a Hunter named "Retlas"... which is my last name backwards :)

Papaya Bunny said...

Is it odd that I've always pronounced Tieryn that way?

I actually get surprised when other people have Kaledrina for a name too. I guess it means that there's a few other people out there that like Dresden Dolls? Same for Kalilock -- I did it jokingly over a guildie who took his main's name and added "druid" at the end of it since it was a druid, but yet there's a couple others in armory -- only 1 other of which is a warlock!

Papaya Bunny said...

Also, I have a hunter named Chickens (I'm so surprised that wasn't taken). Merely because I asked my father to name it.

Dave's priest was Nyuurai but he got sick of people calling it In Your Eye (it's some Japanese word for something) so he changed it when we transfered servers back to Pediatrics. Thus, I made a shadow priest named Toxicology.

His warrior was Biscuits (insert funny I in there instead of regular one) but he got sick of that too so name changed to Mitigate.

The rest of my characters are unfortunately random, but I like them. Faelira. Asparas. Vasha. I dunno what the druid's name is. :(

Anonymous said...

My main is a Tauren druid, Mayfield, after the Mayfield Dairy in the SE US. Gotta love turtle tracks ice cream. My favorite currently is my gnome mage Meringue, she's on a rp server, something about her father dropping her on the head as a baby....you know...Meringue, light fluffy and half baked :)

Ratshag said...

Got a human 'lock on me team what wanted the name "Vendetta" but that were taken so she went with "Salmonella". Is creepy and disturbing, but still feminine.

Once saw a hunter's pet crocolisk named "Luggage", which funnied me.

/emofire said...

Got a gnome mage thing named Veggie. Green hair of course. Then have got some druids named Treant and Swiftmend.

Saw a mage named Sheepology and a lock (I think?) named Crowspiracy.

Anonymous said...

My various and assorted character names come from all over. Annorah I ended up with after trying to get "Nora" or "Norah" on a 3 year old server. Annalira I made up. Angoleth was the name of a Diablo II character, now a night elf hunter.

I've always wanted to create a trio of gnomes though, with some friends. They should all have crazy hair. A warrior and two rogues - Tankem, Shankem, and Gankem. hee!

Anonymous said...

I had one toon named after a nickname of mine, Bob the goat. I rolled a second toon and was stuck. I had no more nicknames. I thought of the “rules” I wanted something that was easy to spell and say, preferably one syllable or two. I wanted something that was not common. I wanted something that described me or an aspect of me. Finally it struck me, what one word describes my physical activity? Lump. I sit there like a lump.

I then added my warlock Lumpodots, my rouge stealthlump, and my mage firelump. Later it was my druid that got the most laughs Lumpervate.

E said...

I think Tieryn is a very... suitable name for a human female, although I can't explain why. It just conjures up this image of a blonde, short-haired human female in my head.

I have a guildie whose druid is called Cuteip - cute Q-tip. /facepalm Not sure where he got that one from.

Saw a UD female rogue called Stabbeline in a battleground one day, made me laugh.

I always make up my characters' names - and then end up having no idea how to pronounce them. Eventually other people end up pronouncing them the way they like it on Vent, and I end up going along. (Main is Elysiane, notable alts Kaliah, Sareya and Rochalie)

Anonymous said...

My troll hunters name is Trollypollie. I like names that rhyme. When my sister made her account she named her troll hunter Rollytrolly.

Anonymous said...

I have two Norse names as Hoder (hunter) and Uller (pally), but by far my favorite name is my priest (MeSoHoly) and my rogue Sneekz. Most of my freinds have all their toons start with the same letter, V and X, which leds to some inventive combinations...

-Hoder
Bladefist US

Purrfect said...

There is a healy priest on EU-Turalyon called Omghesdead... cracks me up every time I see him around.

Chorius said...

Name of a dead Orc in front of SW bank... "dohwrongbank"

Logan said...

My favorites that I've seen in the world:

-An ally who is frequently in Orgrimmar, dead, lying on the ground for hours at a time named "Walkoverme"
-A former guildie hunter's pet tiger named "Caulk"
-Tauren warrior named "Futureburger"
-Gnome rogue named "Stepstool"

I get a lot of people laughing at my alt, a Draenei paladin named "Oldtuna" (don't ask).

Bonus points to people who pst me with props for my main's name "Obnauticus" (any Aqua Teen Hunger Force fans out there)?

Anonymous said...

My Undead bank alts with the straped faces are named Tiedup and Tieddown.
I've got a Hunter named Sprain with a pet named Ankle.

My main is named Guilder after one of the two countries from the movie "The Princess Bride"

Various Florins and Guilders spread across many servers too numerous to mention.

I can never seem to get the name Wesley though...

Anonymous said...

All of my names are Irish Gaelic, sometimes modified a bit so that people don't have to mess with trying to add accent marks if they want to add me to their friends list. My warrior main is Misneach (courage) and I just rolled a lock named Fuath (hatred). I also have a hunter named Nabaisti ("of the rain," minus an apostrophe) and his nightsaber pet is Riabhan ("striped one").

Becca said...

So I just found your blog (awesome, by the way!) and I know this is an older post but I had to comment.

I tend to just make up my names - I named my holy priest main "Sahndriel". I desperately want a toon named "Requiem", but of course that one's always taken. ^_^

My boyfriend and I were talking about iPods, and thinking up "i" names for everything. "iSleep" for the bed, "iPlay" for the X-Box, etc. So he went and rolled a NE rogue and named him icloak. I just loved it. ^_^

Anonymous said...

I use alot of sources. My undead mage was called Shahai, after a character in Legend of Five Rings.

I picked Kurohime for my pally because it means Black Princess.

For my lock I picked Tsukikoh because I thought it sounded cool. Turns out no one else uses that name anyplace.

My Drannie hunter is called Belladonna. So I have to make her an herbalist. ^-^

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love names!

My main is a dwarf hunter called Róhirrim. I've had about amillion people /w me asking if I'm a LOTR fan. I like LOTR but am not crazy about it, I just thought it fitted a litle short, stubby dwarf.

My alt is called Kamillah, simply because I like the name. There's also Faegahn the baby warlock and a couple of other alts.

One of the funniest names I've seen on my server is a dwarven warrior called "Kissmyaxe". Isn't that wonderful? Always puts a smile on my face whenever I see him. :p

Anonymous said...

My favourites would be the Horde pally on Dragonblight named Bubbleoseven. Tauren names lend themselves to funny names too, like my bank toons Cashcow and Moolah.

And when I got the name Orison for my 3rd priest toon, I was all 'glee!'. :D

Anonymous said...

Best name I've ever seen is a shammy called Oprah Windfury ;) made my day ^^,

Anonymous said...

MT for a friend guild is called Kantankerous. I thought that was pretty cool.