The Name of the Toon

Of all the things that gets me jazzed about World of Warcraft I think one of the most fun things to do is to create a new character. The feeling of making a new avatar, coloring the hair, choosing the facial features etc – all sorta make my bear heart warm n fuzzy inside. True, there aren’t many options so chances are you’ll end up looking like Butters standing next to Cartman sometimes, but the one defining convention of any RP game is the name you choose.

We’ve all seen and chuckled, or grimaced, at the names of characters running around capitol cities. I’ve seen some downright offensive names and have promptly reported such. I refer to those specifically racist or sexist in nature. I’m not a person who goes about telling people their business but I was taught to stand up against injustice and intolerance so when I see someone running around with a moniker that would make my old platoon sergeant wince, I am not shy about calling in the ban hammers from the GMs.

But that simply illustrates the less inventive or less creative side of the game. I’ve seen innocuous, forgettable names that spark no interest and often I wonder why didn’t they spend a few minutes racking their brains, or maybe hunting down some good references online before choosing Pallytankie as a name?

Before I launch into my ideas on where to get ideas, I’ve got to say that I’m more or less guilty of the offense of innocuousness in naming my toon. Agro isn’t very creative and while I do enjoy the name recognition, I wish I’d spent as much time as I had on my horde-side druid Ursal. But for all that Agro is a great name recognition tool – a lot of other people seem to think so too cause there’s at least one guy named Agro on most of the servers I checked on Armory.

Ursal is a common reference in the historical record. It refers back to many ancient civilizations’ deities – but I liked it because it seemed somewhat common in English – translating roughly into Bear from the Latin “Ursa.” English is based on Latin and we still use a great many Latin words in everyday language.

I often use dead languages to name my characters, or after the deities of dead civilizations – don’t use names from modern deities since you can get into trouble using some of them. I would imagine Native Americans won’t look too highly on anyone usurping the names of sacred lore or rituals for a game. You can argue all you want about freedom of speech et al ad nauseum, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is a game and if you do something intentionally to annoy someone then you’re really only detracting from your fun playing the game – Old Goblin saying, don’t borrow trouble, it’s always paid with compounded interest.

But you can find numerous references on ancient languages or peoples whose everyday common words can fit the bill of needs. The Aether Rays in Blade’s Edge mountains are named for Aether, ether, æther – Greek, roughly meaning or referring to a fifth element in alchemy, that which we now call “space” or “heaven,” once thought to be the medium through which light moved rather than simply a vacuum.

There are common references in the game to such things. All are taken from ancient history or languages or even proper names for long-dead people. Uther the Lightbringer … sorta sounds a bit like the Arthurian legend doesn’t it? Possibly loosely coupled with Judeo-Christian roots as well but you get the idea. Writers often borrow from such sources for inspiration.

When making a new character I often try to imagine a bit of a back story – it’s the RP in me I think that does this. I don’t normally RP when playing the game, but I do often think of this while I’m playing. What would Agro the Bear do when confronted by superior odds defending the body of a wounded comrade, while engaged in exploring the halls of an ancient castle tower, rife with deadly enemies? Why, attack of course! As if Agro had ever run from a fight … pfft.

What would Paladin Defender Thorney, so named because his bleary-eyed father ran smack into a thorn bush when rushing to summon the mid-wife for Thorn’s birth, do upon being confronted by 3 of the evil Horde, after flagging himself blessing a fellow of the Alliance? Stun, Bless, Judge, Consecrate and swing, until they or he dropped. It’s not so hard to do really, the imagination part I mean. (3:1 odds against the horde can be a bit of a pain). Imagination is what you want it to be.

So the next time you roll, take a minute to think of what you’d like people to see. I’ve seen some rather silly ones that really don’t make sense to me, a night elf who RPs as a paladin, uhm… might wanna stick to stuff you can actually do there bud… sorta helps to stay within the confines of the game. But hey – if you wanna go nuts and use the crayons totally outside the lines that’s the great thing about WoW, I don’t have to listen to ya.

If you’re looking for some good reference material then you could start by looking for lists of words in foreign or dead languages. Greek and Latin are great for starters, though you may not wish to stop there. I also read though old histories sometimes – you can find short, down and dirty descriptions on Wikipedia, not the most accurate of encyclopedia reference tools but it doesn’t matter too much when you’re not writing a thesis.

Biblical references work too – though I generally stick to historical names. I used Biblical names for my hunter’s pets. Ancient Egyptian, Eastern or European cultures all have proper nouns or names you can use, the limit is your gut instinct and the amount of effort you wanna put into it.