Paying Homage-Character Naming Ideas

One of the questions I get asked the most in WoW is "Where do you come up with your character names?".

The most accurate answer would be: I don't.

I'm just more subtle than most people about it.

Running around on an RP server, I've seen plenty of different names. Some good, some weird, some bad. We really don't need more characters named some variation of Aragorn or Legolas. Not much creativity associated with those, and it's pretty obvious what the source is. A quick search of, say, Earendil, also pulls up a ton of names. So, Lord of the Rings names appear to be pretty common.

Of course, some of these names might be brought up by the Random generator as well. There is someone on my server whose character is named "Gehn", who had no awareness that Gehn was the main villain of the game Riven.

However, I usually don't use something that's actually a name. I tend to go dig up the roots, throw them together in a way I like, or just use one word.

For example, I recently got my baby hunter Curu (whose name means "skill" in Quenya) a new pet. A wind serpent. After digging around for a while, I decided on "Abiik", which in Mando'a means "air". Rather appropriate for that pet.

Overall, for names, a more popular source makes it more likely that you'll have to dig to find a unique name. A quick search of the Daedric Lord Malacath in the Armory brings up over a hundred hits, as there is a quest involving him in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Trinimac, the character who became Malacath, brings up eight.

But, I've always found a certain fun in finding a fitting and unusual name for my characters.

Some sites to look at for ideas:

Wookipedia's Mando'a Page
Karen Traviss on Mando'a
D'ni Linguistic Fellowship
UESP Wiki: Ayleid
UESP Wiki: Ehlnofex
Quenya Wordlists