How did you pick the names for your GW characters?

[Eldarion]

The surname "Dragonbane" was just something I made up, trying to find something that sounded strong and powerful. Whatever.

"Eldarion" comes from the Lord of the Rings mythology: the son of Aragorn and Arwen.

"Elena" was picked because it echoed the "El" sound from Eldarion.

"Katyrian" was something I made up. It was originally used for a character in Knight Online, which I played in between GW beta events. It combines an old gaming name of mine (see below) and Tyria, the continent we all know so well.

"Angelus" was picked when I had about 20 seconds to come up with a character name to use in my first GvG. It comes from the TV show Angel, and is the name of the title character's evil alter ego.

"Katana Yori Beguine" allows me to take advantage of Factions' Asian theme and revive my old Half-life/Doom/Quake handle, Katana. I was a big fan of Highlander: the Series at the time. "Yori" is Japanese for "from" or "out of". And the rest reaffirms my commitment to BGN.

[Indagatrix]

Every one of my names deals with my real life profession (yea yea I'm a nerd):

Indagatrix -- latin for female researcher/investigator

<Created in Prophecies>
Philia - play on greek(?) for love (my love of books)
Biblia - female of Biblio (books)
Exlibris - latin loosley "from the library of..."
Libby - short for librarian or library

<Created in Factions>
Opus - a creative work
Verso - Left hand page of book

<X & mines shared account Prophecies only>
Page - things in books
Atlas - big book of maps

[Black Dragon]

I am a Harry Potter fan and my favorite character is Sirius Black. I also have always been a fantasy nut and love dragons. I also am thought jokingly by friends to be evil which is associated with the color Black: Thus, Sirius Black Dragon

For my other chars, I tried to keep the Black Dragon part somewhere in there and add other parts. Thus was born Black Magic Dragon, my mesmer and Dragon Blackcloak, me Ele.

Black Dragon Lucius: Lucius Malfoy, who I think the particular face/hair combo available for the male elementalist looks like.
Black Dragon Rhys: Rhys is a former death god from the Meredith Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton who is a Fey, and thus I figured would make a good ranger.
Blackdragon Siobhan: my assassin character named for another character from the Merry Gentry series who is the lead bodyguard/assassin for Cel, the Dark Sadistic Sidhe Prince.

I have had a couple of characters named Morne Raamalooke and Morna Raamalooke that I don't know if they exist anymore... These names are from Elven translations of the two words Black & Dragon.
Then I have a character called Blackdragon Storage. you can take a wild guess what his purpose is... he was rushed through to Post Searing in order to be accessible to my other chars and the Storage Vault.

[TheUncleanOne]

Let's See...

I had several beta characters that didn't quite make it to release, so I'll only focus on those that you'll see in game:

Xalran The Unclean: Xalran is probaby a corruption of some boss name from a C64 game, or Atari, or old SSR game on my 1st PC... The Unclean stems from 1) the Necromancer Class (playing with the dead after all); 2) Jewish Heritage (priests were not allowed to touch the dead, even family, or they would be ritually impure for the remainder of the day), 3) My original Beta character (Famir The Unclean, who looked more Vampish than X).

Following the use of 'The' in my character's I've now hamstrung myself to always use than in my toons, so:

Quoz The Quandry: I have a 'word lover's' dictionary that has obscure words. I'll edit in the definitions of my names as I look them up when I'm at home... Quoz: to be defined, but I basically liked the sound; Quandry: because I couldn't quite decide what his second class was to be.

Famir The Adroit: Famir is/was a Warhammer lizard-man type monster, just a neat sounding name really. Adroit is a fancy way of saying dexterous which I though 'fit' with the ranger class.

Nameless Fiend: My PvP toon that changes weekly, daily, or hourly, so I wanted a nice generic name.

Kane The Gyve: Kane is a semi-good pseudo-asian name for Cantha. Gyve: I'll lookup in my dictionary, I think it ment to bind with chains which I thought was appropriate for a Ritualist as the Spirits are bound.

Urubu The Shadow: Urubu, to be looked-up; Shadow, due to Assassin class, not really inspired but was hard to think/find a good word.

Shared account:

Morpheus Indagatrix, PvP toon re-rollable.

Radu The Guile; Radu was apperently the (half?) brother of Vlad the Impailer. Guile, good Warrior attribute, yeah, that's the ticket.

[Fate]

Mine all have Fate. I had a first edition Dr. Fate comic. So I started out with that. But over the years my handle just became Fate.

[laurelin]

Laurelin is the name of one of the first two trees in Tolkien Middle-Earth mythology. It's a name I've used in gaming ( be it online, or good ol' paper and dice games) for years. I think I first used it when I discovered MUDding 12 or 13 years ago.

The name Pleni Lune (plenilune) actually means "full moon"
(insert your random humorous comment here).

Ravinlae is the name of the D&D character that I've played for 10 years. The name didn't really come from anywhere but my head ;D Until you've single-handedly taken out 10 armed bandits (crossbows) weilding nothing but a steamer trunk (in which is your armor and weapons) you just haven't lived. Ravinlae kicks much butt.

[Ascalon Destroyer]

I pulled Elasair from the Lord of the Rings series when I was about 13 (iirc its an alternate name for Aragorn). I needed a name and at the time I wanted a name with wing. Angelwings didnt work quite so well with my destructive elementalist, so Darkwing became the name instead.

Ascalon Destroyer was named during the second BWE. I needed a new name for my elementalist (I thought I had lost the first one) and so I wanted to keep with the D, thus Destroyer. Ascalon came from the name of the only land available for play at the time.

In order to keep simliar names for recognition I've stuck with 'Land' Destroyer leading to such names as: Kryta, Maguuma, Cantha, and Luxon. I still need to get Kurzick but I assume that will come from another chapter.

[Aeron Serabien]

This is a great thread:

Serabien-I found this one (spelled slightly different) in the credits of LOTR. They have that LOOOONG list of random joes for I can't remember what reason. There are some COOL names in there. I think Nightpearl and I were watching specifically TO look for cool names.

Cymrian-This one comes from Elizabeth Hayden's fantasy series. I can't ATM remember the trilogy's name, but the first book is Rhapsody I liked the last name.

Aeron-from Patricia Kennealy's pseudo sci-fi Arthurian series. Aeron is the high queen.

Morgan-associated with both arthurian legend and the war goddess, the Morrigan. She fits the mesmer type well, I thought.

Sancta-well, Sanctus is the latin word for holy. I feminized it for a girl monk and I think it fits.

Vivian-another arthurian/triple goddess reference.

I seem to have decided that the darker, tricksier spellcasters are the Cymrians, while the more noble heroic types are the Serabiens.

[Julie Sturbridge]

Well, Sturbridge was the first part of the name that I decided on for Julie. Julie (or, 'the as-yet unnamed character' at the time) was going to be a Necromancer. Since they are 'intimately' involved with the dead and are somewhat vampire-like (look at the names of some of the skills!), I wanted something vampire-like for the name. I'd just finisihed the Vampire: The Masquerade (Bloodlines) game (an EXCELLENT game--highly recommended) and was reading some of the hardcopy stuff from the company that makes the Vampire: The Masquerade. One of the vampires that has a cool backstory in that world is named Aisling Sturbridge--a sort of field agent for what, essentially, is a vampire intelligence agency. Being an intel officer in the Air Force, it was right up my alley. Julie is just one of my favorite names. When factions came out, I decided that, since that char was going to be an assassin (hence connected to the death motif again), Sturbridge was still good and the char would be Julie's younger sister. Hence, Jessica Sturbridge was born.

Telum Superum was named so b/c I was making a monk, but I was more interested in the smiting monk thing, so I made his name Latin for "Spear of the Gods."

Who knows what will be next. I think "Sturbridge" may have run its course. I love Julie and Jess, but it's hard to extend the back story much futher. I'm into symbolic names, so it'll depend on the situation and character.

EDIT: A related question is: what's the provenance of our *guild* name?? For those unfamiliar with the term, check out the link:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beguine

[Talairina]

Talairina Tsinth - Taken from the Role Playing Series Dragon Warriors that ran from 85-87 in 6 books now out of print from Corgi. I was a manic Role Play fan both game wise and the old dice and paper ones. Tsinth is a surname I invented when I was about 14 when I played Vampire (By White Wolf) for a then Venture Vampire.

Aerith Tsinth - Surname as above and first name is a tribue to the wonderful brains of Square (Now Square-Enix) the creator's of Final Fantasy. The name is from Final Fantasy VII and is take from Aerith Gainsbough, one of the main character's to the plot line.

Yinfau Tsinth - Yinfau was a name taken from a person I acually know in RL. I kindly asked the girl if she would allow me to use the name as a character. Yinfau is acually a very lovely student in college not far from me.

Rash Tsinth - Rash is simply the word Rash, as seen in any dictionary. I was sitting in a Religous Studys class at high school thinking about a name for a role play character (I dint pay much attention to religion nor the classes about it plus my teacher dispised me for putting out my view's on the various religons we studied.) I looked up towards the wall and saw a poster about thinking first and not been rash. I just liked the thought of a character that was rash, fast acting without thought and heroic. Something Im not. So it stuck.

[Aeron Serabien]

talairina said:

Rash Tsinth - Rash is simply the word Rash, as seen in any dictionary. I was sitting in a Religous Studys class at high school thinking about a name for a role play character (I dint pay much attention to religion nor the classes about it plus my teacher dispised me for putting out my view's on the various religons we studied.) I looked up towards the wall and saw a poster about thinking first and not been rash. I just liked the thought of a character that was rash, fast acting without thought and heroic. Something Im not. So it stuck.

I have to say I first thought you meant "rash" as in a skin issue, which is also a dictionary definition. I was thinking, "what an odd name. Perhaps Tal had been rolling in poison ivy right before he made this character." Then I red the rest of your paragraph.

[kelkhil]

Howdy howdy BGN.... First post in a while. Still not much in the gaming mood but I could not pass up this thread.

Kelkhil Mellorimir: (the last name is spelled wrong from original)
He was my favorite D&D character from a few years ago. I was trying to create an unpredictable nut bag to vent with and this is him. (Just ask Laurelin how many times he has screwed something up because he would panic and just start blowing stuff up).
Any way Kelkhil means go away (Kel) and follow me (khil) in Tolkien Elvish and Mellorimir meanis I love gold and gems.

eversince I created him I have claimmed the name for myself online.
Other names are just names right now. I was looking for what I wanted to play and just pulled them out of the air. I have used Breanne a few times before. I just like the sound of the name and Kalie was just a start typing and see what becomes of it name. TTFN!

[ronin]

Ok here's my current chars and their names;

Ronin Kuwabatake - From Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa, the bodyguard's name is Sanjuro Kuwabatake. A Ronin is just a samurai without a master.
Mia Amore - My girlfriend's name is Mia, you can figure out the rest.
Mia La Forza - Same as above, (she can be a furian sometimes).
Varg - means wolf in swedish and it goes good with Valhalla.
Viper - When I made my ritualist, I thought of Kill Bill. The Deadly Viper Assassination squad popped up and I thought it sounded nice.

PvP char names - Mia The Ronin, Ronin of Mia, same as above.

[Aerynrox]

I have been using the name "Aerynrox" in forums and as a logon for several years now. It actually came from a bastardization of Aeryn Rocks - Aeryn=the coolest, most beautiful, kick-a$$ woman character ever written for television (Farscape).
But when it came time to name my first GW character, I felt guilty about lifting directly from Farscape, so I changed the name to Aerina Rox. Since then, I've kept the family name, Rox for all of my characters. Inthast was named just because I thought his name suited him. Caedynce, originally a Ranger PvP character, was named because I thought of him as needing to keep rhythm with the rest of the team during PvP matches. Harmony, also a PvP character, was named for the same reason. Brygid was named because I wanted to incorporate some of my Irish heritage into one of my character's names and I also wanted to do something funky with the "y" like I had with Caedynce. My latest character, Deythe Rox, is an assassin, so the reference to death is obvious, and again, I did that funky "y" thing.

A passing thought: If I had gone ahead and named my first character "Aeryn Rox," none of the guys in the guild would EVER have believed that Aeron and I are two different people. They struggle enough as it is. ;D

[miriel Silverhand]

Since I am back into GW, here are mine.

First, all my character are named something Silverhand. I just came with that name because GW required a family name and i thought it sound good.

Miriel:

This is an NPC character I created for one of my pen and paper game about 13 year ago. At that time, one of the player (my best friend), literally fell in love with that virtual lady. In fact he still remember that name well since he named his daughter Miriel (I am her godfather) ...

Elof (which is pronounced A-lof in french):

This is the name of one of my friend in my live role-playing game, who is a sorceress so it quite match with the E/Me character.

Edrael (which is pronounced A-dra-L in French):

Another name from my live role-playing game. She play a druid which can be linked to the Ranger part of my W/Ra character.

Aradil:

This is the name of the Elf Queen in the midnight campaign setting for D&D and I like how it sound. Aradil is a Rt/N.

Mimi:

This is my PvP character, and it's simply my cat's name.

See you all in game.

A+

[Quintare]

For years and years on the 'Net my nick has been Silrathi, which I invented from scratch for a MUD character. I was making a mage and I wanted an exotic sounding Eastern mystic kind of flavor to it, so I just played with sound till I struck on that one. So we got Silrathi the Mystic.

For Guild Wars, right away I decided that all my characters would be family with the same last name. I didn't think that naming my warrior 'the Mystic' was very appropriate so I modified it into Dimystiq.

Quintare came about from MUDS as well. I was rolling up a cleric and listening to a Quentin Tarrantino film. I don't really like the visual appeal of Quentin, it is kind of dark and closed up, and Quintin looks like a typo, so I ended up with Quintare. I've been using this name for healers ever since.

Same MUD different circumstance... A friend and I were building a shared character, a thief and a player killer. I got stuck with naming her and so picked a name that was clearly feminine in it's long form, but masculine in it's short, then changed the spelling to make it a little more exotic. There we have Alyxandra, who was a very light-hearted and bouncy little girl who would drive a dagger all the way through your back without batting an eye if she felt slighted. Since there was no rogue-type in Prophecies I used the name on my warrior, and now I have so much time invested in her that I can't bear to delete her and start over.

Gildare doesnt exist anymore, but I used this name to found TeG on pre-release day. I used this name whenever I was first exploring a new MUD because usually you screw up your first one. In this case Gildare was created as a level 20 roleplaying character. All my guild messages and when I'm offline it still shows as Gildare though, so I'm recreating him in the shape of an Assassin who has not gotten very far yet.

Desdaemona is a variant of Desdemona, who was the wife of Othello. I used to have a ranger named Othello, but I found I really can't stand to play them, so he got deleted for a PvP slot.

[RedArrow]

"Red Arrow" was a black feathered, red tipped arrow that comes from LotR lore which was a war symbol or the token that the Stewards of Gondor sent to the Kings of Rohan in times of war or need.

"Cassyopia of Orion" was a roll over char from my 1st online gaming guild in Earthand Beyond that a freind created.

"Diana the Huntress" Diana Godess of the Hunt was my mothers name so fitting for a fem ranger.

"Phearless Phrank" I really need a spell checker

The Myste sisters: "Jade Myste" monk. "Black Myste" Death Necro and "Scarlet Myste" BloodNecro started with a friend using my second account to creat Jade and when he dropped off I picked up and expanded.

"Lei Yu Sky" Elementalist is taken from a very gifted artist from China who was a companion to my actor Uncle and artist Aunt in New York. Lei Yu spent the last decade of his life with them for the most part, died at close to 90, haveing long ago escaped purges in China where his wife and daughter where lost.

Anyway he was a close friend of the family and very active in teaching and painting untill the end. His works in China, during better times, brought him aclaim and status close to national treasure I was told.

He worked in waters mostly and was magical with it... amazing to watch.
His knack or feel for capturing and rendering panoramic/vista sky filled landscapes or seascaps still inspires people in China to refer to a beautiful sky as a "Lei Yu Sky"

[spiritofice]

all these really good reasons for names, and mine is quite simplistic

first beta character was spirit of ice, chosen simply from the fact that I intended to play a water elementalist. Once I started playing people started calling me spirit, so I decided to keep that as a theme through my names so that people would recognise me when I logged on. seeing how spirit of "x" seems to be a popular name, I often need to find different ways to link it in with the class I am playing, the secondary part of my name.

Thus spirit of balthazar came from, obviously, the god of warriors in guild wars, and PvP spirit is my re-rollable slot. Other characters come and go depending on how bored I am.

[bainsoulsmite]

This is a cool thread that I must have missed in the past. My first Char, Bain Soulsmite WAs just something I made up. Bain, a switch on "Bane" and Soulsmite from my class of ELe/Nec (of course being new to the game, I did not know that Smite would have been more apropos to a monk)

Then I made a Ranger and came op with what I thought to be a "woodsy" name, Serric Thornwood.

Then after joining BGN, I saw the benefits of naming char with a similar theme, so on my second account (Prophesies only) all my chars are named around gem stone:

Ruby Redblood, Jaded Lady, Bastet Tigereye and one open spot
After getting Factions I kind of used the Asia name thing and incorporated Starr into the names Fa Ling Starr, Eve Ning Starr and Shu Ting Starr

Not much Rhyme or reason, but there it is