Naming Conventions

[Baranor]

How does everyone name their characters?

For humans I use my friends names. It's fun to tell them that they got killed by a goblin rock thrower or a gelatinous cube.

For other races I look at the keyboard and look for letters that I associate with that race like for an orc it might be Gr'thrakk or for a dwarf it might be Browdin.

How do you do it?

[theotherhiveking]

I always call them 'hive'

[Travis Prue]

My characters are always named Travis (yay adom.cfg)

[sztosz]

Every forum nick, every email adress, every character name in any game is... sztosz ;) Hey, check out google... it's all about me ;)

[adomer]

I use my name...Peter

[Dental_floss]

<Race> <Class> and then later <first monster kill> and then even later I'll put dungeon locations I want to remember in. "d3pc4dd2" for example to describe Altar locations or equipment stashes. I hope JADE gets a "notepad" function becuase I love taking notes, but I hate running notepad in the background.

[Baranor]

That's so interesting that everyone uses the same name. I almost *never* use the same name more than once. Every once in a while when i don't have a new name to come up with, but my High Scores are filled with random names for my questers. It always helps me remember individual highlights.

[Aerudaer]

I use an adjective that describes my perception of the character, like strong, or learned.

[Dougy]

It varies. I used to use the atomic names, Hydrogen, Helium, ... But now that I've started learning Chinese I use Chinese words. It looked embarrasing on the HOF when I had a win with a char called "Dougy" or "Mugger."

[yisk]

It funny to name the pets in honour of known characters. For example, the ghost lord (from scroll of familiar summoning) was named Casper, the peaceful wild cat - Leopold, etc.

[paan]

'My fighter is usually call fighter..
My clerics "cleric:, or "cle" when i'm lazy
Sometimes if i trying different class/race combo they got names like.. orchish archer or the like..

Usually i try out new race/class combo and try them on a few runs.. many got kill.. since i want to differentiate them in the highscore file.. usually they get little variations.. like.. "archer", "archer2", "archie", "arch", "archh", "aaarrrrccchhhheeerrr", or the likes...

there was a period when i was trying out the hobbit.. and all my chars are called frodo..

So.. they are more or less random...

[theacidrainman]

I'll use my own name every now and again, but most of the time I'll use names from books and movies, or even the name of a historical/mythological figure. Flagg, Drizzt, Agamemnon, or for races that are generally stupid, a series of random letters, possibly with the first one capitalized.

[Worst Player... ever]

I call everyone 'Rookie' until they get to the Graveyard/Pyramid section of the game. Then I'll give them some kind of unique name that's usually pieced together from whatever's on hand. I had a Seasons Pizza menu on my desk, so I had a guy named 'Ceazon'... the name sucks but at least it's his and his alone :)

[ZeroTheBird]

This is what i use.
ZeroTheBird
Zero
ZTB (class)
(Insert random keyboard typed names)

[theotherhiveking]

This is what i use.

(Insert random keyboard typed names)


I do that plenty of times when i get angry!:D

[Grey]

I invent all sorts of names, but usually try for something related to the race/class combo I'm playing. Sometimes something ironic, like "Frosty" for an attempt at Brimstone.

[BenMathiesen]

I usually try to come up with something reasonable for the race. Often I'll try to make a character with stats vaguely approximates a fictional character, but it can take a while before the RNG gives me something reasonable. When it works, it's fun to play Robin the Archer or Arthur the Paladin for a while... even if they meet a horrible fate.

Humans get common English names. Hurthlings get Tolkien hobbit names. Dwarves get German names, gnomes I usually name after a gemstone...

[Smite]

I always name my characters by choosing a cheesy word associated with their class.

For example I love Trollish Farmers at the moment. Some notable names:

Garden, Plough, Harvest, Dairy, Reaper, etc

If I like a name a lot I might use it again, but usually with the addition of Jr or a Roman numeral:

Harvest IV, Plough Jr

:)

[Starhawk]

It varies. I used to use the atomic names, Hydrogen, Helium, ... But now that I've started learning Chinese I use Chinese words. It looked embarrasing on the HOF when I had a win with a char called "Dougy" or "Mugger."

Yeah, I was so embarrassed when my first and only win was with a character named "Ilovepie".

I thought about changing it, but figured it might be bad luck and get me killed. :)

[Silfir]

Most of the times, I give my characters fantasy-ish names appropriate to their race and class. Well, Holycow the hurthling barbarian and Killmaster the FEMALE high elven fighter (D'OH), two of my winners, didn't get off so easy, but most of the times the names sound halfway respectable, if a little dumb, but that's fantasy-naming for you if it consists of you going "K... Kro... Kri... Krimo... Krito... Krijos... Krijol. Yeah, that sounds okay".

I don't play a lot of characters these days and manage to avoid to die early frequently, so getting frustrated is not among the main reasons for shitty names. I have a vast number of "sdsdsds" though, from the cases when I planned to quit the character immediately anyway, but luckily they can't get on my highscore file (you need over 20000 points for that now).

EDIT: I'm curious about the german names you deem appropriate for dwarves, BenMathiesen :)

[head2]

My character names are mostly Finnish curse-words/some random Finnish stupid-sounding male/female names.

Or just something completely retarded, as i've noticed that my characters work better with stupid names.

[Grey]

I get really annoyed when I create a character, bash random keys for the name, and then get told "The name sdf is already taken." The annoying thing it's always sdf that I randomly type in - obviously my keybashing isn't as random as I like to think. Must get round to playing sdf some time, or at least changing his name to something sensible like kjh.

[warheart]

My character names are mostly Finnish curse-words/some random Finnish stupid-sounding male/female names.

Perkele? (I had a finnish guild mate in WoW and after a lot of time we all said that word quite frequently, although I have no clue what does it mean :P).

My chars are always named randomly, I just bash the keyboard and press enter. If the char actually manages to survive long enough, then I'll maybe think a good name and change it. My current char's name is 2341 :E

[Nezur]

Perkele? (I had a finnish guild mate in WoW and after a lot of time we all said that word quite frequently, although I have no clue what does it mean :P).


In Finnish mythology Perkele is a god of thunder. However the Christian church co-opted the word for one of the names of Satan. That's why it's used like a swearword today.

Back to the topic. I name my characters according to the names I've seen in-game and in fantasy literature etc. almost without exception and I try to make up names that match the race and/or profession of the character. For instance Monthorodil for a gnomish caster and Ossrakthan for a drakeling. However I use very simple names like "Aaa" and "Bbb" if I want to test some particular thing or when I otherwise know the character will soon end up being a victim of the famous upper case q.

[Jonas]

ya, I am a random keyboard basher too, but then I seem to change my name if Iam going for either the bard or courage so that I dont have to look very far to find out what I need. Then I may change it if I feel like it.

[gut]

> The annoying thing it's always sdf that I randomly type in

sdf! That's what I name my blink dogs!

I used to automatically bash buttons like a troll,
whenever I generated a new PC. I don't do that
anymore though, after I forgot to rename one
of my game-winners, before leaving the chain.
Now every time I look through the HoF, I have
to look at "Dfdg", right near the top of the list,
staring back at me, mockingly.

These days, I set the configuration variable to
name all of my PC's YY. If they live to the TotHK's,
I give them a name change, most often rhyming
with their class. Currently I am playing a troll
assasin, whom I named Hass Caskin.

I renamed one of my wizards "blizzard" just before
the tower, because he found an early ice ball spell.
He went on to beat the tower, so I let him keep the
name for the rest of the game.

[djc]

Change your name to whatever you kill first.

It helps, especially for those of you (and me) with no long term memory.

[Grey]

The better way of remembering first kill is this: once you make your kill, press '&' and type in the name of the monster. Whenever you want to remember, just press '&' again and the last thing you looked up will appear in brackets (even if you've undergone many saves and reloads). If you ever decide to look up some other monster with & (which is rare) be sure to press & again after and type in your first kill name again.

This helps prevent your high score kill being filled with Bandits, Outlaws and Beggars.

[Maul]

I just bash buttons nowadays, and rename them if they get to the mid-twenties or are making considerable progress.

[reich]

I usually give the PCs literary or historical names, like Theodoric or Cyrus :o

I am amazed that people show such unpersonal relation to their characters by giving them random keystrokes for names!!:eek:

[theotherhiveking]

Now I call all my pjs 'Isenkdur'

[Maul]

I usually give the PCs literary or historical names, like Theodoric or Cyrus :o

I am amazed that people show such unpersonal relation to their characters by giving them random keystrokes for names!!:eek:

I don't have time to name all my dogfeed, thanks.

By the way: The Hero of the Gothic series doesn't even have a name. So that.

[BoloDigby]

I downloaded a list of 'Parts of speech' words--nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc., each in their own file. I then run a vbscript to randomly pull 10 words from one file and concatenate them with 10 words from another file. The same script reverses the order as an option. I then pick ones I like from there to name my characters. Examples:
Inkmange, Slawchub, Sodchuff, Bungrake, Urnklutz, Dippyblimp, Fopmither, Witsniper, Mendvague, Hexplunker, Pulpyfugue, Clottywale, Spittertug, Winderhob ,Nimgrabble, Curvystall...

[Ravenmore]

Epic necro :D Six years in the making!

Names just come to my head, I try to make them sound classic fantasy because I'm boring and unimaginative like that ;)
I use random anagrams of my nickname if truly nothing else comes to mind.

[Blasphemous]

Too many chars already, I used up all the names from all the sci-fi and fantasy sagas and movies.
Now I just name them B.
It's short, quick to input, ties the char to me because it's the first letter of my nickname.
If for some reason the character deserves more in my eyes, I will spend a few minutes and figure out a unique name, but they usually die or close the gate and still are just B.
If I decided to give them a name, it would probably be one that would sound elvish, like straight out of Silmarillion.

[anon123]

I used to give all my PCs the same nick I use on another forum. Nowadays they're just "--" until they advance enough - then they get a name that matches a good item they found, something cool they did, characters or items from another game, a bit of the lyrics from a song I'm listening to at the time, any random word or phrase that I come up with; could be anything.

When it comes to naming creatures other than myself: I like giving blink dogs combinations of obscene four-letter words :D Companions get a name that matches their monster type, like BreakMe the greater earth elemental or Chaosy the WMoPC. And there's "KILL ME" for beggars who have already given me a potion of booze.