Character Creation Diversification and Lore Immersion

Hello,

I love Guild Wars 2 so much that i consider it to be my virtual home. From the NPCs dialogues, cinematics, story writting to the hidden treasures this game has offer and the wide variety of options that can be picked, giving the player a unique experience of what liberty and freedom are.

However, every time i have to create a new profession, here comes the nightmare : How should i name my character so i can enjoy the game even more and feel immersed in the Guild Wars 2 spirit ?

I have tried multiple online name generators and went through thousands of articles in this concern but never have been able to come accross a catchy name that i like that wasn't already in use.

Please share your thoughts and opinions below, i am pretty sure many other persons would love some guidance and suggestions ; )

Ah names, the hardest part of any mmo character creator. The sad truth is that the older an mmo is the more character names will inevitably be taken. But the races of guild wars offer some guidelines for creating a wholly unique name.

Asura names are simultaniously easy and difficult. They tend to use multiple consonants in a row and favor one or two syllable names, i.e Vekk, Gadd, Blimm, etc. Female names often have a vowel sound at the end, Oola, Zerra, etc. Because they use relatively short/simple sounding names it will be exceptionally hard to get a unique single word asura name. I recommend giving an asura character a title appropriate for their profession or intended RP role, so for casters things like Arcanist, Magister, Enchanter, etc are good fits, physical classes might go with Peacekeeper, Tactician, etc.

Charr are, in my opinion, the easiest and most fun race to make names for. All you need is a solid given name, either something physical sounding; Ember, Flint, Howl, etc. or something drawing inspiration from roman names; Saxum, Vallus, Castella, etc. Once you have a name you like then its time to make your warband name! Each warband has an overall name, usually something simple like, Stone, Blade, Rage, etc. Then each member of the warband incorporates the warband's name into their personal warband name so, Brimstone, Breakblade, Ragerender, etc. With these points in mind charr should be relatively easy to find unused names for.

Humans are pretty open to interpretation. Thanks to GW1 humanity has a LOT of cultures and naming schemes to draw from. I would say figure out where you want your human character's ancestors to be from, then head to wikis and find what sorts of names that culture used. There's no easy way to find a name that's unused in this instance however, and I fully admit as a GW1 veteran I had a much easier time naming my human characters both because my old character names were saved for a long time but also because I had several surnames and lineages to draw from.

Norn are a bit more limited but also rather flexible like charr and asuran names. Generally given names draw very heavily from Norse cultures and mythology. You can use a similar Norse structure to generate a surname as well, creating a parental name and combining it with "son" or "dottir" depending on your character's gender. Alternatively you can create a title for your norn character. I like to consider a more specific backstory for a norn character, what was their first act that gained them renown? Maybe they killed a powerful beast threatening their homestead at a young age. Perhaps they recovered a powerful weapon that they now wield with pride. Giving them a specific defining heroic act can give your norn some more depth and history and a name that's unlikely to be taken at the same time.

Sylvari are probably the trickiest to name. Their names tend to draw heavily from Gaelic cultures and Arthurian mythology. But beyond that there aren't easy titles or surnames to generate like the other races. I spent ages finding a name I liked the general sound of and then tweaked spellings and slight structural changes until I got a name that worked. I'm afraid other than taking the easy way out and making a title (which doesn't have much lore precedent for sylvari) there's not really an easy way to find names that aren't taken for sylvari.

I hope some of this can be helpful. I know finding good, unused names is very hard especially in established mmos and I wish you the best of luck with your future characters!

It really comes down to your imagination, and asking yourself, "Would [this name I want] seem out of place in this race's culture?" And don't be afraid to experiment with accent marks over letters to get a name that's "already in use." ALT codes are allowed in names, thank goodness.

Spoiler'd for length. Whew, this went long.Sylvari names

! Sylvari tend to have just one name, usually Celtic (Welsh or Scots Gaelic or Irish) or inspired by those names. "Elf" names, like those from Lord of the Rings or Dragon Age, would also work - basically, a fantasy name that sounds melodious and slightly exotic. My sylvari's name was already in use, as (I'm guessing) it's a fairly common name - so I added "Of Noon" to his name, denoting the Cycle he was born in (other Cycles are, of course, Dawn, Dusk, and Night - so you could have a sylvari named, for instance, "Aodhan of Night" if Aodhan is already taken).

Human names

! Similarly, my human's name was already in use, so I switched the letter i for í. Makes no difference in how the name is pronounced (for this particular name), and is subtle enough to not really be noticeable. It worked. Humans have names...pretty much like humans in real life, if a bit more fantasy-inspired. You can have people like Jennah and Bob, or Logan and Kasmeer, running around in the same world, and none sound out of place. It can also depend on where your human character comes from.! From the GW2 wiki: "Human names vary from culture to culture, resulting in about seven different known naming varieties. Most naming styles follow real world culture's names. Ascalonian names typically follow a Central European and English naming style. Northern Canthans followed a mixture of Western naming system and Chinese (among other Asian) names (e.g., Canthan names wouldn't follow the standard Asian style of family name first). Kurzick names were a mixture of Germanic and Asian names; and Luxons were a mix of Greek and Asian names. Elonian names were typically African, South Asian, and Middle-eastern. Historically, Krytan names have Southern European names generally, with some central European mixed in - though due to the merging of Elonian, Ascalonian, and Canthan names, the variety has spread to include those as well. Orrian names hold a heavy Arabic style to them. General fantasy names are also seen among various NPCs (particularly surnames among old Ascalonian families)."

Norn names

! Norn and charr get the coolest names. ;) [bias alarm sounds off] Ahem... Norn can be named after deeds they've done or events that happened to them, or [name]sson/sdottir, where [name] is the name of a parent or ancestor. So you get names like Reidarr Rockcrusher or Bjorn Hrolfsson or Ásdís Olafsdottir, and all fit in perfectly with their culture. My own norn was named after an event that happened in her childhood: she was lost during a snowstorm, and a wolf guided her home. She took on the last name of Stormwolf, to always hold the teachings of Wolf close, and to never forget what happened. Norn can also have titles, such as "Sigrun the Cunning" or "Vragi the Fierce."! As for first names, norn tend to have Norse-style names - Germanic, Scandinavian, Icelandic, possibly Old English, etc. I found this website quite useful (it's a ridiculously comprehensive list of names from cultures spanning the world over, complete with pronunciation guides, meanings of the name, etc.): https://www.behindthename.com! https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/ancient-scandinavian <-- a list of ancient Scandinavian names for a norn.! ( I came up with that backstory way before hearing in-game chatter of a Wolf shaman telling a story to some kids that almost perfectly matched up with my headcanon: the spirit of Wolf guided a little girl, lost in a snowstorm, home to her family. Oops? Uh...oh well.)

Charr names

! Charr, on the other hand, have Warriors-style surnames. ("Warriors" is a children's book series about wild cats. It's...more interesting than it sounds, I promise. XD But basically, all Warrior cats have names like Fireheart, Leafpool, Bluestar, Lionblaze, Hollowflight, Snowfur, Redwillow - two nouns or adjectives put together.) Charr names can also have a vague theme of which Legion they are assigned to - Blood Legion names might be gruff and harsh, Ash Legion might be a tad more subtle or nondescript [since they're spies and don't want to stand out with names like Bloodfist or Doomcrusher :tongue:] , Iron Legion could relate to engineering. The name of their warband figures prominently into their surname. For example, a charr has the surname of Fireclaw. Her warband is the Claw warband, mostly because the cubs in it wanted to name themselves after something awesome, and "claw" was the coolest name they could find. (Also one of the most generic names, but still. To a cub, it's AWESOME. It's like kids going through a boy band phase. Silly cubs. :tongue:) Charr then choose a word to be attached to that warband name as their own "personal" name - usually, that word has a special meaning to the charr. So the Claw warband could consist of surnames like Fireclaw, Clawheart, Greatclaw, Rockclaw, Silverclaw, etc. Fireclaw is an elementalist with a scary love of fire. Clawheart, a warrior. Greatclaw, guardian with a honkin' huge sword. Rockclaw...um, is a geologist? Silverclaw.....I guess somebody likes to paint their nails? (I'm joking, but hopefully you get the idea? :) )! Charr first names tend to be harsh-sounding. They can be, potentially, inspired by Greek or Roman names, or more generic fantasy names. My charr is named Kaja, which in the real world would be pronounced as "KAH-yah" - but she pronounces it "KAH-jah," emphasizing the "j" sound to make the name sound harsher. "Kaja" is also - depending on the meaning - a Polish, Estonian, Slovene, Danish, or Norwegian name. Not exactly Roman or Greek - but by tweaking how it's pronounced, it sounds like it fits in with charr naming conventions. (At least, I sure hope so. XD)

Asura names

! And then there's asura... Asura names are usually one or two syllables and rely heavily on doubled letters - Jeek, Zojja, Kazz, Gixx, Larra, Shodd, etc. Female names usually end in a vowel, and male names in a consonant, but that's certainly not the case for every asura. Similarly, the "double letters" rule can be easily broken - Doxa, Teyo, Rubi, Hronk, etc. If the name you want is taken, try adding a title - Golemancer, Holomancer, Engineer, Peacemaker, Savant, Genius...or make up some completely over the top weirdo name like "parascientologist." I have no doubt it's a prestigious title to an asura, but to the rest of us normal people, it's incomprehensible. But hey, it sure SOUNDS grand! :tongue: [immediately runs away from a horde of angry asura] AAAH!

I hope that helped a little? :D

@"Batel.9206" said:

Human names

! Similarly, my human's name was already in use, so I switched the letter i for í. Makes no difference in how the name is pronounced (for this particular name), and is subtle enough to not really be noticeable. It worked. Humans have names...pretty much like humans in real life, if a bit more fantasy-inspired. You can have people like Jennah and Bob, or Logan and Kasmeer, running around in the same world, and none sound out of place. It can also depend on where your human character comes from.! From the GW2 wiki: "Human names vary from culture to culture, resulting in about seven different known naming varieties. Most naming styles follow real world culture's names. Ascalonian names typically follow a Central European and English naming style. Northern Canthans followed a mixture of Western naming system and Chinese (among other Asian) names (e.g., Canthan names wouldn't follow the standard Asian style of family name first). Kurzick names were a mixture of Germanic and Asian names; and Luxons were a mix of Greek and Asian names. Elonian names were typically African, South Asian, and Middle-eastern. Historically, Krytan names have Southern European names generally, with some central European mixed in - though due to the merging of Elonian, Ascalonian, and Canthan names, the variety has spread to include those as well. Orrian names hold a heavy Arabic style to them. General fantasy names are also seen among various NPCs (particularly surnames among old Ascalonian families)."

Heck, one of my human character's name is Reginald lol

@"The Light In The Darkness.7364" said:Hello,

I love Guild Wars 2 so much that i consider it to be my virtual home. From the NPCs dialogues, cinematics, story writting to the hidden treasures this game has offer and the wide variety of options that can be picked, giving the player a unique experience of what liberty and freedom are.

However, every time i have to create a new profession, here comes the nightmare : How should i name my character so i can enjoy the game even more and feel immersed in the Guild Wars 2 spirit ?

I have tried multiple online name generators and went through thousands of articles in this concern but never have been able to come accross a catchy name that i like that wasn't already in use.

Please share your thoughts and opinions below, i am pretty sure many other persons would love some guidance and suggestions ; )

Here, play a bit with the options it generates names mostly based on D&D and the resaults are pretty cool. It can help you come up with some nifty names.

A lot of what I'd say has already been said, but one thing that I recall from someone back in the day - possible Grubb - is that asura names can also have a tendency to sound like science fiction sound effects.

Ending in a vowel is also pretty much a signifier of a feminine name among asura - Logan makes a comment in one of the dungeons about Kudu having "a girl's name." Masculine names are usually monosyllabic, but I don't know off the top of my head if that's a fixed rule or just a tendency.