What's in a name? (character/forum name origins)

[Kalliope]

Where did your character(s) get their names from? How did you choose your forum name? Share your stories here!

This isn't intended to be a roleplaying thread, so if you have a long, involved backstory, try to keep it relatively concise. Feel free to link to a more in-depth version in another thread, though!

[Kalliope]

Though I don't RP, all of my alliance characters have their own personalities. I like having a sense of who my characters are on their own.

In order of conception/creation:

Kalliope (Night Elf hunter) - Named for the Greek mythological Muse of Heroic Poetry (the K is an alternate spelling), Kalliope set the bar for my Night Elf naming scheme. All of her pets and mounts are named for Greek mythological figures, with a couple of exceptions; the only one who still remains with Kalli is her white polar bear Mist, who was named for a Norse valkyrie to remain in keeping with her vrykul backstory. Kalli is strong-willed and has a definite soft spot for animals of all sorts, but especially bears. She is generally willing to volunteer aid to others, but goes through periods of withdrawal where she would prefer only the company of her pets. Kalliope is often struck by bouts of wanderlust and is always looking for the next big adventure.

Ballari (Gnome rogue) - Ballari is Sanskrit for "walking quietly." I've always seen her as a bit of a scamp, since she has a chip on her shoulder about not being taken seriously as a rogue (both because of her stature and her rather pleasant face), which has made her rather sarcastic and cranky. Her name's meaning stands as a marked contrast to her movements now, since she took up engineering and has been less inclined to walk quietly for a long time. Ballari's fascination with mechanical devices has prompted her to turn her nose up at quieter mounts and has occasionally caused her to wander around in the open stealthed, but with her pet yeti at her side, a sign of pure rogue cheek. However, such moments are rare, as Ballari usually opts to travel alone and undetected - and not just for the usual roguish reasons; she just doesn't like people for the most part.

Aisling (Dwarf priest) - Aisling (ash-LEEN) is Irish for "vision" or "dream," but I actually chose the name for her based on a friend's personality and online handle. Like her namesake, Aisling is solid and unwavering in her beliefs, a commanding presence regardless of her stature. She is also soft (and silly) enough to cart around Mr. Wiggles as her constant companion, but still manages to do so in a somewhat dignified manner. She has a big heart, but will sternly draw the line for the best interests of all when necessary. She is a fierce ally, but an even fiercer enemy, so it is wise not to cross her.

Zabrina (Human mage) - Zabrina is technically "the Latin name of the River Severn in England," but as I recall, I chose the name because it was like Sabrina with a more exotic flair. Zabrina has always been my ice princess, being withdrawn from people and keeping to herself with a bit of a superiority complex. However, as she has been forced to hang around friendlier people, "Zabbie," as she was once called, has softened a bit and shown her roots as a humble girl from Westfall with her pet chicken in tow.

Tryphena (Night Elf druid) - Tryphena is Greek for "delicate," but Tryphena herself has never been a pushover. Try has always been more fine-featured than Kalli and carries a special grace with her, even in bear form. Tryphena has gone through a number of outward appearances as she has gone through all the various druid specs, but she has always remained very in tune with her natural surroundings. She is most comfortable in animal forms, especially cat form, preferring to hide her true self from the world. Tryphena is very loyal to her charges and will always do what she can to help save others, even (especially) if it requires doing something cross-spec. As a youth, she guarded her allies by engaging enemies toe to toe, but as time has gone by, her true gentle nature has drawn her further back behind the lines as both a tree and an owl.

Bryndis (Draenei warrior) - Bryndis is Scandanavian for "of strong armor." She has always been of the "Bryndis smash!" mentality, though it wasn't until later in life that she chose to strap on a shield and bash enemies with that instead. Always on the front lines, Bryndis dedicates herself to protecting those in need - which basically comes down to "everyone else." She has always been met with mild disapproval from her fellow draenei, never quite fitting in. This never bothers her, though; she's always ready to plunge into the next group of enemies with a huge grin on her face, regardless of whether anyone has her back.

Nalanie (Draenei paladin) - Nalanie is Hawaiian for "Heavens," a fitting origin for one who reached Azeroth from above. Like most of her kind, Nalanie's destiny changed on the day the Exodar crashed. She knew that she was to dedicate herself to the Light, but this strange new world did not seem to have a place for her. Nalanie did the best she could, training and improving herself in the shadow of Azeroth's human champions. Eventually, her hard work and honest dedication earned her official recognition and she was accepted into the ranks of the other paladins after she bravely rescued her new noble steed from the darkness. Nalanie, finally feeling complete for the first time in her life, now fights the good fight on the front lines, wherever they may be. Her calm, serene demeanor is usually quite a contrast to the hell that surrounds her, but nothing will stop her from seeing justice done.

Renatka (Human death knight) - Renatka is Latin for "reborn." She took this name herself after regaining consciousness as a death knight in servitude to the Lich King. Renatka remembered nothing of her past and swore revenge on Arthas for destroying her memories and her life. She found a connection with Keristraza of the Wyrmrest Accord, dedicating herself to their cause. Renatka was broken seeing her companion, who was like a sister to her, fall to the wrath of Malygos. Bitter, hollow, and lost, Renatka wandered Azeroth, searching for meaning in her undeath and finding none until after the gates of Gilneas cracked. Only then did she discover that she was not alone in the world - her twin sister, Marzella, survived.

Adamina (Dwarf shaman) - Adamina is Hebrew for "of the Earth," which is appropriate for one who is attuned with the elements. While her older sister Aisling embraced the Light, Mina was drawn to the call of the earth, where she could really get her hands dirty in the trenches. Hotheaded and strong-willed, Mina often wandered far from home, spending much of her youth among the humans. Devestated when King Magni was turned to stone, she returned home and threw herself full force into her training to avenge him. Though far less experienced than her sister, Mina soon found herself healing the wounded on the front lines. This journey brought the sisters closer together than they had been before; though they still have very different viewpoints, they understand each other better.

Marzella (Worgen warlock) - Marzella is a feminine diminutive of the Latin name Marcus. Born in Northshire, she grew up in her mother's home of Gilneas, remaining out of touch with the rest of the world until recently. Zella turned to the dark arts when her mother was killed by worgen, swearing vengeance on the ones that did the deed. In a bitter twist of fate, she was turned into one herself, but was able to retain her mind via alchemic drugs. Caught between her reserved, calculating nature as a necromancer and her new feral instincts, Zella no longer knew where she belonged. While visiting her father's grave in Duskwood, Marzella found that she was not alone in the world - she had a twin sister she never knew about: Renatka. The sisters support each other, filling in the gaps in their twin's life.

And those are my main ladies. I haven't really felt compelled to develop my horde characters; they just sort of...exist.

[Teigan]

Well, I love the group Tegan and Sara. And I really like the name Tegan. Just sounds good to me. Tegan was taken, so I spelled it Teigan. It's a variant of a Gaelic name, which means "little poet" which, since I am fond of Gaelic things for some reason, adds to the charm for me.

Grushdeva's name apparently comes from a series of fantasy books, which I forgot the name of already but really should read since they sounded good. I was trying to come up with a name for my troll in guild chat and a guildie came up with it. In the language from the book, it means "revenge" and it just sounded trollish to me.

[Vephriel]

(Teigs: the books are The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. One of my favourite series, I definitely recommend them!)

Vephriel - I wish I had a more in-depth story to this name, but I simply acquired it from a random name generator (a vampire one) many, many years ago. It stuck in my head as a strong, beautiful sounding name and I used it here and there over the years. I often named game characters Vephriel, so naturally when I got into WoW I used it there too. It's always sounded rather elven to me, so it matches a blood elf perfectly in my opinion.

[Cialbi]

(Well, my soon-to-be gray wind serpent will now certainly be named Vephriel. The thing looks like and probably is a vampire, and its appearance reminds me of how Veph appears in her signature)

Yeah, pretty unspectacular for me. I was creating my first ever character for WoW (knowing next to nothing about the game at the time), and I kept on hitting the Randomize button until I got a name that I could tolerate. Looking back on that, I probably made a bad choice in settling for a name that can be pronounced in so many different ways (I always think of the 'Ci' being pronounced the same way as the letter C). Later, I would find out that almost no one else uses Cialbi, and hence decided that it would suit me perfectly as being a username for WoW-related stuff.

Ironic when you compare that to all the effort I put into naming Cialbi's pets nowadays.

[Tudyk]

My first WoW char (and my chars in most games, actually) was called "Marit" from a series of books I read a while ago. As for the rest ...

Odetta: The "good" half of a legless schizophrenic gunslinger from Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
Spinne: German for "spider." Leveled the char to 60 (mostly in BG's) using only a spider pet named Jäger ("hunter")
Katze: My dru, German for "cat" even though she always has been and always will be a tank. My BF stole "Bär" on Thunderlord before I could use it.
Tudyk: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0876138/ Was a huge Firefly fan, and had just finished watching Serenity when I created the char. =D

I also tend to name a lot of alts after imps. I currently have a Gartal, Kuploz and Kuptai.

[Saturo]

Saturo is actually a variation of my real name that I came up with about ten-eleven years ago. My name is a bit too short imo (three letters. -.-) so I added some bits, and Saturo sounded awesome. I've used it irl too, even though it's mostly an online thing. I'm not quite sure how I came up with it, but I usually attribute it to the gas giant Saturn (Even if Saturn was a god before being a planet), because I like space, both. irl astronomy, and sci-fi.

[Zinagaro]

Zinagaro originally came from a song that I used to listen to a lot named "Zingaro". The song was the theme for the haunted graveyard mansion in another game i used to play. When I first started testing out Warcraft back in 2005 on my brothers old account I named myself Zingaro. After that I got my own account and named myself Zinagaro since I could not get my old name, It's stuck with me ever since.

Vitata Came from the same game but a monster in the game instead. The monster was a black and red Ant who would bring honey to other ants to heal them. When killed this mob dropped an item that taught the skill Heal to any class that had the item. That's how My Priest got her name.

Higante Is the nickname my Philippine friends gave me when we were kids. I was told it means something along the lines of Giant. Hence why I named my goblin Higante. Irony at its finest

[Mozag]

Wulfhild (Dwarf Warrior) - I find that, obviously, Germanic (and Anglo-Saxon) names go well with the Dwarves, and this is one of my personal favourites.

Lorellin (Night Elf Druid): In the index of The Silmarillion, Lorellin is described as "The lake in Lorien in Valinor where the vala Este sleeps by day." (excuse the lack of correct accents). I am a raging old-school Tolkien fan (I hate the films with a passion), and for me, Elves should always have Tolkien-esque names, though I would never dream of naming someone after something so straightforward as a character of his. I like place-names in his mythos a lot.

Izikii (Troll Druid): This is my tribute character to my four month old daughter (I had to make one, since I originally created one for my son too). I've wanted a Troll Druid for a long time, and when I could finally create it, my daughter's nickname, Izzy, lent itself easily to a quickly made up Troll name that sounds almost authentic.

Echraide (Orc Warlock): Named after the Celtic Goddess of horses, healing, fertility and beauty, Etain Echraide, this name was badly chosen from the start. It doesn't sound Orcish, and it doesn't even describe her. But, though I have made up better Orc names, Ech has now been this for a long time, and I couldn't imagine changing it.

Mozag (Troll Hunter): Mozag used to be a Tauren male called Ceredigion, but two years after creating him, I felt nothing but a gentle affection for him (since he was my first character to ever hit 80). He was large, ungainly, male (I hate how armour looks on males in this game), and I was not happy with his RP character, which was interesting enough, but too tortured by his past mistakes for me to move him on in any way. So, after some unfortunate stuff just before Christmas this year, my husband cheered me up by paying for a race change for him. I had wanted a Troll Hunter for ages, and was so happy to be able to take my main Hunter out of retirement again, since now I enjoyed her! Mozag is a variation of the name Mosag, which Harry Potter fans may remember is the name of Aragog's wife in The Chamber of Secrets book. I fell in love with the name when reading it, and felt that with an added Z, it would sound Trollish enough for my taste. Her pets are all named after metal bands, the reason for which reaches back to a previous Troll character of mine (a Mage), who I roleplayed as having a Hunter father with pets called Gutter, Ripper and Shredder. Many of my favourite bands have suitably violent names to suit her tastes.

Lazuli (Goblin Hunter): I wanted to start a Goblin called Lazuli, and get her a blue moth called Lapis from Azuremyst. Sadly, The Shattering made it virtually impossible to get there, and as my husband has no taxi mounts, I didn't get the moth until she got faster driving. It turned out that she disliked the moth anyway, but I still love her name, which I see as suitable for a Goblin. All her pets are, surprise, surprise, named after gems and money-related things.

Lomelinda (Night Elf Hunter): "Lomelindi" is the Quenya word for nightingales, meaning "dusk singers". I liked it, and it suits a Night Elf. Her pets are named after nature-related things like flowers and trees.

Alburga (Worgen Hunter): Seeing as the Worgen are simply Humans who have turned into werewolves, I wanted to give mine a normal woman's name. I tried out every Victorian popular girl's name, but unsurprisingly they were all taken. So, I remembered that there was an Anglo-Saxon revival in girls' names back in the Victorian era, and went for one of my favourites. Her pets are named after old writers and poets who have stylish names, and who I care for myself.

Garshanga (Orc Hunter): A name I made up, since I didn't want to use one of the other names I had used on a deleted Orc Warrior. I asked my husband what he suggested, and bored with my alt making tendencies, he just said Garrosha and chuckled. I ignored him, but I think now that the Gar stayed in my mind subconsciously and this random jumble up of a name was created. Her pets have descriptive and quite girly names.

Ethelswitha (Dwarf Hunter): Anglo-Saxon name I like. I didn't want to give her a Germanic name, since I'd used all my favourites on previous Dwarf characters, and did not feel like giving them to her, since her appearance and personality differ from theirs. Her pets are named after alcohol related things, like her brown bear Malt.

Sungrain (Tauren Hunter): Sounded Tauren to me. Her pets are named after harvesty, nature-related and "spiritual" things.

Alqualonde (Draenei Priest): "Haven of the swans", city of the Teleri elves in Aman, from Tolkien's mythos. When I first saw a Draenei, I thought they looked like graceful swans, and this name immediately popped in my mind. I used it on a Draenei Shaman I created when I began playing, but subsequently deleted her. When my Priest was born, I took the name for her.

Mazakeen (Troll Shaman): A variation of the name of a demon in The Sandman. The original form was taken, but I really wanted to use this name, and so I changed it around a little, which is something I don't usually do. But I love it on her.

Roxie (Goblin Shaman): Just sounds Goblin-like, really. I was surprised it wasn't taken!

Ishalaa (Draenei Paladin); A made-up name, which sounded very Draenei to me.

Googajee (Gnome DK): My only remaining male character, and he will remain thus, because he is my son's tribute character. Named after something my now three year old used to say when he was learning to speak (no idea what the heck Googajee was meant to mean!), I felt it was perfect for a slightly mad, older Gnome chap who had lost his memory after being made a DK. For some obscure reason, he insists on calling himself Googajee, though I do have an actual Gnomish name for him in his history, for the occasions when I want to RP him.

[Vorel]

Even i have enough alts i may mention only my huntress name-since is also my forums' name here at Petopia as well.So my night elf's huntress name is Vorel,taken from Draconomicon,an optional sourcebook for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.Her name in draconic language means Beautiful,even if as i learned later Vorel is also the Czechoslovak/North American Indian word for Eagle.Her most trustful companion during her adventures is named Sjach-also from draconic language-meaning Shadow(i found that a fitting name for her Loque since he is her shadow and with his spirit walk he mostly is unseen) but also all her pets have draconic themed names,usually a name that fit the personality of each or his/her physical appearance.What is most surprising though about my beloved huntress is that somewhere around patch 3.3.0 (and much much later of her birth/naming process,she was already 80s then and Sjach was by her side) an npc showed up at Dalaran.A female Blood Elf dark ranger,named Vorel(!) http://www.wowwiki.com/Dark_Ranger_Vorel .Now i rarely walk in Dalaran but back then i felt awkward to see that Blood Elf and my character together,thankfully are on different factions,if they were both alliance i may had to rename my character even if i am not seriously RP.Besides is flattering to see Blizzard using my character's name(and is not that original since many Vorels are at armory) i still cannot get why we cannot do the same,meaning use Blizzard's npcs' names for our characters/pets alike.

Vorel the Seeker

[Azunara]

(Ha! I knew I wasn't too far off the mark when I mentioned Saturn...at some point. For something. My brain will figure it out later.)

Azunara: My parents are heavy internet users, and they have their respective names for membership to stuff and etc. so that'll they be well known. I had always wanted to one and went through a multitude of names (Firewing was one of them for a while. Really old WoW players occasionally refer to me as Fire or Wing instead of Azu.) These days, Azunara has become the name I go by the most. It's fairly uncommon, but it sounds nice and it's not TOO difficult to pronounce. Azunara came about through a web comic I read that was WoW-based that I liked. One of the characters was a nether drake named Azuna. When I wanted to create a feral druid after my first died horribly, I decided to name her that.

It went well until I found out it was taken. In all my awesomeness, I tacked on a 'ra' and BAM. Azunara. So yeah.

Firewing: Combo name. Not much exciting could be said about how I got this one.

Ravynira: Uhm...I liked ravens and it seemed to fit, but Raven was taken, (This is for my lock. I wanted a semi-darker name.) Changing the 'e' to a 'y' was fruitless, so I tacked one 'ira' because it sounds good. If you're curious, ICly her name is Alexandria Frost. Ravynira is just the name she gives out. Safer that way.

[Moonlost]

Moonlost: When the Petopia Forums first spun off from the Mania's Arcania forums, I wanted to make myself a new identity. I had tried putting together a project which kinda fell though under my old name, I felt very awkward about appearing under that name for a long time afterward.
So when the chance came to make myself a new name, I happily did so. I can't quite remember how I stumbled onto Moonlost, although I suspect it's in reference to my long standing love of werewolves. Nowdays, I love the name and am supremely happy I stumbled onto it.

*Noun*lost: Over in the Nesingwary guild, I have developed a naming theme to easily distinguish who I am. Sunlost the Pally and Slumlost the Hunter. I've never had a naming theme before, and I kinda love it.

Durana: My longest played character, although she's currently taking a break this expansion. Way back when she was first being created, I was stuck on a name. So, I turned to my dungeons nd dragons books to try and get an idea. The Races of Stone book has a big chart of Dwarvish names, and I chose two there that sounded good and fit the character. Dur- (meaning wolf) and -ana (meaning eyes). The name has this wonderful ring to it when said aloud I think.

Hylian: My Draenei shaman. Once again, I was stuck on a name. For some reason, my mind drifted over to the Legend of Zelda. As a half joke, I typed in the name of Hylian. To my surprise, it wasn't taken.

Haar: This name is in homage to one of my favourite characters from a video game: Haar from Fire Emblem: Path of Radience and FE: Radiant Dawn. I've been trying to keep the character true to the concept of his original self, even going as far to raid ZG endlessly for the eyepatch that drops there.

[Rhyela]

Rhyela - Night Elf Hunter: I used an elven name generator (from D&D) located here. "Rhy-" (or "ry-") means "jade" and "-ela" (or "-el", or "-ele") means "hawk". Jade is my favorite stone IRL and hawks are my favorite bird, plus I thought the two sounded good together, so I went with it. This was when I account- and server-transferred her, though. Previously her name was Nakoma from the Pocahontas Disney movie, since I really liked her name and her character (saw it when I was about....11 or 12?).

Edaia - Night Elf Druid: I wanted an earthy, or nature-sounding name. It's a combination of "Eden" and "Gaia", though nowadays it loses some of its meaning when my guild just calls me "Ed". But strangely, I have taken a liking to that nickname, and actually use it in other forums or my Rock Band persona.

Daema - Worgen Warrior: I'm not really sure where I came up with this name, I think I just made it up and liked it. Daema was originally an orc warrior on another server a looooong time ago, but I only got her to about level 10. My husband, brother, and friends finally all moved en masse to Ysera, where I created a human warrior of the same name and got her to 70 (the cap at that time). Then I got bored with her and created Ed and played her for a while. I wanted Ed at the top of my character select, so I deleted Daema. After some time, I wanted to play a warrior again so I made another human warrior and named her Daema. Then I quit WoW for a while out of boredom with it. Came back and wanted to sneak back on so certain people wouldn't get nosey, so I transferred Daema to the Horde and made her an orc named Grimelda. Time passed and I finally admitted to people I was playing again, and picked up Rhyela as my main, thereby leaving Grimelda unplayed. Finally, after Cataclysm, I was playing with the worgen female options (I hated them with a passion at the time but was trying to give them a chance), and oddly found that the look I liked the best...well the human version looked JUST LIKE my old level 70 Daema! It was too weird to ignore, so now Daema is a worgen warrior. Whew.

Lysende - Draenei Priest: I want to say it's Norwegian for "luminous". Just seems like a priestly name to me and I like how it sounds.

Narcille - Draenei Shaman: I don't play her much but I named her after Narsil, the sword used by Aragorn (and others, though I'm not well-educated on Tolkien lore) in Lord of the Rings. I just changed it up a bit to look more Draenei-ish, since they seem to like using double-letters in their names (typically vowels).

Trystaan - Draenei Paladin: I just like the name Trystan, and I thought tossing in that extra "a" made it look more like a Draenei name. Plus, I think it sounds like a strong name and Draenei males are huge, so it fit (yeah, he's a male).

Luneste - Night Elf Mage: My brother's mage, his favorite character ever, is named Celeste. I thought it was a pretty name, so I wanted a mage with -este, too. I came up with the name Luneste first before the character, and was originally going to make her a worgen. But, I felt that Luneste would be more appropriate as a Night Elf (with pretty bluish skin and white hair, looks very "lunar" to me), so that's what I did!

[pengupuff]

My hunter is named Linesk which, to be honest, is just a bastardization of "Link" because I'm such an LoZ buff.

"Pengupuff" is just a dumb combination of "penguin" and "Jigglypuff," though I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.

[Ana]

Tårnfalk, well originally she was named Tivoli after famous Danish amusement park. That park is THE most romantic place i´ve ever been to. Sadly with the server move, i could not keep Tivoli, and i wanted a Danish name for my hunter, so i choose Tårnfalk, which means Kestrel, a small hunting bird. Those birds always been a favorite of mine with their unique and beautifull coloring. Tivoli Tsunami was the name of my darkelf enchanter in everquest 1. I must admit that eventhough i LOVE the name tårnfalk i would love to get the name Tivoli back. I know i can spell it differently, but this is one name that i will not do that with. It would not be the same

Anadra is an elven name. I got smitten by the name many years ago, when playing n everwinter nights. I use the random name generator for my elf, and the name Anadra came up. Since them my druid healer always been Anadra, if i could get that name. Also when i played everquest1 , i read a funny comic (cannot remember the name), where the heroine was called Anna, and i really liked the comic. So its an extra bonus for me to be know as Ana among friends. Rigth now its Anadrá cause i could not get Anadra, but to me its the same.

Marcipan, was Nougat before the server move. Just wanted something sweet which went together with the guildname "Cookienators", and its almost the same

Tía, i wanted a priest so i came up with this name.. no idea where i got it from, just wanted a short name

Chilie, was named Bailyes before the server move. Bailyes are my favorite alcoholic bevarage, but she could not be named that so i chosed Chilie, because its a strong spice. Not a char i play alot cause i hate tanking.

Predatoria my worgen.. well i needed a somewhat decent name and i like this, for now she´s just a nameholder, till there comes a new class i dont have and that i will like to play. Originally Predatoria Draconia was the name of my iksar Shadowknigth in eq1

Kahlua, i love alcoholic bevarages which taste like caramel . Also i LOVE the bloodelfs. Kahluas body color fit the beverage perfectly, and i love that i can have an alcholic themed hunter.. Sadly, i found that i HATE the hordes quest side.... so shes on a vacation atm, until i can find it in me to rekindle my passion for her.

Chasmir, dwarven shaman, named after my Babarian shaman in everquest 1 Chasmir Sweater. IN everquest 1 you could write a text, which ppl inspecting you could read. Chasmirs read: Knit, knit and more knitting, that is how i came to be. And eventhough i come from the cold north, you can always try to melt my heart.
I miss alot of my char in eq1 , so Chasmir the shaman is in honor of a dear game

This reminds me.. .WTB SURNAMES!!!

[Rhyela]

"Pengupuff" is just a dumb combination of "penguin" and "Jigglypuff," though I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.

You made me lol.

[Annaika]

Some of my characters:

Annaika [Pronounced AnNAJka] (Female undead hunter): There is no real backstory behind this name. It just popped up as I was making the character. Interestingly most people seem to think my real name is Anna. It is not.

Gomorráh (Male bloodelf warlock): Obviously named after the biblical cities Sodom and Gomorrah. I had to use a ´, since the name without it was restricted (Apparently blizz are not all too fond of biblical references.. They wouldn't let me name my seagull Judas either). I originally intended him to be a hunter, so he could have a pet named Sodom, but quickly got strong warlock vibes from him.

Raknel [Pronounced RAAKnel] (Female tauren paladin): My idea for this name was a stronger sounding version of Rachel. I may have stepped a bit too far though, as one my guildies commented how dude-ish it sounded. >.<

Malfatto (Male undead priest): A nod to my latest obsession, the Jack the Ripper-esque plague doctor from Assassi
ns Creed Brotherhood. I may even spec him holy or disc for extra irony.

Nelre (Male draenei mage): When I was making this character, I had a ton of great ideas for names, but they were all taken. So I ended up typing random letter combinations and.. this one wasn't taken. To begin with I hated the name, but it has grown on me, and Nelre has ended up as one of my favorite characters.

Kuwagatten (Female draenei shaman): Named after a character from Patapon. I actually spelled the name wrong (his name is Kuwagattan), but oh well.

I generally try to keep my names serious, though I have a few silly characters as well (Like Sparklepants the male orc hunter, and Razzledazzle the male bloodelf mage). The only type of name I can't stand is the downright lazy one, like Orcshaman or Blodelff or something in that venue.

[Shade]

My biggest hunter is Shade, which is my real life nickname base off of a character that I've been writing/rp'ing for a... very long time.

My littlest hunter is Gypsi-just thought it would be a good name for a hunter I planned to run all over the world collecting the rares that Shade couldn't pick up. All of the pets on her that I plan on keeping are getting gypsy themed names right now.

Neko, Koneko and some of my other toons all have names that come from alias that my character Shade uses at various points in some of the stories that I have written. Shade's middle name is Koneko, which is Japanese for kitten, and she hates it to pieces, lol.

And Fai, my shaman is named after my favorite anime character

I'm not the most original when it comes to names.

[Falcon]

Toph (Blood Elf Huntress) is named in homage to my favorite female character from the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Originally, Toph was based on her namesake, blindness included, and as I continued to RP and develop her, her blindness ended up being cured and she soon deviated away from her namesake and became her own character. Rather than tough and outgoing, she became steadfast and gentle. Though I played her a lot back in BC and for most of Wrath, it wasn't till the end of Wrath when she tamed King Krush that she finally became my main character.

[Raederle]

Raederle -- the main female character from the RiddleMaster of Hed trilogy (well worth reading by the way). I've used this name for characters in a number of games over the years, or variations for times when the name is already taken or the character requires something different (favorites being Raediriel and Raethwyn). It's a beautiful name for a strong woman who also kicks ass.

For characters who have a more sinister side to them I like the name Nefesh, which is a Hebrew word for "Soul".

Nefesh Ha'Ra was a toon I played in City of Villains who had a wonderful backstory about being a holocaust survivor that gained paranormal powers due to being experimented on in the death camps, and was now out for as much revenge as she could get. Some day I'll roll an Undead Warlock or possibly Shadow Priest to bring her over to WoW.