How do you name your RPG characters?

@brodehouse: I've heard that as well. I get the Viking Borg part, not so much the Islam though.

Ever since a math teacher accidentally called me Cliff (a few times) I've kind of wished that my name was Cliff and it's what I usually name my characters. It's just aesthetically pleasing imo.

I have found a method that works for me.

I name characters after the various monsters in Godzilla movies.

It works for me...more or less. While I can't say that "Destoroyah" ended up being the best name for a physical adept in Shadowrun Returns, I am happy with my Diablo III Witch Doctor named "Kumonga".

I tend to use names of characters from either the discworld or midkemia series of books. No imagination.

Tamriel Rebuilt's name generator for fantasy RPGs. Whatever generic-ass common name that I come up with at the time for sci fi. And I usually go with the canon name for Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Persona and so on.

As far as I'm concerned, Charlie Tunoku is canon to P4.

Kurdt

It's easy when you follow some simple guidelines

<3 Those books were so good. And yeah, Brian Jacques really loved to go in depth with his food descriptions. Also, in Loamhedge, a flaming arrow through the neck...God, for kids books that series was super badass and violent.

I name them Branthog.

I let my 5 year old daughter usually choose the name (at least for alts or on games with multiple namable characters). My most recent alt in Dark Souls 2 is now named Pumpkin Pie.

My Diablo 3 alt is named Strawberry (short for Strawberry Shortcake I think)

Totally going to make my 5 year old watch this. Pumkonius is way better than Pumpkin Pie. Strawbathiam kicks the crap out of Strawberry.

@joshwent:

I love that dumbass movie.

If it's a party member, leave the default. When creating multiple characters, I try to come up with something thematically- or lore-appropriate for each. Same for single-player protagonists, only I stick a "J" at the front.

Most of the time, I go with my real name - Erin. Sometimes I go with Jade or variations on that if Jade is already taken. For instance, my SWTOR name is Jaydha. When I start running out of options for alts, I switch to names from mythology, especially Greek myths.

Then you get into crazy stuff like naming ships in Star Trek Online. My main is a science officer that primarily deals in heals, so her ships are almost all named after famous female scientists or doctors, mostly from antiquity. I have the USS Merit-Ptah, the USS Hypatia, the USS Democritus, the USS Abella, and the USS Mercuriade, which are the ones I can remember without checking.

That's about it. :D

If they have a default name or their name is in the instruction manual, I'll pick that.

Sometimes I use a theme. I have a pokemon team named after Roman emperors, for example. Or various pantheons of gods.

But "s-senpai.." is always good for a laugh.

Love the vulgar names people come up with for funny images, but I could never get through a game if my character was named "bitch" or whatever, so I tend to just make up a word.

Once in a while it's a theme, though. I remember ages ago I named my team in Pokemon Ruby after Ranma 1/2 characters. Lately I've had moderate success naming Dark Souls1/2 characters after the name of a friend combined with the name of a piece of furniture. It's a decent way to get a name that's different yet familiar(also: funny).

I usually go with the name Cyrus. If that isn't available, I'll go with Eise.

I mostly name them after my wife and kids, sometimes I use their "evil" names, which are the backwards spellings. For example Morgan turns into Nagrom (Demon Hunters/Magic Users) and Lea Marie turns into Ael Eiram (Fighters/Paladins). Other times I'll use one of their nicknames like Rooster (Rouges/Thieves). In the end it all comes down to feel.

I have a small grab bag of names that I usually go with for protagonists. For extended parties, I try to follow the naming conventions of the setting or just characters I like from various properties. Chrono Trigger and Persona 4? Well, there's only following suit for me.

Male: David, Kelric, Mortuss, Steve, Hamfist

Female: Mina, Haley, Alice, Mialee

Dog: There's only Arfur Mcwuf, the finest fellow to ever sniff a butt.

For Divinity I named my characters Korra and Asami as a witch and shadowblade respectively.

Normally I'll just pick a random assortment of letters that sounds like it could potentially be a Japanese word. "Tunoku."

I usually sit and stare at the screen for a good fifteen minutes mulling over ideas for names appropriate to the setting of the game, and specifically the race of the character I'm creating. If I can't think of anything good within a reasonable amount of time, I'll usually just recycle the most fitting name of a previous character.

I use a rap name generator.

Mmmm... Chungus. Yes, I think I'll name him Chungus.

@fattony12000: When I replayed FFX recently I name Tidus "Dickshit." Probably wouldn't have finished it if not for that.

Depends on my mood, but if it's a JRPG I almost always us some variation of "Fart" + noun or something else demeaning, usually in accordance with how awful the main character is. "Fart Sucker" is one of my favorites.

Depends on the game, depends on how much agency I have over the character, depends on how I feel in the moment, maaaaaan.

Hmmmm....maybe after 30 min of consideration i just settle on my initials :)

Haha, these are hilarious.

I really went on a weird tangent when naming some Diablo 3 characters back when it first came out:

But usually I stick to Binding of Isaac boss names like Peep, Gurdy Jr, etc. I'm not sure why.

@joshwent: what the hell is that from? Looks like a funny movie.

I normally name a character after myself or I'll use my PSN account name or whatever. If I make multiple characters I will click random until it pops up something I like if there is a random option. If there is not I will just make up some shit or google something like "list of elf names" or "futuristic names" or some nonsense like that.

I recently named my Persona 3 Protagonist the first thing that came into my head: Protago Nist-kun.

However, being Japan everyone calls him Nist-kun Protago which I probably should have though of.

It's Gentlemen Broncos, the third film from the brothers that made Napoleon Dynamite. It's not fantastic and completely falls apart at the end, but it has a few very memorably funny moments, delves into some interesting places, and they really capture the real life nerd attitudes well (which I actually thought they failed at in Napoleon). If nothing else, it's absolutely worth it to see Sam Rockwell do this...

Peter Tunoku for the Persona games. He's a distant cousin.

Anytime I do a fantasy game I go with Mems for my main character and for more "realistic" games like Mass Effect I just go with my regular name. I never know what to name companion characters when given the option.

Beginning with KOTOR, I started naming all of my characters eXor. It kinda sounded like a Sith name so I used it for that and just stuck with it in other games. Although I kept John in Mass Effect...not even sure if you can change the name. And even though it's not an RPG, I always keep the name Link in Zelda games.

It it's already an established character I stick to the default name, if it's a Pokemon game I name it something related to shit, any other rpgs I usually just think up one that fits my character and play style (For example Eli the Silent for my cat man assassin in skyrim).

I take the names of characters very seriously, which is why they end up being named Riggs, Murtagh, STDYOLOLOL, Lumberg, and the like. Oh, and Tank Knifeman, but that almost never fits.

@joshwent: Well this is something I simply have to see. Thank you sir.

McDuff, if it's a spellcaster in an RPG it'll be Hamwelder.

If I'm playing as a guy, it's usually Roland based of Roland Dischain from the Dark Tower series.

If I'm playing as a lady, it's usually Emily based of Emily Haines from Metric.

Pick a colour between 1 and 10, roll a six sided coin and then rub my face on the keyboard.

I always play as a woman called Dice. I'm building a giant meta-narrative whereby a somewhat cynical and exasperated high elf/monk/rogue lady travels across the universe fixing people's problems for fame and small change.

@fattony12000 pretty much covered what I came here to say.

My Lightning Returns Chocobo is named 'Shithead'. In a game oozing with boring, smarmy pap dialog, talks with 'Shithead' are just about the only dialog I don't skip anymore. I was kind of pissed when they reveal that your Chocobo is Odin reincarnated or some shit and Lightning starts calling him by his "real" name.

I usually try and pick a name that fits the world, but my brain is usually always leaning towards names related to Vagrant Story (Callo, Ashley, Sydney, Merlose, Lostarot, Hardin, Mullenkamp, Iocus, etc). If it's just something generic I tend to use the shorthand version of my most common online handle and just go with Vagrant.

I have a really hard time coming up with names, so if there's no default, I usually look around the room for objects with people's/other character's names on them. It's not a very good system. I played through Demon's Souls as a lady named Fats Waller and just started Dark Souls as another named Wallace.

I usually go with characters I like from history or other pop culture stuff. If I can theme them, then all the better. For example, my faith and sword based build on Dark Souls 2 is called Joan (after Joan of Arc) and my strength guy is called Ahab, for like his Moby Dick based namesake, he is on a fruitless quest for revenge that will only end in pain.

If there's a default I'll sometimes leave it at that. For the most part I just take names from black/folk/viking metal bands. They are usually sufficiently crazy/fantasy sounding (especially when taken from fantasy to begin with. See: Gorgoroth, Azathoth, Cirith Ungol, etc.) Otherwise I have 2 different names I end up repeating a lot when I can't think of anything else.

For JRPGs, I don't rename any characters.

For Western RPGs, I just look around my room and pick some random object. The cipher character in western RPGs never feels like a character to me and I have no investment in them. I'm more interested in their stats.

I've taken to naming my characters FemShep.

This includes a brief stint of playing that dumb Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game (thanks, Patrick) as FemShep. Her "introduction" quote thing was "I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite boutique in the city"