You forgot to mention the thesaurus. Probably the most powerful hero naming tool ever created. You can find all manner of cool one word names just by looking up synonyms and antonyms for a given word. A good example is my Ice/Ice blaster. I was looking for a really cool name that would announce his powerset so I went to the thesaurus and started searching under cold. Found frozen under cold and thought that fit my character concept better so I searched under frozen, this led to icebound which still fit my character concept but wasn't quite what I was looking for in a character name. Frigid was listed under icebound and it caught my eye so I searched under frigid and found frost-bound. Now that was what I was looking for, it was very cool sounding and suggested a person with ice powers that were both a blessing and a curse. It also gave my bio a real comic flourish at the end!
You can also go with a running theme. My wife plays CoH and she came up with the name Bloody Elle back during beta. Since that time she has reused Elle for any number of characters. A Fire/Rad controller called Crucibelle, a Jean Grey homage FF/Psy defender called Marvelle, an Invy/Fire tanker called Cinderelle, an Invy/Stone tanker called Minerelle, a Sonic/Energy blaster called Rebel Elle. (Okay, not one word but you get the point.)
"I am a Tank. I am your first choice, I am your last hope." -- Rune Bull
"Durability is the quintessential super-power. " -- Sailboat
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You forgot to mention the thesaurus. Probably the most powerful hero naming tool ever created. You can find all manner of cool one word names just by looking up synonyms and antonyms for a given word. A good example is my Ice/Ice blaster. I was looking for a really cool name that would announce his powerset so I went to the thesaurus and started searching under cold. Found frozen under cold and thought that fit my character concept better so I searched under frozen, this led to icebound which still fit my character concept but wasn't quite what I was looking for in a character name. Frigid was listed under icebound and it caught my eye so I searched under frigid and found frost-bound. Now that was what I was looking for, it was very cool sounding and suggested a person with ice powers that were both a blessing and a curse. It also gave my bio a real comic flourish at the end!
You can also go with a running theme. My wife plays CoH and she came up with the name Bloody Elle back during beta. Since that time she has reused Elle for any number of characters. A Fire/Rad controller called Crucibelle, a Jean Grey homage FF/Psy defender called Marvelle, an Invy/Fire tanker called Cinderelle, an Invy/Stone tanker called Minerelle, a Sonic/Energy blaster called Rebel Elle. (Okay, not one word but you get the point.)
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Yes I did forget to mention thesaurus. Sorry 'bout that.
And yes the running theme does work. As you noticed my names either end with -ix, -ox, -swing for my recent characters.
Thanks for the add-on McBoo
I've seen many naming guides on the forums here. But they all suggest that we use adjectives, prefixes, and suffixes. Now many of us, including me, want to have actual names that are just one word; like Synapse...Neuron....Anti-matter....etc.
However, as we all know all those are taken. Right? Wrong!
DISCLAIMER: The names suggested in this guide do not have any meanings. An adjective-less name would probably have no meaning; like Crey, like Mayko...so if you want your name to be 100% relevant to your toon concept, then I do not suggest my guide to you. This guide focuses on names that SOUND cool.
You just need to be creative. And to do that, you need the right resources. Here are tips on resources to use for your one-word names:
Chemistry class wasn't all that useless after all!
Alright, I may be sounding all geeky-like; but the periodic table is my number-one resource for choosing names. Yes I'm serious. A particular element I like is Xenon. I like X's and Z's in my name; makes them sound cooler. Now, you may ask "I can't name my hero Xenon; it's taken!"! Let me finish! Yes, Xenon is taken. But what Renon? What about Zenon? What about Xeron? Play around with the letters.
Here are some names I used off the periodic table:
Lethox (comes from Lithium; implies Lethal)
Rubidox (comes from Rubidium; It also carries Oxygen which implies my Storm secondary)
As I mentioned, I add X's to my names just for my satisfaction, play around with the letters. Work out what sounds coolest.
Sometimes the rarest things in life are right under your nose!
You can always mix-and-match letters from your powerset names or powers. I recently built a Brute called "Enerix". I took Ene- from Energy and added my signature "X". You could go with Electrix...Got an Electric/Energy brute? How about Enelectic (hurray for my first example without an x)?
Now here's the thing. Sometimes it can be hard to mix and match names so that it flows nicely when pronounced. Here's what I do when that happens: Keep repeating the original combo-word. Repeat it and omit/add sounds until it sounds smooth. Also, don't be confined with the actual name of the power/powerset. You can go with things that resemble that powerset. Fire? Red? Heat? Hot?
So...if you got a fire/ice blaster you could go with Cold-red? Too choppy? How about Cored? Reads like '"core'd". How about Redco? The o at the end makes it long. So you need something to cut it off with (this is where my X's come to the rescue...but Redcox sounds...not right....lol) Any non-vowel could help here....as long as it sounds cool. That's just an example to show how you can get from Red and Cold to something like Radcol (notice how I changed the 'e' to 'a'...try it, doesn't it flow nicer with 'a' instead?).
Comics FTW!
Read comics. And I don't mean go buy a whole collection of comics just for naming. The casual CoH comic reading helps. For instance, on one of the issues, I saw a toon named Moodswing. I later built and ice/ice blaster called Coldswing; followed by a fire/fire blaster called Heatswing. So try to get names, and reverse-engineer them. It usually works.
Using these tips for my own toons, I rarely see the infamous "This name is already taken" box during character creation. And I'm usually admired for my toon names. Also, this technique has one plus side...people can't shorten your name! I hate it when they called Bright Shadow as "Bright"...
Hope this guide helps some people out there.