*Stand up and appluads*
Wonderfully well written!! I too have a love of good names and what makes them good.
A few of my toons names:
Mime Artiste - He's a mime, says it all.
Chilling Thought - Ice/psi domi (though I still get asked if im a fire/psi sometimes...go figure)
Bubba Bash - nice bit of alliteration for you.
Kentucky Fried Mime - a bit of a pun.
Static Mime - descriptive of powers and look, while also being a form of mime.
Ive seen some fantastic puns in this game, some brilliant player names, and well, some ones where I actually dont bother to invite them to the team becuase they have a stupid name. Names in full capitals, or xXB0bXx type names will also usually be passed up on an invite.
Thank NCSoft that people are allowed to buy name changes.
Good work there, some interesting thoughts 
.
I've always been a fan of alliteration myself, Hurricane Hal (storm/elec meteorologist), Princess Perfection (mind/energy spoiled brat).
When I'm creating a new character, the name I use really has to fit with whatever concept (no matter how vague it is ) that I'm aiming for. More often than not, I'll fire up a word processor and start using the thesaurus, trying out key words to get variations on possible names.
Wikipedia has helped out too. It's let me use geographic features, Diamond Head (stone/fire living rock) is a Hawaiian volcano and Beinn Nibheis (ice/ice frozen warrior) is the Gaelic spelling of Ben Nevis. Although I didn't use pyrocumulus, I did use the common version of Fire Cloud (fire/storm elemental).
As for old characters with poor names, the name change tokens can be your friend here. No need for Snurflepants to be mocked at level 50 any more. I've 're-invented' old unused characters by using the name change feature. When the concept hit, Atomic Eddie (ill/rad) became Phantom Army, with apropriate costumes thanks to some costume change tokens.
One of my pet peeves is unnecessary punctuation and number substitution. I don't think I could have a Mr Awesome' knowing that the "real" Mr Awesome was out there somewhere. However when it all comes down to it, I'd much rather see "Bill the Newt" with an original costume and concept, than another 'tribute' character waiting to be genericed.
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks for the kind comments, I wholeheartedly agree that originality is important too. I've seen too many claws/regen scrappers called xWolvie in the past. It's quite tiresome 
Thelonious Monk
I love good names on alts - one of my favourites on Union was Cher Nobyl - my Fire/Rad troller - but I didn't enjoy the powersets so she got deleted 
Corporeal Punishment (AR/Dev Blaster) also caused me some amusement with the amount of comments I got about mis-spelling Corporal...
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
I wholly applaud this, great read, very much "relevant to my interests".
Should be stickied in the Newbie section along with "Costume creation for the visually and/or Aestheticly impaired"
Notable Hero names:
Audiosurfer: Sonic/Kin with the power glide from CoH edeluxe on permanent (and i'd just played the game)
Punstoppable: Ilu/Kin COntroller, gave his enemies cerebral haemorrhages with bad jokes and vicious Puns
Am-Pierre: Elec/Elec blaster with moustache, beret and bad accent
Ram-Bow: Archery/Enegy blaster, Big bow, bigger muscles.
Chad the Impaler: Spines/Dark Scrapper, originally a example of "Nastygoths"
Awesome, absolutely awesome. I too can appreciate great use of the language. I'd like to add a type of name though, the comedy/spoof name - for instance, I already happen to know there's a Captain Obvious out there because it was already taken... anyone who's seen Whose Line Is It Anyway will know what I mean as well.
"Thank god you're here, Constantly-Being-Hit-By-A-Car Man!"
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"Hard pressed on my right. My centre is yielding. Impossible to manoeuvre. Situation excellent. I am attacking." - General Ferdinand Foch
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Awesome, absolutely awesome. I too can appreciate great use of the language. I'd like to add a type of name though, the comedy/spoof name - for instance, I already happen to know there's a Captain Obvious out there because it was already taken... anyone who's seen Whose Line Is It Anyway will know what I mean as well.
"Thank god you're here, Constantly-Being-Hit-By-A-Car Man!"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Glad you could make it, Proctologist Man!"
"Thanks; I was just looking up a few friends."
Classic stuff.
Edit: Nice treatise Shocker!
excellent 
i thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
@kisana
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Awesome, absolutely awesome. I too can appreciate great use of the language. I'd like to add a type of name though, the comedy/spoof name - for instance, I already happen to know there's a Captain Obvious out there because it was already taken... anyone who's seen Whose Line Is It Anyway will know what I mean as well.
"Thank god you're here, Constantly-Being-Hit-By-A-Car Man!"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Glad you could make it, Proctologist Man!"
"Thanks; I was just looking up a few friends."
Classic stuff.
Edit: Nice treatise Shocker!
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heh thanks... and does the Proctologist have a hard day at the orofice? 
Thelonious Monk
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such as he was built like a brick outhouse
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Uh that's a simile not a metaphor. If it was a metaphor it would be "he was a brick outhouse" 
Other than that great treatise.
It's not running away. It's advancing in reverse!
I'd wish we could have a 'random' button for names too, not only for cossies
Couldn't you just find a random internet one and use that? There are a few superhero ones out there.
It's not running away. It's advancing in reverse!
Superhero names are not allowed afaik tho, for the copyright thingie
Please see the below, might come in useful?
SuperHero Name Generator
[ QUOTE ]
Please see the below, might come in useful?
SuperHero Name Generator
[/ QUOTE ]
Space Dolphin?
We have a winner.
That beats Dynamo Spider? damn I thought my first random was a winner
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Drake Queen I got 
!! Man that seems a Cynic's name
Sounds like a PvP name, much more your style
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
It doesn't really sound like a PvP name, I'd tell you what it sounds like but I don't want a ban... tho it's really more your style
That's a very nice guide you have written there, Scarlet. Although I mostly use non-English names I wholly support your idea that a name should be powerful and give a hint what the toon in question is all about (powersets, background etc.).
Examples are:
Hra'Khles (riktified for: Herakles), a WP/SS tanker who is in fact a Rikti in human disguise, just like a certain contact in Nerva. (Don't want to spoil. )
Raiju no Oni, a Japanese demon who has taken the name (and with it the power) of Raiju (a fireball beast who often appears in a cat-like form, belongs to the god Raiden) and in CoV appears as a coal black Fire/Fire brute with a horned lion's face.
However, when I choose an English name for a toon I almost invariably go for a mixture of pun and personification: My fire/rad controller's name for example is Adam Bomb (not related to the wrestler or the musician with the same name).
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
I guess I could post seriously.
Sometimes I go for the pun, I have Miss Taik, Terri Ball, Jenn Teal and Kaye Vinn. Only one of those gives a clue to the powers (Kaye's an Inv/Stone).
My first character I went for the name I'd pick if I was a hero. SchrodingersCat, seemed herolike for me. Then for my /DA scrapper I went Mist......... now my brute has that name, I don't like to lose good names.
I've never been good with themes, I know Gonk's got his Boston load which I find impressive but I just cant stick to anything like that past the first character.
Cashmere and Pashmina are the same person though, hence the linked names. So I guess sometimes I do keep things close. I rarely reference to powers in my character names. Dark Celestine seems like a power reference but he's just a Fallen Angel, hence a Dark Celestine, its more what he is than a name.
Prise De Fer is pretty much a direct reference, a BS/SR scrapper named from a fencing manoeuvre
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
[ QUOTE ]
Nobodys going to be scared of Sparrow-man or Bush-Baby (well, they might be, but for the wrong reasons.)
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Thanks for that there was almost a coffee/monitor interface there.
Nice article.
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Please see the below, might come in useful?
SuperHero Name Generator
[/ QUOTE ]
Space Dolphin?
We have a winner.
[/ QUOTE ]
How about Spaced Olphin? Either way you're going to have to get on the costume thread and chase a porpoise-like bestial head...
Yoghurt Man (pun on Spidey's origin), Steel Thunder (pun), the Rose Gardener (plant/thorn dom), and Web Mistress (pun, uses web grenades) are my "better" names, imo.
We are incredibly lucky in that we speak one of the richest and widest known vocabularies in human history: English. It is diverse, glorious, flexible, precise, multi-faceted and beautiful. Few other languages have such a varied lexicon, nor the ability to convey such a precise meaning with a seemingly minor variation.
Its therefore sometimes frustrating to see the lack of imagination given to names in such an excellent game as City of Heroes and Villains, and does no credit to the game, or the progenitors of such misnomered soubriquets. With such a rich and varied panoply to conjour with, the single syllable Donk or Bob lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. It falls flat before it begins.
It behoves us to consider the question whats in a name? The answer is quite simply everything. The ancients, and some occultists even today (not to mention certain religions) believe that names are power. Even if a name isnt of itself powerful, then it should convey a sense of the power held by the owner. This is, after all, an environment of super-beings, whether for good or ill, the denizens of this domain are blessed with awful and awesome abilities the like of which the real world has never seen, and the names of those inhabitants should reflect that. Names can (and should) describe a little bit of the owners talents.
Lets go back to basics: Superman, The Fantastic Four, Batman, Spiderman et al. They really convey what the protagonist is all about. Superman well hes a bit good really isnt he? The Fantastic Four tells you all you need to know. Theres more than three, less than five and they are rather jolly splendid. Batman is a man who is also into cricket oh wait, sorry But you get the picture: The name carries a very important message it is critical to the character. Spend as many hours as you want working with Sexy Jays finest costumery, and come up with something astounding in terms of look, with a powerset to match, but call him or her Snurflepants and the toon is gonna be in the end, well, snurflepants. The expression of the name is uninspiring and does a disservice to him that hell never recover from, even at 50.
But how to get that good name? Something that reflects what your characters concept is all about, his or her power sets, any past history or RP opportunities etc?
There are no rules but some key guidelines are as follows:
Alliteration, Colour, Puns, Personification, Metaphor and Evocation, in no specific order. (and no I dont advocate the creation of a unique acronym just cuz.) Autonyms and Antonyms are also useful, but NOTHING beats a decent dictionary and thesaurus. Yes, the free online ones are passable but youll be amazed at the value either book gives you in everyday life, regardless of this game. If you value language and words, dont skimp.
Lets deal with the above sequentially:
Alliteration; typically means a series of two or more words, each commencing with the same letter. The Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Scarlet Shocker, Reed Richards, Peter Parker all good examples of alliteration in the superhero genre. Its main effect is to give you something that rolls off the tongue mellifluously.
Colour: Always valuable. Stuck for a name? Stick a colour in there. Works well for the Silver Surfer (see above) the Blue Beetle, and Scarlet Shocker. Oh and guess what gives you a nice alliterative tool too. That said, the Red Skull might tell you that hes got a good colour and doesnt need alliteration. Nor does the Black Knight Or Green Lantern come to think of it. But, sticking a colour into a name gives an additional option.
Puns are a great tool, although less common in comicbookland than many other forms of names. A couple of examples Ive conjured up are a dark/zombie MM who wears raggedy clothes. His name is Doug Graves. Or theres the Illusion/Sonic controller called False Alarm. But the pun is that the name again gives a bit of a clue as to what they actually do.
Personification: Spiderman, Batman. Nuff said. Men who take on properties similar to creatures. But be careful. The names have to evoke a sense of threat or danger. Nobodys going to be scared of Sparrow-man or Bush-Baby (well, they might be, but for the wrong reasons.)
Metaphore is often used as a comic book heros strap line. Superman is the Man of Steel, Batman the Worlds Greatest Detective, Hellboy; The Right Hand of Doom etc. But if youre stuck you could be the Deadly Diamond Dog, or Iron Mage etc. Metaphore means youre using a parallel to describe your character. What does your toon do? Instead of calling him Man who does Damage by punching hard you could call him Iron Fist or Sure, its been done but you get the point.
Evocation and Metaphore are very close in result, if not concept. Meatphore means using a word that does not directly apply to describe something, such as he was built like a brick outhouse. No he wasnt literally made from bricks but he was strong and sturdy. In a similar way the phrase build like a tank doesnt mean somebody covered with 10cm thick boiler plate (well in City of, of course it can but lets not go there right now) but it evokes a sense of imperviousness. Lightning quick well lightning is pretty damned fast, but we all know what it means, as another example. Perhaps the best example of an evocative name is Dr Strange, but Quicksilver of the Flash also do what they say on the proverbial tin.
There are no hard and fast rules here. This is incredibly subjective and it finally boils down to what you want for your character but if this small piece helps inspire you to something more imaginative than simply Bill the Newt then it has served its purpose.
Thelonious Monk