Only just read this, but well done on a good article Scarlet. Regardless of personal preferences towards naming conventions, it's always good to see positive discussions on this forum.
From my point of view, I nearly always roll my alts based on a name first - I come up with a name based on a powerset, and then roll from there.
I like a good play on words, and one of my all time favourites (from my own characters) is Stone Death. I've never really found a build that i'm comfortable with, that suits the name - Over the past few years, he's been a Stone Tank, Stone Brute, Earth/Weather troller, and currently he's an Earth/Rad troller. I really ought to play him more often...
Cheers, @RoboTank
Robotank Inv Tank
Cloudwalker MA Scrapper
Shadowcall Dark Stalker
Stone Death Stone Controller
Solaise Fire Blaster
Confession Dark Blaster
Sent from my HAL 9000
heh A couple of my faves from my own stock have been The Mountain Roars (Stone/Fire Tank, now deleted) and Doctor Digitalis (Necro/Poison MM)
Loved the article 
[ QUOTE ]
Love the guide and the use of some beautiful words in it as well. Sadly I'm sure it's preaching to the converted as all the posters in this thread seem to have the knack of giving good names to their toons.
One thing that you didn't mention in the guide was using the media as a way to name a character. Be it from a film, book or song. My first hero was actually a sexy guy called Mojo Rising from the doors song LA Woman. He has an incredible libido and uses his black magical powers of seduction to bend people to his will. I have seen quite a few names cribbed directly and it's not exactly imaginative to copy outright. For example there's a Sephiroth walking around Paragon somewhere and probably a Mario and a Sonic Hedgehog too, but if you use slightly more obscure references then it can be very satisfying.
[/ QUOTE ]
My Dark Sonics Defender, Dark Lament, is named after a corporation in the SLA Industries RPG.
I was well chuffed the day I got a blind tell from someone saying "Hey, cool an SLA Industries reference". We even had a wee chat about how amazing a SLA Industries MMO could be.
Johnny Moronic is a play on the Johnny Mnemonic movie (starring Keanu). The entire toon concept is a series of groantastic Keanu puns.
Thanks for the guide Scarlet!
I must admit what you describe there is something I find hard to do. Not because I don't agree with what you are writing.
I think the main reason is, that I was never so much into super heroes really. When I was a kid I thought they were a bit too silly. (I've come around after but only slowly as I am now into my thirties!)
I think someone mentioned earlier in this thread that Superman really is a rather stupid name. I agree with that, but I think that you have to bear in mind that he was one of the first big superheroes - so it was really quite inventive at the time.
For some reason I can never come up with names that reflect the powerset properly. The ones I come up with I find boring. Also throwing a colour in there makes it sound more plain when I do it.
Usually I make up names that sound a bit fanatsy like or are stolen from/variations of names from fantasy universes. Examples:
Morwen Xayide
Morgana Dragos
Meekha Elfling
Atlusia Dusty
Astarte Civire
- not really very super heroic.
Also I have a sadistic dominator called Sade Elfling after a certain Marquis.
I've been planning for a long time to have a villain called Stagger Lee, from the song by Nick Cave, but I've never really found a good look/powerset for him.
The only toon I have with an alter ego is Identity X.
Another comment to the name creation: My ex's danish nephew has been playing this game, and I think there is probably a lot of kids out there like him... and tbh he's not the best at finding cool super hero/villain names, but he had a lot of fun with it.
Last comment: I have to make a hero called Snurflepants now!
I have a Earth/kin named Dead Doll, her story sums up her name and earth is her power as she was quite simply put in the ground..
Also have Panda Pop. A Panda TA/A deffender..
Like this post btw, feel names are quite inportant in reality, my daughter is named Cirwen my son Draco, needless to say both are um rather unique in thier school, daughter still complains that if anyone says "Cirwen did it!" teachers come straight to her..
Sons name is bit of a nightmare as so many instantly think "ohh harry poter fan" but he was named after Draco the star constilation, not that blond evil kid, though ironicaly he is both blond and evil, (we also did a web search on famous Draco's, oddly everyone we found was evil :P
all my toons have either Marine or Shadow in them, the first (sometimes second) word descriptive of their powers. For example
Psionic Shadow - psi dom
Storm Marine - storm defender
Arrow Marine - bow blaster
Shadow Sword - katana scrapper
and of course
Shadow Marine - warshade
its very rare that i dont do something like this, but its normally catchy anyway 
I know a few people that have naming conventions, many of my toons are 'mime something' or 'something mime' so that members of my sg can easily spot which toons are mine and others know its me playing. I do have non Mime toons, but quite like the naming that comes along with the mimes, makes me come up with the puns ect that goes in line with this tratsie.
Just couldn't resist posting that I love the name Johnny Moronic. Some people (much crueler than myself 
) might say it summed up Keanu Reeves quite well. I certainly wouldn't call him names as "he knows kung-fu!".
Excellent read, well written and may help some people get the ol' creative cells going.
A point that hasn't been mentioned, is that a good name can make a player form a closer 'bond' with their avatar, and when this happens, every battle, wether succesful or not, takes on a whole new edge and meaning.
I had a stlaker named Joking Jack, the concept being he would be throwing out quips one liners and put downs with every kill. It was... ok.
Took it to 20 and got a bit bored.
Day came i decided to rename him Tao Te Tzu (ninja/nin set), gave him a ninja outfit... and BOOM.. the character came alive for me, took it to 50 and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
As has been mentioned, mythology always a good source, I have a rad/rad defnder named Nosos, after the form of Pestilence, one of theevils released into the world when Pandora opened the box.
My global, Pu Wu Rad, comes from chinese...
Pu = The Uncarved Block, that which has the potential to be anything,
Wu = a negating conjunction
Rad = an old nickname of mine ( well before I had even heard of Rad powers in the game)
So Pu Wu Rad = I have the potential to be anything other than what i am
Other faves of mine are Hegemon, of course, a controller, Skuttle, a renegade crab soldier,
Fire Kin Hell (sorry!) a magician who made a deal with the Devil, (Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?)
and, well i guess i better stop here
Nice one, again
Currently mostly playing:
Indiana Ford: PB, Lady Izza Tramp: Ice/Ice Tank, Stanley Orange: PB, Pu Wu Rad, Storm Troller.
Tao Te Tzu, Stalker.
well i like the name Draco as well, despite it's use for eveil charaters, i just like dragons. I wanted to call a character Draco and obviously it was taken (or used for one the NPC's??) I made him into Draco605 which was stupid, but i liked the way he looked and went pretty far, i've renamed him Doctor Draco keeping the alliteration.
I also have three character called Sorcerer, Scarlet, Silver and Shining Socerer. Silver Sorcerer is my main, but he's level 50 and I don't use him theat much anymore. Nosatufer was a pun on Nosferatu i just switched fer and atu and you have a completly new name which is onused. Moonlion is a favourite name as well As is purlelina Spike ( A pruple coloured heroine).
but I also have some stupid names because i was not inspired enough. Such as Dark mutant Devil (dark dark scrapper), Fairy Blue Lightning, usually because the name I wanted was already taken..
I've a few characters whose names I'm quite happy with.
Tin Man-he's a dude in a high tech metal suit, but there's obviously the Wizard of Oz reference as well. I was shocked it wasn't taken.
Monarcher-he's a TA/A Defender, quite regal (his bio has his surname as King too)
Fire Reign-play on the sound of the words rain and reign. A fire 'troller. reminds me of a song too.
oh and Prom Queen, my first main (who I've ignored for far too long) basically, the prettiest girl in high school, turned super strong heroine, in the wonder woman mould.
@craggy see me on Union for TFs, SFs (please!) or just some good ol fashioned teaming.
I hereby approve of the OP. Nice work, and succinct.
I have a strong tendency to give my characters mythological or historical names. Heraclea, first character I made, was a female version of Heracles. Other names in this vein are Androphonissa ("slayer of men"), Lampito (my obligatory shield Spartan), from Lysistrata, and Yansan, another name for Oyá.
Sometimes, my historical allusions relate somewhat to their corresponding figures, like Bradamante, broadsword scrapper; Giulia Tofana, a stalker; or Madame Nhu, a night widow.
Others don't bear a very obvious relationship to their counterparts. I made Betsy Ross a spines/willpower scrapper, originally made as a lark for a patriotic costume contest. She makes a little more sense now that her spines are metal needles. William Shakespeare is a rad/archery defender.
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
I saw the name "Captain Superhero" on I think Virtue fairly recently. Spandex tights costume, underwear on the outside, red-white-blue color scheme, the works. It was glorious.
My Widow is named Charlotte Aranea. I wanted Spinnerette, but there's an NPC with that name so I of course couldn't have it. I got the name "Helmut Von Gunfire," my AR/pain corruptor, from an anagram puzzle in a Reader's Digest (unscramble these movie titles; Unforgiven was scrambled to VONGUNFIRE and I just had to use it). My teleporting FF/Elec Defender's real name is Lloyd Lathrop (character name Mender Lathrop) - spot the reference to a movie I love... though if you do, you'd be the first. My favorite, though, is my undead Claws/Dark Brute with SS: Zoombie.
[ QUOTE ]
It's not a bad post but it's only a few steps away from LOTROL sytle name police posts you get on their forums.
If I want to give my toons short snappy names (Dagar, Larac, Rian, Precip) I shall. If I want to give them longer single word names or multi word ones (Fenchurch, Superiluminal, Altered Carbon) then I will.
If people want to call their toons w0lv3r1n3 then let them, they might be lacking in imagination etc but they still pay their subs and may contribute to the community.
I'm not having a go at you (as you pay your subs etc your entitled to post what you want), but some people may see it as being elitest and preaching to them.
[/ QUOTE ]
I've no knowledge of LOTROL at all so I don't want to get into a "we do/they do" thing but I've been about as clear as I can that this is opinion, a guide and there are no rules per se, but just in case you didn't get it, this is an opinion, a guide and there are no rules per se.
I've never really seen names and naming discussed here, so figured it was something worth putting out there.
Thelonious Monk