Have you ever rolled a toon ONLY because you thought of a cool name?

Sort of. Frequently my characters start because of an interesting name idea, and even if that name turns out to be taken, the concept might stick around and become something else.

But generally there's a powerset in mind (or a concept in mind where I pick a powerset to fit), and then either I find a good name to flesh out the idea and build a costume around it, or come up with the costume idea and work around until I find an available name that fits it.

And then City of Heroes steals it. Yes, I'm still bitter: my first ever character, rolled a day or two after CoH's release, was developed to be a kind of living poltergeist (grav/ff was as close as I could come to the telekinetic idea I had in my head), and "Doctor Geist" seemed to be a natural fit, being both typically superheroic and mildly punny. Doctor Geist was my main for some time, and served as my global name, and then years later, I9 (I think) rolls in with the new alternate lowbie villain track, and some schmuck Arachnos mad-scientist has stolen my name. *sigh*

Of course, it could be worse: you could reserve a name around, oh, the I2 or I3 timeframe, when they first announced they were working on the beginnings of an archery powerset, and be sooo proud of yourself for coming up with a nice archer name and making sure no one could steal it from you, roll him up as soon as I5 hits live, and then a month or so later have the wind knocked out of your sails when the CoV beta shows you that your nice unique "Longbow" toon now has clones everywhere. Yeah, like anyone's going to believe now that I had the name first.

Still, I find one of the most rewarding things in the game is when the desired powerset, concept, and a nice name all come together. Fighting Spirit, the patriotic-themed scrapper, worked wonderfully, and is my real main now. Nuclear Hazard worked nicely for a rad/rad defender (although corr might actually be more appropriate, but they didnt exactly exist at the time). Technophobe seemed to fit a bot/dark combo in an interesting way (even if they've stolen that name for a badge now too), which made me eventually roll up Arachnophobe for a widow. The whole idea of a Bane Spider collective made Weblink an interesting concept, and Buzz-Killer came to mind as soon as I started thinking about a new elec dom.

Sometimes, though, it is all about the name. Rapid-Fire (at times Rapidfire or Rapid Fire) has been re-rolled a few times, from a start as a Fire/Dev with superspeed to the current Fire/Kin corr version.

And then there's my favorite name I ever lost to a server transfer... while I'm proud of Gothic Horror as the new name for a dark/stone with a gargoyle-esque costume, it doesn't beat the original: Ettu. Yes, he was a brute, just think about it...

My characters range from the pun-tastic (Farce of Nature), to the literary homages (Gen. Agamemnon) to the just plain silly (PEU-E, my Energy-type Paragon Enforcer Unit. His fourth directive: Find a better designation)
On the rare occasion I have an actual concept and theme, foreign language helps me get around the "your name is already chosen" message.

Half the time I pick powers based off of whether I intend to team or solo; it's hard to solo a Defender.

My Characters can generally be divided into two groups ones who I rolled because of the powerset which tend not to last long and have generic names, and ones who have developed backstories and have punny or thematic names. Often I will be inspired by names from outside sources other times I will just try and come up with puns for names.

Some of my Favourites

Top of the Charts (Sonic/EM Blaster. inspired by listening to the charts obviously)
Schroedingers Kat (obligatory Catgirl Claws/WP scrapper. Inspired by the famous physics experiment)
Flora and Fauna (Plant/thorns Dom and just for the punny goodness)
Motormind (Mind/Psi Dom inspired by a terrible pun)
Time and Chance (inspired by a half remembered bible quote that sounded cool Orginally Mind/Kin controller now Kin/AR Defender)

This is a silly question!

I was reading a scribbled note in an older notebook that said "....goes w/ interceptor...'

For whatever reason, my mind siezed on it and Winterceptor was born!!!

Lots of mine

Ion Maiden
Cole's Law
Florist Fires
Technobotic
Eyjafjallajökull (The Icelandic Volcano, now in convenience Hero size!)
Frostek
Doctor Decibel

There's a reason I have an Arcology on Virtue. Anyone want the name? =3

I've had a few "That's an awesome name. I have to make a character now" moments. Some of them are:

Just for the Halibut - Claws/WP Brute. Inspired by a very old and very bad pun.
Break Stuff - Arachnos Huntsman. Inspired by a Limp Bizkit song.
Wolfbriar - Plant/Thorn Dom. Inspired by a Magic: the Gathering card
Robotic Pirate Ghost - Elec/Dark Corr. Inspired by an in-joke between friends.

Some of them have been deleted too like
Lady in Wight - DB/Dark Stalker. Inspired by a Yu-Gi-Oh card

Several.. on Union I have Marie Leveau for instance... Necro/potion and I have a Pocahontas on Defiant.. just couldn't resist.

Just yesterday for me. I was doing some test costumes and on a whim I tried one and said, "that can't possibly be available!" and OMG!

Deleted the costume test and made the character.

And one more has been added to my stable of characters created because of a cool sounding name I thought of (named after a brand of sports car my dad had back in the late 60s/early 70s.)

Introducing, Austin-Healey, who is an Archery/Pain Domination Corruptor currently helping out the Resistance in Praetoria (a bit of a side trip on his journey from his home dimension to Primal Earth).

Pink Pika...9 year old girl gets ahold of a magiked collectible card game card- and gains the powers of the card..

Did I mention she also wears pink?

(btw, there is a real critter called the Pika...



Pika..

Which was also the basis for a certain fictitious electrical mouse...=))

Yes, or rather, to match it with a newly proliferated set.

Robber Hood: Arch/TA corr.

Had the idea for the name AND the powersets at the same time:

A fire/mental manipulation blaster called Psychic Hotline.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I haven't rolled up a toon after thinking of a cool name...I have however rolled up a toon after thinking up a totally rubbish name.

There's other reasons to create a new character?