I know what you mean. I'm up to about 125 characters across all but 3 of the servers and I've only had to hunt for a name perhaps half a dozen times.
@Doctor Gemini
Arc #271637 - Welcome to M.A.G.I. - An alternative first story arc for magic origin heroes. At Hero Registration you heard the jokes about Azuria always losing things. When she loses the entire M.A.G.I. vault, you are chosen to find it.
Me too! I'm always amazed when I snag what seems to me to be SUCH a good name that I can't believe it's available. And I only play on Virtue, so there's a bunch of other folks hunting those good names! 
This is a blurred line for me. Sometimes, I'll get to the naming screen and only have a theme to go on, so the hunt for a name begins. That hunt usually involves me brainstorming a bunch of names, and actually getting my second or third choice.
But there have been a number of times where I will have a fantastic name for a character, and I will just get tunnel vision. Because it is such a great name, it is obviously taken. I will pull out a thesaurus, I'll think up similar names, but try as I might, nothing fits. I will have been so fixated on that particular name being associated with that particular costume and/or power set combination, that nothing else will work (in my head) and the character gets demoted down to a saved costume.
To be sure, there is no shortage of good names still available. I find good ones every day. That said, a little part of me dies when I find out that a name as simple yet recognizable as "Spring" is held by a Trial account...
@Winter. Because I'm Winter. Period.
I am a blaster first, and an alt-oholic second.
By the way, in the new avatar creator inI21, you can choose or search for a name at any time during the creation process.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
I've grabbed some obvious names you'd think could easily been taken, but also had some aw man, somebody else thunk of that too names as well.
You never know! 
Certainly... there are a ton of names and words that have yet to have been used. No denying that!
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
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I know what you mean. Recently, I came up with the name "Stardiver" for a character who had no concept at the time, and the concept wrote itself in my head around that name. It was pretty much what it says on the tin, too. Obviously, no other name would really do (with the possible exception of Star Diver or possibly Star-Diver), but I was lucky enough to snag it on the first try.|
Originally Posted by Winterminal
But there have been a number of times where I will have a fantastic name for a character, and I will just get tunnel vision. Because it is such a great name, it is obviously taken. I will pull out a thesaurus, I'll think up similar names, but try as I might, nothing fits. I will have been so fixated on that particular name being associated with that particular costume and/or power set combination, that nothing else will work (in my head) and the character gets demoted down to a saved costume.
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I don't know if it's just a case of people not thinking of some fairly obvious, if weird names or a case of everyone thinking these names are OBVIOUSLY taken, but I've snagged some pretty cool word combos in the past.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Originally Posted by Winterminal
But there have been a number of times where I will have a fantastic name for a character, and I will just get tunnel vision. Because it is such a great name, it is obviously taken. I will pull out a thesaurus, I'll think up similar names, but try as I might, nothing fits. I will have been so fixated on that particular name being associated with that particular costume and/or power set combination, that nothing else will work (in my head) and the character gets demoted down to a saved costume.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I know what you mean. Recently, I came up with the name "Stardiver" for a character who had no concept at the time, and the concept wrote itself in my head around that name. It was pretty much what it says on the tin, too. Obviously, no other name would really do (with the possible exception of Star Diver or possibly Star-Diver), but I was lucky enough to snag it on the first try.
I don't know if it's just a case of people not thinking of some fairly obvious, if weird names or a case of everyone thinking these names are OBVIOUSLY taken, but I've snagged some pretty cool word combos in the past. |
Yeah, I know that's how I got with one character in particular.
I had the costume and I had the concept and persona...
I struggled a long while over the name... tried a few things that I thought YES! and they were taken...
Somewhere along the way, I decided the Dark Ranger was the right name for him. It sounds awfully simplistic, but it just fit so well (I wanted to make an archery character, but I've never been comfortable with a piercing/slicing method of attack for a hero... but the idea of a Punisher-like vigilante who will kill criminals because they deserve it came to life for me)...
Dark Ranger was taken, but Dark-Ranger and DarkRanger were not.
I have both, Archery/Devices and Double-Blades/Will Power.
Since he's kind of a Batman type... DarkRanger actually felt okay to me.
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
Incidentally, I just went and snagged Stardriver on Virtue based on Samuel Tow's post above.
Last week I also had a concept for a girl who gets her powers from an antique pocketwatch. Watchgirl was available.
I don't pretend that these are anything but freak occurrences, though. Good names are still rare and precious things.
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The Star Driver anime series was actually the inspiration behind the name, I admit |
Originally Posted by Laevateinn
Incidentally, I just went and snagged Stardriver on Virtue based on Samuel Tow's post above.
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I first saw it at MassakoX's review show on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, and it didn't look like an interesting enough show to track down (anime imports are... Iffy here), but the name was pretty cool and interesting. Not wanting to repeat it, though, I just cut a letter from it and it turned into something else entirely. Inspiration comes from weird places sometimes
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I watched Ghost in The Shell Solid State Society (movie) yesterday, and I suddenly decided that I wanted to create a pure cyborg character in the mode of a Major Motoko Kusanagi or a Gally/Battle Angel Alita. (As you might guess, I'm a big Battle Angel Alita fan, that's her I use for my icon).
I did this on Virtue, where many good names are obviously taken. Made a claws/willpower brute; never played claws up to 50 before, or even 20, so that sounded like a good choice. Used some of the clockwork options including a clockwork face for a very robotic/cyborg look.
The name Battle Angel is blocked, of course, as would be Battle Maiden, but surprisingly enough "War Maid" was unclaimed. ^_^ Bingo!
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
I simply can't make a toon (that I will play for any length of time) without a complete name/theme.
Oh, right. I got Geiger Killer for my Fire/Rad Corr. On Freedom. O_o
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/existentialangst|
Originally Posted by Laevateinn
Last week I also had a concept for a girl who gets her powers from an antique pocketwatch. Watchgirl was available.
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But who watches the Watchgirls??
/existentialangst
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
'Still can't believe that I got Suzume and Karasu... or that FCM and I got both Nook and Cranny for our detective duo.
@Brightfires - @Talisander
That chick what plays the bird-things...
No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong. You have to open these threads saying that you can't get any good character name on any server, and that the only people who can successfully create characters at this point are using a blend of Basque and 13 century Mongolian for their character names.
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
...that after 6+ years and all these characters, and therefore names, that are being used on the servers, that I can usually still come up with a name that nobody has on the server in question without much hassle or time or effort.
Example, tonight, after rolling an NRG/Elec Blaster Praetorian (who's gonna be a Villain when he grows up to 20, then'll go Rogue...), I picked the creepy elongated grinning alien helmet, and put creepy goggles on him. And gave him a weird light blue-steel look', and gave him big tech gloves. Just to creep people out.
And I wanted to call him 'Creep', but of course, someone has that. Then I said ok, how about 'Jeepers', playing on the song? Nope. Well, how about 'Shudders', 'cause that's what people will get when seeing him, yeah?
Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Well, I did put the 'The' in front, so technically, it's 'The Shudders', but the NPCs dont say that. Just 'Shudders'. Still... nifty!
I'll come up with a Bio soon enough, but... there it is. I woulda thought for SURE a buncha someones would have it on all the servers by now...
Anyway. Thought I'd share. 'Night.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012