How do you name your RPG characters?

[Zarathud]

I once had an EVE Online character named Idi Amin. Trained him up to be a combat pilot as my buddy trained a miner. He ended up joining BOB and getting caught up in the drama playing all the time. So I handed over my account to him as a spare, knowing flying with a BOB affiliation was more protection than an evil dictator.

Idi became equipped to fly stealth recon, and hung out silently trolling systems that were upcoming raid targets. My friend figured out a system for finding pilots who went offline and were in timeout (they jumped a random direction), so he went went actively hunting to kill pilots in that state during BOB raids. Safely away from the battle, alone with sitting ducks. Eventually someone figured out what he was doing and CCP forced him to change the name — which let him restart his stealth career and commit more mayhem before the bounty hunters cornered him.

[Unagi]

When it came to City of Heroes, I have always tried to stick with words related to their abilities, sometimes bordering on ridiculous.

Oh my, how I had sooooo much fun with CoH. I played a lot originally, and then also more recently on the rebooted servers. And - man - I had a ton of fun with naming heroes (or villains) there.

Have you played it recently? Still so much fun, and they have a new archetype, Sentinel. It's a cross between a blaster and a scrapper. Not as populated, of course, but still fun.

Yeah, I played for over a year during COVID, and only put it down a little less than a year ago. I also still think about all my news toons that I made (oh my, I had SOOO many - and fully geared up too) - so I could possibly hop back on one of these days too.
I really is still a lot of fun. I'm not sure why no other game has quite captured (for me) the ability to feel like a superhero running (jumping/flying) around a city.

[GreenGoo]

Oh my, how I had sooooo much fun with CoH.

I still have screenshots somewhere of a few of my heroes. Damn that character designer was bad ass. Valhallan goddess warrior with cybernetic arm, powerless human gadgeteer (looked a little like Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern), Alien android. Loved that game just for the hero design alone. What's extra noteworthy is that I rarely, if ever, spend any time on the physical appearance of my characters. But CoH? All day long. I have more memories from the designer than from the game itself.

I don't remember what any of their names were though.

[Hyena]

When it came to City of Heroes, I have always tried to stick with words related to their abilities, sometimes bordering on ridiculous.

Oh my, how I had sooooo much fun with CoH. I played a lot originally, and then also more recently on the rebooted servers. And - man - I had a ton of fun with naming heroes (or villains) there.

Have you played it recently? Still so much fun, and they have a new archetype, Sentinel. It's a cross between a blaster and a scrapper. Not as populated, of course, but still fun.

Yeah, I played for over a year during COVID, and only put it down a little less than a year ago. I also still think about all my news toons that I made (oh my, I had SOOO many - and fully geared up too) - so I could possibly hop back on one of these days too.
I really is still a lot of fun. I'm not sure why no other game has quite captured (for me) the ability to feel like a superhero running (jumping/flying) around a city.

I still hop on every once in a while. Haven't in a month or so, just because I've been sucked in by so many other good playthroughs. Cyberpunk, Hogwarts, Diablo IV, even a couple older games like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and the Master of Magic reboot. And with Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3 and full Diablo IV release it's not looking good for another visit any time soon...

[AWS260]

I generally name my character after one of my cats, who are in turn named after human writers: Harper Lee and Studs Terkel.

The only name that I recall from earlier days is my DAOC main, a kobold skald named Biko, after the anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.

[Jaymann]

Here are some of my characters on COH:

Lord Corwin
Pistol Pete
Captain Nerfbat (a Statesman parody)
Connor McGregor
Green Beacon (with the green ray powers)
Doc Savage (of the torn shirt)
Rockmaninov
Mr. Clean
Mister T (I pity the fool!)
Shrodingers Cat
Gandhi (with loincloth and a stick)
Ash Williams (This is my Boomstick!)
Chief Nokahoma (Offensive, would probably get banned now)
Sterling Surfer
Hatchet Cop
Chris Jenkins (from the billboards)
Jim Beam
Wolfenstein (transforming between Nazi gunner and a wolf)

I always flirted with copyright infringement, but the only character to get his name/outfit nerfed was M. Bison.

[Hyena]

Here are some of my characters on COH:

Lord Corwin
Pistol Pete
Captain Nerfbat (a Statesman parody)
Connor McGregor
Green Beacon (with the green ray powers)
Doc Savage (of the torn shirt)
Rockmaninov
Mr. Clean
Mister T (I pity the fool!)
Shrodingers Cat
Gandhi (with loincloth and a stick)
Ash Williams (This is my Boomstick!)
Chief Nokahoma (Offensive, would probably get banned now)
Sterling Surfer
Hatchet Cop
Chris Jenkins (from the billboards)
Jim Beam
Wolfenstein (transforming between Nazi gunner and a wolf)

I always flirted with copyright infringement, but the only character to get his name/outfit nerfed was M. Bison.

Always wanted to make a staff scrapper or brute and pattern him after Gambit. Instead I made one in pink hotpants and named him Pole Dancer. Logged in the next day to find his name erased, so I just laughed and deleted him.

[Blackhawk]

Generally speaking, to help keep them organised, I name most of my planets in similar fashion, using terms like these to designate their resource specialisations:

[System name] + [resource specialisation related term]

[SNIP]

This may sound like work, but it soon becomes second nature

It sounds completely reasonable to me, as I do exactly the same thing in No Man's Sky, wherein planets have three qualities - biome, weather, and activity. Copied from my reference notes:

• Alpha - Systems with notable Items


~ Barren - Beta
~ Dead - Nu
~ Frozen - Kryos
~ Irradiated - Iota
~ Lush - Lambda
~ Scorched - Sigma
~ Toxic - Tau
~ Volcanic - Upsilon
~ Exotic - Epsilon + append from the following:
~~~ Beams - Beta
~~~ Bone Spire - Osteon
~~~ Hydro Garden - Ydor
~~~ (etc)

Weather (append nothing for moderate weather)
~ Clear - Nenemos
~ Extreme - Ombros

Sentinel Activity
~ # - sentinel activity (I - low, II high, III aggressive)

Example:

Alpha Lambda II = Lush, Mostly Calm, Regular Patrols, significant item (rare material, portal, etc.)
Sigma Nenemos III - Scorched, Temperate, Hateful Sentinels
Epsilon Ydor Ombros I - Hydro Garden, Superheated Rain , Isolated Sentinels

There was a little work in setting it up, but once I did, I was able to name the planets in maybe 20 seconds with names that sounded appropriately sci-fi, and was able to see at a glance what each planet was like from the name. I did, however, name planets that I settled (bases, outposts, etc) with other names using regular words ("Hawk Base One", or whatever.)

[IceBear]

Tip from Robin Hobb

https://twitter.com/robinhobb/status/14 ... 94822?s=20

[dbt1949]

Well, there was that one time I named a female character Lolita.

[Blackhawk]

Tip from Robin Hobb

https://twitter.com/robinhobb/status/14 ... 94822?s=20

[Jolor]

Tip from Robin Hobb

https://twitter.com/robinhobb/status/14 ... 94822?s=20

That settles it. Next character in a sci-fi setting is 'Buck Starr'. Especially if they're Low INT, High STR.

[Blackhawk]

Tip from Robin Hobb

https://twitter.com/robinhobb/status/14 ... 94822?s=20

I'm wondering now if this is how she came up with 'Fitzchivalry'.