How do you name your characters?

[eharper256]

Didn't see this one asked anywhere and I was interested in a random etymology study.

This thought came after I've seen a couple of first time new name characters survive in wacky fashions, only to see a certain name die time after time. Which led me to the paranoid delusion of wondering whether the game generates things depending on how much it likes the name!!

Anyway:
What kind of poor souls do you choose to send on the hopeless quest to Zot and why?
Who survives?
What names do you like and why?

I myself am a 'Sincerest Flattery' type, since I plagerise all of the characters I can remember and find cool or amusing from various literature and shows and anime (as seen in my CIP thread about Shinobu Oshino the VaAs, who is from Bakemonogatari). Sometimes I end up with tropes and internet memes as well, like I did briefly play 'Ceiling Cat the Felid Priest of Zin'. I also downright steal from the Pen and Paper games I GM; a couple of the demi-gods and goddesses transmigrated across from my D&D setting; along with several Drakahn NPCs (Draconians) after I modded the player tiles to match my setting (The longest surviving of which is now Mir Argent, a DrTr, although she ended up with the wrong tail colour!).

[mrbobbyg]

As the other vote, I'm moody. I either pick descriptive names, like IceWraps the MuIE, or EffyouXom the Chaos Knight, or Alf, the HeWz.

I generally expect them to die.

I had a long run of characters named Orc Moses because I died as a HoPr and just never bothered to change.

[pratamawirya]

I basically like to name my characters something that mean something, but that something is kind of silly or so ordinary it becomes silly. Like my successful Mummy Berserker, 15 runes, I named him "Muke Lo Jauh". I don't know if that sounds cool or what to you Westerners, but it's an Indonesian slang which means "Your face is far" (some Indonesians like to say it when the other person is doing or saying something silly)

The dudes with silly names usually survive. The dudes with somewhat functional/cool names (like "King Arthur" or something) usually don't

Another of my successful characters was a six-runer Deep Elf Berserker (yes, you ought to know it by now, I had a thing for difficult combos ) named "Pencari Tuhan", which means "God Seeker" in English. Yeah, this one doesn't sound so silly... but not really cool either (I named him that because I didn't expect him to survive (seeking God = seeking death, got that?), because... you know, a Deep Elf Berserker? )

[Grimm]

I tend to use the same name for the same build. All my MDFi are Grimm. Maybe I'll retire that when/if I ascend one. When I play other builds I come up with something flavourful for them - Trolls are called things like Graarg, High Elves are Noel or Quentin, etc.

[XuaXua]

"XuaXua" over and over because I play the same thing till I win or vary it. Sucks with the ghosts.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/

[eharper256]

Hmm, I did kind of expect to see a chunk of 'moody' type and masochistic buddhist responses, but its nice I'm not the only one who draws upon literary/entertainment sources.

The dudes with somewhat functional/cool names (like "King Arthur" or something) usually don't

Don't forget, King Arthur needs to be a female character! Ideally with a special wizmode made Holy Wrath sword (shameless Fate/Stay Night reference LOL).

(seeking God = seeking death, got that?)

In a fantasy setting, though, seeking god could imply a character seeking truth from religion or seeking to be a god. Still, I like all your names.

"XuaXua" over and over because I play the same thing till I win or vary it. Sucks with the ghosts.

So I imagine. You're going to have a dungeon infested with clones eventually!

Anyhow, cool beans, keep them coming.

[pratamawirya]

I just made an OgTr. I named him "Dungeon Crawl".

































Of course he died, in a very sad way

[Shade]

I just call them 'Shade'. I suppose that's closest to Masochist Buddhist.

[dassem]

Great thread!

Particularly for offline play, I like names that suggest something about the character so that the ghost name is meaningful (at least to me). But I am not consistent; sometimes naming well is too tough.

Examples:
For hill-orcs, I tend to go for Hillary, or for Jesus references.
Trolls: Trig, Grunt, Thump, Ug.
Dwarves: Stumpy, Grumpy, Teeny. (Gives a whole new perspective to the message "You feel dopey.")
Slude elves: Slippy.

Draconians/Transmuters/Fire based: Annomander Rake (or similar). From the Malazan book of the dead series, which is a very good fantasy series (where the author actually finishes writing instead of dying or getting distractracted by making a TV show...). IMO those books have something or the same 'feel' as Crawl does. If you like long fantasy series, that one is unmissable.
That's also where the name Dassem Ultor comes from. - I just started playing online as Ultor, as a loosely death-themed longsword wielder.

Generally if I come up with a really good name the character will be doomed by level 3.

[joellercoaster]

I called my characters Joel, until I ascended one. Then I call them the very first thing that pops into my head, no matter how stupid, and a name gets played until I ascend it.

If I start a side game or games, I add new names, which also get played until they win.

The current name board looks like this:

Spoon, a level 25 Sludge Elf Necromancer of Sif Muna
Spike, a level 4 Spriggan Stalker
Lemon, a level 9 Human Death Knight of Yredelemnul (the name Lemon is reserved for HuDKs until it wins, one zotsplat so far)
Hiram, a level 2 Octopode Transmuter (so excited about this, you have no idea)
Gomez, a level 16 Spriggan Artificer of Nemelex Xobeh (he's been parked since 0.8 was the experimental branch, I got bored)

[eharper256]

The current name board looks like this:

Spoon, a level 25 Sludge Elf Necromancer of Sif Muna
Spike, a level 4 Spriggan Stalker
Lemon, a level 9 Human Death Knight of Yredelemnl (the name Lemon is reserved for HuDKs until it wins, one zotsplat so far)
Hiram, a level 2 Octopode Transmuter (so excited about this, you have no idea)
Gomez, a level 16 Spriggan Artificer of Nemelex Xobeh (he's been parked since 0.8 was the experimental branch, I got bored)

Mm, a nameboard list? Good idea sir...
Here's my current roster:

As you can see, all of mine are anime/literary characters.

Oh, and Octopode is in Trunk now? That's cool to know, I haven't been keeping up to date much with it, but it does mean that I make an Ikamusume when 0.9 stable comes out, heh...

[moekitten]

i play mostly online but i have some different accounts, nyaa for spriggans, cirno for sprints, moekitten for felids... i guess when i switch to deep elves and/or dwarves i will create another acc and name it deepkitten or something, *kitten is a good postfix anyway :3

[joellercoaster]

Ikamusume

Technically I think Ika are decapodes though (depending on how you count tentacles I guess)

[eharper256]

Ikamusume

Technically I think Ika are decapodes though (depending on how you count tentacles I guess)

Eh, details, I never counted the number of prehensile hair tentacles she had anyway.
Guess it means another sprite alteration I need to do again though.

Although off-topic, this reminds me, why isn't prehensile hair a mutation choice yet? With 3 levels for Speed, Power and Technique! (or perhaps even the ability to wield extra items, though that would probably make it a no-brainer choice and the devs don't like that, do they?)

cirno

Oh gods.

Wait, there's a good challenge, actually. You need to keep this characters intelligence at (9) at all times.
Whilst playing... an Ice Elementalist!
And... using no other types of attack or spell!

[moekitten]

>Wait, there's a good challenge, actually. You need to keep this characters intelligence at (9) at all times.
>Whilst playing... an Ice Elementalist!

even a trie starts with 11 int :3

also i don't care much for roleplay but i won some sprints with ice casters using that account, ice is a powerful magic school after all ^^

[smeej]

I name my characters after characters from fantasy books and movies, usually. Mostly characters from Dragaerea / Song of Ice and Fire / First Law.

Ninefingers! The Hound! The Imp! Shivers!

[eharper256]

First Law.

"You sense battle. You suddenly really feel the urge to go piss."

[Sometimes]

I don't roleplay in game, because I like winning, but I admit I do make up race- appropriate names for every character. And if I'm having trouble getting a build off the ground, my first response is to change the name. Clearly it was unlucky.

[wayreth]

My most successful character so far is a Vampire Summoner named "Bastard".

[Happy Corner]

I have a long history of giving my characters naughty (if not downright obscene) names. Sometimes I let the race in question influence this. For example, most of my Mountain Dwarf and Minotaur Berserkers have phallic names, usually slang terms for an erection. My recent Naga characters also lend themselves well to phallic naming. On the other hand, my Kobolds and Trolls and Ghouls - never ones to embrace the hoity-toity politeness of those wussy races that DON'T pig out on raw meat - happily accept any crass insulting name that I give them. They understand well that if there's anything more humiliating than being defeated in battle, it's being defeated by some braindead monster that sounds like he was named by a drunken middle-schooler!

When I inevitably die, it takes the edge off by giving me a moment of (admittedly juvenile) amusement to see these names plastered all over the high score table. It reminds me not to get frustrated and start taking the game too seriously. Having ghosts like this wandering around can't help but make the Dungeon a more colorful place, too.

Alternately, when I'm trying out a new race/class combo that will almost certainly die a humiliating death before I even get to the Temple, I will give them the name of a celebrity that I loathe. I am terrified that this will someday backfire horrifically and I will be forced to do a YAVP to honor, say, TomCruise or P-Hilton or ChuckSheen... but so far the RNG has not proven that malevolent.

[pratamawirya]

Alternately, when I'm trying out a new race/class combo that will almost certainly die a humiliating death before I even get to the Temple, I will give them the name of a celebrity that I loathe. I am terrified that this will someday backfire horrifically and I will be forced to do a YAVP to honor, say, TomCruise or P-Hilton or ChuckSheen... but so far the RNG has not proven that malevolent.

HA HA HA HA HA

[Legend]

I mostly use names derived from musician's names and character names I just like. Or take a Musician name and mix it with something a little fantasy like "Errol Rose" Axl, Lemmy, Blackie, Philo, Sixx, etc. Mix and match like Lemmy Lawless. Or occasionally just something odd and random like my last character I named was EyeScream.

[defen]

Usually go with Defen, short for "defenestrate". First Law seems like a brilliant idea in all respects, though. I'd love to code a Glokta variant (torment every time a staircase is used) if I knew how.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Xom guides my naming schemes. Sometimes I use somewhat appropriate names, sometimes I use real ones. Sometimes they're a string of random syllables. Sometimes it's a terrible misspelling of the race/class combo (Spreegun Inchahntur). Sometimes I'll go to Seventh Sanctum and use on of their name generators to make a name (Mist Raven and Solarius Seabreeze). Sometimes the name will be a random reference to something I like, usually keeping with the flavor I intend for the character. The only exception where I show any consistency is with Felids, who all get lolcatish names (RAAAAAGEEE CAAAAAT).

The four examples I gave are my current ascenders.

[Confidence Interval]

I went through a phase of naming my characters in an alphabetical code: starting with Alan Andrews, then Alison Bishop, Angel Curtis, ... Absalom Zebulon, then on to Barry Alpha, Brutus Benson, etc.

But after a few trips through the alphabet I began to get (a) get bored of thinking up new names, and (b) depressed by how quickly I was getting through names. So I stopped, and now I just name my characters after something I see lying around - Roget's Thesaurus - and stick with it til I get bored.

[Grimm]

New race proposal: Thesaurus.

[Confidence Interval]

New race proposal: Thesaurus.

Synonym the Wordfinder (level 5, -2/27 HPs)
Began as a Thesaurus Wizard on Aug 16, 2011.
Was the champion of Roget.

Mangled by an orc warrior
...wielding a +5,+5 Book of Power
(12 damage)
... on Level 5 of the Dungeon on Aug 16, 2011.
The game lasted 00:21:14 (9208 turns).

You worshipped Roget.
Roget was exalted by your worship.

[Grimm]

Roget was enlivened, lauded, invigorated, thrilled, transfigured, exalted, tickled pink, animated, inspired, exhilarated, inebriated, glorified, spiritualized, extolled by your worship.

[Confidence Interval]

All the same, there're only a limited number of ways to say "YASD".

[Grimm]

You open the thesaurus like a pillowcase!

[Grimm]

You open the pillowcase like a thesaurus.

[XuaXua]

You rupture the glossary like a sack!

[TwilightPhoenix]

All the same, there're only a limited number of ways to say "YASD".

Yet another foolish demise.
Yet another silly end.
Yet another unintelligent murder.
Yet another idiotic loss of life.
Yet another scatterbrained massacre.
Yet another nonsensical execution.
Yet another ludicrous eternal rest.
Yet another senseless quietus.
Yet another unwise passing.
Yet another vapid expiry.

Etc. and etc. I had to stop myself.

[Confidence Interval]

All the same, there're only a limited number of ways to say "YASD".

Yet another foolish demise.
Yet another silly end.
Yet another unintelligent murder.
Yet another idiotic loss of life.
Yet another scatterbrained massacre.
Yet another nonsensical execution.
Yet another ludicrous eternal rest.
Yet another senseless quietus.
Yet another unwise passing.
Yet another vapid expiry.

Etc. and etc. I had to stop myself.

I have over 2500 SDs to my credit. 2490 synonyms needed, please.

[TwilightPhoenix]

My computer's thesaurus has 10 entries for yet, 3 for another, 64 entires for stupid and 24 for death. So while you would have to use each word multiple, multiple times, it does result in 46080 unique combinations. Better get to splatting!

[gofftc]

The difference between naming and calling is a kitten named 'pussycat', called 'getoffthecouch'
I also played some nethack ^my rc on nao^ before started playing crawl,
other offline chars are letters from sentences or quotes like 'gtac' give tiles a chance,
tsisooma - the sun is shining out of my a** for DS or something like wthiwwyp.
Mostly I dont play more than two or thee chars..

[AtT]

I name them after various things I have to do. Such as "Do Bio Homework" and "Pay Rent" and "Laundry After This." I Also had a large run of characters named "001" "002" etc..

[Blade]

I think of a name and then use it. I try to come up with different ones for every character, some serious, some not; if I particularly like a name, I may re-use it.

It's more fun looking at my high score lists that way.

[cerebovssquire]

I exclusively play online so it's one of Elynae (normal stuff, weird stuff, fun stuff), hyperelynae (random combos), elynaeandxom (CKs), cerebovssquire (just an alternative account if Elynae is being used or something and that barely ever gets used).

[omndra]

I just smash two words together, or just use a longer word that stands for death or hopelessness.

For Example:
Bloodclaw, Ripfang, RipGuts. FaceMelt, KillStab, RageBlade, Oblivion, FistKick, DeadEye, RedTooth, FrostBite, TrollBlood, FaceKick, FaceRip, JellyPump, and CakeHat.

You know stuff like that.

[Pteriforever]

Back in ToME, since I only needed to make one up every twelve hours or so, so I named them after all kinds of things in a Sincerest Flattery style.

In this game I just name them all after myself.

[Shinigami]

I have specific names that I use repeatedly for specific builds, i.e. my DDNe's are named "REND HATEFORGE", my MiBe's are named "WARCHIEF BLOODHOOF", etc. But I try to keep them relatively fantasy-oriented, and I hate cribbing names from other sources (the only exception being my HOPr's named "Zahubu").

Naming fantasy characters is really fun.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

After trying out Trogdore the Incinerator (Draconian Fire Elementalist), I came up with even sillier remake:
Trocutor the Elec!!! (Draconian Air Elementalist)

[Jabberwocky]

My characters typically reincarnate 14 or 15 times before I send someone else into the dungeon. The characters are named after the first name I hear when I turn on the radio. I had a Harold Camping recently, he died.

[pratamawirya]

My latest DEBe was named James Steel. And he splat, of course.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Name somebody Mariana Mamba.

[Sharkie]

Sharkie, Sharky, Sharkz, Shaken etc. I'm boring like that.

[nosrepemos]

More often than not these days, I name my characters based on how their abbreviated combo is pronounced. Like 'Hoper' for a HOPr, or 'Trophy' for a TrFi.

[Serne]

My naming scheme goes as such... Step 1: make character with awesome name. Step 2: watch it die in under 4000 rounds. Step 3: make ridiculously named character. Step 4: Win.