My "canon" PC is Ladrian of Candlekeep, who serves the god Milil as a paladin-in-training. I wanted his name to be very similar to Abdel Adrian's... but that as far as their similarities goes!
A few (recent) BP names I've used:
Tynerion/Tynérion Thossana (based on a name; Tyrion) Eldarra yn Pazasz (based on the swedish word for fire; ELD) Alyssaria Melaros (based on Alice and Saria) Lehe'neral Thealin (based on the swedish word for a smile; ett LEENDE) Rasahm Vela (based on a name; Sam) Bernorad Trollkiller (based on Bernard and Norad)
Mine usually come from just playing with syllables until something clicks. I have two that tend to pop up in lots of different RPG settings: Carthius is human and usually a sword & board knight type, whilst Daeglin is an elf with a bow (plays as archer or thief usually).
I'm not above cribbing from things I've read however, so I have in the past played as: Ferahgo(Assassin), Vilu Daskar(Swashbuckler), Ublaz the Eye(Mage), Urthwyte(Barbarian), Tsarmina(Bard) & Gonff(shortie thief)... And I've got a big "shared-childhood" smile for anyone who recognises those names!
Well I have a lot of characters, most of them I just come up with out of idle fancy, the only one that has any backstory is "Icerlia", my female inquisitor, who is a character name I made for a story I have yet to write (laziness). Icerlia in the story (fantasy medieval setting) was a liutenant in her Kingdom's military who was forced out when it was discovered she was pregnant. Her husband is a high ranking general in the army as well, but was unaware of his wife being forced out or even pregnant (they were assigned in different regions). Icerlia decides instead of settling into civilian life to join up as a soldier in a naval militia, keeping her past rank and pregnancy a secret. Her ship however ends up being sunk during a battle but she is saved by a boy in a fishing boat.
There's a lot more to her story but basically I like the idea of a very strong capable female warrior who is also feminine in many ways, and somehow being pregnant and still fighting seems really bad-ass to me.
I named my Female LG Monk Bathsheba, it sounded appropriately mysterious and fantasy-ish while still being a real name. Also it had a synergy with Balthazar, who in my head was "the one" for her (spiritually that is, monks are celibate right?). I had the mod installed where you don't have to kill him.
For my first and so far only Black Pits run, I named my team after people you can impersonate, are mistaken for, or can claim to be in Baldur's Gate: Dinklemus Littlelog (searcher of the Holy Groundhog), Foolio Displasius (destroyer of the Seven Suns), Greywolf, Emissary Tar, Dimwit, and Prat.
I created a female for my BG:ee playthru * with the Hexxat romance in BG2 in mind * For my typical male PC I've a well used repertoire of names. For females, not so much.
So I named her Aenea, after a character from the Hyperion Cantos.
I have no real rhyme or reason behind the names I use for my Charnames. I usually just try to pick out something that looks or sounds good to me. My first Charname was called Chryseis (NG Kensai - why yes I did play the games out of order because my parents bought me SoA when they couldn't find BG1, how did you know?). I was reading the Illiad and picked the name out of the air because it sounded cool and was close to my actual name.
Halfway through my first playthrough I ended up remaking the character, and renamed her Brynn because I wanted to pick a name that wasn't so closely tied to the real world. At the time, I thought I made the name up, but it turns out it's a real name after all and means something like "hill" in Welsh. Hence Brynnlaw, which built on the side of what I assume is a pretty hilly island. I hadn't been to Spellhold yet when I remade the character, so I had momentary shock when I ended up going through a town with the same name as my character.
Something about the Y + double consonant name construction must appeal to me for female characters because my neutral/evil party playthrough Charname is Myrr (TN thief).
My usual male Charname is Aurelius (paladin), based on a DnD character I played.
I named my Female LG Monk Bathsheba, it sounded appropriately mysterious and fantasy-ish while still being a real name. Also it had a synergy with Balthazar, who in my head was "the one" for her (spiritually that is, monks are celibate right?). I had the mod installed where you don't have to kill him.
@dustbubsy - FWIW, monks (as in members of the monk character class) in Faerun aren't necessarily celibate. According to some information from Ed Greenwood on the FR fansite, candlekeep.com, even the monks at Candlekeep, who are closer to the IRL image of cloistered, monastery-dwelling contemplatives aren't celibate, they just tend to be more interested in books than sex.
That said, your Charname, your lore, and in any case the dude is your brother.
The whole piece about Candlekeep that Greenwood wrote is very interesting for those of you who would like to know more about Charname's "home town." Here's a link for the curious:
I find the format that the site chose to present the information hard to read (a small box inside a picture of a scroll that you can er... scroll through to read the whole document) so I copied it into a word doc to read. I would attach a pdf, but they ask that it not be reproduced without permission.
well I name all my human, elves, and half-orc characters the same names, with a few exceptions...
Human: Adrian... kicking it to the face of Abdel by using his last name, which happens to be a first name. Unlike Abdel, Adrian isn't a total loser either.
Elf: Kaidan. Not sure why, just stuck; maybe because one of my favorite characters from Mass Effect was named Kaidan.
Half-Orc: Urz'Go-Crush. He's a half-orc who crushes stuff with his might, I thought the name sounded appropriate.
I often play humans, and I like distinctly human names for such characers. The popular and reusable names that I have thus came up with are: Tristan, Daniel, Jeffery, Catherine & Anna.
I also have Toibyn, which is a bastardization of the spelling of the name of author Colm Toibin.
With elves, I often takes names I have already seen used for elves and then rework them with different vowels or common pre-/suffixes, like 'rith', 'myr', 'raen' etc to create new names. The most popularly used one of these creations is Kaelrith.
Half-orcs and dwarves, which I have only ever used in IWD and the Black Pits, are given names based on pure guesswork. There is no inspiring creative process here, sorry. I have Hromath and Hrethden to use on each race respectively now, though, so some good came of it.
My main character's name is a rendition of my own name in another language, which I heard in a classic movie that is one of my favorites.
As for FMT, it was inspired by a game called Quest for Glory, an older rpg for PC where you have to choose between playing a fighter, mage, or thief, and each of the styles of gameplay is drastically different, as you can imagine. Very much like Baldur's Gate in fact, but imo the rp elements are far more pronounced in QfG, since you can get through much of the game without having to do any fighting.
FMT also, imo, represents the RPG paradigm, since each of these classes are found in some mixture within each character class in RPGs, the mage being representative of any magic user, i.e. a character with some form of spellcasting, whether it be control, buffs, damage, or heals. That might sound like a bad thing, but it's not a criticism, I find it interesting.
Ofc, FMT also happens to be a multiclass combination in Baldur's Gate.
p.s. Morrowind had that sandbox feel to it as well somewhat, since combat was more of an option, with the exception of a few key battles if you wanted to complete the main storyline, although even that was optional. In one of my latest playthroughs, for instance, I became a grandmaster merchant, paid trainers to raise my combat and magic skills, bought magic trinkets to escape from unnecessary battles, and basically explored the world, flying around while invisible at super speed with levitation.
My Charname is 'Raines' He's a Stalker (too fun!). I named him Raines after former Major League Baseball player Tim Raines who was very good at stealing bases. Plus I'm from Seattle where it rains alot and when Rains fights he always reigns death down upon his opponents. Well, almost always, at least half the time.
My Charname is 'Raines' He's a Stalker (too fun!). I named him Raines after former Major League Baseball player Tim Raines who was very good at stealing bases. Plus I'm from Seattle where it rains alot and when Rains fights he always reigns death down upon his opponents. Well, almost always, at least half the time.
Totally off-topic, but HOORAY FELLOW WASHINGTONIAN!
My current dark moon nun is called Regina. My kids always refer to the monks as boxers when they watch me play and so she's named after Regina Halmich, most successful female boxer in the world
Comments
A few (recent) BP names I've used:
Tynerion/Tynérion Thossana (based on a name; Tyrion)
Eldarra yn Pazasz (based on the swedish word for fire; ELD)
Alyssaria Melaros (based on Alice and Saria)
Lehe'neral Thealin (based on the swedish word for a smile; ett LEENDE)
Rasahm Vela (based on a name; Sam)
Bernorad Trollkiller (based on Bernard and Norad)
I'm not above cribbing from things I've read however, so I have in the past played as: Ferahgo(Assassin), Vilu Daskar(Swashbuckler), Ublaz the Eye(Mage), Urthwyte(Barbarian), Tsarmina(Bard) & Gonff(shortie thief)... And I've got a big "shared-childhood" smile for anyone who recognises those names!
There's a lot more to her story but basically I like the idea of a very strong capable female warrior who is also feminine in many ways, and somehow being pregnant and still fighting seems really bad-ass to me.
For my first and so far only Black Pits run, I named my team after people you can impersonate, are mistaken for, or can claim to be in Baldur's Gate: Dinklemus Littlelog (searcher of the Holy Groundhog), Foolio Displasius (destroyer of the Seven Suns), Greywolf, Emissary Tar, Dimwit, and Prat.
For my typical male PC I've a well used repertoire of names. For females, not so much.
So I named her Aenea, after a character from the Hyperion Cantos.
Halfway through my first playthrough I ended up remaking the character, and renamed her Brynn because I wanted to pick a name that wasn't so closely tied to the real world. At the time, I thought I made the name up, but it turns out it's a real name after all and means something like "hill" in Welsh. Hence Brynnlaw, which built on the side of what I assume is a pretty hilly island. I hadn't been to Spellhold yet when I remade the character, so I had momentary shock when I ended up going through a town with the same name as my character.
Something about the Y + double consonant name construction must appeal to me for female characters because my neutral/evil party playthrough Charname is Myrr (TN thief).
My usual male Charname is Aurelius (paladin), based on a DnD character I played. @dustbubsy - FWIW, monks (as in members of the monk character class) in Faerun aren't necessarily celibate. According to some information from Ed Greenwood on the FR fansite, candlekeep.com, even the monks at Candlekeep, who are closer to the IRL image of cloistered, monastery-dwelling contemplatives aren't celibate, they just tend to be more interested in books than sex.
That said, your Charname, your lore, and in any case the dude is your brother.
The whole piece about Candlekeep that Greenwood wrote is very interesting for those of you who would like to know more about Charname's "home town." Here's a link for the curious:
http://www.candlekeep.com/library/articles/ck_scroll.htm
I find the format that the site chose to present the information hard to read (a small box inside a picture of a scroll that you can er... scroll through to read the whole document) so I copied it into a word doc to read. I would attach a pdf, but they ask that it not be reproduced without permission.
-Blue
Human: Adrian... kicking it to the face of Abdel by using his last name, which happens to be a first name. Unlike Abdel, Adrian isn't a total loser either.
Elf: Kaidan. Not sure why, just stuck; maybe because one of my favorite characters from Mass Effect was named Kaidan.
Half-Orc: Urz'Go-Crush. He's a half-orc who crushes stuff with his might, I thought the name sounded appropriate.
I also have Toibyn, which is a bastardization of the spelling of the name of author Colm Toibin.
With elves, I often takes names I have already seen used for elves and then rework them with different vowels or common pre-/suffixes, like 'rith', 'myr', 'raen' etc to create new names. The most popularly used one of these creations is Kaelrith.
Half-orcs and dwarves, which I have only ever used in IWD and the Black Pits, are given names based on pure guesswork. There is no inspiring creative process here, sorry. I have Hromath and Hrethden to use on each race respectively now, though, so some good came of it.
As for FMT, it was inspired by a game called Quest for Glory, an older rpg for PC where you have to choose between playing a fighter, mage, or thief, and each of the styles of gameplay is drastically different, as you can imagine. Very much like Baldur's Gate in fact, but imo the rp elements are far more pronounced in QfG, since you can get through much of the game without having to do any fighting.
FMT also, imo, represents the RPG paradigm, since each of these classes are found in some mixture within each character class in RPGs, the mage being representative of any magic user, i.e. a character with some form of spellcasting, whether it be control, buffs, damage, or heals. That might sound like a bad thing, but it's not a criticism, I find it interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory:_So_You_Want_to_Be_a_Hero
Ofc, FMT also happens to be a multiclass combination in Baldur's Gate.
p.s. Morrowind had that sandbox feel to it as well somewhat, since combat was more of an option, with the exception of a few key battles if you wanted to complete the main storyline, although even that was optional. In one of my latest playthroughs, for instance, I became a grandmaster merchant, paid trainers to raise my combat and magic skills, bought magic trinkets to escape from unnecessary battles, and basically explored the world, flying around while invisible at super speed with levitation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Halmich