(not-so-serious subject) How do you come up with character names?

Grim Dawn General Discussion
1

In TQ I would just call em what they were, as I never had more than one of each build - Haruspex or Oracle, or whatever…

In GD I was trying to think of more interesting names…

Got a Pyromancer going along, mid-20s level-wise(it’s been awhile since I played him)… With the old England-meets-the steampunk wild west feel of GD, I though of “Victor” as in Victor Frankenstein. Not so original, but… meh. :undecided:

Then I was thinking, okay what is a good name for a female magick person? :confused:

There is an occult order called The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which was founded in 1888 by 3 Freemasons, one of whom was named Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. His wife’s name was Moina… bingo! My level 35 Conjurer is named “Moina MacGregor Mathers”.

I’ve got a Blademaster just starting out(only a Nightblade so far), so I’m thinking “ninja”… or maybe just "tornado badass’. LOL So I named him Satoshi Kojima, who is an awesome Japanese professional wrestler. hehehe :smiley:

How about you?

2

I have one name that follow me everywhere.

Kralw

I’m 30 years old so I was playing RPG in the good old time of the SNES with 6 or 8 characters maximum for the name of your hero. Breath of Fire II had that amazing blue spiked haired main character and my real name is Christian (9 characte). I used for the first time that Kralw nickname and it did stay with me forever since as I never had trouble using it.

I’m using a lot of name from Fantasy Book I did read. Huge fan of DragonLance so quite often the whole companion group was used and some from Forgetten Realm (first barbarian character in a game is quite often named Wulfgar Battlehammer)

My first char in GD is a Female Occultist so I stole a name from my girlfriend usual set.
2nd one is an Arcanist so he got the Raistlin name.
The next one which shall be the first really complete and effective build (as it always take 2-3 char before hitting jackpot) gonna get the Kralw name unless I decide to jump on a Sword and Board build before (which in that case will get Caramon (Raistlin brother)

3

When I got on computers for the first time, I was OFC in school, and just used whatever name they gave me that year. As I got into high school, and had my own computer, I realized I should probably have a specific name, one that was unique, unlikely to be taken, and in some way related to my actual name, so that I could be safely recognized by people I knew IRL, and from other games. As my last name is Shepherd*, my family has developed a somewhat joke-y tradition of using that in our online names somehow. I threw in Ns, for my initials…And tada, it’s never been taken, wherever I go.

In accordance with that, my first, main character, is named Nssheepster. Any subsidiary characters are named something with Sheep or a Sheep joke, and the character’s purpose. SheepStrike, AARSheep, BurntWool for a Fire Strike Infernal Knight character, and so on. Generally it makes it easy to name characters, for me.

*Not worried about announcing that, there are dozens of way to spell my last name, and there are (no lie) seven people within one hundred miles of me with my first and last name. One of them even has the same middle name.

4

Take a guess.

5

I just try to make up names that come from nowhere. That’s why my characters have weird names like Ereno, Kenaros and Dalren.

6

My Vortex of Souls build has the name Moskstraumen.
It’s a region in the Norwegian fjords where maelstroms occur frequently.

Get it?
Maelstrom? Vortex?

7

oops - upon playing this evening I saw that I had confused my pyromancer with a character I scrapped named Victor…

his actual name is ‘Sol Invictus’, which is Latin for (roughly)‘Triumph of the Sun’.

8

On whim I guess

Therefore I have names like

Tempest: Warder
McDeath: Blademaster
Titania: Commando
Angsty McEmo: Occultist
Major Payne: Soldier
Mr. Stabbypants: Arcanist

9

Most of my characters names are of the Lightshiver clan, using eleven first names.
Tho I do love using horrible Goggle Translate to translate names I want into Russian
Then I use names I like from my crappy but fantastick just the same Horrorcore music Genre and a few other types of genres (Rellik, Tali Demon, Grewsum, Sicktanick, Razakel, Bloodshot, Jennasyyde, Kilo Crackroxxx)

10

I find that any name goes well in Grim Dawn, partly due to itself containing names with different enough flavors. (See also: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AerithAndBob)

In particular, everyday names (Johm, Elsa, Helen, Edwin, etc) work well, since we have lots of examples in the game.

While the game does not have any faith system resembling Christianity or Judaism, Bible names apparently are appropriate. The John above-mentioned is an example, but we also have examples like Isariah, Judith and Jebediah.

Russian surnames are apparently fine too, since we have Kasparov. Not sure why we have a surname when other people seems to have given names instead. But I guess naming your character Ivan won’t be too weird anyway.

Then we have a huge array of Latin names: Fabius, Phabius, Lucius, Marcus, etc. Surely it can be fashionable to name your characters in (pseudo-)Latin.

I feel that you can pick any European name and fit well enough into the game.

But if you want some GD-specific flavor? I notice “grim” is a suffix used by two NPCs in the game: Angrim and Ulgrim. Maybe naming your character Foogrim would sound fantastic. (Ingrim is a real world name and Pilgrim is a real English word though) Or you can try to do something new and name your characters with the suffix “dawn”. Not sure if Uldawn and Andawn sound right though.

The Order of Death’s Vigil seems to have a particular name suffix: “-ruuk”. Probably the members rename themselves after the great founder Uroboruuk? Anyway, we have the Keeper of Artifacts Poruuk, the mater Varuuk and a quest giver Balvoruuk. Surely Fooruuk would be a cool name for an Order member.

I guess I’ll name my next character Foogrimus Fooruukovich :undecided:

11

I use a name generator and choose a first and last name that I like.

My female Warlock is named Lilith Lovelace.

12

I actually type the first thing that comes in my head.
For example:

Mistress
John Hammer
Thomas Goodwigook
Aether Goddess
Wallcrusher
Trousers Oneshotter
Stripper of Souls
Tough Brick
Anna Maria
Whore of Babylon

And finally, my favourite one… Lazy Overlord Nose.

13

Mine are all taken from other video games, mostly Heroes of Might and Magic 2 (Crag Hack, Carlawn, Alamar, Kilburn, etc.). My main character is named after Rei from Breath of Fire 3 though, and I have a Grenado/Canister Bomb Sorceress named Megumin (after the character in Konosuba).

14

Mine are all taken from the Skullduggery books with this game , apart from very few from my old d&d days years ago that end up in every game :slight_smile:

15

I tend to use ship names from EVE Online that I like phonetically and somewhat fit with the theme of the character. Some of my favorites are Iteron, Rifter, Bhaalgorn, Machariel, Barghest, Incursus, Occator + handful of others. I also occasionally just use words that I like. Saturnine, Souvenirs, Splayed etc. Apparently, I like words that start with S.

16

I create a backstory for all my characters because before I make a character I think of a build for them that I’ll generally follow. I like to pick a name and personality that fits the build and play style.

It helps me get more immersed in the game as my over -active imagination thinks out how my character would deal with/see all the situations he/she runs into.

My summoner - Lissandra
My weird Arther chaos build - Chosen of Agrivix (think emotionless sentinel like dude who only lives to please his master)
My witchblade - Doom (named after my username because witchblades are OP like me.)
My PRM build - Panetti.
My lightning proc Warder - Thor

And so forth.

17

One of my character in Dungeons & Dragons Online was named “Astarte Blavatsky”.

  • ‘Astarte’ is another form of Ishtar, Sumerian/Babylonian mother goddess (later called ‘Astaroth’; i.e., the gods of the conquered become the ‘demons’ of their conquerors)

  • ‘Blavatsky’ comes from Helena Petrovna Blavatsky(1831-1891), Russian writer on both Eastern and Western esotericism, founder of The Theosophical Society in 1875 & author of the books Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, among others.

18

I try to find names that fit the playstyle of the character im playing. Eg. Pierce/cold fast attack speed, almost like a ninja = Kage. Fire sorcerer = Ifrit (from the final fantasy games). Or historical/mythical names like Boudicae or Gilgamesh. But eventually i get bored or im just testing builds, and then i just use names like Cunty or Cockblaster or Assbag :stuck_out_tongue:

19

WOW, some of these are very interesting - and HILARIOUS!! :smiley:

20

I have named my builds mostly after the set or item it uses, some others are named after the lore from the item:

High priest of dreeg - DEE, dreeg set build warlock
Deathmark’s executioner - deathmark’s set and alkamas rings cold blademaster
Bysmiel’s command - pet build conjurer
Anasteria’s defender - AAR Outcast’s secret sorcerer
Invoker’s fury - PRM invokers set build sorcerer
Gul’amash bane - vit/bleed/chaos build conjurer
Olexra’s regiment - OFF freezing cold build spellbreaker

got plenty more, but you get an idea