Character Naming

[Terithian]

I've wondered this for a while, but how does everyone name their characters in each game? I always name my characters after various gods and godesses, although I'm starting to run out of good names to use.

[Justanothernerd]

I always name my main five characters after myself and my 4 closest friends. The people I'd actually trust to come with me in some grand dungeon exploration. The rest of the members of my guilds are usually named after pop culture/historical/literary characters. (e.g. Wildling named Okonkwo, Nightseeker named Dante, Monk named [Siddharta] Gautama)

[Dangerus]

For me, I just make references to things I see.

EO3 example:

Flappy -> The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack -> Prince 1 Color 1
Puera -> Legend of Legaia Seru Monster -> Monk 1 Color 2
Nadjaki -> Mix of the names Nadia, Jean, and King from Nadia: the Secret of Blue Water -> Wildling Female 2 Color 2
Alcohol -> Just... Alcohol. Thought having a drunkard in the party was a good idea... -> Buccaneer Male 1 Color 1
Alistar -> I actually named her after the weird nickname of one of the porn stars in Zack and Miri Make A Porno. I watched the movie with my mom when I started playing and renamed her from 'Bubbles' to a more dignified name. Guess this was a reference to the fact I was going to name her after a Snork but mistyped it. Aw well. I think it's a cool name, anyway. -> Female Buccaneer 1 Color 2 (my avatar)

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In EO4 it's...

Venusis -> Nadia's brother in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water -> Male Dancer 1 Color 2
Nausicaa -> Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Because why not? -> Female Nightseeker 1 Color 2
Hamptona -> Tried to think of Sampson but replace the 'S' with an 'H'. Added an 'a' in there because it was feminine. This was supposed to name her subtly after 'Hanson' from Nadia: the Secret of Blue Water. -> Female Fortress 1 Color 1
Hermie -> Hermey from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer -> Male Medic 2 Color 2
Señorita -> Spanish word for 'little miss'. -> Female Dancer 2 Color 1

Vivi -> Vivi from Braindead 13 ->
Moocow -> 'Merry Moocow' the Arthur parody of Barney the Dinosaur, might actually rename him Xain from Legend of Legaia instead though.->
Yukon -> Yukon Cornelius from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ->

Mowfey -> Mixed the name Mowgli from the Jungle Book with 'fey' as in 'fairy'. -> Male Arcanist 2 Color 2
Gaohira -> Mixed the name Bagheera from the Jungle Book with 'GAO' as in the Japanese sounds for roars and growls. Made it somehow fit with the Japanese beast Samurai theme. -> Male Bushi 2 Color 1 (lion Bushi)
Conejita -> Spanish word for 'little Rabbit'. Made it feminine because the Bushi is female. -> Female Bushi 2 Color 2 (Rabbit Bushi)
Auros -> Ideas for a Seyfried offspring. Nadjaki's son, I should put it. -> Male Dancer 2 Color 1

EO2

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Roxanne -> Song from the Police, Roxanne. -> Dark Hunter Female 1
Ripto -> villain from Spyro 2 -> Survivalist Male 1
Django -> One Piece villain -> Troubadour Male 1
Hellsong -> Hellsing920 -> Hexer Male 1
Marley -> Bob Marley -> War Magus Male 1

[FomeRubr555]

I'm usually self-conscious and embarassed of my names, so I'll leave out specifics. But it really depends on what the character makes me think of. Like, if I look at a character and think 'sun', for example, I'll look up root words for sun (like sol or helio) and add/subtract/move around some letters until it sounds like it could be a fantasy name. Other times, I might play off names of mythological figures/gods or foreign words. I actually use a combination of Google translate, name etymology websites, and wikipedia articles (among other miscellaneous websites) to name my party.

...As a result, it took me hours to come up with my party for EO4...

[Terithian]

I already mentioned that I tend to use names of deities, but I don't really like to use well known ones all that much. Thus I get characters like Ceridwen the Shogun, Arianrhod the Fortress, or Morana the Ronin.

[Slickyrider]

I already posted most of the names that I distributed throughout my guild in another thread, and most of them are Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy characters. I named my Bushi "Red XIII" (because when I saw the alternate design for the third Bushi, I just HAD to.) Named my Arcanist "Mystina" after a Valkyrie Profile character. Still not sure what to name my Imperial, unfortunately. I have a few ideas, though.

[PLA]

Listed 126 names the past few weeks.

[Doktor_Q]

[PLA]

[Reynard-Miri]

Flint has the biggest of stones.

[ueI]

I named most of my Etrian Odyssey III and IV characters on a whim. I'd like to name them after famous characters, but most of the stuff I know doesn't fit in with Etrian Odyssey. If I owned the first two games, I would name my party after Sword of Truth characters.

[Zaraf]

I honestly wish the EO series would allow for random names. As a result, I like to use random name generators online

[Gumi]

I tend to give my characters Japanese names, usually after anime/manga, although I do sometimes give my characters cool European sounding names. I will admit my names are a bit odd this time around. I'm sad to say that 2/5 of my main party are named after AKB48 members (I am a sad, sad person).

Landsknecht: Haruna (named after AKB48 member Haruna Kojima. Plus, I just like the name.)
Fortress: Yui (probably named after Yui Horie)
Nightseeker: Eddard (since my guild name is "Stark", I wanted to have at least one character with a GoTish name)
Medic: Teru (Probably got this from a shoujo manga...somewhere.)
Sniper: Rino (named after (former) AKB48 member Rino Sashihara.)

I think once I retire my main party this time, I'm going to start being a bit more creative. I think literary references and mythology are a good place to start
I'm definitely naming my next sniper "Kino" though. That's just what my long-range attackers are always called, for some reason...why I deviated from that this time, I don't know.

[Doktor_Q]

[Liferake]

I add -ie, -a, and -i suffixes to all of my names, typically after a made up or partial word:

Vinnie [D](Made up)
Gandra [L](Made up)
Rosa [M](Partial of Rose, suffix -a)
Tali [R](Partial of Talisman)
Sakura [First Hidden Class](Because Pink)