Coming up with names for a Tyrian character isn’t all that easy, but with a few pointers, you should be able to craft something that sounds just about right.
Norn are easy as long as you can keep their general theme in mind, with Scandinavian sounding names, maybe throwing in a title to make them sound more intimidating or glorious. Norn are all about forging their own legacy, so they’ll need a name just as impressive as the feats they’re bound to achieve.
M
Ulgrin Olgansson
Naltan the Wary
F
Cuvrad Ulstarn
Glasta the Unscarred
Dilva Gostildottir
M/F
Lonsa Trailwalker
(None of these are genuine Scandinavian names, I just cobbled them together)
Sylvari probably have the some of the easiest names, seeing as they don’t actually need surnames at all. The one name they take however, is Gaelic, or at least sounds as if it is. These names are usually lyrical and involve more vowels than usual, especially ‘ae’ and ‘ih’ sounds. (Anyone actually capable of speaking Gaelic is welcome to correct me on this.)
M
Artan
Duer
Tremain
F
Bidelia
Allene
Eolande
Maili
M/F
Delaine
(These are all Gaelic/Irish names)
Asura have short, one or two syllable names that make extensive use of double letters, with males taking sharp sounding consonants at their end while females taking softer vowel sounds like –i and -a. There’s a little bit of lore about surnames too. Normally they don’t take them; instead opting for more descriptive terms like their job, krewe name (a sort of Asuran taskforce) or even an honorific; these can result in self-important and often overblown titles that feed their inner (and rather substantial) egomaniac. There are a few who, upon encountering other races with surnames, and regularly interacting with them choose to adopt a surname themselves which, while odd by Asura standards is easily overlooked.
M
Heesor, 3rd Member of the Council for Repurposed Golemancy
Yennk
Truuln
Kaalt
F
Selvaa, Engineer of Repair Crewe #34c
Kiilva
Fallvi
(There isn’t a real-world equivalent for the Asura’s naming scheme, so these were all made up on the fly)
Charr usually have short, brutal and to the point names and sometimes include a fire motif. There are a few exceptions (Almorra Soulkeeper, leader of the Vigil for one) but as a general rule, that’s how it works. The surname is composed of two words contracted together, one of which is dictated by their warband. All members of the warband will have that word in the same position of their surname; the best known example is Pyre Fierceshot’s warband, who use the surnames Fierceblade, Fiercetongue, Fierceclaw, Fierceheart, Fiercereign, and Fiercejustice respectively.
M
Golvak Direburn
Tangral Scaldridge
Degnar Flashstrike
F
Relva Shadepacer
Kordil Shardeater
(Charr names take a lot of effort to make them sound good. Consider introducing metalworking themed and words with an imposing feel to them to round them out; Doomforge is an awesome name, after all.)
Humans are probably the easiest of all, after all, we know our own naming conditions and with names like Dougal and Logan floating about it isn’t all that difficult to give a Krytan an appropriate name. Most of the nations in Tyria have a real-world analogue, so no matter your human’s ancestry, there should be something appropriate:
Orr = Arabian
Elona = African
Cantha = Asian
Ascalon & Kryta = Western European
(These are easy enough to cobble together with a well-placed Google search, so I won’t post examples.)
So there we have it: a quick guide to creating a name appropriate for any of the five playable races. I’d love to see where this guide gets people, so feel free to post your character names below.
