The Meaning Behind A Name

In most computer role-playing games you’re either controlling one character or a party of 4-6 characters. I have often wondered, dear reader, how YOU go about choosing a name for your characters.

My first character’s name was Mordred

In the first game that I played, Dungeon, I chose the name of Mordred for my character. I chose this name because this is a character variously portrayed in Arthurian legend.

In the current game I am playing, Game of Dungeons, my character’s name is Ryshad. I chose this particular name because I am currently reading Juliet E. McKenna’s excellent Tales of Einarinn series in which Ryshad is a featured character.

Book 1 in the Tales of Einarinn series

When I choose character names I tend to use the names of memorable characters from either books that I’ve previously read or books that I’m currently reading. In the past I’ve also used names from my group of friends for larger parties and on a bad day I even admit to using my mother-in-laws name for the meat shield of the party.

My favorite method remains choosing the names from memorable characters from books that I have read or am reading.

I would love to hear how YOU go about choosing names for your characters in your games or what are some of your most memorable character names that you’ve created.

I am also curious; do you have particular names that are staples from game to game or do you constantly change things up?

I look forward to hearing from you and happy gaming!

4 thoughts on “The Meaning Behind A Name”

  1. My method was probably similar to yours. I tend to pick character names of characters that left an impression on me in the books I’ve read. However, it sometimes depends on my mood, because I do like to try and make names up as well to make them my own.

    My most memorable group of characters was the ones I played in the Pools series on C64.

    Bruenor – Dwarf fighter (The Crystal Shard)
    Mua’Dib – Paladin (Dune)
    Balinor – Cleric (possibly Shannara series – not sure)
    Stormsmith – Mage (I think I made that up)

    I’ve had a few Wolverines over the years too.

    1. Ooooh I’ve had a few Bruenor characters in my time as well. Great series. I’ve been meaning to start at the very beginning of the series again and work my way through the Drizzt collection. I still haven’t read probably the last 10 books. Great fan of the Shannara series as well. I recently made my way through the entire Raymond E. Feist Magician / Riftwar books. There were quite a few of them. Thank you for your post

      1. I could never pick the name Drizzt. He was too amazing and their were no dark elves in the games I played.

  2. Nowadays I’m taking the names from random small hamlets in my region. There are a lot and some of them sound archaic, so I get pretty cool names and get to learn a little about my whereabouts at the same time!

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