A list of discouraged names?

[c0rzilla]

It's time for Matthew to change his name to United States of Stormwind.



That joke aside...I highly, highly disagree with the usage of real world place names as character names. Now, I can't go through every name ever and say which one might be ok, which one not, in my opinion. But, what Valicor said is true--all these places have meanings in their names. To pluck them willy nilly to use "because they sound cool!" could end up pretty offensive if you don't know anything about the place or name other than "it sounds cool!".

I dunno. We have some players on here from Israel. I won't speak for them, but I would take them into consideration before naming a character Israel. I don't much feel like getting into cultural appropriation again.

[JVNemesis]

We pretty much do it on a case-by-case basis, with a few notable exceptions and rules.

If you can look at it and instantly think of another setting (Goku, Link, what have you, the obvious pulls), then nope.

Is this something sane parents would actually name their children? "Blackblade, go play with Jeff and Charlie now!"

As a couple of people have mentioned, I'm a bit more forgiving of Forsaken/Death Knights with outlandish names, as long as it says in the history somewhere that it's something they chose for themselves after their 'rebirths,' so to speak. I'm not a huge fan, though, of elves or humans having Adjectivenoun as a name from birth, or anything like that.

As a general rule, I'd be inclined to say no on real-world locations that are unique and recognizably real-world locations being used as names. Israel, I'd say no on. Georgia, on the other hand? Sure. It's the feminine George. Not a problem. Egypt? See ya later. Names from real-world people aren't quite the same, though, as people have mentioned. It's nigh-impossible to make a rule about where you can and cannot pull names from that'll be accurate all of the time.

[Xigo]

Can I name a character after religious figures? Isis, Zeus, Jesus, Thor, Baldur, Muhammad, Yahweh, Paul, John, etc?

[CappnRob]

Isis, Zeus, Jesus, Thor, Baldur, Muhammad, Yahweh, Paul, John

No, no, change it to Joshua, maybe for a dwarf or if you added a pre/suffix, yes, no, no, yes, yes.

:P

And @Vladdy does bring up a good point, so like @JVNemisis said they really are case by case situations.

Does the usage of a cross as a symbol of the Light make any sense?

This is how I justify Cristovao's name in a setting without Christ :||||| (I handwave it to mean "cross-bearer").

[Harmonic]

...If Matt is going to be United States of Stormwind, I'm chaning my name to Mexico Redjaw.

[Xigo]

A cross is probably a symbol of the Light, as per it being the actual symbol of the priest class.

[Vladdy]

@Xigo: You know, it's actually part of certain Latin American cultures to name their children after Jesus; it's considered a sign of devotion and respect, I believe. Though I'm not quite sure everyone else would agree. Me personally? Eh, people might be confused about it, but it's pretty much harmless so long as they're respectful... I'm also sure that some Middle Eastern cultures name some of their children after the prophet of Islam.

I myself named Paulton after Paul the apostle, seeing as he was known to be a very studious and pious man. Though I've probably strayed off topic, heh.

@CappnRob: Case by case sounds good to me!

[Nymus]

...If Matt is going to be United States of Stormwind, I'm chaning my name to Mexico Redjaw.

We need a Canada.

Canada di Silvio?

[CappnRob]

...If Matt is going to be United States of Stormwind, I'm chaning my name to Mexico Redjaw.

We need a Canada.

Canada di Silvio?

IM NOT CANAAADIAAAAN

[Mathias]

It's time for Matthew to change his name to United States of Stormwind.

Matthew's full name is Matthew Stormwind Pride Hunter.

As others in the thread said, it's all a case-by-case situation. Some names don't work for humans (in this setting, at least), but would be fine for some other race.

[kindle135]

Can I name a character after religious figures? Isis, Zeus, Jesus, Thor, Baldur, Muhammad, Yahweh, Paul, John, etc?

Thor

http://www.wowpedia.org/Thor

[Revan]

Personally, names shouldn't be such a big problem due to the variation of each name in different cultures. The problem that I'm going to see rise from this thread is the creation of a new character due to the restriction. With so many names being taken people will begin to feel discouraged from making new characters.

Random post ftw

[Harmonic]

How would they feel discouraged from making new characters? All we are saying is that there's certain names that don't fit and based on a case by case basis it might not work.

[c0rzilla]

Hey look, guys! I found this fancy thing called a Random Name Generator. I don't know if it's relevant or not.

[DaveM]

I think Izrayel would be a great draenei name.