What’s in a name?

In this week’s shared topic on Blog Azeroth Llani from Pocket Heals asks:

How did you come up with you character names?

My current main’s name is Syrco which is short for Syrcorax which is my alt but old main.

The story about my name starts back in 2007 when I created my first character. I chose faction, race and looks fast, but when I got to name I stopped up cause I had to think. I didn’t know what to write. I wanted a good name, not just some random funny name, I wanted it to sound correct, like the warrior my character should become.

I know I was very interested in astronomy back then. I knew when all the solar eclipses were, passages, name of all planets, moons and other facts. I loved the planet and moon names cause many of them were so good or beautiful names. I don’t know how all of the moons and planets got their names but many are from different history, mythology and literature.

This came in mind when I was trying to think of a name for my character, so I looked up some moon names on google and picked one which looked like a fitting name for a warrior. It was the name of one of Uranus’ moons: Sycorax. But then I thought, I can’t be the only person who have chosen this name, back then I didn’t know Sycorax also was a race in Doctor Who, so I added an R to make it more unique and I thought it both sounded and looked good. Syrcorax.

But in my first guild people found the name a too long and started to call me Syrco or just Syrc. Syrco then became my nick name and what I registered as on different WoW or gaming related forums. I got many friends in WoW who later I spoke to other places too like MSN, email, Facebook etc, so sometimes I changed my nick/note there to Syrco because that was the name they knew me as. I’ve also been to guild meetings where we have called each other by our character names of the same reason.

I still have left to run into someone with the same name, and I’m now glad I added that R cause I have met a person called Sycorax, a priest on my current realm Chromaggus. He was one of the first persons who spoke to me when I transferred. He asked if I had copied his name. Later another person asked if I was a big fan of Doctor Who. People obviously don’t see the difference between Syrcorax and Sycorax.

When I chose this name I didn’t know the original version Sycorax was more than just a moon, it was first later I read it was a race in Doctor Who, an African witch and a character in Shakespeare’s fantasy play “The Tempest”.

I also tried to find out what the origin of the name is, but none really knows. It has been suggested that “cora” could be from latin corvus which means raven, or from Corax of Syracuse, one of the founders of Greek rhetoric. If the last one is correct the R I added fits in cause of Syr(acuse)corax, and I had no idea.

None of my other characters have names from moons, yet, but I try to always come up with unique names that none else has. But I get inspired by the WoW lore, other games or fantasy books and movies, history and astronomy. I have tried name generators but never found any good and unique names there.

Some of my alts’ names are Allerian and Alleriana – after Alleria Windrunner. Tojopolaris – Norwegian Maine Coon cattery, but Tojo is a character in a Lion King comic, and Polaris is another name for the North Star. Pantalaimon – Character in the book and movie His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass).

I’m very happy with my character names and will always try to find good and unique names for new characters in the future, this goes for real life too, or I think it will, you know, pets, children… when, if, in the future, maybe.

Adding a link to a website I’ve been visiting alot when looking for names or just inspiration, promise you will find good names here.