Naming Decision

[Geckomayhem]

After almost a year's hiatus from the game due to personal reasons, I'm looking at coming back (as I move back to my home country in less than two weeks and will likely finally have the opportunity to do so). I've been thinking a lot about the game recently; and more specifically, about MoP. I intend to check out the Pandaren starting area simply for the sake of seeing as much of the new stuff as I can (ie. Levelling a Pandaren character of some class to the end of the area, which I believe is around level 10). However, the main draw for me is to be able to not only level my main to 90 in Pandaria, but to finally, after so many years, roll a new toon that I can level from the start: a Human Monk.

And that presents me with a small naming dilemma. The way I see it, I have two choices: I can either follow a class or a racial naming convention. In the past with my alts, I've followed both. For example, my Human Death Knight is called Mordreth (a play on the name Mordred of King Arthur fame) - a class-specific name (albeit still fantasy-esque); and my Draenei Priest follows more of a racial convention: Ilyaena, which sounds Russian - the theme of Draenei that is fixed in my own head - while still maintaining, yet again, that fantasy feel.

But when it comes to coming up with a suitable name for a Human Monk, I've been going around in circles these past few days. It has turned out to be the hardest naming decision I've faced. And coming late to the game, I have indubitably shot myself in the foot somewhat by missing out on names that may have been available earlier on.

So here I am, faced with a choice between going Chinese or going Fantasy. My reasoning for a Chinese name is that Monks are trained in martial arts, and even if my Human character isn't Asian, he has still been trained by Pandaren masters and is likely to have taken a Chinese name. It's like when I was in South Korea. I took the name "Jin Yong" for myself, which means "true dragon". And people who have studied kung fu in China have been known to take an appropriate Chinese name, complete with Chinese characters.

However, my reasoning for taking a Fantasy name is that all of my other characters have fantasy-sounding names; even if they follow the class naming convention as opposed to race. There's nothing wrong with breaking out of the mould; especially since a Chinese name may just fit a Monk better than any other. But I'd like to see what this corner of the community thinks with regard to Chinese vs. Fantasy names for a (non-Pandaren) Monk.

That said, the first few Chinese names that I came up with (after research and looking at meanings through Chinese characters, of all things) are already taken on my realm (such as Xiaoquan, pronounced "shyow-chwan"; or Feilong - "long" means dragon in Chinese). I've found a couple of decent ones since then - and still have time to do some tweaking before I can play again and will roll my Monk - but there are also good Fantasy naming options left open to me, which I have also checked.

I'm not asking what decision I should make -- and truth to tell, I've been floating back and forth; especially since learning that my first choices of Chinese names have been taken, thus completely anulling my Chinese character and meaning research. I am, however, asking what people think about the whole Monk naming thing, and how strongly you feel about how people name their Monks (Longdong, anyone?).

[Kisho]

Personally I always eyetwitch when I see a 'lol' name. 'Panderp', f.ex. I always much prefer a proper, thoughtful name for characters. But then I play on an RP realm, so hey.

As for Chinese vs Fantasy... The way I figure it, Chinese is for the Pandaren only, while other races can/should follow their appropriate naming conventions. See the name of my Monk in my signature as an idea.

That said, I find giving your character a Chinese name can be hilarious for pronunciation issues: Ventrilo is particularly fun when people try to say my character's name. They tend to just settle for 'Mix-you' now, though. Which makes me rage. ):<

If I were in your shoes I'd be more inclined to give your human Monk a more fantasy-oriented name, one that fits the theme of WoW humans. At the end of the day though... Your character, your choice.

Just don't call it Panderp. =/

[rowaasr13]

Ilyaena, which sounds Russian

No it does't. There's zero slavic names with "ae" in it. And I don't remember any "il"'s either. Greek maybe.

On that note, most pandaria natives, including yaungol, mogu and even some mantid seem to have Chinese names with very some "excotic" mixed in for mantid and one or two Korean and Japanese for pandaren themselves.

[Rastas]

No it does't. There's zero slavic names with "ae" in it. And I don't remember any "il"'s either. Greek maybe.

To this, Ilya is a slavic man's name. And quite a few slavic woman's names end with 'na' (Tatjana, Elena etc), so that has the vibe. Dunno 'bout 'ae', but otherwise.

It's great to see people doing research for their character names. For me, the hardest part of character creation is coming up with a good name, and usually on a realm as old and full as mine, most of my first ideas are taken, no matter how inventive I try to be >.>

Anyhow, I'd mix the two. Have something with an oriental feel but also fantasy-themed.

[Geckomayhem]

As for Ilyaena, Rastas is right. A lot of Russian names end with "na", which is what I was going for. As for the "ae" part, that is the fantasy part of the name. As I said, I tend to follow a theme for those of my toons where it's possible to do so (Dvaenya, Ilyaena, Selaena; was even contemplating Mordraeth instead of Mordreth...).

But anyway, thanks for the feedback. I have been leaning more towards fantasy, since my guy is going to be a Human. And I have to thank Rastas again, because I just had the thought before checking feedback that I could come up with a name that mixes the two. I did a search for one such and only two characters exist with the name I thought of; neither of which is anywhere near my realm.

Could always go with a Japanese name instead, like Seiryuu (blue dragon) or Raiten (heavenly energy/lightning). A lot of Chinese and Japanese stuff tends to get mixed. After all, a lot of Japanese word combinations originally came from Chinese, and there is still some influence crossing between the cultures and languages.

Will mull it over some more.

[Totle]

The tricky thing with Pandaren monks is doing something with drink that doesn't cross into dwarf territory.

I went with Brew

Brewcelee
Brewmanchu
Guinness Kahn
Brewno (bruno)

Have fun with it.

[Deleted]

Make a pandaren and name it Pandamonium, like the rest of the brainless morons. I'm surprised it hasn't been suggested yet.

[The Madgod]

The tricky thing with Pandaren monks is doing something with drink that doesn't cross into dwarf territory.

I went with Brew

Brewcelee
Brewmanchu
Guinness Kahn
Brewno (bruno)

Have fun with it.

Make a pandaren and name it Pandamonium, like the rest of the brainless morons. I'm surprised it hasn't been suggested yet.

It's rather obvious from the OP that he or she doesn't want these sorts of names. That's why it hasn't been actually suggested by basically everyone else.

However, to be on topic...

In terms of an actual name, if you want to go with a fantasy name, do make sure it's more humanish. Going into Russian a tad I think would be fine... I actually do like Ilyaena, though I feel it might be somewhat too elvish with the 'ae'. Ilana might be a good adaptation.

Do keep in mind that I'm very much a hardcore roleplayer, so if you're more casual about names, then by all means ignore my nitpicking :P

[Wikko]

Yoloswagger. Just because.

[Deleted]

I like it when people put some thought into their names and not 'Pandalol - Pandadk - Monkxx' etc.

[Yunru]

Well i named my panda monk after ninja turtles--but thats because of the fighting style and animations (stil fixing a transmog set for it). But i can show it *stil lvling*

[Viction]

My Monk iis named gnochi since it is a gnome

[Deleted]

The amount of stupidly named monks in low level dungeons is frightening. The sad part is that half of those actually reach max level, sigh.

As someone else said, if you're going for a non-panda monk you should try to stick to their usual race's naming rules. But I suppose if you really like Chinese names, the idea of your character choosing a name that fits more the Pandaren culture sounds good enough.

I personally googled "Monk names" a long time ago and found one I liked and stuck with it. It's pretty fun because no one seems to be able to pronounce it.

[Baphomette]

Panda, monk or otherwise: Chinese name
Human, monk or otherwise: fantasy name

If you want an assumed monkish name for a human monk, use a English translation. Truedragon or what have you.

[Darthlegolas]

Darthlegolas.

But I'm biased.

[Bodakane]

I always try to go with a name that I feel fits with the race first, then maybe the class.

My monk is Pandaren so I went this name which the translator says means "start war".

[Maelle]

Darthlegolas.

But I'm biased.

Darthlëgølass you mean, one does not simply spell Legolas correctly when naming a character

[Cruxhade]

I'm in the exact same dilemma each time I need to choose a new name. I usually go with something based on race along with some sort of trait. I have two monks at the moment. My main UD male monk which is called Knuckler. A cross between monk and UD in the sense that he's hitting stuff with his bare Knuckles; and the fact that he was meant to be a Brewmaster which shares a couple of key attributes with a Knuckleball from baseball - being highly unpredictable and hard to hit. Kind of a stretch, but I really like it. My other monk is a night elf female and called Aurinko. This is simply Finnish for "Sun" (I'm not from Finland by the way. Just came across it.). I like the sound of it, and the sun being a source of life plays nicely with monk lore and chi I guess... Think it would be okay for a human female as well =)

Not sure if this helped or not. In any case let's know what you fint out. Good luck!

[SurrealNight]

Fantasy name seems fine. Most of the 'Asian' named characters are all in Pandaria anyways so seems reasonable a human monk would probably have a more traditional WoW style human name than anything else.

For me Rikimu translates into "To bear up" so more of a play on panda's than monk's =P My humans name is Daciana but I went for a more eastern European sounding name since the original intent was to change her to Worgen.

[Skulltaker]

My Pandaren's name was to be Pandawesome, if I decided to play a male pandaren monk, or Toph from Last Aribender, if he was to be female. Toph ended up being an enforcer shaman. After seing the marvelous lore preview here on mmo-champion, I named my male Pandaren Monk "Shaohao".