There was a name purge before the merger, not sure how long ago, but they cleared out thousands of names. I'm sure if someone has the time or the energy they could find the posts about it here somewhere

 

the purge came during the merge

There are still names in the random name generator available in the character select screen. I made a new alt just a couple weeks ago and got a great name from it that I didn't even have to adjust.

I like to use that more often than not because the names actually don't look too far off from the random star wars name generator websites for each species (it's following the same rules, usually). Then I'll adjust by adding a letter or two that won't change the pronunciation at all. Only Chiss have the apostrophe as far as using punctuation, otherwise I avoid that.

Edited August 19, 2019 by aerockyul

I rarely have a hard time finding a name, but there have been a few times when I sit in front of the screen trying to think of something decent, I might use a name(s) site to find something, or I'll use the name generator and alter a letter or two to find something I like, and that sometimes works. What I find that works now is I use a certain genre and those names are hardly ever taken.

 

What should have happened and probably still needs to happen is a name purge every year or two, notably the people that haven't logged in in over a year, and never once subscribed when they did play. Those are typically people that try the game out and decide that it's not for them and move on. Those names should be purged.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Pirana

the purge came during the merge

 

 

Maybe a purge happened then, but there was definately one before the last merge, a good bit before it.

Edited August 19, 2019 by DarkTergon

Maybe a purge happened then, but there was definately one before the last merge, a good bit before it.

A very long while back, 2013 or maybe very early in 2014.

If your name was taken, then i have to argue it wasn't perfect. More originality, please.

 

I never had this problem.

Edited August 19, 2019 by Nemmar

Have you ever heard of Mitth’raw’nuruodo? Or in short, Grand Admiral Thrawn? Steve's examples are perfectly valid for Star Wars, especially if the character is Chiss.

 

Yes, I'm quite familiar with him. As you may recall from the books, the character is referred to as Thrawn in the Empire because nobody would be able to pronounce Mitth’raw’nuruodo. Not too different from what I'm saying. If you can't pronounce something, it's quite possible that you might have trouble comprehending and remembering that name as well.

 

Here's a direct quote from the character's creator:

StarWars.com: Time for a kooky question — how do you pronounce Thrawn’s full name — Mitth’raw’nuruodo? I keep tripping up on it!

 

Timothy Zahn: Mith-THRAW-noo-roo-o-do. It’s spelled like it’s pronounced. This is why he suggests people call him Thrawn. It is a bit of a jawbreaker for humans. And to be perfectly honest, the way I’m pronouncing it is subtly different from the way a Chiss would. There’s probably some little bits there that I’m not getting correct, but until I actually meet him, I’m probably okay with it.

https://www.starwars.com/news/timothy-zahn-star-wars-thrawn-novel-interview

A name purge following the established rules wouldn't hurt anything.

But as many people have pointed out, it won't free up as many names as we suspect the OP is hoping.

I agree with the OP...

 

I recently returned after more than 790 days of not playing this game (or even having it installed!).

 

And I still had all the characters I used to have, with no name changes at all...

 

I just resubbed to WoW since 2012 and I still have all 12 names I originally had. So there is no reason why people should not keep their names in this game too.

Edited August 20, 2019 by TrixxieTriss

The name system doesn't allow certain simple "English" names anymore. So names like Fred or Tom or Pete aren't allowed. People that have those names already won't be forced to rename them but no one new will be able to use them. Even combination names with those names in them and with spaces will also never work - so "Fred Starhunter" will show up as unavailable even though the name has not been taken.

 

I have a lot to say about that considering the source material for this game has very simple, English names for many of the characters (Luke, Han, Ben, Owen, etc). I also think it was silly even in 2012 for everyone to still be forced to come up with unique first names for every character on every server - that's fine for user ids on Unix boxes but it has nothing to do with character names in serious/fun stories unless they're superhero/fighter-pilot handles. But those are other conversations.

 

The last purge (that happened around the time of the merges which was almost 3 years ago) didn't help me get any of my favorite names on the busy servers; I doubt one would help most people too much now.

 

I've used the alt-keys for names but have never been a fan of that or hyphens/apostrophes/etc. The current system is about using spaces. "Kai" was taken but I just named a character "Kai Zhen" (on Starforge). Statistically, most combinations with spaces are not going to be taken (except for those that include illegal names or that have copyright issues which the game will tell you are unavailable).

 

The trick with MMOs is to be online when a server first opens and reserve as many names as you can on it. That's how I got most of the ones I use in this game and in other games like Wow. Obviously it's too late now for that with this game (unless they do something like open up a "classic" server - but that's not gonna happen).

Edited August 20, 2019 by Savej

I have a lot to say about that considering the source material for this game has very simple, English names for many of the characters (Luke, Han, Ben, Owen, etc).

Han is a Chinese or Korean family name, or a Dutch given name, neither of which is Englsh.

 

Owen is an anglicised pronunciation/spelling of Owain, which is Welsh.

The last purge (that happened around the time of the merges which was almost 3 years ago)

Less than two years, in fact. November 2017.

Only Chiss have the apostrophe as far as using punctuation, otherwise I avoid that.

Some Twi'leks do it (thinking here of Ce'na, better known as Vette), and in some places on Earth, people have apostrophes in their names (the example that springs to mind is Irish family names like O'Connor).

A name purge following the established rules wouldn't hurt anything.

But as many people have pointed out, it won't free up as many names as we suspect the OP is hoping.

Im hoping a lot indeed. Hence why i said all names older than 2 years should be purged.

Is it arbitrary? Yes

Is it unfair? Probably. But c'mon, if you wanna play, play. If you dont play for more than 2 years, let others have their fun, you can try and rename your toons when you're back, if ever. Meanwhile, ppl may play with a name that would otherwise be uselessly blocked.

You can always try using alt codes. They add accent marks over vowels. Ò Ó Õ Ô. Combine that with spaces, hyphens and apostrophes and you can certainly keep a variation of the name you want.

This is absolutely non-issue.

If someone is unable to even name their characters maybe MMOs including this game are not for them.

If you're having issues when naming your character the problem is you, not the game.

There is and never was any reason for name purge.

Han is a Chinese or Korean family name, or a t Dutch given name, neither of which is Englsh.

 

Owen is an anglicised pronunciation/spelling of Owain, which is Welsh.

 

Less than two years, in fact. November 2017.

 

I forgot about the date with the merges.

 

My point still stands on first names in the context of this thread. There are simple "English"-y names (word used by a complainer in this thread, only reason I used it) and then there's the creative modern artworks that many are forced to use. Sometimes they work (Yoda and Obiwan made theirs work eventually, Arcann and Thexan arguably work) but sometimes they don't (Annakin).

Edited August 20, 2019 by Savej

Im hoping a lot indeed. Hence why i said all names older than 2 years should be purged.

Is it arbitrary? Yes

Is it unfair? Probably. But c'mon, if you wanna play, play. If you dont play for more than 2 years, let others have their fun, you can try and rename your toons when you're back, if ever. Meanwhile, ppl may play with a name that would otherwise be uselessly blocked.

 

I think you mistook my post for agreeing with you.

I don't. You're advocating a rather harsh "use it or lose it" policy.

 

I'm saying the existing policy is all that's needed...and following the existing guidelines with name purges, it wouldn't hurt anything to do it.

 

 

 

As for names...get creative.

I have so many toons I ran out of names that I normally use several years ago.

 

Darev

Elora

Tweedo

Jubul

Mulder

Scully

 

When spaces in names were allowed and I had to rename toons for whatever reason, or create new ones I went to (in addition to the existing characters)

Darev Sool

Elora Danan

Jubul Early

Agent Mulder

Agent Scully

 

I even have "apostrophe" names

 

darev'sool

darev-s'ool

 

and so on.

 

Hundreds of names like this across two accounts and 3 servers

Edited August 20, 2019 by Darev

Yes, I'm quite familiar with him. As you may recall from the books, the character is referred to as Thrawn in the Empire because nobody would be able to pronounce Mitth’raw’nuruodo. Not too different from what I'm saying. If you can't pronounce something, it's quite possible that you might have trouble comprehending and remembering that name as well.

 

That doesn't seem like that big of an issue to me. I have a last name that very few people ever manage to pronounce right, even though it's quite simple. Several of my co-workers have first names that are often mispronounced. I call customers on a regular basis using my best guess on how their names are pronounced, and quite often I'm wrong. We all muddle on just fine.

the purge came during the merge

The merge was not a "purge". It did not make any names available. It simply made some people who already had a particular name change their character's name, because someone else (possibly multiple someone elses) also had that name, and the naming rules require that only a single character on the server can have a particular name. Not one name that was in use was freed up for other players in this process.

 

IOW, if there were three charcters with the name "Jimbo" who got put on the same server, two of them had to change their name, and one got to keep it. But the name did not get freed up for anyone else to use.

 

 

There was an actual "name purge" some years before that. At that time, certain "inactive" characters lost their names, to make them available for "active" players. Just which characters lost their names depended on things like account status and how long ago (prior to the "purge" date) the character was last logged in. This did make some previously "in use" names available for players to use when creating or renaming characters.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Adric_the_Red

The merge was not a "purge".

 

During the merges (before the actual merging started) there was a mild name purge.

 

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20171002

• To proactively offset unnecessary challenges around character names, we are initiating a process of removing names from long inactive accounts. Any character that has not logged in for 90-days or more which has not progressed beyond level 10 will be flagged to rename their character.

  
  

 

Of course most of these freed names were then automatically given to characters from the other servers.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Mubrak

The merge was not a "purge". It did not make any names available. It simply made some people who already had a particular name change their character's name, because someone else (possibly multiple someone elses) also had that name, and the naming rules require that only a single character on the server can have a particular name. Not one name that was in use was freed up for other players in this process.

 

IOW, if there were three charcters with the name "Jimbo" who got put on the same server, two of them had to change their name, and one got to keep it. But the name did not get freed up for anyone else to use.

 

 

There was an actual "name purge" some years before that. At that time, certain "inactive" characters lost their names, to make them available for "active" players. Just which characters lost their names depended on things like account status and how long ago (prior to the "purge" date) the character was last logged in. This did make some previously "in use" names available for players to use when creating or renaming characters.

 

I love it when people think they know what they're talking about. There was a purge that freed up names before the merge

I love it when people think they know what they're talking about. There was a purge that freed up names before the merge

 

From what I can see in the old forums is that only those of level 10 or less, who hadn't logged in for 90 days had their names purged. This was about november 2017, around the merge time. People might not consider it a proper purge as it was only low level chars. The previous purge was 2013 or so when makeb came out the purged level 50's and lower, with the same rules. Couldn't really find any other purges, but it doesn't mean they aren't there But as people have pointed out, it's a moot argument, BW probably won't do it, and even if they did, previous purges didn't release as many names as people hoped, and nearly alway shortly after the purge, people wanted it again...

Edited August 21, 2019 by DarkTergon

Some Twi'leks do it (thinking here of Ce'na, better known as Vette), and in some places on Earth, people have apostrophes in their names (the example that springs to mind is Irish family names like O'Connor).

 

Thanks, but I meant with my own personal characters. I have pretty good luck coming up with good single names without resorting to punctuation or alt codes, but I specifically did for my two Chiss.

.I admit it, im somewhat special and hard to please...

WHAT? Did you really mean to say that?

 

If a player wants a common single name then yes, of course it's going to be taken. Players un-sub and re-sub all the time so a name purge would be very unfair to a lot of paying players who return for the next expansion to find their main's name has been removed.

 

The only problem I really had was when I tried a name I made up, couldn't get it, then realised I already had that name on one of my [too] many alts! Already taking my own names myself is my issue

 

In SWTOR it's best to accept that creativity is a required skill when it comes to names .

 

However, my "compromise-is-best" opinion aside, in "another game's" recent opening for name reserving, I did indeed throw money at a sub & join the nutjob masses just to reserve my favourite names the second the realms opened. Got them all too.

You are 100% accurate. They need to name purge on a regular basis. It's not cool to ask random strangers to know you as akdjfiogniounreuiobvw because that was the only name you could find.

 

Not to sound to critical, but that is rubbish. I have never once, with all my alts, had one name issue, and that is without making ridiculous random letter names. The only problems seem to arise when people want to use names like Kylo, Luke Skywalker, or some other related canon name. It has especially not become a problem since they now allow spaces in between names.

 

If you actually think up a original name, between first and last, this name issue is not a problem.