So, how do you beat the unique name filter?

[Toodles]

I'm curious what everyone does. I've seen people do things from using surnames (meaningful or otherwise), naming their dragons something long/repetitive (my favourite from a hatchie's parents was "Issumakattigengnerk" ), or giving them titles rather than names ("Guardian of the Cave").

 

What do you do, or do you employ many tactics?

 

I like to do "name splicing", taking two or more names and making a new name out of it. (Thanks behindthename.com!) For instance, we have Rimaira, my Falconiform Wyvern: http://dragcave.net/lineage/vgluV

 

Yildirim - Lightning

Naira - Eyes

 

And we have a new name, meaning "Lightning eyes". (Yes I keep close records of my dragons' names, don't judge me.)

[kreepers_killer]

I used to do "kreeper's ____ dragon"

 

Now I use the code as inspiration (https://dragcave.net/view/SAAOE)

[DevilAngelWolf27]

All of my dragons have family names, like Coldflame for Falconiforms or Angelweaver for Holiday Snow Angels.

 

Or my personal favorite that I do, Flutterbutts for Nhiostrifes :3

Edited November 28, 2016 by DevilAngelWolf27

[maylin]

I make a unique name lol

[Zeditha]

I name after my dragons' codes.

 

Since they're unique, I get a nice, unique name. I only use surnames and things for personal lineage projects; Nighthill was for a terrae x RB EG (that I abandoned), and my latest project is the Proud Commons, where each dragon has Proud Common as a forename, with their name from code afterwards.

 

I have, however, had one or two cases where a name from code has been taken; one that I particularly like is an Olive (2G from GoN :3) whose code is steue (all lowercase because I can't remember the capitalisation). Obviously, Steve was taken, so I called him Steue

[Guillotine]

I usually name mine with lines from let's plays and Extra Life streams if I'm stumped, so this isn't really a problem for me.

 

I have run into issues with certain lineages, but that's to be expected, really. Only so many names ending in -th of Pern, after all.

[Confused Cat]

When I started playing, I used surnames or prefixes for all my dragons depending on the breed, e.g.

"[Name] Smiling Forest" for Terrae,

"[Name] Water Lily" for Water Walker,

"Aquamarin [Name]" for Waterhorse.

(And the genius creations "Purple [Name]" for Purples, "Red [Name]" for Reds, and "Green [Name]" for Pebbles. Obviously these don't always help with making the name unique. )

 

I still use that system for some new breeds, but usually with much shorter surnames. (E.g. "Py" for Pyralspites, "Mor" for Monarchs.) I also make a lot more exceptions.

 

For some breeds I use fantasy names, often based on the code. (Sometimes my name generator helps. ^^) That works most of the time.

 

When I want to name an AP find after its parents and all the obvious names were already used for its siblings, I try variants until I find one that is available. Or I come up with a non-obvious one.

 

[thomasgold19]

Come up with something stupid no on else will have bothered to use.

[Cinnamin Draconna]

If you see a dragon with the Draconna surname, it's either one of mine or bred from one of mine. Plus there are other names I use, usually for specific projects, families, or lineages.

 

Mayfair - for a group of dragons whose theme is based on the Mayfair Witches novels.

Musical - for a royal blue x white group lineage project

Targaryen - for an inbred even gen family based on the SoIaF/GoT series

of Pern/of Telgar - for a group of dragons whose theme is based on the Dragonriders of Pern novels

 

And there are various others with a 'group' name as well as my Draconna surname. But I also don't name all my dragons.. usually just the ones I breed regularly. Project dragons always get names, but dragons that are just part of my collection may or may not get named.

[Aie]

Well, having a highly inflectional native language with less than 6 million speakers certainly helps, although at times I find that some other Finn has beaten me to a name. Not all characters used in my language are accepted in names either, so that's a bummer.

 

Also, the more obscure your favourite authors, musicians etc. are, the easier it is to reference them in names For me, the biggest obstacle in naming is an occasional lack of inspiration rather than the unique name filter. In those cases, I turn to the dragon's code or its ancestors' names and try to come up with something based on those.

 

For some breeds I use fantasy names, often based on the code. (Sometimes my name generator helps. ^^) That works most of the time.

That generator is amazing, I just named a couple of mine with its help! Thank you

Edited November 28, 2016 by Aie

[Malcorium]

I usually name my dragons with random quotes from videogame streams, lyrics/names of songs, items from videogames, names of videogame usermaps, basically anything that crosses my mind. My taste in videogames and music usually ensures that the desired name is free.

 

My Storms and Antareans also have a naming scheme (strictly enforced on Antareans, not so much on Storms) which consists of a randomly generated name and a common surname. Sometimes I make a name out of the dragon's code instead of generating one. My name generator of choice is this one on default settings.

[bonvoyage]

Sometimes I use extra spaces, but most of my dragons are named after inside jokes, references and random things that occurred to me, so they are unlikely to be taken.

[silver_tiger]

I name mine with the last part of their name indicating their species type, for CBs. It's the easiest way to keep track of what is what... I also occationally use the name 'Zim' as a last name, and no I'm not a fan of that show, I randomly came up with it because of a dragon's code and only thought of the show after... but I like it so much I'm keeping it. Anyway, I use that in case whatever I come up with is taken.

 

Non-CBs, I name them based on their parents if I can, or their code, or a random word generator if I can't get inspiration from either of those places.

[andromedae]

I literally go with original names. It's a real pain, but I think it's worthwhile. Before that, I would use the letter V as a name pre-fix, but then I thought it looked lazy, so I went back to creating/finding totally new names for my dragons. It keeps my mind working in terms of seeking creativity and originality in my dragons' names.

Edited November 29, 2016 by andromedae

[perzephone]

My dragons are a mixed bag. I like Latin a lot, so many of mine have Latin or Latin-inspired/pseudo-Latin names... I'll pick a theme & look for decent sounding or looking names in other languages. translate.google.com is my friend, lol. Many of my Nebulas and a lot of my Christmas dragons sport Lovecraftian names. I like to take song or movie titles & Lovecraft 'em up a bit.

 

Speaking of song titles, my Purples are all named after Prince's :'( song titles - I had to add a lot of extra spaces into Purple Rain, but it's worth it.

 

I imagine that my dragons are learning to live with humans much like aliens approaching a new culture (or archaeologists approaching an old one). Dragons see old cassette tapes or VHS tapes & find inspiration to name themselves and their children from our pop culture. No one's going to argue with a Brute that he can't name himself Steaks on a Plane, y'anno?

[UniqueZephlyn]

"Aquamarin [Name]" for Waterhorse.

 

 

Grabbed up some of you waterhorses! Nice babs.

I always use the surname/forename for every dragon if thee parents have them, haha.

[purplehaze]

I started without a plan, so my earlier dragons just have very random names. Since I am not much into dragon lore and literature I'm not likely to use the common names from those sources. I used name generators for a lot of them and still use them occasionally, especially for my Split dragons, since they all need two names!

 

Most of my CB dragons now are named using their code in some way. Bred dragons are often named by combining the name of the mother and father in some fashion, if possible, or using their code if not. I also use lower case roman numerals to indicate generations of my even gen dragons, which makes it less likely that I will exactly duplicate someone else's name.

[sroo]

I used to use the family tree of the royal family of Habsburg or some other old royal family's (e.g. Gunhilda, Gerberga, Neuberg). When the names started to end or being used by others I named based on the image a dragon breed gave me, then I go to wikipedia and search the image thing and find what that thing is called in different languages (e.g. my marrows are butcher and leprosy in esperanto and euskara). Now I just name based on the code lazy me . However I did find an old royal family that has some unused names... perhaps I shall use those now. Last year I got an surprising PM, the sender just wanted to say they like'd my dragons' names. Made my day.

 

Some dragons I've bred have been named after the parent dragons (half from father the other from mom) and I find it endearing And it does make some nice names!

 

Sometimes on trade thread posts the offers have a odd addition "short named parents", "no CB in the name" or "nicely named parents". I don't know if my dragons are nicely named... and what does it matter if the name is what it is... Like I don't think it messes up the lineage view.. But what ever.

[Rousalka]

it depends, I like to google and try until I find something that isnt in use. Other times I use synonimous, nicknames or the Scientific/latin/origin word.

 

I check a lot different languages for the word or thing that I want to name my dragons.

 

Other times I just write the word backwards, I generally check if the linage have name themes and I try to fit them. Sometimes I take a lot of time to name a dragon because I want a name that fits.

 

the most common themes I use are animals, mythology, stars, food. But there is a lot more

Edited November 29, 2016 by Rousalka

[Guillotine]

Some people dislike how CB/gen-marker/doofy names look in the lineage view. I'm pretty sure that most people aren't going to fall over themselves for kids of "One Munch Man" and "gotta catch my mom", or "BeefCLAMP" and "Fluffy Land Koi".

 

I obviously don't, since those are all names I have... but it is a factor for some people, and I personally don't care for how generation markers in names look (although not enough to decline a trade because of it).

Edited November 29, 2016 by Guillotine

[perzephone]

Some people dislike how CB/gen-marker/doofy names look in the lineage view. I'm pretty sure that most people aren't going to fall over themselves for kids of "One Munch Man" and "gotta catch my mom", or "BeefCLAMP" and "Fluffy Land Koi".

 

I obviously don't, since those are all names I have... but it is a factor for some people, and I personally don't care for how generation markers in names look (although not enough to decline a trade because of it).

I don't mind generational markers (CB, 2G, PB, etc) if the parents are consistent. I admit that it irks me when I find a nice lineaged egg & the parents are 'Majestic Lord Gundragon of Falcor' and '2G PB Red' or something like that. I'm like, c'mon, pick one!

[Carmelita-Fox]

Sometimes on trade thread posts the offers have a odd addition "short named parents", "no CB in the name" or "nicely named parents". I don't know if my dragons are nicely named... and what does it matter if the name is what it is... Like I don't think it messes up the lineage view.. But what ever.

I am one of those that has "nicely named parents only" as a stipulation for many of my trades. My main focus on DC is lineages, and I like them as "perfect" as possible. Long names mixed with short ones can mess up how lineages look by stretching them, and it does looks bad. So I totally get when people ask for short names. Me, I'm just picky. In my checkers projects, I don't like seeing codes instead of names, or name like "Gold Wyvern XII" when I'm trying to name elegantly. I also don't like all caps. So for some people like me, even names are part of designing a lineage.

 

As for the topic lol, I have my prefix Anu which allows me to name them whatever I want. I use codes, song lyrics, video game characters, and more.

[Amberfly]

I'm all over the place. I use surnames to indicate lineage type on my breedable adults, so that usually ensures they're unique. Not so many people have dragons named "(first name) Falmari", which is my code name for spirals. For the first name, if it's a lineaged dragon I often combine the parents' named in some way. If it's CB or has a cool code I name it after the code, sometimes very loosely. I used to do a lot of naming out of books, movies, mythology, etc. but not so much anymore.

 

Frozen hatchlings and unbreedables are a little trickier because they don't get the surnames. If the name I want for one of them is taken, I usually just double up one letter. If "Eponin" is taken, "Eponinn" probably isn't (and I do have a hatchling named that).

[LadyNova]

All the dragons on my scroll have the surname Nova, a reference to my username. I also name most of them after their codes, offspring of named parents get a portmanteau of their parents' names (unless that wouldn't work out).

 

Though sometimes I still don't get the names I originally wanted because, sadly, some people like to take over surnames, so there's a number of my dragons' offspring also named Nova that aren't on my scroll. I really bothers me when they do that, but it's not like I could stop them.

[Wildmoon]

I name my dragons completely randomly. Either from references, or their codes, or just...random.

 

If a dragon name is taken, I put a "t" on the beginning or end or if its two words, I try with a dash between instead of a space.