Mistic Pets

Welcome to Issue 12
Created by The Mistic Pets Team

Choosing a Name
Written By Caustic

A good name is something a lot of players will spend hours searching for (myself included). With most pets being given characters and art and actively roleplayed, a name is probably the most important aspect of a pet for a lot of Misticans.

So how do you choose one? Everyone has different methods, and here are a few.

The Thesaurus/Dictionary:

For the lovers of real word (RW) names out there, the thesaurus is probably your best friend. These types of names are often highly coveted, especially if they’re common - unfortunately, this means a lot of common words have been taken.

To make your search easier, use an online thesaurus rather than an actual book, as you’ll get a wider range of results much faster. Search for whatever word you think of that most closely fits your pet’s character (or future theme, or personality - whatever you want). Chances are that it’s taken, but the thesaurus will give you a huge number of synonyms, and chances are at least one of these will catch your fancy and be open.

Always look up a prospective name in the dictionary, however; its meaning can deviate enough from the original word you searched for that it’s something you don’t want.

You can also search for the word you want in an online dictionary and it’ll tell you the origin of that word. For example I wanted “script” for my obsideon but that word isn’t allowed, so I used “Escrit”, which is Old French for “script”.

Baby Name Sites:

These are a great resource for the fans of real names (RN) - such as Angela, John, etc. Simply google something along the lines of “baby names” and you should get plenty of reputable web sites. You can search through names by gender, meaning and language to find one that fits your character.

This sort of search can take a long time if you’re not sure what you’re looking for; you could literally be going through hundreds of pages. Try to narrow down the sort of sound you want to your name and find a language that fits it, and having a general meaning that you want already chosen helps greatly as well.

Fan/Tribute Names:

Many pets bear names from their owner’s favorite anime, book, movie or video game characters. While I personally would suggest calling on your own creativity and making an original character, it can be fun to have a pet based off one you like already. A lot of names from popular media are already taken, so look for lesser known characters you like or try an alternate spelling of the name you originally wanted if you run into that problem.

Names based off real life pets are popular as well, especially as a tribute to one deceased. You can easily take the aloofness of your cat or energy of your dog and make an interesting and original character out of it!

Foreign Words:

These differ from foreign real names in that these are real words, just in another language, and were never meant to be names. Using google, you can easily find an online dictionary that will translate an English word into the foreign word of the language of your choice.

Be wary of this method! I would suggest gaining a very simple and basic understanding of the language before using a word from it; often times it’s not what you think. Japanese words, for example, are semi-popular, and if you search the word “fire” you’ll get several results, including “faia”. Sounds remarkably similar to the English word, yes? Well, that’s because it’s not actually the Japanese word for “fire”, just how a Japanese person would pronounce that English word. Research your chosen word/name before using it.

These are just a few ways of coming up with interesting names for your pets (and pals, too!). There are many others, of course - making up your own name, scrambling words, putting two words together, using underscores, etc. Use your own creativity to come up with the most fitting and unique names.

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