Let’s play spot the PUG:

Carrigan, Dorakeen, Phyona, Cathari, Vahlden, Grumnar, Wolfdeath, Gilcrist, Dunquinn, Darsmora.

Compound nouns: the sore thumbs of naming.

I’m not somebody with a lot of WoW pet peeves. Everybody plays for their own reasons. Some people like collecting pets while others need to be at the forefront of progression raiding. Millions of personalities come together in this World of Warcraft, and I have no right to tell anybody how to play this game (it is a game, remember?).

That said, compound noun names drive me so absolutely crazy that all I can do is laugh at them. Is there really such a dearth of creativity among WoW players?

For those who might be confused, a compound noun is a mixture of two nouns to form one word, e.g. trashcan, bedroom, etc.

In WoW, “compound names” usually combine the words death, angel, dark, kill, strong, reap, crush, maim, scar, etc. Throw in “stab” for rogues, “shot” for hunters, “ice” for mages, and “holy” for priests and pallies.

From those examples alone we get Darkmaim, Iceangel, and Holykill. Terrific.

And what if Darkmaim is taken? No worries! Just add a ‘X’ after the name: Darkmaimx. Or Darkmaimxx, or even Xdarkmaimx!

My all-time favorite compound name came from a retribution paladin begging to come to our guild’s full ICC clear way back in WOTLK: Fireslammer. How does he slam so much fire? I asked myself.

Compound namers were even there when I first dinged 85: 

 Thanks again, Firefarter. Say, I wonder who would win in a duel between Firefarter and Fireslammer…

But seriously, people, we can do better. If you’re looking for inspiration, try these: 

Foreign Languages: Often used, yes, but picking an obscure translation of the word “death” sounds so much better, without losing the intended meaning. Ancient Greek works well, and you can easily find online translators. 

Fantasy Literature: My personal favorite naming source. I’m not talking about Arragornx or Lleggolaszs. Go to the fantasy section of your local bookstore, open up a fantasy novel you’ve never heard of, and pick a random name from a random page. I’ll give you 100k gold if it’s not a better WoW name than Angelcrush. 

Music: Great for getting those creative juices flowing. Full of lovely-sounding lyrics and/or edgy sounds to inspire you. Give it a try.

All I’m asking for is a little effort! After all, you’re going to hear this name a bazillion times over ventrilo.

But you know, the more I think about it, Darkmaim kind of sounds like a beastly name…darn, name unavailable.