Intelligent naming suggestions

[Zandtar]

There were a few threads I've seen regarding character and ship names. One thing I was hoping the Devs might include in the game is some kind of 'intelligent' random name generator for the players. Not just one that would generate meaningful names, but would follow whatever 'official' structure certain races follow. While I enjoy Star Trek, I couldn't tell you what a proper Klingon or Romulan type of name would be in regards to vowel or consonant placement, or if there is a common letter (or group) that starts or ends names. Something like that, I would find helpful. Sure I'll probably have my own names for some of my characters and ships, but it would be nice to see something like this as well for when I'm brain-farting.

[Varrangian]

There were a few threads I've seen regarding character and ship names. One thing I was hoping the Devs might include in the game is some kind of 'intelligent' random name generator for the players. Not just one that would generate meaningful names, but would follow whatever 'official' structure certain races follow. While I enjoy Star Trek, I couldn't tell you what a proper Klingon or Romulan type of name would be in regards to vowel or consonant placement, or if there is a common letter (or group) that starts or ends names. Something like that, I would find helpful. Sure I'll probably have my own names for some of my characters and ships, but it would be nice to see something like this as well for when I'm brain-farting.

Aside from the Klingon language and less so the Vulcan language there is very little "linguistic" work to help create such a thing. In fact I would argue that some of the more well known Klingon characters are named with variations of English names or words to help make them more acceptable. Worf (Wolf) and Martok (Martian/Marton) come to mind.

While I'm sure they will have a decent random generator of names it will still be limited by the reality that Trek has many species and only a few "working" languages. It will even more limited when using it for custom species.

[Mattastic]

What might be nice is a small paragraph decribing the nomeclature which appears whenever you name a character or ship. I'm sure there are many people keen to roleplay at least a little, who nonetheless have no idea about how Klingon ships or Bajoran females might be named.

[Anichent]

There were a few threads I've seen regarding character and ship names. One thing I was hoping the Devs might include in the game is some kind of 'intelligent' random name generator for the players. Not just one that would generate meaningful names, but would follow whatever 'official' structure certain races follow. While I enjoy Star Trek, I couldn't tell you what a proper Klingon or Romulan type of name would be in regards to vowel or consonant placement, or if there is a common letter (or group) that starts or ends names. Something like that, I would find helpful. Sure I'll probably have my own names for some of my characters and ships, but it would be nice to see something like this as well for when I'm brain-farting.

I believe there is enough known about some Star Trek names to impliment such a system,

ie. For Bolians we have examples of some common names

- For Andorians an entire naming system exists where my character name: "Anichent ch'Telaal" came from.

-There are many Vulcan and Romulan names in existance to merit such a system for them, especially because I am sure you can't just put any letter before an apostrophy : M'Flo, D'Dedda, W'Grin....these don't make sense.

- Also a name database would be helpful, altough unlikely.....I once created a Ship Name database and got to about 5,000. realistically there are over 5,000 possible names in existance for ships, potentiall 10,000 + .....but the time it would take to find them all would be costly. So I suggest the ability to change names, so that all new Character names and Ship names are sent to the devs to approve ie. IKV Newb Slayer would be rejected and the player would be requested to change the name...also swear words in other languages such as the USS Merde or USS Cullo would be rejected. Finally, a database with all created names in it to prevent duplicate or significantly similar ship names and registries from repreating themselves. For example, no one wants to be the Captain of the USS Adventure and come accross the USS Adventurer. Or USS Smith and USS John Smith and USS J.P. Smith. Or even the USS Tokyo NCC - 127705 and the USS Calgary NCC - 127705 -B existing at the same time, and quite oddly :S

[Ozymandias]

If CoH/CoV is any indication, there will probably be very little 'structure' to naming conventions based on race - likely any regulation would cover nothing more than offensive names. There's a wealth of information online for Star Trek, but less so concerning languages, and it wouldn't surprise me if Cryptic takes a 'hands-off' policy, allowing the players to name their ships based on whatever language they decide.

Consider Romulans, for example. There is very little information concerning Romulan language that is based on canon, but moreso from non-canon sources. For my own, I decided to use a combination of Diane Duane's excellent Rihannsu lexicon and The Way of D'era RPG suppliment from Last Unicorn Games. If Cryptic was to step in and say 'wait a minute, you can't use that' but what they did offer for Romulan names was less appealing to me than the aforementioned sources, I would be rather dissappointed.

[Anichent]

If CoH/CoV is any indication, there will probably be very little 'structure' to naming conventions based on race - likely any regulation would cover nothing more than offensive names. There's a wealth of information online for Star Trek, but less so concerning languages, and it wouldn't surprise me if Cryptic takes a 'hands-off' policy, allowing the players to name their ships based on whatever language they decide.

Consider Romulans, for example. There is very little information concerning Romulan language that is based on canon, but moreso from non-canon sources. For my own, I decided to use a combination of Diane Duane's excellent Rihannsu lexicon and The Way of D'era RPG suppliment from Last Unicorn Games. If Cryptic was to step in and say 'wait a minute, you can't use that' but what they did offer for Romulan names was less appealing to me than the aforementioned sources, I would be rather dissappointed.

I don't think anyone is talking about Cryptic preventing names because they don't follow certain language rules...I think it's more that people are asking if there will be generated Klingon or Romulan names to choose from, or some sort of guide as to what is common in laguages so that at least the information is there for us...not that we MUST use it

[Ozymandias]

I don't think anyone is talking about Cryptic preventing names because they don't follow certain language rules...I think it's more that people are asking if there will be generated Klingon or Romulan names to choose from, or some sort of guide as to what is common in laguages so that at least the information is there for us...not that we MUST use it

Whoops! I guess I misunderstood. :o

It wouldn't surprise me if Cryptic started using player-made guides to . I saw that sort of thing done in [i]Lord of the Rings Online and it worked very nicely.

[Zandtar]

I don't think anyone is talking about Cryptic preventing names because they don't follow certain language rules...I think it's more that people are asking if there will be generated Klingon or Romulan names to choose from, or some sort of guide as to what is common in laguages so that at least the information is there for us...not that we MUST use it

Yep, that's what I was tossing out. Something like a random generator following a structure of the naming for each race type, for those of us not familiar with it all.