Name for a Video Game Character

[FengyunZaiqi]

Hello,

 

I'm sure this is quite an odd question to ask and for that I apologise. Essentially, I am a staff member working on a computer game, and we need a name for one of our characters. Although the story does not take place on Earth, this character's country is clearly inspired by China. As you might have guessed, he is a martial artist. I was not a staff member at the time he was created so I couldn't mention how stereotypical this was.

 

Basically, we want to come up with a 'cool' name for this character which doesn't sound silly or nonsensical to native speakers, as our game is marketed in East Asia as well as the west. It also needs a meaning that fits his personality or appearance. The type of name that a wuxia/wushu character would have for example. I love the stories 水浒传 and 西游记 for example, and these stories were full of characters with imaginative names that told you about their personalities and stories.

 

Here is some information I can give you about the character:

- He is tall, masculine and strong with long, wild black hair. Since he doesn't have a home he travels constantly and sleeps wherever he can find shelter.

- He is a good character, not evil, but he is obsessed with revenge and this is where the darker elements of his character come in. But ultimately he is a heroic character.

- He is an only child.

- Since it's a fictional world, it doesn't matter if his name is Mandarin or Chinese,

- He isn't smart and solves a lot of problems by punching the other person.

 

Now for the weird parts

- His arms have been possessed by monsters from Naraka/Diyu. They are based on 八熱地獄 and 八寒地獄 specifically. This means that one arm is red and burning hot and the other is blue and freezing cold. Although they are monsers, he is friendly with then

- He is religious, although he worships a fictional god. I would say this god is very similar to 多聞天王 in his role

- He has a scar on his chest shaped like san 三. Consider the Shaolin practioners who changed their names to this, Liu Yude changed his name to San-de. The Lau Gar fighting style was founded by 刘三眼 also. The list goes on,. A nickname containing san/三might be funny,

 

Final pieces of info:

- Since westerners will be playing this game, we want to make sure that they can pronounce it.

- The same goes for our Japanese players. In the Japanese release his name will be written in katakana instead of hanzi because otherwise they will read his name as something wrong because they are using the kanji reading.

 

 

Here are some examples from other games that we consider 'cool'

雷 武龍 Lei Wulong

馮 威 Feng Wei

王 椋雷 Wang Lianglie

 

Again sorry for the very odd question,I live in north Scotland so there are no Chinese people to ask in person,

[FengyunZaiqi]

Had to make a few corrections because I couldn't find an edit button. Apologies for the double post.

 

 

- Since it's a fictional world, it doesn't matter if his name is Mandarin or Chinese,

 

 

This should say Mandarin or Cantonese.

 

 

Final pieces of info:

- Since westerners will be playing this game, we want to make sure that they can pronounce it.

- The same goes for our Japanese players. In the Japanese release his name will be written in katakana instead of hanzi because otherwise they will read his name as something wrong because they are using the kanji reading.

 

 

To clarify, a lot of westerners struggle with pronouncing Chinese names. I know most people pronounce even simple Chinese names wrong since they say the names flat with no tones, but you know what I mean. I've never seen anyone royally screw up 雷 武龍 and 馮 威 from those other games wrong for example. Same with the girl character 凌 曉雨 from the same game. But everyone I've met butchers 'Wáng Liángléi', they can't pronounce it or get tongue tied.

When I say Japanese people struggle, I mean because of their writing system. For example, there was a popular video game character called 紅 美鈴 (Hong Meiling), but Japanese fans kept calling her 'Kurenai Mizuho' because they were reading her name as kanji. This forced the creator to now write her name in katakana as ホン メイリン (Hon Meirin) to avoid confusion.

 

Again sorry for the double post. Hopefully someone has some good suggestions/advice soon.

[imron]

The list goes on

张三丰

 

(not a suggestion for a name, just an illustration that the list goes on).