[Shaerika]

Hello!

Does anyone know what style of character names are considered "normal" by native Korean speakers? For example, in English MMOs, the most common name styles are:

1) Fantasy name. Usually a single word (first name) which sounds interesting and unusual, not something you'd see in everyday life. For example, "Elyanna".
2) Dictionary name. A beautiful-sounding word, never used as a real-life name, usually a noun or an adjective. For example, "Synergy" or "Psychotic".
3) Character name. A name taken from a character in an anime, book, or movie. For example, "Miku" or "Thorgrim".

Conversely, there are some name styles which are less desirable:

1) Teenage boy names. Something which the user thinks sounds badass, but most other people scoff at. For example, "XxXBloodyxSilentxKillerXxX".
2) Real-life names. A name which is very plain or ordinary, commonly used in real life. For example, "Benjamin Sawyer", or "Amanda Brown".
3) Gibberish names. Names which don't make any sense at all. For example, "Nxrtdrshg".

So, which naming styles are preferred by native Koreans? Which ones look strange to them?

This post has been edited by Synergy: Nov 27, 2012 - 11:57 PM

[Aari]

Synergy, on Nov 27, 2012 - 11:56 PM, said:

Hello!

Does anyone know what style of character names are considered "normal" by native Korean speakers? For example, in English MMOs, the most common name styles are:

1) Fantasy name. Usually a single word (first name) which sounds interesting and unusual, not something you'd see in everyday life. For example, "Elyanna".
2) Dictionary name. A beautiful-sounding word, never used as a real-life name, usually a noun or an adjective. For example, "Synergy" or "Psychotic".
3) Character name. A name taken from a character in an anime, book, or movie. For example, "Miku" or "Thorgrim".

Conversely, there are some name styles which are less desirable:

1) Teenage boy names. Something which the user thinks sounds badass, but most other people scoff at. For example, "XxXBloodyxSilentxKillerXxX".
2) Real-life names. A name which is very plain or ordinary, commonly used in real life. For example, "Benjamin Sawyer", or "Amanda Brown".
3) Gibberish names. Names which don't make any sense at all. For example, "Nxrtdrshg".

So, which naming styles are preferred by native Koreans? Which ones look strange to them?

From what I've seen it is pretty much the same as for us westerns, just with Korean letters. As an example, my normal In-Game name is Aari, and I just translated that into Korean letters, since that was too short I am now SinAari, kind of. I can't really read Korean so its hard for me to know exactly how their names are but thats what I was told from a Korean mate.
Of course you could have those usual "Teenage boy names" but they would be in Korean as well. ordinary names are not as usual, however one of the koreans I play with just changed his real life name around a little bit and made that his ingame nick.
Gibberish names are for the bots, especially the one you posted with NON-Korean letters, everyone would think you are a bot :P

[Shaerika]

Thanks Aari. :) I was considering translating some of my favourite names phonetically - I'm hesitant to use literal translations, they could come out sounding funny. If I were to translate "Synergy" to Korean and use that, it could come awkwardly, such as "working together!". I suppose that fantasy style names can be used in any MMOs, in any language. Words which have proper structure (consonants + nouns, not gibberish like "Nxrtdrshg") but which actually have no meaning.

I have been playing kTera recently; whenever I see a player with an English name, I can usually guess whether they're "really English" or Koreans. When Koreans use an English name, often the English is used for embellishment; or, unfortunately, it's butchered. They use English in a different style than North Americans and Europeans do. I suppose in that sense, Koreans might also be able to spot the difference between a real Korean speaker and some schmuck using Google Translate.

[Zahad]

It's kind of hard to explain.. Considering how Hangul works in a total different way compared to English. You'll actually see alot of gibberish than normal names, since each Korean letter actually mean something and you can play around with them to create different meanings. So...you can actually use a sentence to make a name for your character.

This post has been edited by Zahad: Nov 28, 2012 - 1:08 PM