What’s in a Name?

[Balandar]

Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda on Naming Tyria.

"Salutations, readers! I’m Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda, a content designer here at ArenaNet, and I’d like to give you a little background on exactly what goes on in the process of naming things in Guild Wars 2. The world of Tyriahas a vast amount of creatures, locations, and items, and though wrangling the names of so many different things over such a huge scale is a daunting task, ArenaNet has developed an excellent system to manage them.

Names in Guild Wars 2 have their origins in many different sources — real-world lore, established naming schemes, onomatopoeia, outside media, cheeky references to Colin Johanson, and — of course — button mashing. (Although obviously that last one isn’t meant to be permanent.) Whether it’s for a monster, a character, or an item, all names begin life in a placeholder state, and are subjected to what we like to call the “sanity check.” This is a safety pass to ensure proper spelling and pronunciation, the latter of which is even more important if the name is ever going to be voiced by an actor. As Guild Wars 2 has moved into using a lot more voice-over work than the original games, the importance of this pass has grown tremendously, and the rule of thumb is to say any name or phrase out loud a few times before committing to it. “Xanthoaediax” may seem like a lovely name, but it’s going to be a nightmare to pronounce!"

Read more at http://www.arena.net/blog/whats-in-a-name-annie-vandermeer-mitsoda-on-naming-tyria