I know that many of you forum-goers love to roleplay, love to immerse yourself into the game as if it were you standing before the headsman, awaiting death, or saving the world from Alduin.

But, my question here, is how do you decide a name for a character? Based on race? Their personality? Their past?

I know I stand in the minority in that I have named every single character I have ever made after myself, as I like to imagine that it is myself doing these things, rather than me looking through the eyes of another. This being said, I do everything that I would do if I were really in the vast lands of Skyrim - everything. I complete every Faction, the MQ, yet rarely the Civil War, as I align myself with the Stormcloaks, but cannot defy Jarl Balgruuf, my favorite NPC in the game.

Anyways, how do you guys/gals do it?

I usually name my characters based on two things.

Race and Back story.

Like if my character is a Bosmer with an imperial father, I'd give him a bosmer first name and a Imperial last name.

Or if they take on a name with meaning to it for story reasons like a bad past or honoring someone they respect.

I think for about 1 hour and if I can't pick a name I just use either Kath, Kate or Anya for humans + Finna or Freya for Nords, Andralia for Altmer (female), Alawen for Bosmer (female), Burpfart for Orcs (male or female), Therris for Khajiit (male), Lizard or has-no-name for Argonains (male), Damn Faithless wimperial for imperials (male), Black Dynamite for Redguards (male)

I'm just random and weird.... very very weird...

Edit: I forgot.... During the maximum of 1 hour of thinking, I try to name them based on there backstory.
Edit 2: ....and their personality.
Edit 3: My Current Altmer is called Andralia Frost-Blade. Altmer mum and Nord dad.

I base it off of their race. I go to the name generator or the past names and either make one up or combine a few.

I am a heavy RP'er. However, I do not see the character as an extension of myself nor do I try to live vicariously through them. They are their own, with their own personality profile. That profile defines what they do, who they talk to, how they talk to them and even what direction to start walking.

I play in 3rd person quite literally and view myself as kind of a spiritual advisor. I even go as far as having communications with my characters.

Now, as far as naming them? I try to select a small phrase that best describes their personality. I then use Google Translate to form it into one or two words that actually becomes their name.

Speaking of a name generator, http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/index.php?p=modding_data%2Fngen&race=ARGONIAN&gender=male&count=10 is a link to one. It generates names based upon which race you choose.

I normally choose it due to their personality and see if there is someone in RL history I can base there name on. Eg my main DB character is a warrior Breton so he is called Arzhur which is the real Breton way of spelling Arthur as my character is based on King Arthur. If I pay as a Mer I look in the ES lore and see if there was someone like the character I am playing and choose that or something similar. On a rare occasion I can't think of a name I go to tamriel rebuilt and get a name at random.

For human races, I usually look for a name of a certain language that fit one's traits.

For example, I would give a Nord a Scandinavian name which could have a certain meaning.

Redguards tend to have Arabian names for me. Imperials Latin. And Bretons Gaelic or other Celtic names.

For elves and beast races, I usually combine names from name generators.