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GuildOx shares the most popular Alliance and Horde names by race

Mathew McCurley
Updated ·4 min read

Last week, GuildOx shared with WoW Insider the top 10 character names by class in World of Warcraft based on the new data pulled from Blizzard's awesome new APIs and information sharing services. If you're not familiar with GuildOx, these guys catalog and rank top progression guilds in WoW and parse lots of cool information. Now, GuildOx is back with the top 10 names by race and faction, proving that the era of creating punny names on World of Warcraft is far from over. We'll first take a look at the Alliance races and then hit up the Horde.

Human

  • Palatinus

  • Percivale

  • Tyrael

  • Fordragon

  • Thrasius

  • Crixxus

  • Sangrial

  • Gavinrad

  • Dalson

  • Kikyo

Human names are tough to "pun up," as it were, because they are pretty much just us. Would you name your own children with punny-sounding names or ironic references to video games? Actually, don't answer that -- some of you with kids named Donkey Kong are going to get mad at me. Actually, when I do have a daughter and I name her Samus, I'll come back and read this paragraph and regret everything I've ever said.



Blizzard characters showed up on the list of Human names more than I anticipated, especially Tyrael. This just goes to show you that Diablo is as pervasive in WoW culture as Blizzard would like to think. That WoW Annual Pass deal makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it? The rest of the Human names appear to be either popular WoW players or are just cool-sounding. It's tough being a WoW Human ...

Dwarf

  • Beershock

  • Alestrom

  • Budlightning

  • Beeroism

  • Thunderkeg

  • Totembeard

  • Stormbeard

  • Pwent

  • Modimus

  • Shockbeard

Many of the Dwarven top 10 names share their spots on the list with the top shaman names, which goes to show you how popular Dwarven shaman are. Good job, Blizzard, with the awesome new race and class combinations. Undead paladins, please? Also, putting "beard" in your Dwarf's name is very popular, as it should be. "Beershock" just sounds dangerous.

Night Elf

  • Thornstar

  • Kaldorei

  • Kittyperry

  • Treesus

  • Wilferal

  • Puddytat

  • Manbeartree

  • Boomchicken

  • Boomkin

  • Pawesome

Interestingly, Night Elf names mostly reference druids and druid forms, which isn't too surprising since the Night Elves were the only race available for Alliance druids until Cataclysm introduced the Worgen. Manbeartree is pretty inspired, but isn't naming your Night Elf Kaldorei the same as naming your Human rogue Human? That's just not right at all!

Actually, now that I look back at the list a second time, nine out of 10 names on this list are druid-related. Night Elves ... druid much?

Gnome

  • Shortonheals

  • Polygnomial

  • Compactdisc

  • Gnomebody

  • Mxyzptlk

  • Fizzbang

  • Gnasty

  • Tinymage

  • Microdeath

  • Gnorman

Gnomish names run the gamut from declarations of stature to what appears to be a bunch of priests race-changing to Gnomes after Cataclysm brought in Gnome priests. Tinymage is too literal for my tastes, and Gnorman just looks weird spelled out like that. There have to be more creative Gnomish names out there. Where's all the "gears" and "wizzles" and other hilarious suffixes that Gnomes have access to for awesome names? You disappoint me, Gnomes.

Draenei

  • Shampon

  • Velexi

  • Kayora

  • Spacegoat

  • Kayona

  • Raenei

  • Shamazing

  • Draeknight

  • Shammtastic

  • Astraphobia

Draenei names have a bit more actual Draenei flavor to them. How interesting that a bad shaman pun is at the top of the list, though. Hm. Astraphobia is a bit of an oddity to me. Are these shaman who are afraid of lightning, or did people just mispell astrophobia, the fear of space? Because, as a space-faring race of people with interdimensional spacecraft and a whole bunch of demons on their tails, one would hope most Draenei were not astrophobic.

Worgen

  • Lucián

  • Malfurryon

  • Luciän

  • Oboroten

  • Worgasmic

  • Captworgen

  • Lycæon

  • Barkathemoon

  • Ripsnarl

  • Fenrìr

Well, well, well. Worgen. Who would have thought that any number of names with Luc- or Worg- would be on the list? Ripsnarl must have been a popular boss for enough people to either name their new Worgen or name change to this troubled admiral's name. Interesting, indeed. Another thing to note for Worgen are the multitude of special characters that won't be available for new player names in the near future.

Captworgen gave me a laugh if only because I'm imagining a poor werewolf drinking too much rum and putting on a pirate hat. I am so incredibly happy that Worgenfreeman never made this list. Elune be praised.

Alliance Combined

  • Beershock

  • Alestrom

  • Beeroism

  • Budlightning

  • Crixxus

  • Luciän

  • Ephixa

  • Palatinus

  • Malfurryon

  • Shortonheals

  • Thunderkeg

  • Gannicus

  • Lucián

  • Waerloga

  • Kikyo

  • Aerith

  • Aurora

  • Thrasius

  • Puddytat

  • Bane

This list shows the combined top names for all Alliance races ranked from the most to the least frequent. Interestingly, there are a ton of Dwarven shaman, which means that Cataclysm truly brought new Dwarves to the table and gave one of the traditionally lighter population races a real shot in the arm. (Or, barring that, all Dwarven shaman are just not that creative.) Where is Lodur on this list?

On the next page, we'll talk about the Horde races and their top 10 names.

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