I'm back! (and a request) · 4:21pm Jan 25th, 2015
Hey guys! Boy, it has been a while, huh...Yeah, sorry about that 
. It's been too long, I know. I've had a bit of a rough few months though, between Christmas, some personal issues, and most recently college mock exams. But that's all sorted now, and I'm glad to say that I'm finally back at my desk, typing away.
I do have one small issue though. Names. I am terrible with names, especially pony ones- seriously, you wouldn't believe how long it took for me to come up with Probe's. And now (spoilers for chapters 8 and 9) there is now a rather large group of guards taking up post in Ponyville. The current number is around thirty, with three squads, each led by an officer and the whole lot being kept in line by a lieutenant. And apart from the lieutenant and a few more prominent guards, they are all pretty much nameless. That's around 26 blank slates. You can probably guess where I'm going with this: I need some help. And who better to ask than all you brilliant people? So, if you have any ideas for my poor nameless guards, whether it's just a name or something a little more in depth, just pm me or leave a comment below.
Now, I can't promise that every name will be used, or if there will be any really significant roles for them- this story is focussing on Pinkie and her friends, after all, not their guards. The names I do choose however, will all get at least a mention at some point in the story, and I'll probably announce whose characters are being used in another blog post (assuming you wouldn't prefer to be anonymous with your contribution). And I can say right now that the guards will have a place in the story's finale, whenever it is I actually get to that point. I am going to finish this, don't you worry!
Thunder Quill: White unicorn with a messy black mane and a yin-yang cutie mark.
Hmm...well, I don't 100% sure know if they work for ponies, but I always found these as fun names to use for RPG's. Hero Antagonist and Roman Numeral. Considering Rome doesn't exist in Equestria the second works out well enough, specially for a guard group. The first is funny if you have any plans for a scene where a guard irritates Twilight, or something along those lines.
More basic names I guess could be something like Light's Glow, or Steady Spear (not seen any ponies with any names relevant to weapons myself, most have something to do with shield's, despite all the spears you see the guards often holding).
Hope that helps in some small way. Looking forward to new chapters.
If you need semi-meaningless names fast, the names of paint colors are often great for ponies.
You'll want some soldier or guard terminology for ponies like these. I might suggest Trick Shot for a bow 'n arrow specialist, and Brick Wall for a big Earth Pony guard. Sometimes, you can get a little creative with the names, like using military code (i.e. Epsilon or Delta). Anyway, if you need names and personalities, just ask, I churn them out like butter.
-IDA Official
just tossing a name or two (or more) out for suggestion sake. Slayn Wilder (name taken from my favorite Growlancer game. And for grins what about Star Lord, (an obvious reference to Guardians of the Galaxy. A few other suggestions include Ku-nel Sanders, a pony who was raised on a chicken farm but left to become a guard. (sorry couldn't resist that suggestion when it suddenly popped to mind). Carrot Top who could be a relative of the Cake's (assuming that's not carrots cannon name as i cannot recall off hand lol)
Dusk Blade, a unicorn swordspony also skilled in combat magic. (Name comes from the D&D 3.5 class Duskblade) Twilight might get along fairly well with this one thanks to their overlapping interests.
Gae Bolg, a spear wielding pony who is a living legend. Their spear always hits it's target, almost always in the heart. (Name comes from the name of a legendary spear wielder's spear) RD might think this one's kind of awesome.
Archer, an enigma of a guardspony. His job is that of an archer yet he primarily wields a pair of blades that look like Yin and Yang respectively. (Obvious Fate: Stay Night reference is obvious) If the situation gets dire enough this one might wind up pulling out his Unlimited Blade Works.
That's all of them I've got for now. Hope they help.
There are pony name generators. Some of them offer a way to narrow the generated names by specific modifiers like skill set or association.Here is one.
None of these names have any special meaning at all!
Sundew
Mistweaver
Iridescence
Shattermind
Farsight
Shadeywing
Neverwind
Pebblestream
Emberhoof
Glowstone
Starshine
Silvershield
Silver Lance
Platinum Blade
Swift Strike
Just three I know. ^^
Repeated use of weapons and armor in names along with adjectives could work, as well as other military terms. Pony puns sprinkled with pony body parts are good too:
Golden Spear, Silver Spear, Strong Hooves, Steel Pike, Red Phalanx, Sharp Shot, Clear Shot, Archer, Wooden Bow, Obsidian Spear, Horseshoe, Golden Helmet, Shell Shock, Parry, Mace, Bronze Chain, Cuff Link, Chain Link, Iron Tail and Steel Wing (*Ahem* Pokemon reference), Strong Arm, Hammer Hoof, Marathon, Drill (like a military drill), Fencer, Bugle, Dawn, Mess Hall, Top Gun, Air Force, Feather Force, Wind Storm, Spear Storm, Medic, Heart Stop, Heart Attack, Speed Strike, Cavalry, Support, Air Strike, Bomber, Bomb Blower, Mine, Ax Thrower, Brave Heart, Quick Hooves, Good Ears.
Basically mix and match a bunch of adjectives and nouns to get names.
Also, that one pony who joins the military because of the benefits: Feather Duster, Bookworm, Fluffers, Fragile Quill.
2746500 Swift Strike's actually the name of the lieutenant
.
Here's some I've used for background character guards:
White Bishop/Black Bishop (siblings)
Achilles Heel
Silver Shield, Cliff Jumper, Feather Flight, Armor Polish.
That's just some of the names I can think of.
Silver Shield or Aegis? I don't know, I'm horrid at names too.
Hmm... of the top of my mind,
Excalibir
Trust Fall
Duty Sense
Chester Plate
Gauntlet
Fire Arms
Cheap Shot
Sharp Shot
Leagon
Actof Mercy
Agent Force
Death Blow
Mercy Blow
Stern Warden
Stone Sentinel
Strike Force
Resistance
Prime Salute
Benedict Stronghold
Mess Hall
Low Ammo
Sweet! glad to hear that you'll be returning
Not too good with names (especially off the top of my head). That said, how about...
Fixed Station
Rapid Intervention
Duty Belt
Hock Holster
Quiet Surveillance
...Yep I'm outta ideas now. Good luck and have fun with the naming process.
North Star , hoof-to-hoof specialist.
(Pretty obvious eh ?)
So I'm just gonna throw some names out that I think of while I type this. If you like them/want to use them...cool...if not...kay. Keen Sense (Agent Keen?) <-- totally not a reference to a crime show. Hind Sight (pervy Captain Obvious that almost nobody likes until he sacrifices himself to save someone awesome?) Blackjack (I think this one speaks for itself.) Willow (slightly depressing, but overall a good pony.) Wisp (ditzy sibling to Willow.) Jamboree (the one that nobody really understands why he became a guard until backstory is revealed.)
Bonkers Mcgillicuddy. Hey, not every set of a guard's parents knew their foal was going to be awesome elite soldier, they might've thought that he looked more like a clown pony type, like them. Little did they know he'd grow up to be a silent, ruthless, bad pony butt kicking machine!
Ok, I'm going to give you some (some-what random) names off the top of my head, hopefully they help you.
Dark stalker Breach (and his brother Clear)
Aeleous Solaire
Ornstein Daedalus
Buccaneer Blitz Tarkus
Star sweep Astora
Alkatros Cronima
nimbus vitriol
Talen
Armored hoof Strong heart
Great Justice (how did I write that ?)
I'm not confortable with names too...
Ps : I'm so happy you are back !
Hardened Helm
Thermal strike (for a Pegasus)
Victory Lap (Eh maybe not for a soilder....)
Poised Shaft
Iron Defense
Midnight Ambush
Steel blade
Right, just for you... I have a solution. I wrote the following DOS program to create pony names based off of lists you configure. That way you can make sure the first name is always a word related to one thing and the second name is always a word related to other things.
First thing's first. Copy this code and paste it into notepad.
@echo off
title Pony Name Gen
::====== Generates Name ======
:start
call :name1
call :name2
echo %first% %last%
pause
goto start
::====== Subroutiens ======
eof
::------ First Name List -------
:name1
echo off
set /a name=("%random% %% 10" + 1)
if %name% equ 1 set first=Twilight
if %name% equ 2 set first=Lyra
if %name% equ 3 set first=Rainbow
if %name% equ 4 set first=Purple
if %name% equ 5 set first=Flower
if %name% equ 6 set first=Falcon
if %name% equ 7 set first=Taco
if %name% equ 8 set first=Sandwich
if %name% equ 9 set first=Rainbow
if %name% equ 10 set first=Tatical
goto :eof
::------ Last Name List -------
:name2
echo off
set /a name=("%random% %% 10" + 1)
if %name% equ 1 set last=Apple
if %name% equ 2 set last=Soup
if %name% equ 3 set last=Chicken
if %name% equ 4 set last=Raft
if %name% equ 5 set last=Glitter
if %name% equ 6 set last=Pie
if %name% equ 7 set last=Burrito
if %name% equ 8 set last=Yam
if %name% equ 9 set last=River
if %name% equ 10 set last=Tree
goto :eof
Now that it is in notepad go file > save as > ponyname.bat
Save the file wherever you like, it doesn't need to be any specific place. When you run the program, it will pick two names from the lists randomly and give them to you. Every time you push a key on the keyboard it will generate a new name. The old names are not saved (if you want I can make it so it saves names to a .txt file) so you should write down ones you like.
This program works using the two name lists and simulating a dice roll. (Think of it as rolling percentile die in a tabletop RPG.) The lists are 10 entries long by default, but you can make them as long as you want very easily.
To make a list longer, find this line of code on the list you want to edit:
set /a name=("%random% %% 10" + 1)
change the number 10 to the number of total entries you want. If you add more entries then are currently on the list, take this line of code:
if %name% equ 1 set first=
for first names or
if %name% equ 1 set last=
for last names and copy paste it to the end of the list, altering the number as needed to match the new line's position in the list. When a list has the number of entries you like, you can change the words in the list.
To change the words on the list, find the word after the = sign in the list and change it to anything you want (as long as that is lowercase and capitol letters with no special characters. Characters will break the code)
You can use this to make sure that your "last name" will always be a word meaning 'night' or whatever, while your first name will always be a word meaning 'fast' or something.
Enjoy!