4/5/12

Of names

I play Marksman hunters.  I have three at 85, and my poor Night Elf sitting at 81 waiting for me to get around to leveling her.  (Damn you, beta!)  Being a Marksman hunter, I don't collect Spirit Beasts, and I've mostly just collected some pet looks I like, outside the half-dozen pets I rotate around in my active slots for their buffs.

My very first hunter pet was named, well, "Kitty."  I can be slow about deciding on names sometimes, and in retrospect, it was pretty apt: I tend to refer to a lot of my pets by what they are, rather than their name.  My wolves are invariably "Puppy," all the cats get referred to as "Kitty," and so forth.  That said, I do have some naming conventions, with a few random puns.  Except for Viatrix's, all of my hunters' pets are male.  Some of Viatrix's are.

So, my pets.  (If you can't picture any of the looks, check Petopia.)

Duskhawk (Pets)
  • KitTabik - Mulgore Prarie Wolf.  Dusk's first pet.  Way back when, wolves had a bonus to armor that actually made them okay tanking pets, before the implementation of pet talents.  He's named after an obscure wolf companion in one of my bad high school-era stories.
  • Olin - Dun Morogh Snow Leopard.  I picked up Olin during the Karazhan days, when cats were the top DPS pets for hunters.  I leveled him from level 8 in Terokkar forest on basilisks.  I named him after, ahem, the daemon the Golden Compass daemon quiz thing gave me.
  • Violet - Purple Tallstrider.  During Burning Crusade, they added in the druid flight quests, and at some point the purple tallstriders appeared on an island south of Auchindoun.  One of the guys in my guild whispered me asking if I'd seen them yet, and I immediately had to go tame one.  This was my first, "Where did you get that?!" pet.  I named him Violet because of the color.
  • Hadrian - Black Dun Morogh Bear.  When they added pet talents and the additional pet slots, I picked me up a bear to tank.  I've always preferred the black bears, so I went back to Dun Morogh (where I got Olin) to pick up Hadrian.  I named him after the emperor the wall is named after.  Hadrian is the pet I generally have out while soloing.
  • Coby - Orange & Black Ravager.  During a lot of Wrath of the Lich King, I raided with my wolf for the attack power bonus.  During Cataclysm, with the change in pet buffs, the one our raid leader was asking for most often was 4% increased physical damage taken - which is a ravager or a worm.  Since I don't raid as beast mastery, I eventually went out and picked up a ravager from Hellfire Peninsula.  (My transmog set for Dusk unintentionally matches him.)  He's named after my real-life place of work, because I don't like ravagers, and taming one was "work."
  • Octavian - Winna's Kitten, all growed up.  I LOVE GREEN.  Ahem.  When I found out Winna's Kitten was tamable in Cataclysm, I had to tame him.  I named him after another Roman emperor, despite not being a tank pet.
  • Phil - Green Wind Serpent.  I picked up Phil at some point for the spell power buff.  Apparently one of our guildies is actually named Phil, so when the raid leader asked about a spell power buff pet, and I said, "Sure, let me get Phil out of the stable," there was some confusion. >.>  One of the random male names I picked.
  • Hawkins - Black Fox.  Hawkins was the first fox I tamed on Dusk.  His name is entirely a pun.
  • Asher - Ashtail (Grey Fox).  I was wandering around Loch Modan for archaeology a couple months ago, and Ashtail popped up on my NPC Scan.  Since there wasn't anyone around, I was like, what the hell, why not? and tamed him.  The name is just a play on his given one.
  • Pickles - Cheetah.  "Pickles was a bad cat."  The Firecat was one of my favorite books when I was little, and given 25 stable slots, I picked up a cheetah-skinned cat just to give him this name.
  • (Unnamed Spider) - I've had a couple of random spiders over the course of Cataclysm for PVP purposes; I don't think I've actually named any of them.  This one is a red lava spider from the Molten Front.
  • Chad - Grey Hyena.  I picked up Chad back during Wrath of the Lich King when hyenas had hamstring for PVP.  I used him mostly during the PVP fight in Trial of the Champion.  He's named after my cat that died last year.  (Since, you know, hyenas are more closely related to cats than to dogs...)
  • Clever - Red Raptor.  One of the "omg 25 stable slots" acquisitions, named for - well, it's a raptor.  Do I really have to spell it out?
  • Peredur - Black Boar.  I grew up on a hog farm, and I've always loved Durotar's black boars.  When I rolled a Draenei hunter on another server when my main server was down, she went on a pilgrimage at level 13 to get one.  He's named after Percival, which ties in to the same bad high school-era story KitTabik is from.
  • Zuul - Green Demon Dog.  I love the look of the demon dogs, even though I don't play with him at all.  There is no Dana, only...
  • Harold - Green Turtle.  I picked up Harold as a soloing tank pet for the spell shield.  I don't use him much.  Random male name.
  • Turquoise - Blue Tallstrider.  Once the 25 stable slots went in, I went and picked up the clutch mother.  Named for the color again.
  • Magenta - Pink Tallstrider.  I really don't like pink, but like so many other hunters, once I had the Lovebird and the Mulgore Hatchling, I had to finish the set.  Again, named for the color.
  • Kurtka - Yellow Wasp.  I picked up the wasp for the armor debuff in case we needed it for raiding (we never have).  The name is another pun.  Kurtka is Russian for jacket.
  • Justin - Green Nether Ray.  I mostly ride a green nether ray for my flying pet; I picked up one for a matching set thing.  Random male name.
  • Clarence - Brown Sporebat.  The sporebat was a "just because" taming thing.  Named after the angel in It's a Wonderful Life.
  • (Unnamed Skoll).  I picked up Skoll while looking for the Time-Lost Protodrake.  I haven't decided on a name.
  • Larry - Green Worm.  I picked up the worm even though I don't play beast mastery because of its AOE, just in case I ever needed it.  (Then they buffed Multishot.)  He just seemed like a Larry...
  • Lawrence - Black Devilsaur.  I love the sapphire-blue eyes the black devilsaurs have.  Named after Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Mabs (Pets)
  • Kitty - Nightsaber (acquired as a level 6 cat).  This is Mabs's original pet.
  • Sobek - Green Crocolisk.  I picked up a crocolisk for Mabs's tanking pet, since I wanted to use different tanks on all my hunters.  Sobek is a crocodile-headed ancient Egyptian god.
  • Max - Old Cliffjumper (Grey Worg).  I like rare skins, and Old Cliffjumper is probably my favorite worg skin.  Max was one of my dogs as a kid, and I name all my dog pets in non-WoW games Max.
  • (Unnamed White Lion).  I picked up Sian-Rotam before the quest was changed, but never named him.

Duskmoon (Pets)
  • Darius - Blue Crab.  Named in the same vein as Hadrian, after ancient-era king, this time Persian rather than Roman.
  • Joshua - Black Wolf.  I like the wolves around the Altar of Zul in the Hinterlands.  Random male name.
  • Thirteen - Red Lynx.  Duskmoon's first pet.  Named after my favorite FF7 character.
  • Patrick - Blue Tallstrider.  The first time I tamed the Clutchmother was on Duskmoon.  Random male name.
  • Philip - Black Crow.  I liked the crows in Howling Fjord; the name was picked randomly.

Viatrix (Pets)
  • Laurel - Black Boar.  I thought I would try something different with my pets on Viatrix and make them female.  Thus her boar is named Laurel.
  • Phoebe - Undead Starting Spider.  I hate spiders.  Hate, hate, hate.  Running across one in the house leaves my skin crawling for hours, even if they never actually touched me.  So when I started my undead hunter and was given a spider pet to deal with, her name ended up a play on "phobia."
  • Molly - Brown Tallstrider.  I figured I'd pick up a tallstrider for her at some point.  Named after one of my brother's cats.
  • (Unnamed Brown Fox).  I got a fox while I was in the Western Plaguelands and never got around to naming it.
  • Llinos - Green Ravager.  Okay, so at level 43 I decided I needed to go pick up a ravager for Viatrix.  I had been running dungeons on her, and... well, yeah.  There's only one place to get ravagers prior to Hellfire Peninsula:  Draenei-land.  Draenei-land, in Cataclysm, is accessible for Horde only from the boats at Rut'theran Village at the foot of Teldrassil.  To get there, without flight paths or a fast flying mount?  You have to go through Stormwind's docks.  At level 43.  I died at least five times before managing to get on the boat (after taking the zeppelin to Grom'gol and running up through Westfall and along the edge of the water up to Stormwind Harbor).  The name is Welsh for greenfinch.  (So... named after the color.)
  • Shelly - Green Demon Dog.  I picked up a demon dog in the Eastern Plaguelands.  Random female name.
  • Eleanor - Green Turtle.  I thought I would try using a turtle tank on Viatrix, but she ended up in the stable.  Random female name.
  • Mara - Black Bear.  I tried a bear on her, too.  Decided to stick with the boar.  Random female name.
  • Daniel - Red Worg.  So once I got up to higher levels, I decided to pick up a wolf for the 5% crit for dungeons.  I'd always liked the red worgs in the Burning Steppes, so I got one.  I forgot I was doing female names on Viatrix, and he ended up with a random male name.
  • Jack - Snow Leopard.  At some point I realized that Viatrix had no cat, and for some groups I preferred to have the Agi/Str buff if it wasn't present.  I realized at 85 I hadn't named him, and in a brief panic, he was named after my new cat.  Then, when swapping out to my wolf, I realized the unintentional correlation. >.<

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