Name your Warcraft character.

Every name is held to the rules Blizzard publishes or the game enforces:

• 2 to 12 letters per name, letters only: no digits, spaces, apostrophes or hyphens.
• Never the same letter three times in a row.
• No famous lore names (Thrall, Jaina, Arthas and the rest), and no class, race or faction as a name.
• No titles or ranks, nothing that poses as Blizzard staff, no profanity, even split across the first and last name.
• Shown the way the game shows it: a capital first letter, the rest lower case.

Blizzard's own filter is stricter and private, so a pass means no known rule stops the name, not that the game will take it.

No. Blizzard doesn't publish which names are taken, so only the character screen knows. Bring a shortlist and try them in order.

Yes. Line up your main and up to four alts, each with a ruleset, race, class, professions and backup names in case the first is taken, and share the character stack by link. Start a guild free (more with a pack or a paid plan): everyone joins with its code, and its page tallies who plays what, on which ruleset and which side. Make your character stack

Your first character is free: a race and class each month, named in as many rounds as your free runs allow. A pack adds 5 more for $4, paid once and yours for good (non-refundable), with a guild of your own and a month of runs for everything else. Personal, $4 a month, names every character.

Free

$0every month

One character a month, a race and class, as many rounds as your free runs allow.

Character pack

$4once

5 more characters, yours for good, a guild to tally your friends' character stacks, and a month of runs with Refined. No subscription. Non-refundable.

Personal

$4a month

Every character and up to 5 guilds, plus everything else Naming Thing names. Cancel any time.

EveryoneDemo GuildSee what a guild gets12 players and 32 characters: who plays what, on which ruleset and side.Open the demo

Every character has two parts, a first name and a last name, and both are required. The pair has to be unique in your region, not each half, so you can give all your alts the same last name.

Early name reservation runs October 27 to November 3 for players who bought an upgrade, and World of Warcraft: Forever launches November 4. A name only has to be free as a first and last pair, so bring a shortlist and try them in order.

The dice on the character screen rolls one random name that sounds like your race. This system writes a batch of first and last names for the hero you're building, in the tone you pick, with the thinking behind each, and you can shortlist the keepers before reservation opens.