Belegarth

So if I am putting this in the wrong area I am sorry. No where else seemed appropriate since this has to do with the role palying and a character has to have a name.

(I am leaving out names and realm names to protect the people who are not like this individual)
Here's the situation.
I was visiting a realm approximately 120 miles away from my house. I was meeting up with some friends, and I found a realm nearby. I had a great time fighting with these people. and here it is BUT I was talking to a guy, and did the usual hi my name is and your name is.
Well he told me his name and I made the comment that someone I fight with has that same name.
The dude got all defensive and then went on this spew about how that other kid has only been fighting for 5 months and he's been fighting for five years. Then he informed me that I need to tell him to change his name. He then went on to ask where I fight, and he didn't straight up say it, but he did hint at coming over and beating the other kid until he changed his name.

Besides all of this nastyness, does he really have a right to say that he had dibs on the name??
Plus it seems kind of weird that someone is willing to beat up a 16 year old kid over a name.

I don't think beating the **** out of a minor over a name is called for. Especially a persona name.

Now i will state that our persona names are very dear to most of us. I wouldn't be too happy to see someone take mine, have had it my whole life. But I wouldn't beat the crap out of them, I'd just suggest an alternative for it, like different spelling, pronunciation, or adding to the name like you see with the magnus's on here.

First questions is to ask if the younger one knew the name was already being used...then to ask the seasoned fighter to show some maturity and HELP the kid...not hinder.

The new people we get in our realm, we tell to check with us when they pick names so we can think back to see if anyone else has it. We veto names sometimes too, because well, people don't understand their name is retarded until months later. We help them out, they thank us later.

I think that if you catch someone with your name early enough, you can ask them to change it. There is no rule about this, not everyone feels the same way, but that's what I think. It helps to have a unique name, some people are just asking for trouble. But if another, say, Bhakdar came out, I'm pretty sure the greater belegarth culture would strongly suggest a name change.

I think he's taking it a bit far, but names are reputations, not everyone remembers to ask "Which Kayle are you talking about?" and so you end up with good Kayle and bad Kayle, and that's just dumb, find a unique name.

I know that the younger guy did not know his name, and I did not even know his name. Which I have only been fighting a few months longer than him, but I have done more when it comes to getting around Belegarth. Also like I said its 120 mile difference between him and us.

Plus this was kind of a name given to him for trait/trick he can do. I really cannot explain more without giving up the name. Which makes this a paradox, because hearing the name and the explantion would make everybody go OOHHH and then they would chuckle to themselves cuz its kinda funny.

I know what your saying, about changing names early. I went through three before I stuck with one.

In the grand scheme of belegarth, 120 miles is not that much. For some, that's the next closest realm. The problem isn't about local recognition, but national recognition. Let's say this persons name is "X." and we'll use x1, and x2.

x1 starts the game 5 years ago. x2 five months ago. x2 goes to his first event, gets * * drunk and pukes in the camp of a well known group. x1 now has to introduce himself to those that never met him as "x, but not the one that puked in said groups camp." Even worse, if he forgets, the person he's talking to could think "x? Didn't that dude puke in some dudes camp? What a douche bag." and now his rep is tarnished for something he didn't do. It's like loaning someone your debit card and hoping everything will be okay.

When i went to a practice in one of our neighboring realms there was a guy everybody called "jean" (or however he spelled it ) but that was his real name, so he decided to start using his battle name more often.

I think that if your name means a lot to you then it is worth something, and if you believe that you deserve it more find out how much its worth to the other person, get to know eachother instead of wanting to beat the other person up i barely remember most names anyway i jus have fun on the field xD

Its one thing if someone accidently comes up with the same name...some aren't overly hard to duplicate. But if someone blatantly steals a name then thats not cool at all.

It doesn't sound like this younger kid did that...sounds like the older guy needs to pull his head out of his butt and calm down a bit. Still, the younger guy might want to consider a name change to prevent confusion and all that anyway.

Well, here it is from my opinion...if you choose a more common name like Magnus say, then you should be prepared to say you are Magnus of XXX or Magnus the XXX to avoid confusion. Honestly, no one has rights to any praticular name, though it is polite to at least make a distinction between yourself and another player with the same name, or change it all together. This is particularly true if that person is a veteran of the game.

they could fight a persona death and settle it.

winner keeps the name, loser finds a new one

(the vet would probably agree to this because he's been fighting longer....but make sure both agree and are willing to keep the deal)

In another way, what Jimmy said can be used as a name defense. You can make your name so infamous that noone wants it because of the "bad credit" that's associated with it.

Most often this happens by accident, but I suppose you could do it intentionally.

Or you can just live with having the same name as someone else, it happens in the real world, so there is no reason it shouldn't happen in Belegarth.

Our realm currently has a Rowan (me) and a Ro'an (who goes by Smurf many times). It's not really that big of deal.

Why not, he be magnus the older or magnus I. the smaller one be magnus the young, or magnus II, and you be magnus of whatever you realm is called? the way i see it, we are not in control of our real names. In medieval times people gain extra titles from some momentus achivement or a character trait: e.g Edward II, the longshanks (he was tall), the hammer of the scots (he killed the king of scotland and conquered it); richard the lionheart for his emence bravery.

just a suggestion.

i do admit some would get touchy but as others have said their is nearly five magnus', three pooki's, and many others... it happens.
now if you take a kights name i could understand hostility, but your skill is just as much who your are as your persona name.
hell most people only reconize nubs by garb. no big deal.

I agree with not beating the poor kid up! (as long as he is not Knowingly using someone else's name.)

Actually, I just found out that my emblem (a falcon) is nearly identical to that used by another group. out of respect to their "seniority"-that is, they used it first before I did- and, because I want my emblem to be somewhat unique,
I am changing my emblem slightly, adding to it some other pieces from my family's coat of arms.

I believe that compromise and understanding is the best route here.

And if that doesn't work, have an honorable dual to settle it!

Or just use an unwieldy tolkien language name like mine.