Name That Pet: Methodus’ Black Lion

Methodus with Black LionMethodus, a mid-level Night Elf hunter from Vek’nilash (EU), wrote in to ask for some help naming the black lion previously known as Humar:

I just rolled a NE hunter and I took this one as soon as I leveled up to 23, which is the level of Humar the Pridelord. I’ve had him for a little while now and I like him a lot. The skin is quite rare and it looks cool with my character.

The only thing I couldn’t think of was a good name for him. I didn’t want to name him just anything since it’s not that easy to get another one. The name Pridelord came to mind since that would be an honor to the Humar himself but that wasn’t really what I was looking for.

What’s your take on this one?!

I don’t think we’ve taken on Humar before, but as popular as he is I know there must be some great suggestions out there.

53 Comments

  1. Bobo & SgtPork - May 19th, 2008 @ 2:20 am EDT

    I named mine “Ras.” This is the Ethiopian aristocratic equivalent to “Duke,” and was Haile Selassie’s title before he became Emperor (He also known as the Black Lion of Judah). Obscure as heck, but still pretty neat!

  2. Anders - May 19th, 2008 @ 3:10 am EDT

    As I always think with rare or named pets that already has a name, the hunter taming him or her should honor the integrity of the animal and not rename it. So I suggest you go with Humar

  3. mikdundee - May 19th, 2008 @ 3:19 am EDT

    I concure with Anders with ‘renaming’ rare pets (who already have unique names) with their original name. I have noticed that by doing this at random times when recalling your pet they will sometimes get the silver rare dragon around their portrait icon. This is rather cool when other players click on your pet and he appears to be ‘rare’

  4. Seryth - May 19th, 2008 @ 6:11 am EDT

    I usally choose some mythological names and so named mine after Miysis an Egyptian lion-headed god of war, son of Bast.

  5. Lotarn - May 19th, 2008 @ 9:43 am EDT

    i named my black lion Stormy. a bit cliche’d perhaps, but i thought it fits well with the dark fur. At the time, i also had Echayakee tamed and named him Stormy as well, and often, id switch the 2 around. sorta a, same cat different fur type situation. and it was fun till pets were all normalised and i needed the extra stable slot.

    theres 3 routes when naming a pet. serious names, personal names and funny names. i tend to favour the serious/personal names.

  6. Morgrimsson - May 19th, 2008 @ 11:27 am EDT

    I have Humar as well, and for my pets I generally go with names related to mythology or other “serious” character names, so I named him Irusan, after the gigantic king of cats from Celtic mythology. Lions have a pretty rich history in terms of mythology and cultural impact - I’d recommend looking at Greek, Roman, and Celtic mythology for strong cat name inspiration. Good luck!

  7. Messyah - May 19th, 2008 @ 11:41 am EDT

    Here’s a few suggestions:

    1.) Tamarin - They are monkey-like creatures with dark black fur and manes, hence their nickname, Black Lions.

    2.) Akira - Akira Kogane is the name of the Pilot that manned the Black Lion on the Anime series, Voltron.

    3.) Scar - Scar was the name of the villanous lion in Disney’s “The Lion King.”

  8. Darkbander - May 19th, 2008 @ 11:51 am EDT

    Ooo a voltron reference! In the american version the black lions pilot was Keith.

  9. Messyah - May 19th, 2008 @ 12:16 pm EDT

    Mania - Did you get my “name my pet” email? (Toon: Corynthian)

  10. Ragabash - May 19th, 2008 @ 12:27 pm EDT

    I tamed my Humar when I was 70 and it took about a week to lvl him all the way up to me. I never thought I’d do something like that, but apparently I really like the black lion skin. XD

    I named him Blackjack, and he’s my favorite.

  11. Bunkey The Monkey - May 19th, 2008 @ 12:42 pm EDT

    Whenever I answer these types of posts, I go with what pops in to my head, so bear with them =)

    Thunderhead….just seems to fit a big black lion to me
    ieatorcs…you’ll get plenty of attention in BG’s lol
    darkness…one of the lions from ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’
    typhon…father of the nemean lion (leon nemios) from Greek Myth
    khimaira (Chimera)…mother of the nemean lion from Greek Myth…was part lion.
    nergal…summarian god of war
    chiu-shou (chiushou)…immortal chineeses lion that took human form to fight in wars
    sekhmet…egyptian goddess who guarded against disease and disaster
    humar…let him be proud of who he is

    hope some of that helps spark something for you….

  12. Coralei - May 19th, 2008 @ 1:07 pm EDT

    Ok, here is some food for thought:

    Abasambo, Bakanga, Bouhaki, Ulysses, Leo, Tut, or Humar (of course)

    Carbonel - a black cat dubbed “King of the cats” in a book series.
    Aker- Lion god /Akeru- His plural form
    Mufasa- because I love Lion King, lol. :)
    My husband has a hunter, and got a cat from Winterspring and I thought up the name “Rakhasha” for her and he used that. I really love that name, so that’s another choice.

    Also, maybe something along the lines of his coloring:

    Onyxsun, Feralonyx,
    Shadow-something (lol) Shadowlight, Shadowsun, Shadowmeld, Shadowking etc..
    Anerythristic/Anery (which defines an animal as lacking red/yellow pigments, ultimately turning them black)

    Hope that helps. =)

  13. Rikaku - May 19th, 2008 @ 1:44 pm EDT

    I say “Kuroneko” cause it means “black cat”. Cliche I know but hey, Blackjack and Mufasa also get my vote. Or you can go with any males from the whole lion king theme XD

  14. Aleu - May 19th, 2008 @ 2:26 pm EDT

    I named my Humar (On my Belf) Shadowflame, Shadow for short, however I think the name “Shadow” is a bit over used.

    Something along the sides of “Shade” maybe if you like compound names.

    Perhaps if you like TLK, Scar, Kovu, Simba, Mufasa… Maybe Taka? (Taka was Scar’s orignal name before he got the scar on his eye and changed his name. Long story. =P) Montu is the name of Simba’s great-grandfather and Ahadi is Scar and Mufasa’s father. Let’s see… Chaka was a character that was supposed to be Kiara’s brother in the second movie, but was dropped. Kopa was the son of Simba and seen at the end of the first movie…

    Other than that… XD -shuts up about the TLK- So yeah. o_o

  15. hyena84 - May 19th, 2008 @ 6:55 pm EDT

    i named one of my humars james after the lead singer of metallica.the second one was named zysies after the friend of one of the creatures in my head.someone else i know named theirs marly,after bob marly…
    if youve got engineering,deisel or something oil/mechanical related might work…

  16. Darkstalker - May 19th, 2008 @ 7:53 pm EDT

    How about Socrates? as in the socratic method :P

  17. Stonewulf - May 19th, 2008 @ 8:11 pm EDT

    I named mine “Lannister” from George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series of books. A name that just popped into my mind, that I kinda like is “Nightwatch”

  18. Guthorm - May 19th, 2008 @ 9:12 pm EDT

    Lightslayer =)

  19. Hawkshadow - May 19th, 2008 @ 9:26 pm EDT

    I named mine Achilles (after the great greek warrior who fought in Troy) and if you have seen the movie the main character thought himself a lion, and his favorite color was black so it just seemed to fit if u asked me. but then again i’m a brad pitt fan hahaha!
    though some of the names i also liked are: Riku, Storm, Fang, Nightfang, Hector, Ash, Darkclaw, Pitch, Lord, Rikiri, Arkady, Tempest, and umm those are the only ones i can think of off the top of me head lol. but god i have lists upon lists of pet names lol so just me know if you still need help!

  20. Horkin - May 19th, 2008 @ 9:26 pm EDT

    I named my Humar Schrödinger, because Humar is usually not there when you go look…but COULD be there…so it’s like the Schrödinger’s cat thing..until you look at his tree, Humar is both there and not there…

    So you could do something clever like that…maybe a subatomic particle name or what have you. You could also go with Schrödinger, I don’t mind :)

    I also caught mine late…63…took a long time to level him up.

  21. Sasha - May 19th, 2008 @ 9:53 pm EDT

    3 years ago I named mine Kovu. I never have been disapointed with the choice.
    Its cute, and follows the “oh so tormented ” theme going on since I abuse him alot.

    Other suggestions:

    Midnight
    Catastrophic
    Melanoma

  22. Xable - May 19th, 2008 @ 10:31 pm EDT

    Sable which means black in both spanish and english and is also a type of sword in spanish. (Sabre in english)

  23. FirstChAoS - May 20th, 2008 @ 3:02 am EDT

    First, congrats on taming a black lion and not a white tiger (if I see one more hunter with a frostsabre, moonstalker, or king bangalash for their cat of choice i will scream).

    obsidian
    nocturnis
    nightfall
    bagheera (sure, he was a panther, but still)
    moondshadow
    whisper
    imperator

  24. Draiggoch - May 20th, 2008 @ 7:45 am EDT

    JackDaniel

  25. Darshek - May 20th, 2008 @ 8:52 am EDT

    Good choice of pet I have to admit. My toon on Jubei’thos (oceanic) has had Humar since lvl 24. I went with my favorite name “Scythe” as it is an awesome name for a cat. Not anywhere as symbolic as all these other names though, quite impressive to see how much thought people put into naming their pets. Still, Scythe is cool XD

  26. Draiggoch - May 20th, 2008 @ 9:17 am EDT

    Nipped home at lunchtime after reading all this to leave my huntard (lvl70) in the Barrens to tame Humar when he decides to spawn - and there he was! Snapped him up, then after tracking down levelling advice for low level pets - popped him up 3 levels in ten minutes against the orges outside Oberage Harbour in Zang’marsh.

    He will replace my big stripey cat, Guinness - apparently I should be able to level Humar in a week to 70 .. excellent stuff :o)

  27. Verace - May 20th, 2008 @ 11:01 am EDT

    I have to say that I love Schrodinger, especially with the explanation! Perfect for a rare spawn.

  28. Ariax - May 20th, 2008 @ 11:33 am EDT

    For Humar I have always thought of Karold. Switch the first letters and you get Harold and Kumar. Just my two cents though. :)

  29. Thranos - May 20th, 2008 @ 12:35 pm EDT

    I have a Humar and I named him Theronyx ( Theron means Hunter and onyx is black) so if you like it take it. Also Eclipse or Darkstalker. DarkCloud, Fang, or maybe Viscera.

  30. Salamandra - May 20th, 2008 @ 1:58 pm EDT

    I’ve got Humar on my BE and named him Nightmare, though if you want to be a little funny I think Nightmane would also work.

  31. Sesheta - May 20th, 2008 @ 4:20 pm EDT

    My Hunter has had Humar as her cat of choice since about level 30 (68 now) he’s her bestest friend. I named him Zetsumei, which is “Death” in japanese (one of the spellings at least) it fit well for him, and all my hunter’s pets names are in Japanese. the other choice i thought about going with for this theme (especially scary in pvp) was Shikyo (also “Death”). “shishi” is the word for Lion, Shi is death (or happy..)

    the naming process can be difficult, i tend to stick with a theme, and hate myself if the name doesn’t fit and i have to wait and retame…

  32. Help - May 20th, 2008 @ 5:54 pm EDT

    Hi. I love this cat. Please help me get mine back. Sorry to jackknife this blog but I got banned today in this 3rd party mess. If you know my hunter, “Trout” on Moon Guard and his Humar pet named “Death”, you know I’m not a cheater. I’m really asking for a friend here I don’t know how to get ahold of my friends in game. I wasn’t in a guild or anything. If you know me on Moon Guard please email on my behalf to wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com mentioning my toon name and server. Good Karma comes your way and I thank you! I couldn’t post to the official bliz forums so again I apologize for this I’m just desperate.

  33. Dvalin - May 20th, 2008 @ 6:43 pm EDT

    Have to agree with Schrodinger, wicked name and very cool reference. gets my vote.

  34. Bobo & SgtPork - May 20th, 2008 @ 7:55 pm EDT

    I must also agree with “Schrödinger,” but it must have the umlaut! How does one get the umlaut ingame?

  35. Lunarain - May 20th, 2008 @ 9:40 pm EDT

    I think that the name Blackavar would be cool, because it’s an evil rabbit in Watership Down. Or DarknessFalls.

  36. Kahlua - May 21st, 2008 @ 4:32 am EDT

    Color Names:
    Shade
    Shadow
    Darkness
    DarkPaw
    Blackie
    Nightfall
    Dúath (means darkness in Sindarin, the language Tolkien made for the elfs.)
    Dae (Sindarin for shadow)
    Diezel/Diecel/Gasolin (i always think og gasolin and diecel as black)
    Kithicor (is a forrest in everquest 1, where the undead would rise at nigth. Very deadly place)

  37. Cryptography - May 21st, 2008 @ 5:05 am EDT

    Sasha in post 21 suggested Melanoma. Thats a good one, since the mutation that causes black lions is melanism. Albinism gives white (and red eyes!).

    Catastrophy
    Caliope
    Bastest (Egyptian cat goddess)

    everything2.com / index.pl?node_id=1138178 has a whole bunch of mythological lion names

    This site: http://www. messybeast. com / genetics / lions-white.htm has lots of suggestions and info too, ob both white (linked) and other colours

    (links broken with spaces to avoid Manias spam defences!)

  38. Zalenna - May 21st, 2008 @ 8:36 am EDT

    Now i name my through a common set , like after angel names , characters for shows or video game , or the deadly sin like i have for my main hunter

  39. mike - May 21st, 2008 @ 5:34 pm EDT

    Shadowstalker

  40. Grateful - May 22nd, 2008 @ 11:22 am EDT

    Omadness

  41. Longtooth - May 24th, 2008 @ 5:57 am EDT

    I had one named “Parsley” after an UK cartoon lion.

  42. Nightwill - May 27th, 2008 @ 1:47 am EDT

    I tamed him at 22 and at the time I was big into battlegrounds as a beastmaster..back before it was cool. With some thought I named him Foehammer. He is the hammer, Im the anvil. (I dont tend to run from melee and kite peopel while my cat kills them). To my pain and pleasure this happens to be the same name used for the pilot in Halo. Sort of apropriate since my cat is the one that makes it all happen for me but… I wasnt trying for a game refrence.

  43. Arezi - May 28th, 2008 @ 1:31 pm EDT

    As I posted in another “name that pet” thread, I named mine Azizi. Sounded cool next to hunter’s name, and means ‘precious one’ in an african dialect!

  44. Nachtwulf - May 30th, 2008 @ 11:36 am EDT

    I have Humar on two of my hunters. One is named Riven (partly because it’s a neat word, and partly because Echeyakee the white lion is ‘White Mist’ and I was making an extremely obscure reference to the Myst/Riven/Exile series), and the other is named Archon, as a general reference to ruling/mastery.

  45. Danielfboone - June 5th, 2008 @ 10:36 pm EDT

    I finally saw this cat and was able to tame him at level 70. After some research, I came up with the the word for black from the Konga language of the Congo which is Kala. Combining that with one of the African names for lion, I came up with KalaSimba, which I think not only fits but also sounds pretty good.

    I have now had him for about 28 hours and through many kills of Ogres in Zangarmarsh and Nagrand, he is at level 52 and loyalty level 6. won’t be long until he’s fully leveled and ready to use in any situation.

  46. Feleantha - June 16th, 2008 @ 7:02 pm EDT

    i just caught a humar a few hours ago and had no clue what im gonna name him. thinking of the name is actually harder than catching him IMO.

    i was jotting down things ive thought of. feel free to pick any for future pets. ^^,

    shadowfang
    nightstalker
    artemis
    twilight
    ‘holden’ -haha ^^,
    titanium
    lapis lazuli
    war lion
    chocolate rain! hahahaha

    later! ^^,

  47. Feleantha - June 16th, 2008 @ 7:14 pm EDT

    oh, i forgot. i named my Myrmidon. ^^,

    haha later! ^^,

  48. Ravvish - June 27th, 2008 @ 8:01 pm EDT

    I have humar on two hunters. I was retarded and xferred my main hunter lvl 70 with my first humar that I had named Diablo. My new hunter on my old server is just now lvl 23. I just got him again and I’m thinking of calling him Ashkandi lol cuz my lvl 70 hunter got Ashkandi at 60 from BWL, which I never vendored. So if I name humar #2 that I’ll have my Ashkandi back lolz I don’t know, I suck at naming pets.

    Hex, Guinness have been suggested but meh…I like the whole mythology idea too but so far I haven’t found anything that clicks. =P

  49. Ghostlyarrow - July 8th, 2008 @ 10:37 pm EDT

    Behemoth. Like the demonic cat from “The Master and Margarita”, which is a famous russian book. One day you just might fall upon someone with general culture who’ll understand where did the name come from.

  50. Seradane - July 13th, 2008 @ 1:29 am EDT

    I named my Humar Damascus, yes its a city (the capital of Syria), but it is also the name of a type of steel that was know for its strength and sharpness. Also, if you’ve ever seen a blade made from Damascus steel, it has a textured look to it, and from a distance looks very dark, almost black.

  51. Ghostlyarrow - July 13th, 2008 @ 12:02 pm EDT

    Or, name it “DarthAslan”. Hihi.

  52. Dante - July 25th, 2008 @ 4:36 pm EDT

    My advise is shadowfang or nightbane. goes with the blackness and is pretty sweet. up 2 u

  53. Jasminal - August 28th, 2008 @ 10:42 am EDT

    I went on the hunt for Humar when I turned lvl 23, and was amazed he was there first thing in the morning. I died six times while trying to tame him, but on the seventh, I buffed up whatever I could, used the freezetrap, and I finally got him tamed, with about 20% health left. I decided to keep the name Humar, to sort of brag that I have him, and hoping the silver dragon shows up around his portrait sometimes.

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