Example of "similar name backfire":

Big bad wolf encounter in Karazhan:
[Raid Warning] VELA*** is LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD!
Me: Oh SH*T WHICH ONE?!!!!

However, it's a decent advantage in PvP -- particularly if your characters all sound the same. If you're facing low-bracket teams that don't do assist macros and use vent to call out which person to kill, they're going to have a hard time coordinating a spike.

If you don't PvP, there's no reason to make your names complicated.


I think the best "middle of the road" strategy is to use <Prefix> + <letter>

For example,
VelaA
VelaB
VelaC
VelaD
VelaE

That way you have a logical way to tell which one is which (i.e. "VelaA is little red riding hood!!" -- A is my "main PC" therefore I know exactly whom to move) while still using a prefix to prevent /target a from working -- they either have to tab through to find you, use Proximo or some other pvp targeting mod, or use /assist. It's a minor PvP downgrade but a major PvE upgrade for managable naming conventions.