Riot gives behind the scenes info on the development of their champions all the time however one thing I don't see talked about is how the team comes up with names of the characters. Some I'm aware are a play on words (Heimerdinger is a mash up of different scientists, Lee Sin sounds like listen, etc.) but what about others? What is it that says "This one is a Shen" or "This one is a Vol'Koz?
So, I can't talk to the process pre- Rek'Sai. But currently we take a lot of time and care and it often takes several weeks (or even in some painful cases months). If the language for the area hasn't been outlined yet-- that's the first set. Then as series of goals are set. (i.e. Sound's exotic, sounds mean, is one syllable, has three syllables. relates to a place, etc..). Next the writer does some research and generates a list of names. --The pod and other writers cull that list to a top ten. This is checked with localization teams to make sure the name isn't something terribly wrong of off-color. Assuming the writer doesn't have to start all over again- the remaining few choices are narrowed down and final selection is made.
They throw in random letters into an aquarium of Seals who will grab said letter in a certain order, thus creating the name
