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Holocron Coder
2009-09-09, 08:38 AM
In a sudden burst of interest, I wonder:

What sort of naming scheme do you use to name your dragons in your various games?

I've always been a fan of names in the same vein as Ferrovax and Siriothrax (both originating from the Dresden Files series).

On a more technical note, what sort of rules or context-free grammar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar) could you use for that sort of pattern or your own pattern?

Mando Knight
2009-09-09, 10:08 AM
My process:

Step 1: Grab the Draconomicon and flip to the page with WotC's idea of what Draconic looks like.
Step 2: Throw a bunch of words together, in good ol' German fashion.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit!

Lycan 01
2009-09-09, 11:15 AM
I suck at naming people, especially dragons. I'll probably use the same tactic I used for naming a demon in a Call of Cthulhu I ran once. Basically, just find some cool Latin words, and slap 'em together.

What was that demon's name again? :smallconfused:

Ah! Filimillious... "The Thousanth Son." Yeah, I know that is probably very, very wrong, but it still sounds cool and it did a good job of scaring the bejezzus out of the players trying to exorcise him. :smallamused:


That, or just cobble together some Latin-y sounding name that just sounds cool. Hah hah...

Darcand
2009-09-09, 11:15 AM
Depending on the setting I like to alternate between the Pathfinder namings, with lots of Zs Ys double Ts and Rs that make your tongue flip trying to say them. Or Germanic type discriptive names such as Scarfnir and Ashbingar

Ernir
2009-09-09, 12:24 PM
I name them after terms in physics or mathematics.

Drakyn
2009-09-09, 12:29 PM
Okay, we've got to hear some examples of that now.

Mando Knight
2009-09-09, 12:32 PM
I name them after terms in physics or mathematics.

The great dragon Laplace? Moment? dy/dx? :smallconfused::smalltongue:

arguskos
2009-09-09, 12:43 PM
The great dragon dy/dx?
That bastard was frikkin' TERRIFYING. :smalltongue:

Ernir
2009-09-09, 01:40 PM
Okay, we've got to hear some examples of that now.

My players, if you see this, stay out, pretty please. Major plot spoilers.
The BBEG in one of my campaigns is Azimuth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_azimuth_angle) the black dragon.
Unbeknownst to his subjects, the king in the same campaign is Lagrange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Louis_Lagrange) the gold dragon.
I have an army led by Mandelbrot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set) the green dragon.
The PCs never met Torque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque) the Bronze Dragon. It is unlikely they will do so now, but it is still hiding in the mountains where that campaign started.

I also have Fresnel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens) and Laplace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace) lined up, but I have no dragons for them yet. :smalltongue:



The great dragon dy/dx?
That bastard was frikkin' TERRIFYING.:smalltongue:
Gods, I am so seeing the Wizard polymorphing himself into an exponential function now. :smallfrown:

ShadowsGrnEyes
2009-09-09, 01:43 PM
I grab races of the Dragon and flip to the back where it has the words in draconic. Then i add words together until I reach somthing that sounds good. my standard formula 1 word per 2 age catagories.

thus hatchling would get a name like: Ixen (fire). Where as the same dragon as an adult would be: Ixenvurvyth (fire and steel). The same dragon as a great wyrm would be somthing like: Ixenvurvytherekessithirsvent (fire and steel through knowledge kill)

in the dragonimicon is says that dragons get names based on what they do rather than family or stuff like that and that as they do more their names get longer. . . it's also really fun to randomly role on what a dragons name is, then end up with something wierd and try and work that into a history for them. . .

Drakyn
2009-09-09, 01:43 PM
My players, if you see this, stay out, pretty please. Major plot spoilers.
The BBEG in one of my campaigns is Azimuth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_azimuth_angle) the black dragon.
Unbeknownst to his subjects, the king in the same campaign is Lagrange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Louis_Lagrange) the gold dragon.
I have an army led by Mandelbrot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set) the green dragon.
The PCs never met Torque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque) the Bronze Dragon. It is unlikely they will do so now, but it is still hiding in the mountains where that campaign started.

I also have Fresnel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens) and Laplace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace) lined up, but I have no dragons for them yet. :smalltongue:

All told, highly awesome.



Gods, I am so seeing the Wizard polymorphing himself into an exponential function now. :smallfrown:
Polymorph: Concept. There's a real epic level spell.
"I cast polymorph and turn myself into the idealized perfect Form of ass-kickin'/E=mc2."

SlyGuyMcFly
2009-09-09, 01:44 PM
That bastard was frikkin' TERRIFYING. :smalltongue:

Oh please. I found him so very... derivative.

*runs away cackling madly"*

Thane of Fife
2009-09-09, 01:47 PM
I usually either go with the long, tricky names, or try for intimidating monikers:

Ixthulios
Shatterfang

Or, from the boxed set I started with:

Estorax Rex

Mando Knight
2009-09-09, 01:51 PM
Oh please. I found him so very... derivative.

*runs away cackling madly"*

And he disappears every time you try to integrate him into a story. :smallsigh:

Admiral Squish
2009-09-09, 01:52 PM
I had one character. He was a half-gold dragon troll. He was a barbarian/fighter with surprisingly decent charisma. His life's goal was to create a homeland for dragonblooded creatures where they wouldn't be, y'know, treated like crap. I made his name out of the back of 'races of the Dragon'. It was something like Maekrix ir ekess Oarkarthel, and it meant 'one who leads to our home'.

Zeta Kai
2009-09-09, 02:35 PM
As a longtime conlanger, I make a name that sounds fitting in English.

......EX: "God of Smoke & Fire".

Then, I'll translate it, word for word, into an appropriate conlang of my previous devising.

......EX: Roxal [of] kasha nar kul.

Then, I'll smash the whole thing together into one name. If necessary, I'll change the order of the words, to enhance asthetics &/or represent another language's different word order.

......EX: Roxalkashanarkul.

Lastly, if the name is too long, I'll contract it, attempting to keep the basic meaning intact. Sometimes I can get away with cutting out some of the middle parts, replacing them with an apostrophe. Other times, I'll just omit extraneous sections, retaining the core idea.

......EX: Rox'arkul.
......EX: Roxalkul.
......EX: Alkashanar.
......EX: Xalkash.
......EX: Shanarku.

In this way, I have a lot of options for what I want the final name to be, & they all derive from the same English phrase. I can make an entire family/lineage with the same name meaning, or I can make one creature with a number of aliases, or I can make a series of place names in the same area. I have the tools to mix & match as I please, & every name has a deeper meaning, which helps when building mythologies.

For an example of how this was used with an actual dragon, see Rosenrot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116356).

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-09-09, 02:42 PM
And he disappears every time you try to integrate him into a story. :smallsigh:

You're going off on tangent. It is an unforgiveable sin.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-09-09, 03:10 PM
Generally, my strategy is to figure out the dragon's "theme" and pick appropriate words--I've assigned each dragon type two languages (greens get Gaelic and German, for instance), so I pick a word in one language describing either its color or home terrain, and one in each of them describing the theme. Then I change the spelling slightly--as a draconic alphabet obviously wouldn't match our own--and add an imposing title.

Long-winded example:Let's say there's a green dragon who's been terrorizing the countryside and eating everything in sight. A good nickname would be the "green devourer," so let's start with that. There are a few terms for green in Gaelic and German which don't exactly seem right, but "tree" in Gaelic is "aol," which works for a forest-dwelling green dragon Throwing out some synonyms in a German translator, I can find "verzehren" for "devour," also nicely dragon-sounding. "Land" in Gaelic is "talamh."

Stringing these together gives aol + talamh + verzehren, which is roughly pronounced eel + talaw + verseren, or eeltalaverseren when crammed together. Smooth it out and you get Ieltalavaersen, the Devourer of the Land, which hardly anyone (or at least not my players) would recognize as being a mishmash of foreign words.

daggaz
2009-09-09, 03:18 PM
Borrowing from what is surely the greatest literary masterpiece of our modern world, I take the dragon for what it is, and change the first letter of THAT word to the next letter in the alphabet. Simple, but pure genious often is.

So far ive got

Cbeg the evil dragon overlord

Qrotagonist, the NPC dragon that is secretly helping the party and,

Kudas, the halfdragon thief who eventually betrays the party.

Sometimes the dragons have long names, then I do the same thing, but just repeat the process for each word and then run it all together into one long name (hey, why stop when you are so far ahead?) For example,

Jttoleuhisjdeagromuhettupidestguckingcookfverxritt en.

Deth Muncher
2009-09-09, 03:32 PM
That, or just cobble together some Latin-y sounding name that just sounds cool. Hah hah...

I didn't realize you were really J.K. Rowling.

:P

Raewyn
2009-09-09, 04:33 PM
I just go to this website of ADOM dragon names (http://adom.wikidot.com/dragon-names) and scroll down the list until I find one that is awesome. I've also ganked some from the Draconomicon.

... Not the most creative solutions, granted, but dragon naming is trixxy. :smallwink:

horngeek
2009-09-09, 05:12 PM
Well, my dragon in ACRONYM is from the Japanese for 'dragon', Ryu, and then changed a bit.

Ryuan. Easy!

Zeta Kai
2009-09-09, 11:05 PM
J ttole uhis jdea grom uhe ttupidest gucking cook fver xritten.

I see what you did there.

Also, Pair O' Dice Lost, you're basically using the same technique as I am, except your using a real language (quite well, I might add) instead of a conlang. Great minds, I suppose.

Mando Knight
2009-09-09, 11:12 PM
Jttoleuhisjdeagromuhettupidestguckingcookfverxritt en.

Didn't even notice it until you pointed it out. Qaolini, don't you ever think up something original? :smalltongue:

Exterminatus
2009-09-09, 11:29 PM
This is how I pretty much name my fictional characters (all of them).

>Insert Nationality here<'s baby names.
>Insert Nationality here<'s last names.

And yes I have already named two dragons with human names, one German and one French. (Although one was raised in a lab, the other was a wizard's familiar for a long time, :smalltongue: or not however you may want to look at it).

Lycan 01
2009-09-09, 11:31 PM
I didn't realize you were really J.K. Rowling.

:P

Shhhhh... Silencia... :smallannoyed:


Speaking of Dragon names, I haven't even named the current BBEG for my group. Its a Young Black Dragon who has already killed 2 PCs (my fault, really. I though they'd do better... :smalleek:) and who will show up one or two more times before they finally fight him in a duel to the death. (Atop a speeding train, no less...)

Any ideas? I want his name to mean something like "In the Darkness there is Nothing" or "In Darkness, Oblivion" or some other nifty "dark" referencing name like that. If anybody has a cool sounding translation from any language that sounds cool (Latin prefered, German's good too...), that'd be nice. Or, if you have a better name that you believe suits him more, I'll be glad to hear it... :smallbiggrin:

AslanCross
2009-09-09, 11:33 PM
I start with their common nickname. For example, I once had a blue dragon in a campaign. I wanted to call him "Lash." Since blue dragons usually dwell in deserts, I wanted to have a faux Arabic name. I stole a name from Cthulhu (Alhazred) and mashed them together. The end result "Al'Lashvahazred."

There was also a fang dragon named "Gorge" (as in "gorge on their flesh"). His true name was "Kharaadgorgoth," which was probably cobbled together from Tolkien place names.

Serpentine
2009-09-09, 11:49 PM
I missed the Draconic stuff in Draconomicon and Races of the Dragon... I'll have to check it out.

For me, my dragons are named pretty much the same as all my PCs and NPCs. I think of some good descriptive words, put them into a search on one or more good baby name sites, then look for something that works. I may also choose a specific nationality for the name depending on the area in my homebrewed world.
For example, the present Big Nasty is a blue dracolich in a North America-themed area. I started by looking for "blue" and blue-themed, then grand title-type native American names. I ended up with Afinahusaka Cocheta, or “Blueberry Wings That You Cannot Imagine” (or, say, "incomprehensible wings of blueberry", or "she of the unimaginable wings the colour of summer blueberries" or somesuch). Hey, she was someone's little daughter once...

Another one, which works for villains in general, is to look at scientific names. For example, I once went up against a fallen angel called Tyrax Destructor, after the yabbie, Chyrax destructor.

Godskook
2009-09-09, 11:56 PM
All fear the great gold dragon, Factorial!

random11
2009-09-10, 12:09 AM
I cheat.
My explanation is that humans simply can't pronounce the language of dragons, so dragons who wish to communicate with humans simply give them the literal translation of their name to the common language.

Furthermore, since the population of dragons is much lower than human's, there is no need for complex long names, so dragon names are usually simpler and shorter.

TheThan
2009-09-10, 12:12 AM
Humanoids cannot pronounce draconic words with their vocal cords. The best they can do is learn to read it (even then reading it out loud is still not possible). So they’ve taken up the practice of giving dragons nick-names. So they can better address dragons.

Usually this results is a slight annoyance. But the more haughty dragons become aggravated by the practice. So its best to stick with honorific things like “oh great and powerful one!” and “oh mighty one that wreaths the world in flame” excreta.

random11
2009-09-10, 12:22 AM
Humanoids cannot pronounce draconic words with their vocal cords. The best they can do is learn to read it (even then reading it out loud is still not possible). So they’ve taken up the practice of giving dragons nick-names. So they can better address dragons.

Usually this results is a slight annoyance. But the more haughty dragons become aggravated by the practice. So its best to stick with honorific things like “oh great and powerful one!” and “oh mighty one that wreaths the world in flame” excreta.

Even if it doesn't annoy the dragons, nicknames might still be a problem.
Since they are made up by humans, there is no guarantee that the dragons will know them.

Human - Greetings great dragon, I was sent here by your relative "Green Mountain"
Dragon - Who?!

Holocron Coder
2009-09-10, 08:54 AM
Quite a spectrum of answers. I'm amused and inspired :smallcool:

And...


So its best to stick with honorific things like “oh great and powerful one!” and “oh mighty one that wreaths the world in flame” excreta.

excreta?! (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/excreta) :smalleek:

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-09-10, 09:35 AM
Speaking of Dragon names, I haven't even named the current BBEG for my group. Its a Young Black Dragon who has already killed 2 PCs (my fault, really. I though they'd do better... ) and who will show up one or two more times before they finally fight him in a duel to the death. (Atop a speeding train, no less...)

Any ideas? I want his name to mean something like "In the Darkness there is Nothing" or "In Darkness, Oblivion" or some other nifty "dark" referencing name like that. If anybody has a cool sounding translation from any language that sounds cool (Latin prefered, German's good too...), that'd be nice. Or, if you have a better name that you believe suits him more, I'll be glad to hear it...

Well, according to my normal dragon naming scheme, black dragons are Latin and Finnish, so let's see what we can do...

Finnish "black" = musta
Latin "deep" = ponto
Finnish "oblivion" = unohtumassa

Full name -> musta + ponto + unohtumassa
Together -> mustapontohtumassa
Smoothed -> Mustapontuasse

...and since you wanted something German-ish...
Mühstapochtaus, the Black Oblivion from the Depths
How's that?


And...
excreta?! (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/excreta) :smalleek:

You don't just want to come out and say that all of our groveling and such to the dragons is all BS, do you? Latin words give it a bit of polish. :smallwink:

RelentlessImp
2009-09-10, 09:42 AM
Personally, here's what I do when naming characters, most especially dragons:

Step 1: Take a shot of vodka.
Step 2: Hit random characters on the keyboard until you get the first 1-2 letters that give the feel I want.
Step 3: Take a shot of vodka.
Step 4: Idly tap on the keyboard, trying out different letters and saying the resulting mess out loud.
Step 5: Take a shot of vodka.
Step 6: Take two shots of vodka.
Step 7: Go back to step 1 when you realize this isn't the sound you want after all.

Six hours later, I've got seven or eight names - and a good buzz. ^_^

seedjar
2009-09-10, 10:16 AM
I follow methods similar to Zeta Kai, Ernir and Lycan 01. I take a foreign or technical word (or several) and futz around with it until it isn't really recognizable as the source elements. Depending on how alien it should sound, I'll change consonants to be oddly repeated or stacked awkwardly close to one another. If I need to have a set of related names, I'll usually choose some suffixes or prefixes and mix them in liberally.
Dragons are easy. Just add lots of clicking and hissing consonants and abbreviate some of the vowel sounds. Think about the vocal equipment a reptile has. (If I were a braver DM, I might try to add some squawks and growls to my dragon dialogue, but I'm not quite that confident yet.) The Dracominicon has a nice section or sidebar on the draconic language.
The way I see it, dragon names should be long, so I usually aim for something that is just a bit longer than is comfortable to remember. I try to have at least one distinctive syllable at the beginning or the end so that there's a memorable nickname or abbreviation for the PCs.
~Joe

Raewyn
2009-09-10, 11:05 AM
I thought the purpose of nicknames for dragons was that they thought mortals too beneath them to give out their true names right and left.

Also, you could make your life really easy by not giving the dragons real names and going with nicknames. :smalltongue:

Eldariel
2009-09-10, 01:05 PM
I always try to go for certain...magnificence in the name (causing them to be rather long). Of course, due to my linguistic inclinations, I prefer certain formats for name generation and they end up reminding Quenyan names on a superficial level for whatever reason quite often.

Dravithrion
Tenretio
Uwiariadin

and so on.

Lycan 01
2009-09-10, 01:11 PM
Well, according to my normal dragon naming scheme, black dragons are Latin and Finnish, so let's see what we can do...

Finnish "black" = musta
Latin "deep" = ponto
Finnish "oblivion" = unohtumassa

Full name -> musta + ponto + unohtumassa
Together -> mustapontohtumassa
Smoothed -> Mustapontuasse

...and since you wanted something German-ish...
Mühstapochtaus, the Black Oblivion from the Depths
How's that?


Oooooh... I like it. Sounds kinda like "Muhstakrakish" (sp?) from Metalocalypse. :smallbiggrin: And the name itself, "Black Oblivion from the Depths," sounds like something the Dragon would call himself, personality wise. Thanks!

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-09-10, 04:23 PM
Oooooh... I like it. Sounds kinda like "Muhstakrakish" (sp?) from Metalocalypse. :smallbiggrin: And the name itself, "Black Oblivion from the Depths," sounds like something the Dragon would call himself, personality wise. Thanks!

Glad I could help. :smallbiggrin:

Holocron Coder
2009-09-10, 06:13 PM
You don't just want to come out and say that all of our groveling and such to the dragons is all BS, do you? Latin words give it a bit of polish. :smallwink:

Ah, for some reason I misinterpreted it as a misspelling of "et cetera"... haha. My mistake.

Eldariel
2009-09-10, 06:19 PM
By the way, regarding the Pair O' Dice Lost's words:

"Finnish "oblivion" = unohtumassa" is not precisely correct; "oblivion" would be "unohdus" in Finnish - "unohtumassa" is an inflected word of the verb "unohtaa" which stands for "to forget". As such, "unohtumassa" somewhat equivalent to "(is) being forgotten".

Quietus
2009-09-10, 06:27 PM
I'm glad people started to lay off the math puns. They were really only multiplying the problem.

TheThan
2009-09-10, 06:34 PM
Quite a spectrum of answers. I'm amused and inspired :smallcool:

And...



excreta?! (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/excreta) :smalleek:

oops. that's what happens when you don't check your dictionary often enough.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-09-10, 10:53 PM
Ah, for some reason I misinterpreted it as a misspelling of "et cetera"... haha. My mistake.

It probably was a typo; I was just taking advantage of it to make a joke.


By the way, regarding the Pair O' Dice Lost's words:

"Finnish "oblivion" = unohtumassa" is not precisely correct; "oblivion" would be "unohdus" in Finnish - "unohtumassa" is an inflected word of the verb "unohtaa" which stands for "to forget". As such, "unohtumassa" somewhat equivalent to "(is) being forgotten".

Good enough for government work, I suppose, or at least for Babelfish and Google translate. Apologies to any native Finnish speakers who were horribly offended by the mangled translation. :smallwink:

Eldariel
2009-09-10, 11:22 PM
Good enough for government work, I suppose, or at least for Babelfish and Google translate. Apologies to any native Finnish speakers who were horribly offended by the mangled translation. :smallwink:

I figured that given probably my first opportunity ever to utilize my native Finnish in some foreign discussion online, I should take it :smalltongue: I also figured it might be of interest to you.

The wonders of Finnish - one can literally write a 1000 different forms based on the same root. It might also be why translation software often has issues getting Finnish straight. "Unohtumattomuudessansa" would be of the same root as "unohtamassa".

Quietus
2009-09-11, 01:39 AM
For many of my dragons, I either pick and choose choice words from the Pidgin Draconic sections of books (p.29 I think, in the Draconomicon, and apparently there are some in Races of the Dragon too), or I just pick something that sounds neat. For example :

Astinaa : A white dragon, has a personality that's very rough. Short tempered, self-important, vain, and prideful. Name was created because a friend said "A dragon has to have 'naa' in it somewhere".

Tryptich : I THINK this was one of the ones I drew from pidgin draconic, but I can't remember off the top of my head. A large Red, who lives in the caldera of an active volcano, and uses lots of grappling techniques. Basically a bully, sees himself as the "alpha" of his area - and ignores Pyralis as much as he can, since Pyralis is living proof he's certainly NOT the alpha. One of Tryptich's favorite tricks? Grabbing (grappling) an opponent, and either flying as high as he can before dropping them, or diving beneath a lava pool. Resist energy can only do so much; 20d6 per round sucks a lot, no matter how you cut it.

Pyralis : THE big dragon of my world - or at least, the only one currently active. He's an extremely old Red, who specializes in spellcasting and breath weapon use. Nothing like a breath weapon throwing 24d10 fire + 24d10 acid and carrying 2d4 negative levels, with a save DC of 40+. The only reason he doesn't simply dominate the entire world is that he's got... other plans... that are in the cooker. Namely, the resurrection of Maulisauna. Pyralis's name was borne entirely of his original, much less developed role : a giant firebreathing dragon, using Pyre as the base. It sounded fiery, and I liked that.

Maulisauna : She WAS one step above Pyralis, and was the self-styled Dragon Queen of Vethedar. She actually attained divinity, though only on a low scale, as those things go. She's an unbelievably cunning Black, advanced beyond Great Wyrm, and is practically immortal. She was, however, broken into three separate parts - mind, body, and soul - and is currently trying to work to have those three shattered portions put back together. Pyralis is helping her with this, as he was once her consort, before she was defeated. Whether she sees him as truly valuable, or only useful as yet another pawn, remains to be seen. Her name was stolen wholesale from some freeform RP I did over a decade ago in a Yahoo room.

kwanzaabot
2009-09-11, 04:45 AM
I like to use faux Sanskrit-sounding names.

For example, the first two organisms to be born in my campaign were dragons named Ahi Dahana (a Red Dragon) and Ahi Visapa (Black).

Kwanzaabot, mutilating the Sanskrit language and ancient Persian mythology since 2009. ;) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahhak)