PDA

View Full Version : Meaningful Names



Aron Times
2009-10-29, 02:23 PM
I tend to use meaningful names for my characters. Here's a list of the names I often use in RPGs:

1. Argent Gish - "Argent" means "silver", and "gish" means "fighter/mage". It basically means Joseph Silver the Fighter/Mage.

2. Joseph Silver - Not an active character. He was my first ever P&P D&D character, a true neutral human diviner in 3.0. I am Jose II in real life, Jose I being my grandfather. Jose = Joseph, and silver = second place, after gold. Thus, "Joseph Silver" means "Jose II".

3. Aron Times - "Aron Times" is an anagram of my middle name, "Sarmiento".

4. Melody Full Note - Female bard, obviously.

5. Melisizwe - African name which means, "leader of the nation". Mel is my Lelouch rip-off psion, who plans to take over the world, becoming the leader of the worldwide nation.

6. Orry Archer - "Or" means "gold". Gold is a yellow metal, and yellow is my favorite color. "Archer" is a reference to the warlock's role as a magical archer with his Eldritch Spear. "Orry" is the name of one of the main characters of North and South, Orry Main, played by the late Patrick Swayze.

Now it's your turn. Tell us about your characters with meaningful names.

Foryn Gilnith
2009-10-29, 02:29 PM
Argider, derived from Basque argi "light" and eder "beautiful". If my web source is correct. It was for a pleasant cult leader (archivist)

Adonai. Because nothing says arrogant epic cleric like a name of G-d. Interestingly, I was not aware of the religious context when I chose it. My web source somehow forgot to include that "my lord" referred to an actual religion... >_<

Ormazd. Modern Persian for "Ahura Mazda" (if my sources can be trusted, which I somehow doubt), who was the mythological ancient Persian creator god. Another religious-ish character, a clergyman without casting levels.

Amertat. Based on "ameretat", a Zoroastrian deity. Means "immortality", and was the name of a ruler of an ancient revivalist empire. Sort of like what the Holy Roman Empire would be if it were actually Roman and actually an empire.

I don't like to fabricate names. Prefer to use obscure existing ones.

Rhiannon87
2009-10-29, 03:21 PM
Jacinth Verrack: Paladin from a family of wealthy merchants; her older sisters' names mean gold, silver, and bronze... and she's a gemstone (http://rajeshshori.com/bangla/images/jacinth_1.jpg).

Kaspara Tovar: A spy whose first name (and secret identity) means "secret treasure". Her first cover ID is Alvera Drakeford; Alvera means "honesty". (Yes, I went for the 'clever' ironic joke that I and only I would ever get.) Her latest cover ID is a merchant-type named Argenta Corvin, or "Silver Raven". We're playing in Forgotten Realms. The name is actually again ironic, as the cover identity is meant to be from Amn...

Optimystik
2009-10-29, 03:25 PM
Druid named Sewati: Cherokee for "bear claw."

Priest named Mthunzi: Zulu for "shadow."

Gnome mage named Craniac: tinkerer.

Oh wait, those were WoW characters :smallbiggrin:

Kyrthain
2009-10-29, 04:15 PM
I love using draconic for this purpose
Kiera ornixon= kiera silver-flame (kossuth worshiping warmage)

Kardum is demon lord of balors, (warlock)

I've used draconic for other names, just can't remember what they meant
Hooray for draconic translator!

Flayerman
2009-10-29, 04:16 PM
I'm naming my werewolf swordsage...

...wait for it...

...wait for it...

...almost there...



...Wolf.

oxybe
2009-10-29, 04:19 PM
I'm naming my werewolf swordsage...

...wait for it...

...wait for it...

...almost there...



...Wolf.

Can't let you do that, Flayerman.

Fax Celestis
2009-10-29, 04:24 PM
I have an Earth Dwarf Domain Druid (Earth) named Praxiteles Pankratios. Praxiteles is Greek for "action towards an aim", and Pankratios is "all power".

I also had an Elven Ranger named Aidan Govannon, roughly translating through several layers of Welsh and other various languages to "Firesmith". His brother is Myrrdin Govannon: "Myrddin" is Welsh for "Sea Fortress" (and, incidentally, "Merlin").

Ililani Kaona is a human cleric/bard. In Hawai'ian, "Ililani" means "unexpected rain", while "Kaona" means "Hidden".

For most of my characters, I use BehindTheName (http://www.behindthename.com/) and find a meaning I like. For Hawai'ian, one of my favorite languages, I instead use, Wehewehe (http://wehewehe.org/).

Thrice Dead Cat
2009-10-29, 04:33 PM
I once played a Changeling Malconvoker. His real name was Jin, but he assumed four other identities, one of which he considered his "natural" form of a human male. In no particular order:

Victor Krahe, Demonologist - This was his cover identity for infiltrating into demonworshipping sects. Victor was used just for the hard, biting Russian accent I would throw on it. Krahe is a curroption of Krähe - or "crow" in German.

Eisner Faust - Really obvious one here, Eisner being both an actual name and a play on German for "iron" and Faust, well.... (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouShouldKnowThisAlready)

I can honestly say I can't remember the remaining two, but his preferred identity was probably John Prynne or something else taken from The Scarlet Letter.

As for recent characters...

Amalger - It was a gestalt game, and, not having anything particular in mind, I just hammered out amalgamation to get a name. Cheap, but effective. Sadly, the game was a short-lived Tomb of Horrors.

Malcom "Mal" Donar - Firefly fanboyism kicked in for the first name, honestly. Donar comes from I want to say German for thunder, but it may be Old English. Used somewhat ironically, as the character is a sneaking spellcaster. The last thing he would want would to be loud and boisterous.

Alexander Emmerson - Not actually a character I played, but rather a cohort. The character was a cleric of Tyr, his name coming from Ralph Waldo Emmerson, the Sage of Concord. Appropriate in that, although he was officially the character's "squire," the I would question him for advice. The rest of the group didn't seem to mind the banter between the DM and myself. Alexander was just a random addition, since I couldn't find another philosopher from the era whose name added the proper "ring."

The character for said cohort was a War Weaver, and I actually had two sets of names for her there. The first, which I sadly didn't used, was Rhedetthia Himn Gwepts-Strohne, which is an anagram for "The pen is mightier than the sword." I probably could have just gone with "Hymn," but the point is moot.

The actual name I ended up using was "Sir Beatrice Rhodes." Beatrice, largely due to FF9. Rhodes for no particular reason. At least, none that spring to mind right now. Forgot to mention, since the game was set in FR and the DM was looking for plot around the time I joined in, I went ahead and had Beatrice hail from Silverymoon and actually be a member of the Spellguard.

Rixx
2009-10-29, 04:59 PM
Terrance Walker, ranger of the desert - "Terrance" is phonetically similar to "Terra" (as in "terrain", "terraforming") meaning "the Earth" - hence, one who walks the earth.

Alex Lintu, half-elf rogue - "Lintu" is Finnish for "bird", implying a thing of grace and beauty - qualities her mother was known for. "Alex", full name "Alexandra" means "defender of men", which easily describes her role as compared to one of her party members.

Miles Cale Skystrider, sorcerer/fighter - "Miles" could possibly mean "eager to please", which is extremely true of him. "Cale" means "thin, or slender", which is also true of him. "Skystrider" is actually a title he inherited from his grandfather, who was a wizard who traveled to the elemental plane of air.

Katana_Geldar
2009-10-29, 05:17 PM
My half-elf Paladin is Adannaya, Igbo for "her father's daughter", which is sort of ironic as she's never known her father and has a grudge against him as he left her mother. The dM and I can't agree on how to pronounce it.

One of my friends always gives her Eladrin character's Elvish names...which leads them to having amusing nicknames at the table as they're so hard to pronounce.

Moriato
2009-10-29, 05:22 PM
What I usually do is take some integral part of the character, then search a site like this (http://www.behindthename.com/) for names that have that in their meaning.

For example say my character is a prince. I'd go to a name meanings site and search for "prince" in the meaning. The site above gave me this, for example:


CADFAEL
Gender: Masculine

Usage: Welsh

Means "battle prince" from Welsh cad "battle" and mael "prince".

Along with a whole bunch of other names. I'd pick one I think sounds good, and there you go.

Acrux
2009-10-29, 05:23 PM
Bard name I love to use: Matthias Prochorus

I've also got a list of Welsh, Gaelic, or Greek names of saints and martyrs that I use commonly:
Euphemia
Cenydd
Mellonius
Winefride
Tewdirg
Dubricius
etc.

Fax Celestis
2009-10-29, 05:24 PM
For example say my character is a prince. I'd go to a name meanings site and search for "prince" in the meaning. The site above gave me this, for example:

Cadfael also has the added benefit of being a totally awesome medieval monk detective.

Dusk Eclipse
2009-10-29, 06:02 PM
I try to give my character meaninfull names all the time

Kumori Shikaku an Gestalf Rouge//Ilusionist for an OA game Kumori means shadow and shikaku can mean Assassin in japanese according to my translator.

Faust. specialist necromancer.

Somniumlatros Meaning Dream Hunter IIRC in latin, he is a Lich cerebremancer

Drake Shadowfang: Half shadow dragon duskblade.

Mystic Muse
2009-10-29, 06:15 PM
Sammael. a homebrewed version of the Tiefling race who's a neutral good demon hunter. Which sort of makes sense considering Sammael means "The venom of god."

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-10-29, 07:10 PM
My current Tibbit is named Belle(beauty) and has 20 Cha.

Belle the Cat.

Fishy
2009-10-29, 08:48 PM
I love these threads, but my last few characters have all been named in an amazingly lazy fashion. What I like to do is come up with a short word or phrase or 'spirit animal', hit Google Translate for the non-Romance languages, and find two or three I like and mash them together. And of course, no one I'm playing now actually uses this method. Hunh. Anyway.

Roi Xuong-La is a loudmouth warrior from a foreign land, who pretty much has no fear of death. His name is a perversion of the Vietnamese for "Fallen Leaf": it doesn't come up much, but he's a disgraced exile who is 'already dead'.

Galatea the earth elemental is a living statue. Her name comes from a Greek myth about a living statue. I'm very lazy.

Tulacea started 'life' as a fey Archivist, and later became a goddess of nature and knowledge. (I have in my notes "nerdy plant girl <3"). Archivists carry prayer books, which are made out of paper, which is made out of dead trees, which bothered me for a bit- until I made her into a Paper Birch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betula_papyrifera); genus Betula, Family Betulacea. She picked up a visual shorthand and a name in the bargain, and her spellbook is made of her own skin, problem solved.

Ravens_cry
2009-10-29, 09:00 PM
Corvus the (former) Raven Wizards Familiar.
He and his master were transformed by an evil sorcerer into a halfling and an unintelligent riding dog respectively.

deuxhero
2009-10-29, 09:06 PM
I prefer the ignoreable (Planetouched getting names like Micheal, Gabriel, Amy, ect) the subtle or ones that are far removed from the pun only the creator gets them (often for the best)

Foryn Gilnith
2009-10-29, 09:27 PM
I prefer the ignoreable (Planetouched getting names like Micheal, Gabriel, Amy, ect)

Ah, yes, Michael. A favorite cleric of mine was named Michael. Nasty shot with a crossbow and love of his party when fighting kobolds. I suckered the GM into letting him believe in himself for spells. :P Well, that's why he never got second-level spells...

Thurbane
2009-10-29, 09:29 PM
I have a habit of naming characters with the same initials as their class. My current character, Dagornach Spurling, is a Dragon Shaman. :smallbiggrin:

Livor
2009-10-29, 09:34 PM
I went to a Sindarin name generator and kept hitting random until it came up with Asgaruil, which means 'violent seaweed.' It's just some random silliness on my part; it doesn't have any special meaning. Still, it amuses me, and I suppose that is what's important.

The Endbringer Xaraphim
2009-10-30, 11:58 AM
I usually don't tie my character's profession to his/her name. Although one of my (many) drow is named Medri which, in the drow tongue means "bringer of death."

Medri is a religious zealot hell-bent on wiping out the enemies of the Seldarine and freeing his people from Lolth. If he has to spill enough blood to flood the rivers, well...

One of my favorite characters was Fox McKay, a Western-style gunslinger with a horrible addiction to gambling and an inhuman ability to get along with anyone.

Fox at one point traveled with a party consisting of a paladin (sort of), a bard who was at one point a talking skull, a drow priestess of Shar, Geoffrey the gargoyle and an intelligent basilisk wizard named Pip.

Oh, did I mention that Fox grew up on a spherical mushroom farm on the Astral Plane?

Kulture
2009-10-30, 12:36 PM
Pyrokineticist or similiar pyromaniac class.

Zoe Kincaid: means "Life Born of fire."

Rhiannon87
2009-10-30, 03:01 PM
My current Tibbit is named Belle(beauty) and has 20 Cha.

Belle the Cat.

*groans at the pun* That's terrible. :smallbiggrin:

Dimers
2009-10-30, 11:10 PM
I came up with "Donna Lebue Bonham" for a NWoD game. The GM was a fanatical historian and had recently become very interested in the Cathars and other heresies in 13th-century France. Out-of-character, we knew that the events would take place in modern-day southern France but would somehow relate to the Cathars. Incidentally, it was in studying up for this campaign that I discovered that the phrase "kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" was already in use around that time ...

The French words donnée le but mean “given the goal/purpose/aim”. Bonham is a derivative of Bon Hommes, a term male Cathars used to refer to themselves. So a straightforward interpretation of a mangled pronunciation of Donna's name is "having the same goal as the Cathars". Donna’s mother was Creedence Lebue; "credentes" were the people who essentially founded the Cathar beliefs. Donna's father was Brett Bonham, "brett" coming from a Middle English surname for an inhabitant of Brittany, though now I forget how that tied into the Cathar thing. A four-year-old Donna insisted on having a middle name once she found out they exist, and took her mother's maiden name for the purpose.

Wow, what a bunch of crazy coincidences, right?

Mr. Mud
2009-10-30, 11:11 PM
Axe in'yoface was my Goliath barbarian a few games back...

Al Gore was my epic level ranger :smallbiggrin:.

Dimers
2009-10-30, 11:18 PM
I prefer the ignoreable (Planetouched getting names like Micheal, Gabriel, Amy, ect)

"John Half-Elven" is one of my most enduring character concepts, having been re-created for three game systems and probably a dozen campaigns overall.


Corvus the (former) Raven Wizards Familiar.

Halfling character with paladin, ranger, various PrCs that increase animal companion and/or special mount -- the halfling's name is unremarkable, but the animal's is great: Truffles the War Hog!

Set
2009-10-31, 12:56 PM
I use foreign language names all the time, either hitting up the Onamastikon or some baby names list online.

It's great for superheroes, as you can avoid using names that have already 'been done' by picking a foreign version, such as making a flame-based character named Feurkraft or something.

For fantasy characters, names like Airgitlamh (silver hand) are faves.

Sir_Elderberry
2009-10-31, 01:07 PM
For 4e, I was going to make a Longtooth Shifter Warden, and take the Ram ability that lets you charge around and such. His name? Wolf Blitzer.

(Ultimately, I opted to play 27182 the Warforged Fighter.)

oxybe
2009-10-31, 01:09 PM
a warforged warden named "sentry" as he was the guard of a grove.