Most Fitting Names for Animal Companions/Familiars/NPCs?

[Droningbass]

What are some of your (or your fellow Player's/DM's) most fitting, most entertaining, or most memorable names for the NPCs throughout your game?

One of my former druid characters liked to name all of his animal companions based on their principal attack sounds they made. His first companion was a Wolf named Bitey McBiterson. Next was an Alligator named Bitey 2.0 (of course). After that was a Dire Bat named Flappy McFlapperton. The Paladin in that party eventually got a Dire Lion mount, and named him Roary. We were big fans of puns...

One of my Wizard characters wanted to have a rat as a familiar (mostly because of his rather squishy fortitude saves...), and named him "Mr. Squeakers." If any of the party members would call the familiar just "Squeakers," my wizard would pedantically correct them by saying "Ah, ah, ah... that's Mr. Squeakers!"

I think that the most memorable NPC name that has come up in any of my games was a Innkeep/Bartender whose nickname was "Beatin' Schtick." He was one of the first NPCs we met in a tiny little hamlet, and the party instantly took to him. After nearly 15 levels of adventuring and never once returning to that little hamlet, the party teleported back to town and hired him to become their personal bartender in their own base of operations.

Which names stand out for you?

[Venger]

I rolled factotum/chameleon and took obtain familiar and stitched flesh familiar to get a parrot. I called him Gilbert after the voice of Iago in Disney's "Aladdin." His undead nature has come in handy more times than I can possibly count.

[Haruki-kun]

I had a giant bipedal tiger man as an Eidolon. I named him Hobbes.

[Uncle Pine]

The one time I got to actually play a Thogaturge I bought a red housecat, decided it was my familiar and named it "Fireball". The little one was too scared to actually run away and eventually met its death when I hurled it during a tavern brawl. I missed it. After Fireball I had two more familiar: Fireball II and Fireball III. The former was an iguana that somehow managed to survive a huge fight against monstrous demon-possessed venomous spiders only to be buried alive after a couple of minutes*, the latter was a winged centaur I kidnapped convinced to join the party after saving his people from a tribe of werewolves.

*EDIT: This probably deserves an explanation: during the fight against the spiders I failed so much Fort saves due to poor rolls that I had something like 1-2 in both Str and Dex. The rest of the party decided that they were not going to wait to let me rest and heal and instead buried me leaving only my nostrils free (so that I could still breathe without being too easy to spot). The funny thing is that the boss curbstomped and killed them all, I wasn't spotted by any enemy, managed to rest and survive without food or water until I had enough strength to unbury myself and flee. Unfortunately Fireball II didn't make it.

[Jeff the Green]

I'm playing a Halfling Whistler, which has as a prerequisite having trained a chattering animal. Mine are a least weasel (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_weasel) ('cause cute) and a Stellar's jay (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller%27s_jay) ('cause badass). The weasel is Jaeger (German, "hunter") and Leia (Greek, "prey").

She also has an arctic fox familiar named Karkinos, but that's a convoluted chain of thought (changeling wizard substitution level means he can change shape > he metamorphosizes > that sounds like "metastasis" > cancer comes from the Greek καρκίνος "crab, cancer").

[Venger]

I'm playing a Halfling Whistler

you're... what? (http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120904042620/uncyclopedia/images/archive/b/b5/20120914120348!Exploding-head.gif)

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Druid named Mishca with a Boar animal companion named Hannibal.

[Urpriest]

In a campaign I DMed, the Druid had a Fleshraker animal companion. The Druid's player had a tendency to have to leave the table for long, Russian-language phone calls at inopportune and unpredictable times. After one such departure, in which he left control of the Fleshraker to another player, the other player decided to rename the animal companion as a punishment. Thus, Ryan Seacrest the Fleshraker was born.

As it turned out, Ryan Seacrest was by far the most effective member of the party, to the extent that when he was petrified by a basilisk the party lugged him out of the dungeon and un-petrified him rather than get a new animal companion.

[Dgrin]

you're... what? (http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120904042620/uncyclopedia/images/archive/b/b5/20120914120348!Exploding-head.gif)

Want more awesome? Look no further! (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061121a)

[Venger]

Want more awesome? Look no further! (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061121a)

no, I'm familiar with the class, it's just... I thought I was the only one who knew it existed. It's such a strange, obscure little class.

[Dgrin]

So you're coming to that forums and hope that you're the only one who knows about some kind of obscure class? That's kinda weird :smalltongue:
I believe it was even mentioned in some thread not so long ago. Not sure which exactly but if I had to guess... The one about weird PrCs... or the other one about weird PrCs...

[Jeff the Green]

no, I'm familiar with the class, it's just... I thought I was the only one who knew it existed. It's such a strange, obscure little class.

I'm working on a race handbook so I think I know about every race-restricted class. It's a fun one; not horribly difficult for a wizard to enter (three cross-class skills at 4 an one class skill at 8, plus a couple fluff requirements) but it bumps them up the bard chassis and gives some interesting abilities.

[Lappy9001]

I had a giant bipedal tiger man as an Eidolon. I named him Hobbes.This is amazing.

I had a player who rolled a mount-focused gnome paladin. His mount was a very dedicated pony named One-Trick.

I played a Witch with a bat familiar named Batrice. She would regularly give my witch good advice, which would be disregarded because "Noone asked you Batrice!"

A very silly character of mine was a minotaur psywarrior with a psycrystal in the form of a geode. His name was Rocky the Mineral American ('rock' is racist). Worth noting was that the character was far dumber than his rock :smalltongue:

For the least fitting was a intelligent talking psionic key that the party found in a quest to expose a royal secret. After the talking key was used on the door, the key had no purposed and requested to join the party. It didn't have a name, being a key, so the party profoundly named him after what were were IRL eating for dinner: Noodles. The campaign ended, but Noodles the Talking Key was one of the most memorable bits from the entire game!

[Flickerdart]

In the War of the Burning Sky module, some enemies have zany damage reductions, things like X/living. There was a particular enemy that turned out to have DR/stealth attacks...so naturally I went and tamed a crocodile, and named it Stealth.

[RattyMcSquid]

My wizard's cat is named Napawlion, and he sleeps in a wellington boot...

[Venger]

So you're coming to that forums and hope that you're the only one who knows about some kind of obscure class? That's kinda weird :smalltongue:
I believe it was even mentioned in some thread not so long ago. Not sure which exactly but if I had to guess... The one about weird PrCs... or the other one about weird PrCs...

huh? no, I don't "hope" I'm the only one to know about any given piece of material. it's just a class I can never remember seeing mentioned or discussed until just now.


I'm working on a race handbook so I think I know about every race-restricted class. It's a fun one; not horribly difficult for a wizard to enter (three cross-class skills at 4 an one class skill at 8, plus a couple fluff requirements) but it bumps them up the bard chassis and gives some interesting abilities.

it's not by any means a bad class (nothing fullcasting is) and I'd love to cook one for iron chef sometime.


In the War of the Burning Sky module, some enemies have zany damage reductions, things like X/living. There was a particular enemy that turned out to have DR/stealth attacks...so naturally I went and tamed a crocodile, and named it Stealth.

hilarious. like the allip-creating machine, Insanity, transporting your enemies via car to the village of Suicide.

[Oddman80]

I had a big 'ole Half-Orc Barbarian with a Big-Cat themed series of Animal Companions (thank you wild cohort feat). We played it as if she was just the one animal, but was granted divine Pokemon-like evolutions along the course of the campaign.

She started off as a Servile (about the size of a Bobcat - but shaped more like a Cheetah) named "Tiny Kitty"
She then grew to the size of a leopard, and was called "Just Plain Kitty"
She grew tiger-sized and became "Big Kitty"
... and when my Barbarian dipped cleric, it coincided with her getting a boost to an intelligence stat, and me getting a magic item that allowed permanent "Speak w/ Animals"... I RP'ed that i had been having dreams that had awakened a greater faith within me - i would tell my kitty everything...

well... By the end of the campaign, she was an Intelligent, Lawful Good ambassador of my Deity who had gained the power of speech, and chose to take the Vow of Poverty. Her name became "Holy Mother of Kitty" and she had a tendency to nitpick my life decisions and question how true my faith was.