Naming the Races

[R.Shackleford]

I would really love to see 5e start givingnactual names to some of the races that don't actually have one

Half-Orcs, Half-Elves, and Halflings.

I understand these names are iconic but come on, if these names are lazy and out dated then I don't know what is.

Halfling I feel this is kinda mean in all honesty, I can't imagine this name came up naturally through their history. Some human was like "yo, that person over there is like, half, of a human".

Half-Orcs would either want to be called something else or be called an orc. I can't help but think that being called half a monster everyday must be like.

Half-Elves have it best, true, but even then always being called a halfie and calling yourself a halfie has got to grate on your nerves. Not quite human never enough elf...


So what are some alternative names for these races? We're they called something else in one of the many 1e, 2e, 3e, or 4e settings?

I always like the Mul, the half human half dwarf combo.

I'm not super PC or anything, I just find it weird that there is so much history, and so many Half Elf Bards, that these races don't have names yet. Even if they are rare.

[Pex]

I have the Dragonborn in my world call themselves Sslaa. It's taken from Master of Orion II where it's sometimes given as the default name for the Sakkra leader, and I use Sakkra as the name of their country.

[R.Shackleford]

I have the Dragonborn in my world call themselves Sslaa. It's taken from Master of Orion II where it's sometimes given as the default name for the Sakkra leader, and I use Sakkra as the name of their country.

That's pretty cool. I guess calling dragonborns, dragonborns, would be like calling humans Apeborn.

[Hrugner]

It's sort of weird yeah, but two of those aren't distinct races. That combined with the fact that races seem to be able to interbreed very freely, and a real naming solution doesn't seem available. I've always had halflings called "the people", but mostly because I like making worlds where they are the most prosperous and plentiful humanoid race. Small size forcing them to work together and all that.

I never considered naming the hybrid races though. But due to the apparently infinite racial combinations, it may make more sense to refer to the non-hybrid races as "pure X" while refering to the others as orc-like or elf-like without specifying their ancestry specifically. Really interbreeding as an option should leave you with a much more mixed population than not unless it's rarely successful.

[R.Shackleford]

It's sort of weird yeah, but two of those aren't distinct races. That combined with the fact that races seem to be able to interbreed very freely, and a real naming solution doesn't seem available. I've always had halflings called "the people", but mostly because I like making worlds where they are the most prosperous and plentiful humanoid race. Small size forcing them to work together and all that.

I never considered naming the hybrid races though. But due to the apparently infinite racial combinations, it may make more sense to refer to the non-hybrid races as "pure X" while refering to the others as orc-like or elf-like without specifying their ancestry specifically. Really interbreeding as an option should leave you with a much more mixed population than not unless it's rarely successful.

I don't think puritybwould matter as much as having a lot of the same type of people who contribute to history and society.

I mean, humans have Neanderthal DNA in us but we don't call the ones that don't humans and the ones that do "part-time".

[mgshamster]

Halflings are just called "the folk" or even "normal people." But they refer to everyone else as onetwothirlings (pronounced one-tuh-ther-ling), because they're one-and-two-thirds the size of a normal person.

[Darksidebro]

In forgotten realms, Halflings refer to themselves as "Hin". Yondalla herself among halflings is referred to as the "Hin Mother"
Source: Scag, pg 108/110

I remember reading once in.. either a novel or sourcebook that "Hin" was halflings tongue for "The Family"

I also recall reading once of the "Hin-Fist" which is a group of halfling Monks in forgotten realms. Not quite sure if that one is canon though.

[Hrugner]

I don't think puritybwould matter as much as having a lot of the same type of people who contribute to history and society.

I mean, humans have Neanderthal DNA in us but we don't call the ones that don't humans and the ones that do "part-time".

Real world human ancestry isn't really a good mirror of D&D ancestry. In the real world we have evolution driving change and mixing lineages increasing variety. D&D is based more on a Robert E. Howard concept of race where purity of race gives greater expression of strong primordial traits. A half elf with real world genetics should potentially be better than both a human and an elf as it has all their traits available, each race is about equal in ability, and a mixed population would invariably be stronger in every way; whereas a half elf in D&D has a weaker expression of the traits from both parents. So while racial purity in real life is a pretty nonsense concept, in D&D it's a pretty important one.

That aside, there are certainly people who try to raise a stink about blood quantum in real life even without things like innate spell casting and seeing in the dark. Purity would probably be a strongly held value.

[tsotate]

My halflings call themselves "people", and most of the taller races "twicelings".

[R.Shackleford]

Real world human ancestry isn't really a good mirror of D&D ancestry. In the real world we have evolution driving change and mixing lineages increasing variety. D&D is based more on a Robert E. Howard concept of race where purity of race gives greater expression of strong primordial traits. A half elf with real world genetics should potentially be better than both a human and an elf as it has all their traits available, each race is about equal in ability, and a mixed population would invariably be stronger in every way; whereas a half elf in D&D has a weaker expression of the traits from both parents. So while racial purity in real life is a pretty nonsense concept, in D&D it's a pretty important one.

That aside, there are certainly people who try to raise a stink about blood quantum in real life even without things like innate spell casting and seeing in the dark. Purity would probably be a strongly held value.

I'm pretty sure racial purity has been a factor in a few wars/conflicts in the real world... I can think of a big one off the top of my head...

Anyways... It doesn't really matter what the drivingnforces of the D&D world's are. These races seem to have been named by outside forces and they stuck to the point that they call themselves that. Even the ones that are a global superpower.

I find this weird. It would be like looking at Russians and saying "for now on you are called Putinborn" and then they adopt that as their official name...

It just doesn't feel organic to the nature of things.

[Belac93]

I like elves as Farakal Denassi.

Halflings as Duru.

Dwarves as Togra.

[JackPhoenix]

Halflings call themselves hobbits, of course

Eberron half-elves (who breeds true) calls themselves Khoravar, "Children of Khorvaire"... both humans and elves originated on other continents and Khorvaire was the place when they met and intermingled.

[smcmike]

The standard names are a game device, the same as class names. In-world they can be called whatever you like.

I don't have any problem with halflings, half-elves, or half-orcs as standard common names for those races. That's just what the humans call them. They could also be little folk, hobbits, elfbloods, orcspawn, whatever. ,

[Tallis]

Halflings and half-elves both appear in Tolkien. Hobbits and Dunedain (I think, it's what Aragorn is) respectively. The name Halfling also comes from Tolkien but it's what other people call them, not what they call themselves. Also note: the Dunedain are not exactly half elves but are humans with elf ancestry so at some point they descended from half elves. The only example in real world mythology that I can think of is Morgan Le Fey from Arthurian legends. In her case her ancestry is noted in her name but she isn't referred to as a really separate race.

If you prefer to go Norse half-elves would be Halalfar. Alfar being elf and docalfar being dark elf. No help for half-orcs o halflings there though.

[Zevox]

Halflings and half-elves both came from Tolkien. Hobbits and Dunedain (I think, it's what Aragorn is) respectively. The name Halfling also comes from Tolkien but it's what other people call them, not what they call themselves.
Right about Halflings, wrong about Half-Elves. Half-Elves in Tolkien were the specific individuals who were either the children or grandchildren of one of the three human-Elf pairings throughout history. The one that is most familiar to most people being Elrond, who was the immediate descendant of two of those three families (his father was Half-Elf and his mother three-quarters Elf, one-quarter human). For the most part when the term appears in Tolkien it's referring to that immediate family: Earendil, Elwing, and their sons Elrond and Elros, since they're the half-Elves with the most significance in the history of his world.

Aragorn is a very distant descendant of Elrond's brother, so he does have some Elf blood in him, but he's not even close to being considered a half-Elf. His children would be, though, since their parents were a mostly-human father and a mostly-elven mother.

[JumboWheat01]

I'm pretty sure a half-orc would actually have nothing wrong in normal civilized areas calling themselves half-orc, with an emphasis on the world HALF, to remind others that they are not one of those rampaging monsters that terrorize others.

Though there was that half-orc sorcerer in Neverwinter Nights who snidely remarked on his lack of confidence that the human half made him any better, with their bigotry and all...

Still, an ogre and an orc make an ogrillon, so... humillon for a half-orc?

[CuriousWanderer]

I think the Uruk-Hai are crosses between orcs and men in the Lord of the Rings so that name might work.

[Regitnui]

Halflings call themselves hobbits, of course

Eberron half-elves (who breeds true) calls themselves Khoravar, "Children of Khorvaire"... both humans and elves originated on other continents and Khorvaire was the place when they met and intermingled.

Ninja'd. Its It's worth noting that the Lyrandar half-elves call themselves Khoravar and put a fair amount of emphasis on their difference from their parent races, but Medani, the other half-elf house, gladly wear the 'half-elf' label and think of themselves as a continued blending of the races. Lyrandar almost exclusively adopts khoravar while Medani gladly takes both elves and humans into their bloodline.

There's also a name for the half-orcs: jhorgun'taal. They're respected in the Shadow Marches as a joining of the two races; native orcs and settler humans. The "children of two bloods" get treated much better by their native families than usual, though there's still a fair amount of discrimination in the main Five Nations, since orcs are seen as backward marsh-dwellers. House Tharashk has helped, but you still get treated strangely.

Jhorgun'taal is harder to pronounce, that apostrophe representing a glottal stop, so I am not surprised I couldn't remember it. My guess is it'll be pronounced "(z/sh)-or-gin-" "-TA-al". You have to leave a space in the apostrophe, like in Xen'drik or Haka'torvhak, Q'barra.

[Dimers]

Lizardfolk are khar, and their language is also called Khar. It sounds similar to Norwegian. The khar also developed a language of dance in which each move represents one concept. They use it to speak to spirits in a way that's easier for the spirits to understand.

Elves call humans hermase (hur MOSH), and half-elves are accordingly alhermase (OLL hur MOSH), 'human-infected'. Either one might also be referred to frequently as dundel, 'idiot'. My elves are more open about their rampant racism than in most worlds. They're not playable as PCs.

Half-dwarves are drut.

Aasimar are scions, and something sorta tiefling-like is a spawn.

I don't have goblins, but I have caverners who are sometimes called 'goblins' or 'gremlins' by non-caverners. I can't write what they call themselves in their native language, because the language involves gestures and smells that their bodies can produce.

[pwykersotz]

A major obstacle is that while any name at all can be created, there's a certain accessibility problem with random names. If I tell you that the races have the names Fallara, Dosen, and Vehiris, do you know which is Halfling, which is Half-Orc, and which is Half-Elf?

So if you create names, they should be related to existing mythology so that they can create an image in the player's mind without you have to add explicitly that it's a half-race. Hobbits is well known, so copyright issues aside, that's probably the best.

I don't have any suggestions on-hand though. :smallfrown:

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Halfling I feel this is kinda mean in all honesty, I can't imagine this name came up naturally through their history. Some human was like "yo, that person over there is like, half, of a human".


Double-quarterlings.