Fun real life names

[J-H]

My mother-in-law just linked to a staff profile of a guy at her church. His last name?

Deatherage

I think I want to name my next barbarian or evil wizard Deatherage now.

What other real-life names have you run into that look like they've stepped out of a D&D character sheet?

[DrStubbsberg]

In my family tree, we discovered a great-great-uncle (it may be 3 greats, can't recall off-hand) named Livewell Beard - a fairly good Dwarven name, and the icing on the cake is that he was very short (possibly actually had some type of dwarfism, we couldn't be 100% clear).

[oxybe]

My handle? My grandfather's name. Which seems to be a variant of Auxibe.

His dad, my great-grandfather? Gildas.

Then again, a lot of people where I grew up have old french names seeing as how we're Acadian: Augustin, Exina, Basilise.

And that's just a few standouts from my family.

Victorin, Stanislaus, Sylvain, Ghyslaine, Una, etc... are other names that aren't common in the city where I currently live in.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Virginia Thrasher.

In one if my old commands we had a Slaughter, sadly it was the Navy so he wasn't a Sergeant.

[Fiery Diamond]

Virginia Thrasher.

In one if my old commands we had a Slaughter, sadly it was the Navy so he wasn't a Sergeant.

There's an actual MD Doctor Slaughter around here.

[Dire Moose]

I heard of one guy who had the last name of Doom. He eventually got a PhD in engineering; one of the reasons being just so people would have to refer to him as Doctor Doom.

[TheYell]

Good thing you guys only know me as The Yell and not Chris Balsz.

[Martin Greywolf]

Cracked had an article about this a while back, my favorite was definitely Staff Sargeant Max Fightmaster.

[Honest Tiefling]

I don't wish to reveal my cousin's name (he's still alive and kicking), but there's a 50-50 chance of him becoming a supervillian with his name.

A worse one from my family tree: 'Experience Freedman'. Yes, that was her name. Another ancestor was named 'Wrassling'.

[TheYell]

umm did Experience Freedman have anything to do with the Underground Railroad?

[Honest Tiefling]

umm did Experience Freedman have anything to do with the Underground Railroad?

Probably not, given she was a Puritan and I think...2 generations off from the Mayflower?

[TheYell]

Ah that explains the "Experience" then.

Our family name was Froank. They petitioned the territorial legislature to change it to Balsz. The old man's obituary praised his sound judgment and common sense but I think he made at least one flub. Another was donating land so they named a school district after him.

[snowblizz]

I once paid the salary of one "Herman Gröning". Had he ever come in person to the office I would have had to ask him... did his parents make a really unfortunate combination? Because every time I saw the name there was only one association I could see.

[Garimeth]

I knew a Corporal Kilgore once.

[Joe the Rat]

Ransom is by far my favorite "old timey" first name. Ransom Eli Olds. Made cars.

There was also a Chiropractor named Bonebrake.

[InvisibleBison]

It's not really a D&D-like name, but I feel I have to mention Nicholas If-Jesus-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barebone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Barbon). Another bizarre name is Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, Sr. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Blaine_Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, _Sr.), who had the longest personal name ever used (the name in the link is a common abbreviation; his full name is roughly a paragraph long.)

[Âmesang]

I could have sworn I once knew a person named "Killgore."

Also probably a bit cliché and old news, but is the Vin Diesel anagram, "I end lives," purposeful or just coincidence?


A worse one from my family tree: 'Experience Freedman'. Yes, that was her name.
At least it wasn't "Experience Bij?" :smalleek:

[Beleriphon]

I new a French Canadian Army captain named Panique, we all hoped he was promoted to Major.

[YossarianLives]

A couple years ago, while traveling through a small town, I saw a butchershop owned by a fellow named Vincent Carver. Doesn't sound much like a fantasy character, but quite possibly a serial killer. Especially considering their profession.

[digiman619]

A couple years ago, while traveling through a small town, I saw a butchershop owned by a fellow named Vincent Carver. Doesn't sound much like a fantasy character, but quite possibly a serial killer. Especially considering their profession.

More than likely that he comes from a family of butchers who were named after their profession. Not that couldn't also be a scary way to hide serial killing, but whatever.

[GPuzzle]

Anything gaelic enough can sound awesome for your D&D game.

Or finnish enough.

[BayardSPSR]

Archer Blood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Blood), Anne-Marie Slaughter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne-Marie_Slaughter), Samantha Power (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Power)? The US diplomatic community has hosted a remarkable number of remarkably undiplomatic names.

[The Great Wyrm]

I had a classmate last year named Augustus Pendleton. I might use it for a noble NPC sometime.

Real-life Viking names are pretty impressive: Thorfinn Skullcleaver, Erik Bloodaxe, Ivar the Boneless

[Laserlight]

Real-life Viking names are pretty impressive: Thorfinn Skullcleaver, Erik Bloodaxe, Ivar the Boneless

Not a Viking, but in the same spirit: Bonyak the Godless, who broke his lance on the gate of Kiev.

In southwest Virginia there's the town of Fries, pronounced "Freeze". I'm told one resident was Frost Snow.

One of my relatives worked at the medical office of two doctors who were unfortunately named Hertz and Payne.

[Christopher K.]

My buddy Connor works at the zoo's gift shop, and one time had to manually ring the debit card of one BRUCE WARLOCK.

[Belac93]

Lavalamp
Pappajorjio
River
Dragon (actually his birth name)
India Ireland (yes, this person had 2 countries as names, and was descended from people from both of them)
Helmet
Ashliya

[Madbox]

Last dentist I saw had the surname "Toothtaker". Incidentally, he was bad. Tried to pull the wrong tooth. Good thing I paid attention to which one they said needed work.

I had a teacher named Anita Box. As in, "I need a box." And another one named Mrs. Mann.

One that's funny in context. My name? James. My dad's two brothers? James. My cousins who are male? All James. My paternal grandfather? James. My great aunt, who is a cisgender woman? James (only child, parents wanted to keep the tradition). My dad? William. My dad's stepbrother? Also William.