Names?

[WildArcana]

All of us have had trouble coming up with them, where do you get your inspiration for yours?

Or, if you're having trouble naming one character in particular, why not post it here? I'm sure there are plenty of creative people willing to help out.




(Forgive me if there's a thread like this already -- I went back a few pages and checked, but never found one.)

((By the way, I've been observing the forums for a few months, ever since I found OotS. Finally felt it was time to join. :smallredface: ))

[Dhavaer]

The two characters I'm currently playing are named Autumn Willow and Sorra. Other names I've used are Aerethi, Alais, Alaryas, Lie, Morgan and Khithil.

I can't for the life of my name countries, though, which is annoying because I like making campaign worlds.

[ForzaFiori]

i jack names out of Campaign settings. :smallbiggrin:

[WildArcana]

Heh, if I do end up stealing names it's typically out of Greek mythology. Which I'm considering doing, I've had a horrendous time trying to figure out a name for a new NE druidic character.

[Folie]

I generally use BehindTheName.com for all my naming needs.

You also could go the Star Wars route and use cool-sounding fragments of existing words - examples of this include Vader and [in]Sidious. I used this method to name my super-goody-two-shoes Jedi character in KOTOR: I chopped up the words [I]magnanimous and altruistic and made them into Magna Altru.

[Matthew]

Hey, welcome to the Forums WildArcana.

As you have correctly guessed, this sort of Thread turns up from time to time, along with such things as "What Music do you use?" and "How do I run a Horror style game?" Of course, that's just the way the Forum works and there are plenty of new people who haven't read the old Threads or had the opportunity to chime in.

Anyway, I tend to use a naming convention in my Homebrew Campaign World. For my own Player Characters, I tend to steal real world names or string a bunch of syllables together. Aelfric (Human Ranger), Baelthos (Dwarven Fighter), Caethras (Elven Cleric), Darius (Human Paladin), Quintalos (Elven Wizard), Rovin (Halfling Rogue) and Turicus (Human Fighter) are the names of my currently surviving Player Characters.

[LotharBot]

I usually start by reading a bunch of names that are appropriate for that race or whatever. If I'm naming an elf, I read over a list of elf names. If I'm naming a celestial, I read over a list of celestial names (there were several named celestials in my last module.) This might require me to read things outside of D&D, like religious books, fantasy novels, or mythologies.

This gives me a good idea for what I want the name to sound like... how I want it to flow off the tongue and such. (Sometimes I can skip that step because I already know.) Then I start thinking of names that seem to fit the pattern, possibly by combining pieces of other names. Eventually I'll hit one I like and use it.

In my just-about-to-start campaign, I had a little different inspiration. One of the other players is playing a guy named "Filthy Ike", a tiefling archer who hates water and never bathes. I rolled up an aasimar sorcerer specializing in illusions and enchantments, and decided to be a foil to Ike. I thought through a series of names like "slick Steve", "smooth Steve", "Earl the Pearl", and "clean Jake", but none of them had the right ring. They were too obviously derived from "Filthy Ike", without a lot of their own personality. So I started thinking about the character... how he'd be introduced to the party. As a middle-aged aasimar with low physical stats, he's not very imposing... but he's an illusionist, so why not use a spell of disguise self? So I came up with his "paladin" look: golden hair, golden eyes, pale skin, shiny but well-worn full plate, a longsword with sparks and flames shooting off its edges, and a steel shield emblazoned with a name. Suddenly the persona yielded an obvious moniker: "Nate the Great". Written in big red and gold letters in the middle of the shield, surrounded by little animal, humanoid, and monstrous silhouettes with little tick marks next to each type. With a name like that in his illusionary paladin form, he needed a real name like "Nathaniel Graythorne". And thus was my character named.

[brian c]

I'm running a ToB campaign right now, and I stole a lot of the names from that book. For example, there is a (well, there is going to be a) Jade Phoenix Mage, so I used the name of the example guy, even though I'm using completely different stats and story than what's in the book.

Character names though, it depends on the race and background of your character. Sometimes a good idea is just to have a nickname that fits them, and either go by that or extrapolate a name for it. For example, I want to play a blaster sorc named William. Why William? Because "Bang Bang Bill" sounded like a really cool nickname.

[Solophoenix]

I have a cleric named Malon Flammar.

Malon is stolen from the Zelda game 'Ocarina of Time'. Flammar, because originally she had the fire domain, but was since then redesigned, keeping the name because I like it.

[ZebulonCrispi]

I have somewhat of a knack for coming up with names. I'm currently running Demon Lord Kelzoth in Behold's Disgaea d20 system and a Bleach character named Morita Daisuke on a forum roleplay (I tend to generate Japanese names by mix-and-matching VA/crew names from animenewsnetwork.com), and soon will be running a d20 modern character named Matthew Knight.

For modern names, I use a game I made that assigns random names to every entity in the game. It's where I got Knight, along with his bandmates Joshua Taylor, Cameron Hunter, and Liz Moeran.

[Diggorian]

I take a few words that describe the concept then mix the letters/syllables to my liking. Hobgoblin samurai concept conjures Oni (demon) and Ryu (dragon).

Oniryu I dont like, so I change it to Noriyu. End it with a K for a goblin touch: Noriyuk. This is where most of my character names come from.

Examples:
Dwarf Emoadan (immoveable)
Human Gregarion (gregarious)
Aasimar Corrain (reigning courage)
Human Alastaire (alacrity)
Pirate sorceror Riggalletto (RIG-ah-let-OH), just rolls off the tongue :smallamused:

[Piccamo]

I usually use Behindthename as well.

[psychoticbarber]

I'm usually pretty good with making up names. It's making up names on the fly I have trouble with. I have a handy-dandy 10 or so pages of names printed off (so that I can mark off the ones I've chosen). I usually arrange them by race and gender. 98% of the time people whose names come from that list are of middling importance at best, though.

Edit: I have a specific name that I reuse a lot. For a Wizard/Intellectual sort (almost always a villain), I like to use the name Martin Pale at least once in a campaign. The historical Pale was a gentleman magician in England at some point in history (I forget when, exactly). The humorous part of it all is that my players always recoil in fear when they meet someone named Martin Pale in game.

[de-trick]

i usssally use races of the wild for my woodsy characters like rangers, druids, a couple of barbians, elfs, and halflings and races of stone for dwarf and gnome names

you can get some god names like Caellas Shadowbow(wood elf ranger/rogue)

Eirlis Highblade (sun Elf swashbuckler)

[TSGames]

All of us have had trouble coming up with them, where do you get your inspiration for yours?

Or, if you're having trouble naming one character in particular, why not post it here? I'm sure there are plenty of creative people willing to help out.

Creativity was never my strong point. Fortunately, I was quick to discover that resourcefulness was a virtue I possessed and that it could often be even better than creativity. I get my names from a variety of sources, nearly all infamous literary works(I had many of them stuffed down my throat by various teachers), and then of course my favorite source(promise not to tell anyone) The Bible. Other than that, there are many more obscure works(under witch I would include even the most well known philosophical work), and mere whim, from which I draw my names.

[nerulean]

Being something of a linguist, I tend to try and find out what the language of the character's race would sound like, then come up with something that sounds like it fits in, even if it doesn't actually mean anything. You can go from real languages, fictional ones, or just vague sounds and pick syllables that match.

For example, Italian has a lot of big, open vowels and unsubtle consonants, whereas elves might tend towards sibilant and flowing sounds, so for an Italian-esque elf I might choose Miarello or Sillorina.

There are a couple of rules of naming that you should definitely stick to if you want anyone to use the names you come up with.

1) Keep it at four syllables or below. No matter how lyrical the name is, no one will bother to even try to pronounce it if it's longer.

2) Make sure there's a reasonable shortened version of it for when the PCs give him or her a nickname, and try out possibilities beforehand. Calling your character Titania might sound like a great idea until you consider it's shortened versions, and let me assure you, no one would choose to call her Ania.

3) However imaginative and beautiful a name might be, people are much more likely to remember a word that they recognise as a name. Call a character Twig or Simon and the rest of the players will actually remember his name next week. Call a character Eleyania and they'll forget.

[Morty]

I usually steal names from around and tiwst them. I don't really have talent for designing names. I decide how creatin culture's names sound, and then search for appropriate. The big boss of goblins in my campaign setting has name shamelessly stolen from Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and 75% of goblin names end on -nik or -um anyway. For elves, I search welsh, irish and overall celtic names. And so on.
And if you want really bizzare name, jutst name NPC Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz.

[Kurald Galain]

For lengthy gnome names, push random keys simultaneously until you have about twenty letters' worth, then add vowels to make it pronounceable.

[Laudandus]

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

It has name generators, and generators for virtually everything else you could ever want a generator for.

[The_Chilli_God]

When I don't have any previous inspiration for names, I follow this easy five-step solution!

Step 1: Close your eyes.
Step 2: Mash keyboard for as long as you want with whatever body part you want. Probably four to five mashes ought to get a decent-sized name. Avoid the space bar.
Step 3: Add vowels, and take out other letters so that the resulting letters are pronounceable and don't sound too freaky. (You... You can open your eyes now)
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit!

Perfect for those wacky foreign names.

Eg:
tyrdohbcvxn: Tyrdo Habcavon.
vbcndklgssugghfui: Vib-Candel Sugifu.
kmxciwhyvgrtyg: Kimixi Wyverti.

[Swooper]

Most names I just make up from syllables that sound good (or appropriate, at least), taking note of the character's language. Sometimes I nick something I like from a book or something, more common for when I DM since that kinda needs more names.

[Cowboy]

My characters names are usually dreadful puns.

Halfling Monk - Tyke Wando
Elf Monk - Shindolas Fists
Gnome Pally - Norman de Beech
Elf Wizard - Elrond Hubbard

You can see a pattern there if you look closely :)

[squishycube]

For characters I play I usually have a real-world culture in mind that represents my character's background. I then go and look for words in a language of that culture that say something about the character. Sometimes I say that the name means the same as the word I used, sometimes I don't.

As a DM I usually use name generators with various settings for the different cultures in my setting.

[Catharsis]

Being something of a linguist, I tend to try and find out what the language of the character's race would sound like, then come up with something that sounds like it fits in, even if it doesn't actually mean anything. You can go from real languages, fictional ones, or just vague sounds and pick syllables that match.

That's pretty much how I do it. The choice of a name is an important and permanent part of character creation. I like linguistic verisimilitude and suggestive undertones, and have certain standards of aesthetics I want to meet.

My first character was a charismatic (duh) sorcerer in the Welsh-themed Greyhawk country of Gyruff (Geoff): Coram Machira (COR-rum muh-KHEE-ruh). The last name is inspired by the Greek makhaira, a sabre for mounted combat.

My second character was a fighter/barbarian/cleric of Lathander: Wulfram Bront, a name ripe with allusions to strength and toughness, yet suitably dignified for a religious warrior.

Other characters I've designed but not played yet (on only played for a short time so far) are a sophisticated lady swashbuckler with a level of beguiler (Callisti Sarayé Quintessaldo), a cleric of Akadi looking for personal enlightenment (Airalloë (eye-RAHL-loh-eh), supposedly an Auran word), and a halfling rogue (Milt Farcroft).

[Ceres]

Names just pop into my head naturally, really. I usually make names for only a few key characters in my campaigns, and improvise the rest. Having DMd games based mostly on improv for over 10 years, as well as playing improv theatre might be the reason I find it so easy, though. I just use the first word that comes into my mind when I think of the Country/character/whatever and give it a fantasy twist :smallsmile:

[valadil]

I've grown a dislike of ridiculous fantasy names, so I've been twisting common english names into words that could be names but aren't. A couple favorites are Sarah + Melissa -> Serissa and Jon + George -> Joren. I find these to be much more effective character names than, say, my handle on these boards which came from a game 8 or 10 years ago and has stuck around longer than intended.

For NPCs I can't come up with names quickly enough so I make a list, clip it to my DM screen, and cross off names as I use them.

[Fixer]

I look around for three or four written words. I take the first 2-4 letters from each word and assemble them in a way that they flow well enough to make an appropriate name.

[WildArcana]

I look around for three or four written words. I take the first 2-4 letters from each word and assemble them in a way that they flow well enough to make an appropriate name.

Fileria? :smalltongue:

[FireSpark]

I find that for a name with meaning, that using the numerous name etymology sites out there is a boon. Such as http://www.behindthename.com (http://www.behindthename.com/), or http://www.namenerds.com (http://www.namenerds.com/). Last but not least http://www.20000-names.com has a lot of different cultures to scan through. Of course I don't always just take a name of these lists, but rather, I'll use a name list to get the feel for the grammer and sound of the names, and then mix and match my own.

[Oeryn]

I can't for the life of my name countries, though, which is annoying because I like making campaign worlds.

A trick I've found helpful is to find a bunch of National Geographic maps (although you could probably find 'em online), and use the names of different regions of other countries. Instead of ripping off an actual country's name (or borrowing them from an established fantasy setting), borrow names from the counties of Ireland, or the oblasts of Russia, or the provinces of China. They're real, so they have that air of authenticity, but usually are obscure enough to where people won't recognize them.

[BCOVertigo]

I also subscribe to the camp of checking preexisting names from that race or area and making something similar, with the occasional keyboard mashing or telling people to pick letters at random to start me off.


Elf Wizard - Elrond Hubbard

Hehehe...

[Deme]

sometimes I look on different name sites for a name, if I'm really stuck. With those, I tend to prefer meaning matching the character than I work for sound. Our group has a large tendancy to use A-names, so if at all possible I'll veer away from an A-sound in the first syllable.

This campaign, the name for my character (a human bard) jumped into my head: River. For her last name, I wanted an actual, plain-sounding last name. It was kind of silly when the best one I could think of was "Fisher"...I decided that would be a sore spot.

I have a friend who does it entirely by whatever syllables she can find, or through a website if she's really stuck.

[lotofsnow]

I like to use "Lot" as my name. Not sure why. I'm sure there's some sort of psychoanalytical reason for it.


Heh, if I do end up stealing names it's typically out of Greek mythology. Which I'm considering doing, I've had a horrendous time trying to figure out a name for a new NE druidic character.

When Lot (or some derivation thereof) just won't apply, I'll turn to Greek mythology as well.

If I were to make a NE Druid, I would pick "Typhon (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/typhon.html)":


Typhon is the offspring of Gaia and Tartarus. His mate is Echidna and both were so fearful that when the gods saw them they changed into animals and fled in terror. Typhon's hundred, horrible heads touched the stars, venom dripped from his evil eyes, and lava and red-hot stones poured from his gaping mouths. Hissing like a hundred snakes and roaring like a hundred lions, he tore up whole mountains and threw them at the gods.

Zeus soon regained his courage and turned, and when the other gods saw him taking his stand, they came back to help him fight the monster. A terrible battle raged, and hardly a living creature was left on Earth. But Zeus was fated to win, and as Typhon tore up huge Mount Aetna to hurl at the gods, Zeus struck it with a hundred well-aimed thunderbolts and the mountain fell back, pinning Typhon underneath. There the monster lies to this very day, belching fire, lava and smoke through the top of the mountain.

Echidna, his hideous mate, escaped destruction. She cowered in a cave, protecting Typhon's offspring, and Zeus let them live as a challenge to future heroes. Echidna and Typhon's children are the Nemean Lion, Cerberus, Ladon, the Chimera, the Sphinx, and the Hydra.

Mmmm... wild shape.

[Costantinov]

Pesonaly, i just figure out a name when i create a character.

Sometimes i use known names (like Conan), other times i make some new names like : Nekar (half-orc barbarian) or Eledanar (Human Sorcerer)

I believe though humans are more simple to name, for you can use simple names (like Roy :smallbiggrin: )

Also, for elves, check this out: http://www.chriswetherell.com/elf/

[Blue Paladin]

It really depends... If the group is in a silly mood at character creation, we get names like Reese (a certain peanut butter cup was being eaten), Alix Ir (there was a Sobe Elixir on the table), and Pyc (pronounced Pike)... which isn't so bad until you add his middle name Raft and his last name O'Leplayngame (guess what rulebook was also on the table?).

Other times I'll actually look up meanings of names. A recent character I played had the last name Sheridan. I took it from Babylon 5 because I thought it was a good solid name. I researched it and found out it's Gaelic, meaning "to seek"... After picking a suitable target, a rose, that led me to the Armenian name Vartan. Gaelic + Armenian = cool sounding name. And it actually meant something too: Seeker of the Rose.

My latest character's name has an interesting etymology. He's from the wild steppes, from a race mostly analagous to the ancient Mongolians. So I took the name of the most famous Mongolian I know and parsed it. Genghis Khan means Khan (ruler) of the entire world. Well, I'm not greedy; I'll settle for half. Instead of zen (whole, entire), that's bun (half). So when put back into Mongolian that should be something like Benghis. Being an old-school Capcom fan, I change this to Bengus (this leads naturally to my missing brother's name being Akiman, but that's neither here nor there). So I now have a name, Bengus Kon, that most people dismiss as not terribly clever, whereas I know the story behind it and how much thought actually went into it.

Or you can roll dice: d6 for vowels A E I O U Y and d20 for the consonants. Leads to some messy, messy names...

[....]

I try to keep my names simple and somewhat based off of reality.

Willam
Asher
Alion
Evard

Probably the most complicated name I ever came up with for a serious character was "Theradin Oakhunter".

Although anytime anyone wants to play a evil/emo/anti-hero campaign I bust out "Altorius Killraven"

[Mephibosheth]

I too use behind the name as a major resource, especially if I have an idea of the RW culture I want to base the character from. I also use names from books I'm reading or movies I've seen.

However, when none of that will suffice, I have a fun trick that helps a lot. First, I pick a language that I'm sure no one in my gaming group knows how to speak. In my case, this is easy since my IRL gaming group isn't the most multilingual. Most often for me that language is Hindi/Urdu (major languages in northern India/Pakistan), since I speak with a decent amount of fluency and no one I play with has any clue. Then, I find a dictionary for that language (or use my own knowledge if I happen to speak the language myself). I usually use online dictionaries (free FTW), but I've been known to use hard copy dictionaries as well. Then, I decide on a characteristic (or two) of the character that I think is particularly important and translate that word or phrase into my chosen language. Finally, if I think it needs to be tweaked (for any number of reasons, though usually to make it easier to pronounce), I mess around with letters and/or remove syllables, and voila! Interesting, unique names with a high degree of verisimilitude.

One caveat: The important thing to be aware of with this method (especially when using languages like Hindi or Telugu) is that the pronunciation patterns for many of these languages are extremely foreign to people unfamiliar with the languages. Thiruvananthapuram is a really cool city name, but if no one can pronounce it, no one will remember it or they'll shorten/make fun of it. It always helps to be aware of these things and remove difficult pronunciation features or spell the words phonetically.

Hope that helps

Mephibosheth

[North]

I love naming my characters.

I usually look behind the inspiration of my characters. And then find something relalated to hit. Or I get geeky and find something comic related and see if my group catches the reference. When I do magical chars I like to throw in some of them fancy letters like k,y,j,x,v,z, you know the freak letters :)

If their just throwaway or oneshots i like to mock their purpose like the the Level 1 Fighter Yiam Meatshauld. It ammuses us and actually makes it possible to remember them later. Although having the Priest whose name was Sinistrus Ne'Farious was amusing because no matter how much we tried/searched he was up to nothing bad at all

[LotharBot]

The important thing to be aware of with this method (especially when using languages like Hindi or Telugu)

Sometimes those languages have their own accents, as in the Hebrew (where you get the name Mephibosheth, among others.) There's an ancient story about people from a different region being discovered by whether they said "Shibboleth" or "Sibboleth".

That's also worth being aware of. Sometimes you can make a name sound "authentic" with the right accent, which may be a more or less common regional accent associated with the language in question. Something as simple as turning Sh into S, or not having an L sound, can make a big difference.

[WildArcana]

If I were to make a NE Druid, I would pick "Typhon (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/typhon.html)"

One slight stipulation. :smallamused:

She's a female. :P I've come up with a name to substitute a real one with that I sort of like, and i'll use it if I can't manage any better, but for now it lets me write.

On a related note, how would you pronounce 'Nyhai?'

[Piccamo]

I'd pronounce it nee*hay. What does it mean?

[WildArcana]

I'd pronounce it nee*hay. What does it mean?

I 'unno. Derived it from Mihai, which is a variant of some other name that means something... I forget.

[Reinboom]

Depends, I usually get my names by mixing Latin, Japanese, and a made up dialect for more foreign needing to sound names.
I also use a grid of vowels and consonants, randomly placed, and keep drawing random lines until a word comes up that sounds like a name. Then I just keep a list.

For my own characters... I like putting more time into it. Usually a name will take me hours or even days to come to finalized for. Thus far, a prefered named I am using for a character that I enjoy isn't even originally thought of by me, but by cobra ikari: Nashira. (he suggested Narshira, I dropped the first r).
the her tribal name "Sunosuisha" - or "Suno Suisho" (Snow Crystal; japanese) to make up Nashira of the Sunosuisha.

[Lolzords]

Names I've used are: Donnaz Amakiir (Rogue), Aust Nailo(Ranger), Himo Velardae(ranger/rogue), Jack Trades(bard), Kas(wizard), Htrona(cleric), Kindrek(fighter/order of the bow), Murray(barbarian) and Biff the monk/drunken master :smallbiggrin: .

[Swooper]

Kindrek
Man, if you were playing in my group (Icelanders, obviously) you'd get shot down with a name like that very fast. Kind means "sheep," -reki means "herder." Kindreki therefore means "sheepboy" in the same way as "cowboy." Now, kinn means "cheek" and dreki means "dragon" so Kinndreki would translate as "cheek dragon.":smallbiggrin:

I learnt this the hard way after naming an elf sorceress Kirinalda. Propably sounds OK to you anglophones, and it sounded good in my head, but pronounced the same way but spelt "Kýrin Alda" means "Alda the cow" (Alda is a common Icelandic woman's name). :smallfrown:


Lesson learnt. When making up a name, make sure it doesn't mean anything in a language any of the other players might know.:smalltongue:

[InfiniteMiller]

I've chosen names a couple different ways. My first character, Damon Fordius, was named for an anagram (four diamonds).

My current character, Quentin the Pale (my avatar) was named a long time after his character concept was solidified. He was meant to be a paladin who because of his young age and lack of experience is rarely taken seriously by those he is sworn to protect and suffers from poor self esteem as a result. I tried to come up with a feeble sounding name and paired it with a title with multiple meanings with the same connotations.

I feel this is probably my best method for coming up with names.

[AslanCross]

I usually mix and match names from various literary sources. Before the movie came out, very few people could tell that I got the name "Aslan" from Chronicles of Narnia (which is Turkish for lion).

I sometimes take words and alter their spelling or mix with other words until they're unrecognizable. For example, I got the name "Calamor" (a villain in my campaign) by taking "Calamity" and merely replacing the last few letters. His partner, Ataklos, was similarly named---his name started as "Cataclysm."

Searching ancient texts also helps, especially if you want names with meanings.
When I was searching for a name for our paladin/would-be Gray Guard's sentient greataxe, I came upon the verb for "to harvest" in a Greek version of the Bible: "Therido," which is pronounced more like "Theridzo." I changed that a bit into "Therizon," which supposedly means "Harvester."

A cool name for a Holy Avenger-type sword I found is "Soterion" (Salvation). For a wicked sword wielded by a blackguard devoted to Bane, I got "Kosmokrator" (world-ruler, an epithet of Satan).

Digging even deeper, there are cool Hebrew names out there---Magor-missabib, for example, means "Terror On Every Side."

For Celestials and related creatures I usually look at astronomy references; I had an Aasimar duelist named Terazel Ras'Algethi. Ras'Algethi is the name of a star, while I got Terazel from the Japanese word "Terasu" (to illuminate) and the -el suffix that is often associated with angelic names.

I find that broadening the stuff I read helps me diversify the names I come up with in general.