World building questions.

[Throne12]

So how do yall name things. Coming up with names for anything is the one big problem I have. So I'm looking for advice in how to come up with names of this like cities, npc names, countries, races, ect. So any advice would be cool.

[Galithar]

A mix of random name generators, 'random tables' D&D books I've bought, stealing names I like from books, shows movies etc. Is basically how I come up with names.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I have "base languages" for each of the major cultures--real-world languages that serve as starting points. Then I google translate phrases that evoke the creature/culture/place into the base language and mutate until I have something I can pronounce easily and that sounds "right".

[Wryte]

Something from Rich's gaming articles, Part 7: Names and Cultures (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/ieXLOFKij6eMmNIwTcy.html) that I always try to keep in mind:


One of the biggest flaws I see in fantasy settings and even fantasy novels is to create names for people, places, and things in a vacuum, without regard for the cultures that coined those names. If the nation is called Eagleclaw, the capital should not be called X’ithcal, and the river upon whose shore it sits should not be named the Chijcothu’ru River. Names of related places should relate linguistically, generally speaking. If they don’t, it should be on purpose, as a way of indicating that the region was named by another civilization or species. This is why the United States has such a hodge-podge of names, given as they were by settlers from many nations or swiped from what the indigenous people used. Thus, you can have Manhattan island (an Iroquois name) in the Hudson River (a Dutch name), which is part of New York City (an English name), and looks out onto the Atlantic Ocean (a Latin name). But if you look at other nations, all of their names come from their own language and culture.

Using real-world names as inspiration and reference helps me often, although I try to avoid directly lifting names for things other than people. One fun bonus to this approach is that you can create or reinforce themes for a race or nationality through your choice of which real world language to borrow from. For example, I'm writing a fantasy story where one of the main characters comes from a desert people known best outside of their homeland for trade caravans and horsemen, so I look to Arabic and other middle eastern languages for inspiration for names from her culture.

Another important point from that article:


When choosing names, remember that people play roleplaying games by speaking out loud. Names that look good on paper are no good if the players or DM cannot pronounce them. Xzymrotchit might strike you as a cool name for the elven capital, but I can guarantee you in an actual session, the people sitting around the table will call it, “that big elf city.” And that takes them out of the mood for that fraction of a second every time they say it.

One trick I use to help with this is to give two names to things if I'm not sure my players will remember the first one: its original name, and a nickname or colloquial Common name. For example, early in my home campaign, my players visited an ancient dwarven stronghold called "Khaz Gollah" by the dwarves, which roughly translated to "the Vault of the Earth." References to Khaz Gollah have come up a few times since then, and whenever someone doesn't remember what that is, someone else usually remembers that it was "the Vault of the Earth."

[Bubzors]

A mix of random name generators, 'random tables' D&D books I've bought, stealing names I like from books, shows movies etc. Is basically how I come up with names.

This. So much this. Generally try to have it fit thematically with the region but honestly my players ruin it anyway. They really dont care about that weird four syllable name where the lizardfolk come from. They just remember it as swamp town. And use it as such until it just becomes the way I refer as well.

Not that I'm complaining, honestly no one cares about your super cool elvish name for the capital. As long as they know what it is and how it fits in the world, whatever name they use it's fine. It all exists to help facilitate the gameplay, not stroke the DMs ego of being this great world builder.

In that same vein, I find using semi descriptive names helps a lot. The dead moors for the marshy undead infested swamps, the deepwood for creepy old growth forest, the heaven spires for those super big mountain ranges, etc

[opaopajr]

I have "base languages" for each of the major cultures--real-world languages that serve as starting points. Then I google translate phrases that evoke the creature/culture/place into the base language and mutate until I have something I can pronounce easily and that sounds "right".

This. :smallcool: It's all the advice and reasoning that is expanded in TL;DR explanations into applied Cliff Notes.

[Unoriginal]

The Xanathar's has big lists of names, if you have that book.

[Brother Oni]

Adding suffixes like -ton, -gard, -ham, -wick, -heim, -shire, -stead, etc. to real words works pretty well to name towns and villages.

Bear in mind that some suffixes have meanings, for example:

-ton: Place or estate
-ham: Farm or homestead
-wick: bay
-stead: enclosed pasture

So calling a farming village Applewick would make as much sense as calling a fishing village Fisham.

[Ventruenox]

I would advise that having a quick way to come up with names on the fly is prudent. Also a quick list of important NPCs on hand instead of referencing back and forth among pages. One town ended up with several individuals named "Duuur...", though fortunately I used that to my advantage by establishing family relation.

Next time I run a campaign, I will establish two antiquated naming conventions in the world, blatantly stolen from other media. One where children are named after the first thing the mother screams after giving birth, another where an inhuman child is named after the first thing they try to eat. I might also include the Discworld naming ceremony, only conducted in barely literate areas by an alcoholic priest.

[Laserlight]

For individual names, I usually start with Kate Monk's Onomastikon and pick names that evoke the base culture I'm using. If the area they're in is Pseudo Venice, for instance, I might look for Lombard or Occitan names.

Place names are usually a description, but I try to pick a description based on what the culture valued. One culture might be all roads and travel related, one might be from water folk, one might be metalworkers. You'll get to the point where you know Moonpool is probably half ruins and lurking savages, Bruna's Crossroad and Piper's Gap are probably villages or small towns, and Copper Forge is garrisoned by the people who invaded and took over a generation ago.

[Unoriginal]

Bear in mind that some suffixes have meanings, for example:

-ton: Place or estate
-ham: Farm or homestead
-wick: bay
-stead: enclosed pasture

So calling a farming village Applewick would make as much sense as calling a fishing village Fisham.

Why couldn't a place have both apples and a bay? Or a fishing farm?

[MintyNinja]

I have "base languages" for each of the major cultures--real-world languages that serve as starting points. Then I google translate phrases that evoke the creature/culture/place into the base language and mutate until I have something I can pronounce easily and that sounds "right".

I also do this, but I use more random "fantasy-esque" names for older places. So while the Valadian Empire uses plenty of Italian, Spanish, and Latin roots, their namesake stems from the elvish name Val'adua, meaning "Home on Vast Lake."

[LibraryOgre]

For personal names, a friend of mine always named Good Wizards after Engineers, and Evil Wizards after Mathematicians.

[JoeJ]

I have "base languages" for each of the major cultures--real-world languages that serve as starting points. Then I google translate phrases that evoke the creature/culture/place into the base language and mutate until I have something I can pronounce easily and that sounds "right".

I do this, but I also include a lot of very obscure (in my part of the world) or reconstructed ancient languages. For example, most of the very old names in my World of Battersea come from Proto-Indo-European, including the names of the gods. To a bunch of native English speakers, this makes them feel somewhat familiar without being readily identifiable. I also use Proto-Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Proto-Finno-Ugric, Armenian, Old Persian, Etruscan, medieval Finnish, Basque, Mongolian, Amharic, and Turkish (dictionaries for all of these can be found with a quick Google search).

Place names are translated into English if the original is Glenari (aka Proto-Celtic), but otherwise left in whatever language I named them in - with a few exceptions that I made because I thought the English sounded cooler (For example, "Mormorep" is shown on my map as "Spiderfell," and that's how people refer to it.)

[LibraryOgre]

Hmmm, are all the Neutral Wizards named after Physicists?

I'll ask him.

[JoeJ]

One other thing about my world; there are a few languages that humans, elves, etc. simply can't pronounce. Draconic is the most commonly encountered language of this type, but there are others. Anybody can learn to understand it, but if you're not a reptile you'll never speak it without magical aide.

[LaserFace]

This thread already has some good suggestions, but I feel like offering my perspective anyway.

Names are an opportunity to tell your players about the world they inhabit. If you want to name some places in your world, you could smash your fingers into the keyboard until you come up with some weird quasi-fantasy stuff like "Jor'dleblordle" and "Mordogalnus" or whatever. And maybe people will find that cool. But, I think it's cooler when those weird sounds are associated with something important to the world. So, even if you must use the keyboard-mashing method, I think you should transition to using a consistent naming scheme where every "Jor-" is a city near some mountains, and "Mordo-" is specifically a necropolis, etc, to help give the setting some order. I think players will appreciate it when they think there is some underlying consistency.

I think a better method is to rely on use of simple words that are thematic to a kingdom or other region, as a reflection of their culture. You could also visit websites that provide meanings behind words in languages like French, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, and so on, to help you evoke a specific worldly image that your players might appreciate, and to give things an "exotic" feel.

So, if I have a culture that is all about moral purity, and let's say I decide they're based on medieval Spaniards, I might have names translate to English as "White", "Bright", "Holy", "Joy", etc, used as adjectives to describe the landscape or important markings of the terrain, like "Hill", "River", "Forest", etc. I could have locations called 'Colina Blanca', 'Rio Sagrado', 'Bosque Alegre'. Maybe in a neighboring territory, I could have a land of sad Frenchmen, with places like 'Vallée Déprimante', 'Lac Triste' or 'Plaines Décevantes'. Or I could even keep those names in English. It doesn't really matter. But, at any rate, I'm relying on established linguistic rules to make setting material, saving me a lot of time and effort. IMO, names don't deserve much more attention than that, unless you could come up with something really evocative.

Characters are maybe slightly different, but, I find myself almost entirely relying on lists of medieval and ancient world names. Sometimes even modern names. Actually, I think more interesting than names is often titles. It's one thing to have your players confront some guy named 'Manfred', it's another for them to confront "The Red Baron".

And so on.