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Imbalance
2020-04-13, 12:46 PM
My character began the campaign as a reincarnation, per the 5e spell, into the body of another race. I gave him an adequate backstory where he used to be this proud elf and a name to fit his current form, but one thing I didn't settle on was his original name. Instead, I put more thought into how we would answer the question from someone who would see him as he is now, with this coy riddle: "I am uncertain that I can remember it correctly, I know that I can no longer pronounce it properly, and even if you heard me say it, you would not believe that it was mine." Now, I think maybe he deserves something he can call his own, whether it ever becomes important or not.

There is a strong desire to dismissively name him Hermey Keebler, come up with some Sindarin tongue twister like Elithlaerealthilion, or steal something from obscure fiction like Fedrin Starsdawn, but I figure it can be even more fun to see what the playground throws at me.

So, what could I name this guy that just screams ELF!?

D&D_Fan
2020-04-13, 12:48 PM
And name starting with 'El' or just L. with an A in it.

Anonymouswizard
2020-04-13, 01:17 PM
There should be an apostraphe every three or four letters, pronounced as, of course, qq.

legomaster00156
2020-04-13, 01:37 PM
May I propose Legolas?

Anonymouswizard
2020-04-13, 02:00 PM
May I propose Legolas?

Is that really elven? Surely Bl'ss'dch'ld'fth'm''n is much more fitting.

A more serious idea for making believeable long names, stolen from the Doctor Who RPG: take three ordinary names, mash them together, and then add or subtract some letters. So let's take Ben, Charles, and Smith, we get Bencharlessmith, which we can turn into Encharlesmit easily (en-shalls-smit), and play around with adding or subracting some letters if we wanted to.

Segev
2020-04-13, 02:20 PM
Thamiel El'Jaquthun

Or, if you're being formal, Thamiel El-ehmeh fen'Jaquthun.

Though he might technically be a dark elf. And/or a barbarian. Known for his Fury.

Lord Raziere
2020-04-13, 02:37 PM
Behold the most elf name:

Selissanyna Lelalifina Kaladari Quelari Aryoyirea

Segev
2020-04-13, 02:40 PM
Behold the most elf name:

Selissanyna Lelalifina Kaladari Quelari Aryoyirea

Trying saying that three times fast!

Alternatively: I think those are the lyrics to a yodel!

:smallbiggrin:

(Is that from anything, or did you just make it up?)

Lord Raziere
2020-04-13, 02:46 PM
(Is that from anything, or did you just make it up?)

I made it up, but the two 3rd and 4rth names are inspired by the world of warcraft elf races known as the Kaldorei and the Queldorei. seemed appropriate.

GrayDeath
2020-04-13, 03:16 PM
Well, he is reincarnated, so the names of kjust about any of the truly important old Elves and Elvelikes is open for the taking.


Why not call him Feanor and be done with it?

TeChameleon
2020-04-13, 07:07 PM
Celeborn Highsummer, Gael Fallen-Leaf, Elashor Winterwind... just mush nature-y nouns (Stoner Highleaf?) together for the surname, and steal liberally from Tolkien et al. for the first name. Just about any result you get will scream ELF! the way Urist McMinerson screams DORF!.

Pauly
2020-04-13, 07:07 PM
Elfy McElf-face.

Kitten Champion
2020-04-13, 09:58 PM
There's got to be Sylvan somewhere in there. Like... Sylvanna Silverbow.

Lord Torath
2020-04-14, 08:30 AM
Here, give this Elven Name Generator (http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/vortexshadow/names.html) a try.

Democratus
2020-04-14, 09:55 AM
Fingolfin
Feyowin
Feanor
Finrod Felagund
Luthien
Urdion
Gwathorion
Tathrenion
Mithrilon
Aglarwain
Goweschon

Zetakya
2020-04-14, 10:31 AM
Cacame Awemedinade Monípalóthi

Telonius
2020-04-14, 10:35 AM
Might be suspiciously on the nose, but...
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/81/dd/ee/81ddeefe367891595970ae2f42f8d704.jpg

Kind of like Groot-speak, though. You have to pronounce it just right, which nobody ever does.

Isocahedron
2020-04-14, 01:20 PM
Don't have any particular idea, but elves are usually quite traditional and socially stagnant. I imagine an elf name would include short versions of the names of their parents, faction information, who their ruler is... and important life events, such as getting reincarnated as something else. The name would probably be poetic. And long.

Luccan
2020-04-14, 03:23 PM
Alternately, if you're from a more wild group of elves, say those predisposed to wolf riding, you could choose something like, I dunno, Cutter.

Anonymouswizard
2020-04-14, 03:24 PM
Don't have any particular idea, but elves are usually quite traditional and socially stagnant. I imagine an elf name would include short versions of the names of their parents, faction information, who their ruler is... and important life events, such as getting reincarnated as something else. The name would probably be poetic. And long.

Basically 'son/daughter of X' or 'of X' taken to an extrme? So an elf's name might be equivalent to 'Leafcutter of Silverwood, child of Evermoon and Wolfrunner, born during the reign of King My God He's Heavy the First, achieved two As, three Bs and a U in their A-levels, MSc Hons.'? (they of course having conventions to drop phrases down to a word or two).

Also, why are D&D elves so obsessed with tradition? I distinctly remember them being chaotic, them having a respect for history makes sense but elves should really embrace change (within reason, they won't switch political systems without a good reason for instance).

I think at this point we might also want to think about titles. More orderly and traditional elves might make use of more titles than humans do, and are more likely to be resistant to titles changing meaning (such as Doctor going from 'has gone beyond Mastery' to 'highly educated medical professional'). A very traditional elven society might use things such as 'BAchelor of X' and 'Master of Y' in everyday speech as well as having a whole host of titles for things humans don't use them for.

Luccan
2020-04-14, 03:39 PM
Basically 'son/daughter of X' or 'of X' taken to an extrme? So an elf's name might be equivalent to 'Leafcutter of Silverwood, child of Evermoon and Wolfrunner, born during the reign of King My God He's Heavy the First, achieved two As, three Bs and a U in their A-levels, MSc Hons.'? (they of course having conventions to drop phrases down to a word or two).

Also, why are D&D elves so obsessed with tradition? I distinctly remember them being chaotic, them having a respect for history makes sense but elves should really embrace change (within reason, they won't switch political systems without a good reason for instance).

I think at this point we might also want to think about titles. More orderly and traditional elves might make use of more titles than humans do, and are more likely to be resistant to titles changing meaning (such as Doctor going from 'has gone beyond Mastery' to 'highly educated medical professional'). A very traditional elven society might use things such as 'BAchelor of X' and 'Master of Y' in everyday speech as well as having a whole host of titles for things humans don't use them for.

I'm not sure if D&D elves are actually that into tradition, at least by their basic description. They're described as flighty and with rapidly changing passions in most editions. The trouble is, no one plays them like that because everyone runs them like Tolkien elves. Even a lot of people who complain about Tolkien elves being too common in the game. This might have seeped into setting more as well, so "generic" D&D elves are not actually found in most settings.

Lord Raziere
2020-04-14, 04:30 PM
I'm not sure if D&D elves are actually that into tradition, at least by their basic description. They're described as flighty and with rapidly changing passions in most editions. The trouble is, no one plays them like that because everyone runs them like Tolkien elves. Even a lot of people who complain about Tolkien elves being too common in the game. This might have seeped into setting more as well, so "generic" D&D elves are not actually found in most settings.

Yeah its kind of annoying. from the description I get the impression they're supposed to be the more relaxed people to the dwarves uptight seriousness, but apparently the tolkien impression is too hard to shake :/

like the beautiful elf girl should be like some quirky fast talking gossip who says "like" and "totally" every other sentence while looking at the entire world like a shopping trip, not being calm and seriousness and whatnot.

Segev
2020-04-14, 05:01 PM
Yeah its kind of annoying. from the description I get the impression they're supposed to be the more relaxed people to the dwarves uptight seriousness, but apparently the tolkien impression is too hard to shake :/

like the beautiful elf girl should be like some quirky fast talking gossip who says "like" and "totally" every other sentence while looking at the entire world like a shopping trip, not being calm and seriousness and whatnot.

In a write-up I did a while ago of several of the standard D&D fantasy races designed to make them more alien - less "human with funny hats" and more "strange, inhuman creatures" - I went with elves actually having to teach their kids how to trance before their kids could learn much else at any reasonable rate. This is a bit of catch-22, since learning to trance is long-term learning, and getting them to focus and even try it long enough to start engraining it is a long uphill battle.

In this version, elves trance to order their thoughts, smooth out their memories and access to them, and keep things they want to have long-term mental access to. It's like a human sleeping on something he studied to cement it in his head.

After trancing, an elf is at his most serious. He's got access to decades if not centuries of memories going back to his second or third decade of life. He remembers traditions - silly and serious - and why they were important, and may even instinctively draw on them for his modes of behavior. He'll be ponderous in his thoughts as he weighs facts and data and options against all his vast experience. He may even be a bit lost in his own history and thoughts for a while, looking back on things in favor of taking in the new. As the day progresses, he doesn't get tired, because unlike humans and other races, elves don't sleep. He does, however, start to have the day's activities pile up in the forefront of his thoughts. He has more trouble recalling deeper memories in favor of what's happened today. When it gets closer to time to trance again, an elf may seem very flighty and even a bit childish, more tied to things in the moment than their ancient memories and long experience would indicate.

Now, it's easy to caricature elves with both of these states. I described two extremes. Most elves fall between them and never hit either, and there will be flighty elves who barely seem more "with it" just after trancing, and there will be picky and prim "back in my day" elves whose main sign they need to trance is that they're recycling stories more rapidly. But the general course of the day will see some measure of the Tolkien Elf and some measure of the Flighty Unserious Elf as the day progresses, due to how their memories, memory access, and memory-making process interact with Trancing.

It also explains why elves are such slow learners early in life.

Anonymouswizard
2020-04-14, 05:52 PM
Yeah its kind of annoying. from the description I get the impression they're supposed to be the more relaxed people to the dwarves uptight seriousness, but apparently the tolkien impression is too hard to shake :/

like the beautiful elf girl should be like some quirky fast talking gossip who says "like" and "totally" every other sentence while looking at the entire world like a shopping trip, not being calm and seriousness and whatnot.

Elves should act like Gnomes are shown to really. Elves never took over the world because they were too busy being distracted by the cute doggies and carefully shaping trees to spell swear words.


Honestly I don't mind lawful elves, but they should be more like Time Lords than Tolkien's elves. Incredibly powerful, nobody wants them to actually get involved with things, and with renegades who end to make names for themselves by messing around with other cultures, but a mixture of just not caring about the outside world and millennia long lifespans means thet aren't really doing anything, are barely advancing, and may have actually lost their greatest secrets.

Matuka
2020-04-14, 08:06 PM
Alagar Silverwind

Imbalance
2020-04-14, 10:35 PM
Elves should act like Gnomes are shown to really. Elves never took over the world because they were too busy being distracted by the cute doggies and carefully shaping trees to spell swear words.


Honestly I don't mind lawful elves, but they should be more like Time Lords than Tolkien's elves. Incredibly powerful, nobody wants them to actually get involved with things, and with renegades who end to make names for themselves by messing around with other cultures, but a mixture of just not caring about the outside world and millennia long lifespans means thet aren't really doing anything, are barely advancing, and may have actually lost their greatest secrets.

This is basically my head canon for Santa Claus.

Arkhios
2020-04-15, 02:51 AM
A name with an excessive amount of vowels and a few soft consonants here and there would fit my idea of the MOST elf name EVER.

A personal favorite is the one I gave for my 3.5 D&D Wood Elf Ranger/Cleric back in the day:

Lafellon Myavel (using the fun table from Races of the Wild, the name would translate to "Moonchief Emeraldsword")

Segev
2020-04-15, 09:54 AM
A name with an excessive amount of vowels and a few soft consonants here and there would fit my idea of the MOST elf name EVER.

Aulmadonaled Hadafahm'eieiao.

It's a very...lyrical name.

KillianHawkeye
2020-04-15, 10:05 AM
The first time I played an elf, I couldn't think of a proper name at all. I was a total noob at roleplaying and barely spoke up at all since most people in the group were new to me.

After a couple sessions of literally playing the character without a name, they just started calling him "Sam."

As this was not long before the first Lord of the Rings movie was to come out, I picked up The Hobbit and the LotR Trilogy in book form and started reading those, and I eventually decided that "Sam" was short for like "Samarindel" or something.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Jay R
2020-04-15, 06:13 PM
The original answer for this, from the first D&D campaign, was for a Male Elf. So the character sheet had "M.Elf" on the first line, and the character is still known today as "Melf".

Other than that, when I need an elven name, I browse through the appendix of The Silmarillion.

And finally, Elda-essë, or Edhelessë, literally means "elf-name".

Fable Wright
2020-04-15, 06:35 PM
El'sylvana'aliania.

Too many vowels, at least 2 apostrophes, as many soft vowels as possible, includes 'sylvan' in it, is way too long and nonsensical, begins with an El-, and ends with an -ia.

And actually pronounceable, though actually uttering it out loud has given me the urge to punch myself in the face for pretentiousness.

PopeLinus1
2020-04-16, 03:47 AM
Aaxvfbhyuhbvxnmuiikjfzdgfbdfgeofjsoivodlfboslgihng oivbsxjkvbcoalOs;dlcmxzk.,nsdikjghbnisldkfjnitlvhs lbodjshsbieiolbnxkdheleihdbilvnpfbibnpoth;yl.jm,.k jmuhygtfvcdxfsbjnbfdmljihgjfnddcnoj3hbthjgfodosijd hcvdjsqoejhb43jeofvcjhsbhjtioe3ijhhtyjoteijhfvcjdo seijhth5jofivjhbcdhjoeijghfjkosijchcjdioeijhtpeoia ukh39e9aoislfskhe;oelikg,haezod.icghvnoedlifxckhvn ioeidlfcgkhnvoildfck The Wise

FabulousFizban
2020-04-17, 02:52 AM
J'eth Ro <---

GrayDeath
2020-04-17, 01:32 PM
J'eth Ro <---

....de Dull?^^



You could for comedy and taking it literally give him 3 first names (all being Elf in 3 different Languages) and add a last name that mushes 2 other languages names for Elf? ^^

Mutazoia
2020-04-17, 08:42 PM
Elfy McElfface

MrZJunior
2020-04-17, 09:03 PM
Llanowar Leafblower

paddyfool
2020-04-23, 05:31 AM
....de Dull?^^
You could for comedy and taking it literally give him 3 first names (all being Elf in 3 different Languages) and add a last name that mushes 2 other languages names for Elf? ^^

If you're going to mash up languages, the ideal ones might be Welsh and Finnish, since Tolkein drew on both while inventing his Elvish language.

Something like

Tylwith Keijukeinen (Tylwith means "Fair" from the Welsh "Tylwith Teg" for "Fair Folk"; Keijukainen is, I believe, Finnish for elves and fairies)

Alternatively, Ellylon Keijukainen might be more specific for the more elvish type of fair folk. (Or "Ellyl", for the singular rather than plural form).

EDIT: If you wanted a third language in there, why not Irish Gaelic? Giving you: Ellylon Sídhe Keijukainen

GrayDeath
2020-04-23, 01:23 PM
Thanks for that, but I meant literally the name being "Elf" in 3 different languages.^^

Tvtyrant
2020-04-23, 01:27 PM
Moone Chylde Foresstesavieer?

paddyfool
2020-04-23, 03:36 PM
Thanks for that, but I meant literally the name being "Elf" in 3 different languages.^^

Ellyl Sídhe Luonnonhaltija (Welsh, Irish, Finnish) might be the best I can do for you there. Although literal translation is often sketchy with regards to myth and legend.

Mutazoia
2020-04-23, 11:59 PM
Llanowar Leafblower

That's his porn name....

Ason
2020-04-24, 08:56 AM
Chri Sitma Stoyma'kar (aka. Christmas toy maker)

Imbalance
2020-04-24, 08:56 AM
That's his porn name....

Whether there is a need to expand his backstory or not, this is now canon.

PintoTown
2020-04-27, 11:02 PM
Keebler.
Is Baker a background?

Mordante
2020-04-28, 08:57 AM
I know some people who spend a lot of time looking for a nice name for their character. I tend to do so as well. But during the game it is almost never used. People, me included never remember character names of the players.

Imbalance
2020-04-28, 10:38 AM
Keebler.
Is Baker a background?

That was one of my initial thoughts.


I know some people who spend a lot of time looking for a nice name for their character. I tend to do so as well. But during the game it is almost never used. People, me included never remember character names of the players.

True. For me, that applies to life, too. I never forget a face, but I also never remember what a face is called.

Mutazoia
2020-04-29, 09:34 PM
You could always cop out and sub-contract the naming gig. (https://realelvish.net/names/generator/)

Vaern
2020-04-30, 04:56 AM
I'm going to go when Selador. I guess there's not really anything distinctly elf-ish about it, but it seems like the kind of name that an elf would have.

Jay R
2020-05-02, 11:37 AM
I know some people who spend a lot of time looking for a nice name for their character. I tend to do so as well. But during the game it is almost never used. People, me included never remember character names of the players.

By contrast, I try to use other characters' names whenever possible. It's more immersive for me. For one thing, the distinction is real. I might say, "Gwydion calls out, 'Mycroft, flank the ogre.'"

But five minutes later, I would say to the same person, "Mike, will you pass the potato chips?"