How do you do names?

[Fortuna]

As the title says, how do you do names? Peronally, I have a rather elaborate system whereby I take a base word and run it through several steps, arriving at a name which is unrecognisable as the root word. As aan example, a cookie to the first person who guesses the root word for "Silep".

[ocdscale]

I replace all the vowels with apostrophes and then put a hyphen in the middle.
In the case of noteworthy characters, I also append "the [verb]er"
For BBEGs, it's "the [synonym for dark/shadow/evil/bad] [verb]er"

[dsmiles]

Not gonna try to figure it out...
I also have a complex system of...umm...recycling names from previous characters...
After 25 years, you start to run out of names...

[Glass Mouse]

As a player, I pick a name off the top of my head - names, especially female, usually come pretty easily to me.

As GM, I'm still fairly new, so I haven't run out of names (yet ), but I still go to a session with two or three names in my head, just in case I'll need it.

Silep = sleep ?

[drengnikrafe]

I've taken to give every race human names of people I like. Needless to say, I'll still pretty new, I'm going to have to start relying on my Latin-English, Spanish-English, French-English, and really anylanguage-English dictionaries at some point.

[AtwasAwamps]

I tend to use a lot of Hindi, Sanskrit, Japanese, and Chinese in determining roots of names.

Then I create an NPC named Eric the Mage. He is a mage. His name is Eric.

What? He's cool. We like Eric.

[Dr Bwaa]

Several ways:

1) I have several recurring NPCs who exist across campaign settings. These are people like Ajheed, who took his name from a previous PC of mine and turned into a wholly different NPC quest-giver bard-type.

2) Similarly, any wizard/cleric PCs (mine or my friends') of sufficient power are occasionally ported in from other games when I need a plot device and nothing short of "an all-powerful wizard knows" will do.

3) When I actually want to make a meaningful (major NPC) name, I use a poorly-disguised root word, but I make it an obscure root and then relate it in a nonstandard way.

4) PC names are, if I can't think of anything, created using a complicated system of dice rolls worked out so that a pronouncable number of vowels are usually generated and so that all letters are representable. Up to about 4 letters are usually generated this way (for each of first/last names), then I fill in the rest (resulting in mixed-heritage names like Claaus O'Neal).

[Shademan]

I take a pen and paper and i get things DONE!
haha, srsly. I just grab a pencil and see what I write. if I like it I take it

[AtwasAwamps]

My favorite name is still "Sciane", pronounced just like Shane but spelled all fancy-like.

Took a page from Asimov's book with that one (Hari, Dors, etc...He admits that he just liked misspelling names when he thought he could get away with it). For the longest time I thought Hari Seldon was supposed to be Indian...

[AtopTheMountain]

I usually just go on the D&D website and run the character name generator they have up there. Yes, I'm lazy.

[Chunklets]

I second (or third, or wherever we are now) the idea of using foreign-language dictionaries - the dwarves in my homebrew campaign were all named with the aid of a Lithuanian-English dictionary. I don't really try for words that mean specific things; mostly I'm after words that sound right. However, if you're doing that, it's probably a good idea to make sure that nobody in your gaming group is actually fluent in language in question! It's always unfortunate when somebody points out that your BBEG is named something like "Baggage-Carousel Rainbow."

On a more specific note, if you're looking for Ancient-Greek-Sounding names, The Iliad is a great source. It's full of minor characters whose only role is to appear for a few lines (often with their parents' names helpfully included), get hacked to bits by Achilles or Hector, and vanish back into obscurity.

[Telonius]

As the title says, how do you do names? Peronally, I have a rather elaborate system whereby I take a base word and run it through several steps, arriving at a name which is unrecognisable as the root word. As aan example, a cookie to the first person who guesses the root word for "Silep".

Cake. Cake to pie, pie to pile, pile to piles, piles to silep.

[Fortuna]

Silep = sleep ?

A nice try, but nowher near. My system generally takes me about a minute to run for one name, although I need pen and paper or similar on hand. It also involves fudging whenever I feel it neccessary, although I avoided that with the one that I posted. I have never had trouble with coming up with names, but it is very interesting to see what other people have done.

EDIT: Ninja'd! And wrong. Closer to my system than the above suggestion, but missing the vital step which makes them damned near unrecognizable.

[Gamerlord]

For non-humans, I just mash a bunch of letters together and call it a name.

[valadil]

I usually try to use something that could have been an English name, but just wasn't. I don't like over the top fantasy names with 6 syllables, twice as many apostrophes, and at least one æ.

[Fortuna]

Likewise for most names, but occasionally they can work IMHO.

[Fax Celestis]

I find a name with a meaning that fits from here.

[Ormur]

I just name the important NPC something vaguely Latin-y, or make up something that could be a name in my native Icelandic that doesn't actually mean anything. I also reused a lot of names I made long ago when I made a genealogical tree for an imaginary kingdom. I try to keep them a bit familiar and pronounceable in my language, maybe a bit Tolkienesque: Morndrak, Gerdrekur, Vertólus etc.

If I run out of ideas I go to Wikipedia and look for historical equivalents or in sci-fi books my players haven't read. The last emperor of an empire In my game was named Pálogos after the dynasty of the last Byzantine emperor, Palaiologos.

The non plot significant common people have to make due with nouns or adjectives that could pass for names. So there's no real system. I might adopt something for specific races or creatures when I get to naming those in my campaign. So far it's mostly humans and a few gnomes and halflings.

[Glass Mouse]

EDIT: Ninja'd! And wrong. Closer to my system than the above suggestion, but missing the vital step which makes them damned near unrecognizable.

It involves ROT13, doesn't it?

[AslanCross]

As the title says, how do you do names? Peronally, I have a rather elaborate system whereby I take a base word and run it through several steps, arriving at a name which is unrecognisable as the root word. As aan example, a cookie to the first person who guesses the root word for "Silep".

This is pretty much what I do as well.
A BBEG's blackguard/warblade right hand man (eventually I decided to make the character a woman) started with the base word "Calamity." That went through Calamor and then became Caellamore when I decided the character would be female.

Sometimes I also take the suggested names in some fluff books (like the common national names in Eberron's Five Nations book) and mash them together. I ended up with "Elzikki" for my female artificer once through that method.

[Kallisti]

I just make stuff up at random, unless there's a specific meaning I need. So I've gotten all kinds of weird names like that. Lirance, for my barbarian, for example, or Callsiyette for a random NPC. I liked the sound of it, so I used it.

[Crafty Cultist]

I just string a few syllables together until I get a name that sounds good

[Fortuna]

It involves ROT13, doesn't it?

It involves whatnow?

@AslanCross: I take it several steps further, bringing all of my meagre knowledge of linguistics to bear on it.

[rockdeworld]

I hate coming up with names, and so I usually use a random name generator (like this one: http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/). I look at the ones it provides, then pick the one I think sounds best. To that end, it has to be pronounceable, and not ridiculous.

[oxybe]

i look around. i once called a PC "Tim Nestea" because Tim was in the FLGS drinking Nestea.

and yes, i hate naming characters and i have a history of "Tim" "Ed" "Robert/Bob" "John/Joe" ect... mainly because i find most fantasy names absolutely ridiculous.

when i do get "creative" with names, it's usually a sound or just a silly sounding word.

[Set]

If the character is supposed to be a member of a certain culture, I go to the Onamastikon and just rip through names until I see one that 'sounds cool.'

Since I usually end up writing down a half-dozen, and then picking the one that rolls off the tongue easier, I end up with extra names left over for NPCs, that end up in a file somewhere. I often use them for MMO characters, and have a bunch with weird Celtic sounding names like Uinseach, Sammae and Siobhannon or weird Nordic sounding names like Steinketl, Solskaer, Helsdottir and Hrafngeir.

Other times I'm not in the mood, and end up playing a character named Rutroh Raggy for 60 odd levels. Such is life.

[Glass Mouse]

It involves whatnow?

Rot13. Nevermind, I was mostly just trying to be funny.

Actually, one method I used long ago is sitting down in front of your computer, open a word document, and then just randomly hit your keyboard until you've got four or five lines. Read them - there ought to be something that sounds a little bit cool among all those letters - modify a little - et voilà!

[AslanCross]

It involves whatnow?

@AslanCross: I take it several steps further, bringing all of my meagre knowledge of linguistics to bear on it.

I'd love to know what those steps are. :D

[Shpadoinkle]

I have two methods.

First, I just go through random pairs of syllables in my head until I find a pairing I like. Then, if it sounds good I'll go with it, and if I think it needs more, I'll add another syllable somewhere.

The second method consists of taking a real name or word and modifying it into something new. For example, I got Lasaan by taking Alexander and dropping the first and last syllables. Lexan actually isn't bad, but it's the name of some commercial product or other, so it still needs work. Change the x to an s and we get Lesan. Change the spelling slightly so it's pronounced properly, and I ended up with Lasaan.

[Theodoric]

I take an ancient Germanic name (Western, Northern and Eastern), and then mess them up depending on what name I want to end up with. 'Evil' characters I often base on Gothic names, and Dwarves have actual dwarven names.