Making Fantasy Names

[Gralamin]

I am the type of person who has problems coming up with names for anything, and am currently looking for a name for the campaign setting I'm making. How do you come up with the names you use? (this might belong in homebrew, but It's iffy)

[mikeejimbo]

Nah, this forum is fine for it. I find we're pretty relaxed about that.

Anyway, I use this thingy:

http://www.behindthename.com/random/

It'll generate some things it claims are fantasy, but they're jokes. I would suggest using some of the languages with which you are less familiar and base them off of those.

Edit: For example, I just generated this: Chukwuemeka Amancio

[Shazzbaa]

Waitaminute, I'm confused. Is this question, "How do I come up with a suitable name for the BBEG?" Or is this question, "How do I come up with a good title for my campaign/setting?"

[Gralamin]

This is all about making up names for anything to do with fantasy.

I'm thinking of name my Campaign setting Aciens or something of the like.

[Frosty Flake]

Look at a map of a country that has close ethnic ties to the overall culture of your world and then just pick some random no-where town that sounds kinda neat.

Middelfart, for instance, is in Denmark.

Middelfart.

[Gralamin]

Look at a map of a country that has close ethnic ties to the overall culture of your world and then just pick some random no-where town that sounds kinda neat.

Middelfart, for instance, is in Denmark.

Middelfart.

Now Frost Flake, If you think thats funny check Newfoundland in Canada.
I would prefer editing the names slightly.

[Frosty Flake]

Now Frost Flake, If you think thats funny check Newfoundland in Canada.
I would prefer editing the names slightly.

Oh, I've been there... crazy Newfies and their mangled-frenglish town-names...

Actually, for =something far more befitting of your (I'm assuming) serious high fantasy world, look at Normandy. Argentan? Vire? Lisieux?

Although, what I'd recommend (it's what I do) is have each culture call the world something different... I mean, not everyone says Earth, right?

[Gralamin]

Oh, I've been there... crazy Newfies and their mangled-frenglish town-names...

Actually, for =something far more befitting of your (I'm assuming) serious high fantasy world, look at Normandy. Argentan? Vire? Lisieux?

Although, what I'd recommend (it's what I do) is have each culture call the world something different... I mean, not everyone says Earth, right?

Good point, however I prefer to have one thing as the "common" tongue for now.

[Frosty Flake]

Good point, however I prefer to have one thing as the "common" tongue for now.

Is the 'Common Tongue' for all intents and porpoises (:P) english? If so, why not give it mystical-ish descriptive name *in english* like The Great Corpse or Alwayswinter or even just Mother?

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I can't say as I've ever had any difficulty with names. They just spring up, bidden or otherwise.

If you need help however, here are a number from my 'Ultimate D&D Link' thread:

Some various character name generators
Official Wizard's Name Generator
Fantasy Name Generator

Kate Monk's Onomastikon
A collection of names from around the world intended to help provide character names for role-players. Want a nepalese handle? An icelandic nickname? A hawaiin monicker?

[Frosty Flake]

OOOOH!
You should call your world Βιβλίο!
And μάνδρα could be the creator-god!

[Darkshade]

Aurellius - Gem of the Heavens

[Sir_Banjo]

I am the type of person who has problems coming up with names for anything, and am currently looking for a name for the campaign setting I'm making. How do you come up with the names you use? (this might belong in homebrew, but It's iffy)

I try to just use normal names, perhaps with different spelling, and mix them with a colour, animal or something equally descriptive. ie. Edward Fox, Lucien La Chance. In one instance I took the class "wizard", changed the "w" to an "m" and got Mizzard the Wizzard. Dm gave an audible sigh when I thought that one up.

[Jorkens]

Look at a map of a country that has close ethnic ties to the overall culture of your world and then just pick some random no-where town that sounds kinda neat.

It's even better if you can pick out the parts meaning 'town' or 'mountain' or whatever and then combine them with words of your choice. Or just do what Tolkien did and nick stuff wholesale from Old English.

[Dark Knight Renee]

I usually turn to a half-dozen or more random generators and keep clicking generate until I see something I like. Sometimes I hit random keys on the keyboard and insert vowels to make it pronouncable.

As for setting names? My settings don't have names. My longest running game, a really messed up and crossover-riddled Star Wars universe, has recently been titled TEMP by my brother. It stands for either Terribly and Excessively Mauled Place, or Terribly and Excessively Mauled Play. It's also a joke, refering to my tendancy to create 'temporary' files and folders that... aren't so temporary.


The only other setting with anything resembling a name is called... "Not Forgotten Realms", based on the fact that our FR party is adventuring there, but it isn't actually FR. *sigh*

[Dark]

I
The only other setting with anything resembling a name is called... "Not Forgotten Realms", based on the fact that our FR party is adventuring there, but it isn't actually FR. *sigh*

You could at least call it Remembered Realms :)

[Darrin]

I am the type of person who has problems coming up with names for anything, and am currently looking for a name for the campaign setting I'm making. How do you come up with the names you use? (this might belong in homebrew, but It's iffy)

There are three rules for creating Overly Pretentious Fantasy Names:

1) Start with something in Gaelic, Celtic, or Welsh to maximize unnecessary consonants and vowels. Make sure you tell absolutely everyone at the table first how it's spelled and then how it's pronounced. Example: It's spelled "Cpheonnaouexgh" but pronounced "Shawn".

2) "Y" Substitution - substitute any "i"'s in the name with "y". Actually, heck, why stop there, just substitute all your vowels with "y". Remember, in Gaelic, lots of consonants can also be considered vowels.

3) Apostrophe Abuse - Add half-a-dozen or so apostrophes to represent "aspirated/unaspirated consonants" that of course can only be properly pronounced by non-human vocal chords (even though ' usually denotes a glottal stop or tongue click in most phonetic alphabets).

[Jorkens]

3) Apostrophe Abuse - Add half-a-dozen or so apostrophes to represent "aspirated/unaspirated consonants" that of course can only be properly pronounced by non-human vocal chords (even though ' usually denotes a glottal stop or tongue click in most phonetic alphabets).

Essential, this.

[Fronko]

Get one of these:


Drop it to the ground and see what it comes up with ...

[Belkarseviltwin]

Two Asian Hints (my two yen, perhaps?):
For Chinese wuxia-style names, I use this: http://wotg.raventower.com/ It gives, when you set it to put out 100 names, 1 or 2 good ones (Silent Destruction Cai) and a lot of funny ones (Condemned Brick Feng, Immense Cook Ban).
For Japanese names, I use a list of Japanese Navy ships from WW2. Zuikaku or Asashio, anyone?

[NullAshton]

I prefer using japanese names. I just get a meaning I want, and go through the different synonyms of that name until I find one I like.

[mikeejimbo]

Incidentally, Latin is also always a good source of names, and indeed, general amusement. Just think how they'll react when you say that you own a catapult and unless they give you all their money you'll hurl rocks at their head.

[Morty]

Just put a cat on the keybord and look what happens.

[Amiria]

I have some random word generation program called "Palabra". You feed it with some .txt-file and then it makes random words by jumbling up its contents.

My best character name from it was "Nachovagladron Diringhornin", but everyone called him "Nacho".

[Steward]

Just string together a bunch of syllables and drop an apostrophe or two into it. A hero named Ted is boring, but a hero named T'drwmcht Vll'nsl'yer rocks your socks.

Your hero ought to have a magical object or tool to help him out in your story. Naming such a thing is really easy. Just take the name of a tool or object [such as hammer, or pendant] and connect it to a cool-sounding word [like power or magic] using the adposition 'of'.

Your villain's name can be pronounceable, but it must have some combination of the words Death, Skull, Cloak, Shadow, Shade, Dark, and a government title of some sort [such as King, Lord, Duke, or President].

To name your dwarf character, take any two words that have something to with mining, rocks, or weapons and string them together like that. If your character must have a first name, just take a random syllable and add the word 'grim' to the end.

Naming an elf is equally easy. Just take any word that has something to do with space and translate it into Latin or Greek.

Finally, naming your world. Your world should have a similar naming convention to your hero's name, but should have the suffix -ria attached.

Therefore...

Young T'drwmcht Vll'nsl'yer, a simple farmboy, sets off on a daring quest with his stalwart dwarven companion Durgrim Pebblepick and the wise and enigmatic elf Lunae Phoebus to save the world of B'bble'toria from the sinister House Representative Shadowskull.

Now, get cracking!

[Portent]

Back when I was writing up ideas for campaign settings, one of the first things I decided was to have some real world ancient civilizations color the various races, cultures, etc. Taking a page from the Giant's world-building article (well, using the whole thing to help the process, really), I wanted to keep the languages and names "consistent" with one another, so I went onto good ol' Google and looked for language dictionaries and name lists. It was pretty fun, especially since I wasn't looking out for grammar rules and full sentences, but just one-shot names for people, places, and things.

Chinese: http://zhongwen.com/
Celtic (among others): http://zhongwen.com/
Norse: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ and http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/l...orol-TC-X.html and http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONNames.shtml
Zoroastrian terms: http://www.avesta.org/zglos.html#Amahraspand
Latin to English: http://www.freedict.com/onldict/lat.html
Sanskrit: http://sanskritdocuments.org/dict/dictall.txt
Tibetan: http://www2.lucidcafe.com/sherpa1/sfa/sSherNam.htm

I've unfortunately lost the link I had to Mitannian, Sumerian, and Akkadian names.

Hope this helps you out some.

[Bryn]

Seventh Sanctum has some good generators for about pretty much anything you can think of, including names. Find it here.

I don't actually use it, however. I generally just come up with some appropriate sounds (although I avoid apostrophes) for whatever I am creating, taking inspiration from various cultures of the world.

[Frosty Flake]

I'll add one more to that list
http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/...ikbynames.html
These are all the viking bynames found in Landnamabok and their meanings as well as each bynames number of occurances... no-one likes poor Skattkaupandi...

Incidentally, Latin is also always a good source of names, and indeed, general amusement.

My dog's name is Canum

[Golthur]

You won't like how I do it - at least for places.

Basically, I build a small subset of the language spoken by the people in the area. Then, I name everything according to its outward characteristics, e.g. "black forest", "high tower", etc. or some other poetic name "city of the sun", etc. Translate into the language, and, bam - instant fantasy names that (mostly) don't suck.

Just avoid apostrophes. Every bloody fantasy author seems to think apostrophes make names "exotic".

[ExHunterEmerald]

The "standard" fantasy naming conventions usually annoy me.
You can't have a normal name, it's gotta be KORDOGG, the babyfeaster! Wielder of the axe of ZOMG!

...Seriously though. Best character I've ever played was a rogue named Terry.

Edit: the one exception is dwarven names--I don't know, but stuff like "Dulgan" always works for me.