Original Names in Homebrew Settings

[Gemini Lupus]

So like many of you here on the Playground, I'm working on my home Campaign Setting for my home rpgs. Naturally, I draw inspiration from a vast number of sources and I'm not worried about my setting being thought of as derivative, because it is. I'm a teacher in real life and one of our philosophies is to steal others' work and make it our own...as long as you give credit of course! Anyway, what I do want to discuss is whether or not the names of the things I gain inspiration from should be original.

Method A: I used to try to be creative and just invent names from the whole cloth, but that turned messy quickly as I couldn't easily recognize what something, like an organization or NPC, was supposed to be just from the name and would have to actually look into my notes.

Method B: So then I turned to being clever and modifying names so that they seemed original but were related, such as changing the King Arthur analogue in my setting to Artos, which is simply another name that he is known by. That way, I could look at a name and more or less know what I need to about the character, location, organization, etc.

Method C: Now I'm kind of thinking that in some ways that's still too much work and a lot of sources already have great names and I shouldn't try to reinvent the wheel and just focus on making tweaks to make it fit my setting. For example, the Vampire Hunter Organization of my setting is based in part on the Dawn Guard from Skyrim and I like the name well enough that I just might keep it. Since its a homebrew setting, I'm not worried about copyright infringement or anything, but I also don't want to have a situation where I name the Nordic-inspired nation of my world Skyrim, as it is a major influence on that part of the world and have people/players assume they know everything about it simply because it has the same name.

So what do you guys think? A, B, or C? Or some combination? I know that I cannot fully avoid making up some names, but that takes a lot of effort and I try to be consistent with naming practices, so that they at least have a similar feel.

What do you guys do for your setting?

[Gritmonger]

Lately, I've just been raiding the Domesday Book Online...
I rob wholesale from this:
http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/places.html
...and peruse the landholders for some names.

edit: I make up some from the various parts on that page when it might matter, otherwise I borrow from actual placenames and towns that are present in the other sections that detail landholders and placenames.

[Karl Aegis]

I generally use method A nowadays.

[Obak]

Short of inventing your own language, borrow one and use it for a certain part of the world. Read up on norse sagas, look at a mad on iceland, orkney and the faroes for scandinavian viking names, or finland and estonia for finno ugric vikings. After a while you will start to get the hang of the language and then you can create your own names pretty easily. I value consistency greatly when it comes to naming, out of place name make it all sound like bad fantasy in my ears.
So method B

[Vitruviansquid]

It never hurts to google a name you thought you made up, just to check it isn't associated with something hilariously inappropriate.

[BWR]

It depends what you mean by 'names'. Do you mean actual names with sounds and meanings that fit within a linguistic and cultural framework, or do you mean organizational names in English (or whatever language you will be playing in)?

In the former, I either stick with languages I know or steal ruthlessly and obviously (and as accurately as I can) from existing languages I don't know. A pet peeve of mine is people inventing random names that have no common sound to them just to invent something non-English (or whatever). If you just need names for organizations, just stick with English or steal from other sources. Fancy names aren't necessary - purely descriptive names are fine. If you want to steal some cool-sounding name from some other source, go right ahead. If players comment, just be honest and say you thought it was a cool name and stole it.

As for just changing a few sounds or letters in RL names...I'm torn. Going with something a bit unusual can be good, but lots change for the sake of change is something I'm not too fond of. There are certainly tons of variations of names and words IRL. Find RL variations and use those if you need to use something unusual. Going all GRRM and making silly little changes like 'ser' instead of 'sir' is pointless and annoying.

[Cealocanth]

None of those options really matches the way I name people and characters in my games. As far as characters go, I use real names from a set culture, as close as possible (even if those names are Tolkein Elvish or something), because I figure that everything in the campaign world is translated anyway, so if a West African name fits the character the best, it's not really an issue. As far as locations or institutions go, I use English and name places things along the lines of "The Dark Forest" or "The Ivory Court" because that's how most places are named originally anyway before language changes and the names become outdated and archaic. This method works in the kind of games I work on, where society is relatively new and settlements and colonies are sooner, but if your great empire inspired off of Rome has been around for centuries, you may have some issues.

[GoblinGilmartin]

usually when I come up with names for characters in a setting, I tend to just go with random gibberish that sounds like names, with real stuff thrown in for verisimilitude. The last character I made was Kerymandius. as far as I know that doesn't mean anything, but it sounds cool.

a lot of times what I'll do if I need a name for a specific character, is I'll pick a language, and then find a word in that language that describes the character. THEN I'll turn that into name-sounding gibberish. E.g. Honorable >(Greek) > axiótimos > Axio Mosca.

[OttoVonBigby]

a lot of times what I'll do if I need a name for a specific character, is I'll pick a language, and then find a word in that language that describes the character. THEN I'll turn that into name-sounding gibberish. E.g. Honorable >(Greek) > axiótimos > Axio Mosca.

That's a good name. Sounds like an assassin.

Along with all of the above suggestions, for my homebrew setting, I have actually developed a series of MS Access tables listing words, prefixes, and suffixes in the various major languages of the setting. Most of these tables don't have more than about a dozen entries so far, but it's a good place to record (for example) that the name of the settlement Ak-Dushandek means "Fort (ak) River (dushan) Gash or gaping wound (dek)." I feel it gives the setting a bit of internal consistency when some syllables are repeated sometimes in the names of places that share a geographical region or historical connection.

[Dhavaer]

Method A. I generally slap some syllables together. This does tend to produce very similar names, though.

[GoblinGilmartin]

For an old setting of mine, I created a race of Vampire elves. I called them Fauka-Vagaryu which Fauka means Thirsty in Elvish and Agar means Blood. Basically, I like the approach "THrow random, yet canon foreign words together and see what sounds cool.

When I need to name a group of characters but don't want them to sound similar, I usually just ask different people to give me names. Your brain will lock into a certain set of sounds if you try to come up with a list on your own, so asking different people will give your names more flavor. I was going to write a webcomic once, and I needed to name the two main characters. After polling my friends, I got Tyler and Oswald.

For gits and shiggles, I want to put a short list of the types of character names I come up with:
Omaro Balthasar and his pet celestial toad, Ozymandius
Kellyn Verborala, Elven Healer
Dorganjandallen Xerxesian (Gnomish Cleric of madness)
Fangiris Mirikai

[Talyn]

Frankly, when coming up with naming conventions, I generally associate a region with a historical setting, and then swap out a few consonants to give it a fantasy feel.

For example, my current 5e character comes from an area which uses the "Late Medieval France" naming conventions.

So, his name is Sir Alidor de Gantfer. "de Gantfer" is my (hack) Medieval French for "the Ironfist." He has a brother than Banault and a sister named Canadece. His squire, on the other hand, is from a region with "Moorish Spain" as the basis for their names, and his name is "Oriso."

If you want something really exotic, base the names off of an existing non-Romance language. Welsh or Gaelic for your elves, Finnish for your orcs, Russian for your gnomes, ancient Hebrew for your dwarves - all of these have a wealth of names you can borrow and modify.

[Tommy_Dude]

I tend to use a method that combines A, B, and C. I'll start with a common name such as "Dawn Guard". Then I'll use Google Translate (yes, I know this program is sub-par and often wrong, but alas, I don't have time to search through basic linguistics lessons to learn properly :( don't judge) for Turkish and get Safak Koruma. From there I'll gibber it into the Safa Or'ma. Then I'll change the order from it's roots in the game, they would actually be closer to Redguards from Skyrim, a desert dwelling people that also have great naval skill. They were the royal guard for their ruler. They did not realize that their ruler, the Basileus, was actually a Rakshasa Vampire of some power, but once the secret was revealed they slaughtered him and became Vampire Hunters.

For other things I'd rather keep obvious, simple but drastic changes work better. King Arthur for instance would now be Queen Arturia. Gender-flipping is quite cliche, but I find it helps distance my story from anything established (especially if I stay way from Fate Stay Night references).

But that's just my 2cp.

[oudeis]

Here's a method that has yielded some interesting results for me: make a change to the layout of your computer keyboard. I switched to Dvorak long ago, but after I stopped prying out the keys and physically rearrranging them to the new layout I occasionally find myself using the qwerty layout for my sight-typing, resulting in some neat conjunctions. Change your mapping and without looking at the results start typing an email, a forum post, or just random thoughts and you'll likely get some usable material. Or, move one or both hands one space off the canonical home row keys and do the same. If you have a tablet or smartphone with a touch screen start typing out names and places as fast as you can without looking at the screen and see what comes up.

Along with all of the above suggestions, for my homebrew setting, I have actually developed a series of MS Access tables listing words, prefixes, and suffixes in the various major languages of the setting. Most of these tables don't have more than about a dozen entries so far, but it's a good place to record (for example) that the name of the settlement Ak-Dushandek means "Fort (ak) River (dushan) Gash or gaping wound (dek)." I feel it gives the setting a bit of internal consistency when some syllables are repeated sometimes in the names of places that share a geographical region or historical connection.

Want, please.

IA pet peeve of mine is people inventing random names that have no common sound to them just to invent something non-English (or whatever). If you just need names for organizations, just stick with English or steal from other sources. Fancy names aren't necessary - purely descriptive names are fine. If you want to steal some cool-sounding name from some other source, go right ahead. If players comment, just be honest and say you thought it was a cool name and stole it.

As for just changing a few sounds or letters in RL names...I'm torn. Going with something a bit unusual can be good, but lots change for the sake of change is something I'm not too fond of. There are certainly tons of variations of names and words IRL. Find RL variations and use those if you need to use something unusual. Going all GRRM and making silly little changes like 'ser' instead of 'sir' is pointless and annoying.

Say on, brother. The Naming of Names, to use Lin Carter's phrase, is what separates the men from the boys in fantasy and sci-fi literature. Martin and the content writers for World of Warcraft are especially bad on this point.

[Zyzzyva]

Lately, I've just been raiding the Domesday Book Online...
I rob wholesale from this:
http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/places.html
...and peruse the landholders for some names.

Nice idea!

My main approach is to steal heavily from history too: Mesopotamian names are pretty good for sounding alien yet consistent. My current game involves a giant list of Elamite, Assyrian, and Hittite names that I assign to characters as needed.

[Solaris]

Method A. I generally slap some syllables together. This does tend to produce very similar names, though.

I do this one a lot, too, and discovered the same problem.
I'm trying to strike the balance between English terms like 'the Greenwood' and getting too generic with the place names... like 'the Greenwood'.

Frankly, when coming up with naming conventions, I generally associate a region with a historical setting, and then swap out a few consonants to give it a fantasy feel.

For example, my current 5e character comes from an area which uses the "Late Medieval France" naming conventions.

So, his name is Sir Alidor de Gantfer. "de Gantfer" is my (hack) Medieval French for "the Ironfist." He has a brother than Banault and a sister named Canadece. His squire, on the other hand, is from a region with "Moorish Spain" as the basis for their names, and his name is "Oriso."

If you want something really exotic, base the names off of an existing non-Romance language. Welsh or Gaelic for your elves, Finnish for your orcs, Russian for your gnomes, ancient Hebrew for your dwarves - all of these have a wealth of names you can borrow and modify.

This is something like what I do in most instances, though I use German for my dwarves. I find it handy for helping to establish a setting and culture; when you run into a dwarf named Hans Schmidt of clan Hanseath, you're probably going to assume he's from a Germanic-style culture.

[Calen]

My names usually come from a translator. For my one world the elvish words are derived from Italian and Spanish. Dwarves are more Russian or Germanic. One of the human nations has Russian roots the other is Old English. Gnomes are Japanese. Throw my bad pronunciation into the mix and I think that the names can turn out fairly distant from their source.

The downside of this method is that my players are constantly asking me what such-and-such is called or using their own names. So I have started cutting back a bit for the place names and giving the "translated" names. They seem to remember "University of Life Magic" better than "Istutio Viamota"

[goto124]

I just wrote a backstory for one of my FFRP characters (link in sig). I got Sybil and Lilista's names after running a few name generators (and was frustrated over how bad-sounding the names were). I randomly pulled Ylea, Eugene, and Dalern Dalara out of thin air, and the other names go: Portcity, Mountainhide, the Queen, the Queen's Circle, the Queen's Assistant, the Testerwomen, all bascially describing what they are. Portcity is a city that's also a port. Mountainhide is a village hidden within the mountains.

I'm lame.

At least I didn't give descriptive names to Ylea, Lilista, and Eugene. Mostly because I don't have enough imagination to do it, or that my characters typically don't have an origin...