Character Names - How Do You Come Up With Yours?

[Stormborn]

It depends. Mostly just make it up, but I do a lot of shifting of names as well. For example, my screenname here is the name of both my first DnD character and my current one (I decided to rebuild him for the game using 3.5 rules and supplements). He is Grayalyn Stormborn. My middlename is Gray, my father's middle name is Lynn which results in "the Gray of Lynn" or "Grayalyn" or "Grayl" for short. I was also born during one of those tornado infested afternoons we get here in the summer, thus Stormborn.

At other times I just pick names or ideas that seem to fit the character concept and tweak them a little to make them "DnDish" - like the Paladin from an order that venerated the virtues of the hound who was named Fideous by his Paladin father. If I use names from fiction or RL i change them slightly and try to use ones that most of the people I play with haven't heard of.

I have friends, and a wife, that agonize over names for characters and use books of names and websites to come up with them. My just seem to come to me.

 

[Mallus]

First, I start with something egregious... then I stop.

The latest PC I'm cooking up for a post-apocalyptic campaign is a young telekinetic assassin raised by evil scientists who though it would be funny to raise her on a steady diet of salvaged Magic Girl anime.

She thinks her name is Season Soldier Sailor June, the 1st Guardian of Summer. She kills people, with her brain.

 

[BluSponge]

With this:



Alternatively, I may play with the anagram method (pick a friend's name and mix up the letters til they form something appropriate sounding).

Really, every GM ought to have a book of baby names in his/her library. Start there.

Tom

 

[hong]

No way am I making a character named BluSponge.

 

[Ringan]

I made a word generator! The algorithm essentially uses scrabble tiles to exchange letters that have similar values (A is as common as E, Z is as common as J, etc). Say you like the name "Vincent Valentine" but don't want to just steal it. If you enter that name into the generator it will come up with a similar, English-sounding word. It really helps me because I have trouble thinking of original names on my own.

I also sometimes use this name dictionary, which breaks down names by ethnicity:
http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/

 

[BluSponge]

No way am I making a character named BluSponge.

Ah, c'mon! He'd be lovable and squishy.

Tom

 

[lukelightning]

Courtesy of FARK.com. My character's name is Orly Yarly.

 

[Pbartender]

I like to get mine from the obituary columns and estate listings. Many people dying today have very different sounding names than those people in our generation.
I don't use exact names, but mix and match as needed. Here are some names I grabbed just the other day:

I often do the same thing, butI use the names from my Spam Email Folder...

Oscar Griffin
Jorge Torres
Willett Enid
Catherine Hurst
John Williams
Ernie Nava
Maynard Easley
Ty Watts
Kendrick Bledsoe
Logan Dodd
Jarvis Lockett
Kendrick Osborne
Augustine Goddard
Harriett Christensen
Brayden Baker
Quinton Weber
Leona Genevieve
Gussie Mills
Carlos Mata
Dominic Kelly
Jordan Jones
Adam Nelson

Some are better than others, but there's plenty to pick and choose from.

 

[Darklone]

Know these TV series where the baddies always use thought patterns in their seemingly random plans? I'm the same, if I come up with names, they all sound similar. It's horrible.

 

[Kaladhan]

The best name of a character came to me while I was drunk (Kaladhan). It's not something I recommand for everyone, but there's nothing working better for my imagination than believing that I'm sexy and that all woman wants me. That usually lasts until I sober up.