Generating random names

[AeroDm]

I've been doing a lot of puttering with trying to develop systems to do the heavy lifting for me in D&D and most recently that led me to develop a random name generator. So far it only generates town/structure names because they tend to follow a more pronounced pattern but I hope to expand it into a more broad name generator. The most updated version is attached below.

I'd appreciate feedback on what would make it more useful for people or how it could be improved. Thanks in advance.

 

[AeroDm]

Could I entice people to check it out if I said it used cool formulas like (this is one cell)... =IF(B9=1,VLOOKUP(INT(RAND()*$D$22+1),$B$23:$K$42,3)&" "&VLOOKUP(INT(RAND()*$J$22+1),$B$23:$K$42,9)&VLOOKUP(INT(RAND()*$K$22+1),$B$23:$K$42,10),VLOOKUP(INT(RAND()*$J$22+1),$B$23:$K$42,9)&VLOOKUP(INT(RAND()*$K$22+1),$B$23:$K$42,10)&" "&VLOOKUP(INT(RAND()*$D$22+1),$B$23:$K$42,3))

The cool thing about it is that it builds the names with syntax elements that you enter. They can be full words, but they also can be basic root structures. Since it was designed with this in mind, adding or removing elements is incredibly simple and you can even change the probabilities that a particular element arises just by entering it twice.

To this end, you could customize different regions of your world by using common elements. So maybe the -berg suffix is common in one area and -dale in a different. By adding or removing a handful of elements, you can coax the generator into spitting out whatever flavor or feel you want.

 

[Aluvial]

I like it a lot. Very useful for quick generation. I'm going to try and adapt for NPC names.

 

[AeroDm]

Thanks for the reply. NPC names is where I initially planned to take it but I figured I'd start with cities first because they follow more basic patterns. I've attached what I have so far for NPC name generation. It provides good starting points for names but most need a little polishing.

 

[enworldatemylogin]

I opened it up and it looks nice, maybe because of the colors. I also like the note: Don't change anything unless your confident. Technically it should be "you're" but that was not what I noticed until typing it here.

It kinda reminds me of a linguistics chart, as the names are arranged in rows and seem to have similar roots.

 

[AeroDm]

I opened it up and it looks nice, maybe because of the colors. I also like the note: Don't change anything unless your confident. Technically it should be "you're" but that was not what I noticed until typing it here.

It kinda reminds me of a linguistics chart, as the names are arranged in rows and seem to have similar roots.

Haha. I'm an idiot. For clarity, the "don't change anything unless [you're] confident" was referring to the formulas in cells. They get complex pretty quick and if you go fiddling it is hard to undo. You absolutely should change the cells containing the elements that makeup a name and play around. The idea for it originated back in a linguistics class and looking at how words are formed, so I'm not surprised it looks familiar.