NPC names

[Mallus]

what did I say about pronouncing them

I like some of the other names but your campaign prep, probably because they are partially French, are difficult to pronounce/remember.

French is easy to pronounce if you completely disregard the way French people pronounce it (like I do)!

Also, I've found players remember names that amuse them. In a previous campaign in the same setting, my NPC with the most popular/memorable name was Dr. Mephisophocles (Professor of Ineffable Inquiry and Un-natural Philosophy) -- and I screwed up the pronunciation more often than not.

 

[Jacob Marley]

Try to create NPC names that don't lend themselves to mockery and you practically guarantee the players will find a dozen ways to mock them inside of 10 minutes. Shoot for names with gravitas and more likely than not shoot yourself in the foot, err, nomenclature.

This may be true for your players, but is certainly not true of mine. In fact, if a DM/Player ever introduced an NPC/PC named "Lustful Curds" or "Kappa Jo" that person would be mocked and ridiculed until the name was changed to something more fitting. Not everybody "relaxes and has fun" with stupid jokes and puns.

 

[Omegaxicor]

I think the number one reason I haven't seen anyone address (and forgive me if I missed it): How did this "ancient extinct race" name themselves? What did their names/naming conventions sound like?

Did this culture name folks:
Varaganxyrak and Sebredi?
Kal-el and Kara?
Lord Dansen and Lady Rudnell?
Lamentable-Cries-of-Fear and Shining-Golden-Wings?
Ib and Ok?

And how [or even "if"] would any of those translate into English (or whatever your game world "Common" is).

Come up with those and you can come up with the sounds you want to portray this "big bad" and "incorporeal ally."

That is where I fall down, I was going to design the language around the NPCs names, I suppose it would be something closer to the first set (I don't know where those are from though) but without X's and Y's.

I will have to think about that more now that you mention it...

 

[steeldragons]

They aren't "from" anywhere. I just made them up.

The culture of the long extinct race is yours to create...you can't really "fall down" on that. It's whatever you want it to be. Think about it. The names will follow and they'll have a weight and a depth of (completely made up but still) "real" feeling behind them as a result.

 

[Mallus]

This may be true for your players, but is certainly not true of mine.

I think it's generally true that when D&D players shoot for grandiose, lyrical, nay Tolikenesque names they frequently end up with something that sounds funny. Hell, J.R.R. wound up with funny names, too, sometimes.

In fact, if a DM/Player ever introduced an NPC/PC named "Lustful Curds" or "Kappa Jo" that person would be mocked and ridiculed until the name was changed to something more fitting. Not everybody "relaxes and has fun" with stupid jokes and puns.

No advice is universally applicable, outside of things like "don't drink mercury" and "don't try to swim in lava". So I stand by what I wrote... relaxing and lightening up is usually a good idea.

Besides, there's nothing stupid about my puns (the PhD's in my group seem to like them). For example, to fully appreciate the genius of "Lustful Curds", one needs to be familiar with Wallace Stevens' "The Emperor of Ice-Cream", which requires at least a 7th grade education!

 

[Celebrim]

My advice would be to relax and have fun. Try to create NPC names that don't lend themselves to mockery and you practically guarantee the players will find a dozen ways to mock them inside of 10 minutes. Shoot for names with gravitas and more likely than not shoot yourself in the foot, err, nomenclature.

I've become a big fan of word names, names ripped off from real-world cultures, sometime modified, sometimes not, and names otherwise stolen from sources outside my own head. In my experience, it's worse to create names that sound too same-y, which is a big risk if you try to do all the name-creation yourself. The world sounds as small as the DM's imagination. Borrowing freely from the wider world, real and fictional, helps mitigate that.

I've found themes help. In the old homebrew I'm dusting off for a new Pathfinder campaign, the city of Narayan most names are bad French, bad Hindi, or a mix of bad French and bad Hindi. This is to give the names a particular and hopefully memorable sound, and to suggest the cities history; the original, ancient culture (Hindu-ish) and the barbarian culture that sacked then later integrated (French-ish).

Here are examples from my campaign-prep. My players may want to stop reading now!

• Dame Nathalie Satyajit-Rey, the evil, aristocratic captain of the Bred of Wickedness (who's also an evil priestess known for her Ray spells...).

• L'Enfer Dame Adjani, La Petit Morte, the Sister of the Seventh Tower (Nathalie's goddess, sort of an advanced succubus).

• Mlle. Opalé Fleur, the mistress of Masion Basé Moi (which is on Rue Prix Nuit, aka Night Price Street).

• Diella "Dilly" Daliwhal, Mlle. Fleur's lazy maid.

• Bagwan-Bernard Bodhi, a very wealthy man.

• Ragwan Wrothchilde, aka The Bloody Pike, a very wealthy pirate and politician, head of the Red Sea Party, or Mer Rouge.

• Pavur-Pascal Rajani, aka Pavur of the Golden Door, a famous magician specializing in teleportation.

And some other names:

• Lustful Curds, a foreigner who serves as Mlle. Fleur's "cheese-wallah". He's also an accomplished cigar-roller.

• Galen Wrecks, a hulking, brutish physician.

• Parzival Lanka, a knight and detective.

• Kappa Jo, aka Josephat of Miir. He owns a coffee shop, and is, in fact, something of a kappa.

• Tumult Gunn, clock-and-firearm maker, owner of the Bold Curiosities Shoppe.

(you may have noticed I don't shy away from puns... but hey, neither did Shakespeare!)

I wish it was still the case that when you XP'd someone, it showed up, because I think this is an absolutely beautiful post. They are wonderful lyrical, literate names, pleasant to the ear and full of sound. I love the blend of psuedo French and psuedo Hindu.

I want to introduce Kappa's to my setting now, just so I can steal Kappa Jo.

 

[Jacob Marley]

I think it's generally true that when D&D players shoot for grandiose, lyrical, nay Tolikenesque names they frequently end up with something that sounds funny. Hell, J.R.R. wound up with funny names, too, sometimes.

A lot of Tolkien names are rooted in (or outright are) historical Anglo-Saxon names. In LotR, Theodred was heir to Rohan. In Anglo-Saxon England, Theodred was Bishop of London. There are fifteen other listings for Theodred in the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England Database. In my Greyhawk campaign, Theodred is a Paladin from Veluna.

If a player is interested in Tolkien-style naming conventions, I'd direct them to look into the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England Database.

No advice is universally applicable, outside of things like "don't drink mercury" and "don't try to swim in lava". So I stand by what I wrote... relaxing and lightening up is usually a good idea.

Each night during the summer I spend a couple of hours doing yard work. I find it the activity cathartic. One night my neighbor came over and we were talking about the upcoming weekend. I mentioned to him about some work I was planning to do in the yard. He replied that I should relax and stop worrying about a couple of weeds in the flower garden. At that moment he insulted me. He didn't mean to, but he did. He didn't understand why I was doing what I was doing. To him it was work. For me it was peaceful.

The same is true with D&D. I enjoy the process of digging through historical documents, looking up old names and building my Greyhawk campaign with guidance from those sources. Now, I know you don't intend to be insulting with your "relax and lighten up" phrase, but that statement, in this context, is insulting.

Besides, there's nothing stupid about my puns (the PhD's in my group seem to like them). For example, to fully appreciate the genius of "Lustful Curds", one needs to be familiar with Wallace Stevens' "The Emperor of Ice-Cream", which requires at least a 7th grade education!

And to fully appreciate the genius of "Theodred", one needs to be familiar with Tolkien and Anglo-Saxon England, which requires at least a 7th grade education as well!

 

[Mallus]

I enjoy the process of digging through historical documents, looking up old names and building my Greyhawk campaign with guidance from those sources.

Ah... our approaches aren't that different. I enjoy rooting around in the things I know/am interested in, too. The result is, as you called them, "stupid jokes and puns". We're just digging through a different set of source materials.

I like wordplay. If I can come up with a euphonious name that's also a pun in one or more languages, well, that's just the cat's pajamas.

Now, I know you don't intend to be insulting with your "relax and lighten up" phrase, but that statement, in this context, is insulting.

Out of curiosity, did you mean "stupid jokes and puns" to be insulting? Not that I was...

 

[Jacob Marley]

Out of curiosity, did you mean "stupid jokes and puns" to be insulting? Not that I was...

Not at all. I enjoy stupid jokes and puns... just not in D&D.

 

[Omegaxicor]

I have been thinking and of all the languages I have looked at, I like a Spanish sounding language but not Spanish because most words either haven't been translated far or are easily recognisable...

I will look into it further but any ideas you have would be appreciated, and as far as digging through historical information I HAD to stop doing that because I kept getting distracted by the information...I spent a whole afternoon looking for one German sounding name