A PC by any other name...

[evildm]

I have no issues with real world names being used, as long as they're appropriate and not too modern. Some of the best characters in our games have been named with real world names.

I also highly recommend checking out http://www.behindthename.com/random/ if you're looking for good and obscure real-world names.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Player: My new character's going to be an elf and ummm... I'm going to call him Mike.
DM: And do you feel Mike is a good name for an elf?
Player: I don't know, I'm struggling to come up with something elvish so I thought...
DM: Stop thinking and go back to struggling! There's no damn way I'm having an elf called Mike in my game.
Player: but...
DM: No!

Lets flip that around a little...

Player1: My new character's going to be an elf and ummm... I'm going to call him Clyrranmike Fileelaledel.
Player 2: Clyrranmike Fi-whatadel? My Half-Ogre Barbarian Throg can't work with that...he's going to call him...Mike.
DM: There's no damn way I'm having an elf called Mike in my game.
Player1: But that makes sense...most non-elves can't pronounce his name properly, so they just shorten it. Like Spock!
Player 2: Mike it is, then!
DM: Noooooooooooo!

 

[Panask]

My campaign has always had a mix of fantasy-sounding names and real-world names. As several posters said, you can have connotations to a real-world name that is difficult to achieve with a made-up one.

It's also interesting to set patterns. For a long time most of my dwarf NPCs had names that were real-world place names starting with "B": Brisbane, Balboa, Basra. I can't really explain why. The players got used to it, and began to recognize "dwarven" names when they heard them.

My own PCs tend to have names that are recognizable but not common in the real world: Orestes Masker, Laertes Dawnpiper. All of the Glimmerfolk that appear in my games (and I invented the Glimmerfolk, so I feel I'm on solid ground here) have names out of Shakespeare: Portia Purple, Dorcas Hand-of-Warmth, Cob Wildborn (and, of course, Laertes). There are a LOT of Shakespearean names, but if I ever run out, I'll probably just turn to other Elizabethan playwrights.

Only once did I ever veto a player's choice of name. One of my early players was playing a young paladin of Asilmar the Sun God. He neamed him "Three-person Greybeard," and refused to answer any questions about the name. For some reason it was just over my limit, and I made up some sort of nickname to call him from there on out.

Panask
Servitar to Baldur

 

[Nyaricus]

I have a book or three of names - many old names which sound like some completely made up language.

For my homebrew, i try to keep things in sync with one another - so certain races/cultures mimic naems from earth.

I try to balance the two, and i haev a name site or three which i will post up ASAP

 

[dutorn]

Every Dwarf I've ever played, save one, has been named Bjorn. (The odd one out was named Bjarni )QUOTE]

When I play Elf PC's I always reuse the name Rannysiliroth. Usually with Forestrunner as a surname. I've always thought it sounded elvish so I keep reusing it. The only other name i've called an elf PC was my Bard named Nileroe Laelithar.

 

[the Jester]

I think I'm the only DM out of all the ones I've encountered who has the same name show up for more than one NPC.

I do this too- some times very much intentionally. It can add a lot of confusion to the party's search for the man named Valkor if the name itself is as common as John is to us (in America/Britain).

 

[Lord Wyrm]

I like to use some real world names for characters in my game. I like to use Roman, Arabic, and Norse names in particular, in addition many NPCs (and at least 2 PCs) have been named after one of the gods in much the same way people are named after the Christian saints (Peter, Paul, etc.)

 

[Kwitchit]

One player gives Tau names from 40k to his elf characters- Like M'Yen Windwalker

And my L5R game gets a lot of historical names. We've had: Otomo Nobunaga, Akodo Kojiro and Iuchi Temurlang. On the other hand, there was the monk called Yo, and my personal favourite NPC name, Moto Bazashi (which means "raw horse meat").

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I don't enjoy playing with people who give their characters bizarre names which try to be "exotic" and achieve only "silly". Personally, I use names from real-world cultures; historically I've preferred British and Roman names with a side of Greek. Franklin, William, Licinia, Ascanius, Catilina, and so on.

I don't mind names which are linguistically-alternative twists on historical names; it's easy to come up with a Roman-sounding name which was never actually used, and George R. R. Martin does well with his not-really-English names like Eddard, Samwell, Aeryn, et cetera.

One time I mocked a friend for naming his character Jarlath . . . then I discovered that one of the principal actors from Day of the Dead was named Jarlath.

 

[Cor Azer]

I reuse NPC names all the time - in fact, in my last game, two elven PCs had the same first name as well. Despite being a couple, they had made their characters separately, and had chosen the names Lia Elmtree and Lia Galanodel.

I follow the George Martin model for names mostly - I use a lot of alternate spellings of real-world names.