Ubiaratne the weird
First Post
my characters are mostly deranged, so weird latin spinoffs and animal names are the norm. In fact, all of my characters have had crow, raven, weird,or canny somewhere in their title. All eighty of them.
A PC by any other name...
CronoDekar
First Post
Usually when trying to think up of names I go to a name website and look up words that thematically tie to the character. The most common name I ever came up with was "Chance" for my human happy-go-lucky Luck Cleric/Fighter/Auspician. The commonence of his name helps to really incapsulate his personality, while still being a name that's not too modern.
And if all else fails, or the character is tied to a region with an unusual naming convention, I just look at a "common name" list and choose one (Laskaw, Zashier, Amra).
For an Eberron campaign I had an idea for a warforged druid named Live (the verb), after a mad newb Cannith person shouted at the Creation Forge "Live, my creature! Live!" So Live just took his name and ran off
And if all else fails, or the character is tied to a region with an unusual naming convention, I just look at a "common name" list and choose one (Laskaw, Zashier, Amra).
For an Eberron campaign I had an idea for a warforged druid named Live (the verb), after a mad newb Cannith person shouted at the Creation Forge "Live, my creature! Live!" So Live just took his name and ran off
comareddin
First Post
The names of two gods, Kurtulmak and Maglubiyet (goblin and kobold IIRC) are Turkish words. Kurtulmak means to escape and Maglubiyet means defeat . They sound strange in our games but what do you think about those names? Did they seem odd to you when you first saw them?
Com
. They sound strange in our games but what do you think about those names? Did they seem odd to you when you first saw them?Com
Woas
First Post
comareddin said:The names of two gods, Kurtulmak and Maglubiyet (goblin and kobold IIRC) are Turkish words. Kurtulmak means to escape and Maglubiyet means defeat
Com
Kurtulmak for some reason seemed "right" in my head... maybe cause the K in kobold and kurtulmak. I dunno.
But maglubiyet does sound very odd and in my head it does not really conotate to "goblin deity". I imaged a much harsher sounding work. Not so vowel heavy: like Gruumsh. That name fits an orc deity.
Now that I'm thinking about it and the topic is in my mind, if the choice of what to name the goblin diety had was up to me, I would pick: Lhurgoyf. People who have played Magic: The Gathering for a bit will recognize the name. I think the name sounds perfect! Hehehe...
ThirdWizard
First Post
I'm all over the place. I looked over some NPCs in my current campaign because I wasn't sure what I used, and its stuff like: Grum , Burt, Bibble, Stock, Jazay, Glar, Red Dagger, Robert, Zimmerman, Ferah, Hilah, Beorthwen, and on and on. You can tell I really hate long names that look like random letters thrown in, though. I find those nigh unpronouncable and can't stand them. I'm a simple man with simple pleasures.
Full disclosure time:
I DO use made-up names. I just don't use ONLY made-up names.
In addition to a massive Excel file of words for name generation, I also have a BIG book of Baby Names (these are available in any book store) and a really funny book called Names by Paul Dickson. Essentially, its a collection of unusual names, all from real people. Examples from p.78 of Names: Xenophone Foukas, Cashmere Funkhouser, Hilbert Gitchuway, Powhatan Greivous, Coy Ham, Urwanda Island...
I personally know a nice Native American woman whose uncle is named Whitekiller.
I DO use made-up names. I just don't use ONLY made-up names.
In addition to a massive Excel file of words for name generation, I also have a BIG book of Baby Names (these are available in any book store) and a really funny book called Names by Paul Dickson. Essentially, its a collection of unusual names, all from real people. Examples from p.78 of Names: Xenophone Foukas, Cashmere Funkhouser, Hilbert Gitchuway, Powhatan Greivous, Coy Ham, Urwanda Island...
I personally know a nice Native American woman whose uncle is named Whitekiller.
wingsandsword
Legend
There is a suspension of disbelief issue with characters from nonhuman races or very different cultures having familiar names (like the Elf named "Mike" example), but there is plenty of room for real world names.
You can also have fantastic names, which abbreviate down to more mundane names, Wheel of Time is full of them: Matrim Cauthon becomes "Mat", and Thomdril Merrilin becomes "Thom" as examples.
PC names should be familiar enough that the PC's can pronounce them comfortably, short enough they can say them in conversation, and keep with the general tone of the campaign. When I ran a semi-historic campaign set in during the 13th Century, there was absolutely nothing wrong with a PC named John or Thomas, in fact I kept an eye on PC's who wanted to use outrageous names instead, like Dorongo the Huge or Xektaar N'ggril (I had one player who just loved to play "weird" characters, he wasn't much of a fit for that campaign sadly).
You can also have fantastic names, which abbreviate down to more mundane names, Wheel of Time is full of them: Matrim Cauthon becomes "Mat", and Thomdril Merrilin becomes "Thom" as examples.
PC names should be familiar enough that the PC's can pronounce them comfortably, short enough they can say them in conversation, and keep with the general tone of the campaign. When I ran a semi-historic campaign set in during the 13th Century, there was absolutely nothing wrong with a PC named John or Thomas, in fact I kept an eye on PC's who wanted to use outrageous names instead, like Dorongo the Huge or Xektaar N'ggril (I had one player who just loved to play "weird" characters, he wasn't much of a fit for that campaign sadly).
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