Fantasy Gaming Names

[Wik]

Lately, I've been naming my characters after hockey players, particularly forwards from the San Jose Sharks (such a fanboi).

So, I've had "Marleau", "Thornton," and "Boyle". My current character isn't named after a hockey player, though (he's named "Vannon").

 

[Dioltach]

This reminds me of the episode of Red Dwarf where the crew die and find themselves back on Earth, having been playing a video game for four years. Kryten is delighted to discover that he is really a police officer called "Jake Bullet, Cybernautics Division". Of course Rimmer points out that the Cybernautics Division might be traffic police and perhaps he just happens to have a hopelessly macho name.

I find that on the whole fantasy names tend to have lots of "a", "e", "y", "z", "s" and "th" sounds. And apostrophes. In fact, names like that can put me completely off a book. I remember a book I once read in which the main character was a farm boy called Farnor Yarrance. Right. In just about any rural community that would be shortened to "our Farrie" or something pretty quickly.

(My group mostly plays games set in particular periods of Earth history, so for most of my characters and NPCs I look up appropriate names -- mostly to avoid falling into the trap of thinking up an overly fancy name.)

 

[Derulbaskul]

I cannot stand real world names in my games.

I will kill the character and, if necessary, the player because it's too easy for the game's banter ("so you're really sorcerer called John?") to break the verisimilitude.

There are plenty of name generators around and I would much rather they were used... unless the result has apostrophes. So I would broaden the rule to be no real world names or names that sound like R A Salvatore would use in one of his "novels" or, worse yet, names that one of R A Salvatore's fanbois would use in their fan fiction.

 

[Jhaelen]

I've decided to ban all names, because the names my players chose were so awful. Now we just use numbers.

 

[SiderisAnon]

I just want to know why isn't there more John Smiths in gaming?

Oddly, I ran a science fiction game last year where the main character was from Earth and named John Smith. Granted, it was loosely based on Battletech, so Earth normal names were more usual, but at least it's an example of a John Smith; right?


EDIT: Of course, some of my players have such a hard time naming their characters that I once ran an impromptu one-shot where I started with telling everyone, "Okay. Your characters' names are all Bob. Now that that's out of the way..."

 

[Stoat]

I cannot stand real world names in my games.

I will kill the character and, if necessary, the player because it's too easy for the game's banter ("so you're really sorcerer called John?") to break the verisimilitude.

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum. I'm the exact opposite. Nothing tears me out of the game faster than a weird "fantasy style" name. I'd much rather have John the Sorcerer at the table than Ghauthular the Sorcerer.

Names in my current campaign:

Tomas Firebrand = Human Wizard
Knute Steele = Dragonborn Cleric
Falteran Vorzord LNU = Dwarf Paladin
Arthur Darkwood = Tiefling Warlock
Wilice Arroway = Human Ranger
"Uncle" Rikard Firebrand = NPC mentor (deceased)

I prefer more ordinary names for PC races because the PC races are the "standard" for the world. Monsters, demons and aberrations may have truly strange names, because they are alien. I want to be able to contrast the alien monster names with the mundane PC names.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I cannot stand real world names in my games.

I will kill the character and, if necessary, the player because it's too easy for the game's banter ("so you're really sorcerer called John?") to break the verisimilitude.

I can see where you're coming from here. One feels a magical character should have a weirder sounding name. Very modern names such as Tyler or Madison sound totally wrong for a pseudo-medieval world.

That said, John is a thoroughly medieval name of course, as are such ordinary sounding names as Richard, William and Simon. But maybe it's better to go for a name that's medieval but not also modern, such as Walerand or Godwin.

John would sound a bit more magical if it was John of Damascus or Miraculous John.

My most recent D&D PC was a warmage called Flaming Helen. (She was obsessed with fire, had a reserve feat that let her always make fire and tried to solve pretty much every problem by 'burning it with fire' - she was great fun to play.) I don't know if you would regard that as acceptable or not, Helen is a pretty ordinary, modern-sounding name, the face that launched a thousand ships notwithstanding.

 

[Chainsaw]

When making a first level character, I usually pick an unpretentious and convenient first name (usually 2-3 syllables at most) and a family-business type last name (Barton Cook, Gorn Forrester, Jolin the Herder, etc). Eventually Barton kills a troll and becomes Barton the Trollslayer or maybe he pursues evil magical rituals and becomes.. Black Bart! Hahah.

Naming a level one guy Fistandantilus Bloodstalker of the Black Swamp or Grawlgakthon the Ultimate Destructor isn't that appealing - why would he possibly be known by such a pretentious title when he's got no achievements and has never travelled? I'm exaggerating, obviously. I know some people wind up with what I'd call pretentious names for their level one guys because they're trying to differentiate them. I get that.

I just prefer to start simple and build out based on what actually happens to the guy. The journey to 'cool' is what I like - seing a character change. If I'm starting out as The Awesome, it defeats the purpose of playing, for me.

 

[Mallus]

...Madison...

Though "Madison the Barbarian" or "Madison the Destroyer" have a certain undeniable charm to them... well, to me anyway.

Anyhow, my turn to DM has come around, let me offer are NPC's names. My players are currently rushing to the defense of a beggar's guild/group of homeless people/spy ring who call themselves the Unseemly Court. They include...

Arsely Keister-Bottom, Lord Bum.
Lord Lack-A-Day.
Lady Bumtussle.
Lord Rags.
Lady Snogbottom.
Sir Bellewhether.

When I pass on the viking hat I'll resume playing my Dragonborn paladin, Sir Yatagan Fracas (named for two perfumes my wife likes to wear simultaneously).

 

[Doug McCrae]

I just want to know why isn't there more John Smiths in gaming?

Like you say, people want their characters to be cool and special and interesting. Not dull and ordinary. Makes a certain amount of sense.

Tolkien, the master of names, gives us both kinds of hero - Sam Gamgee as well as Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Except, Samwise Gamgee is supposed to be the English translation of his true, Westron name - Banazîr Galbasi. The same is true of all the hobbits, Tolkien gives us English versions of their names to make them more accessible.