Desdichado
Legend
One of my pet peeves is that fantasy names quite often aren't. I mean, you don't want to go too far and have a bunch of nonsense that the players don't have any frame of reference for, but I get as tired of the "Celtic" fantasy culture and the "Roman" fantasy culture and the "Egyptian" fantasy culture as anyone else.
Here's a couple of fantasy name resources I've used to get truly unique, yet interesting and realistic appearing names. These are unique to my campaigns, but what the heck, someone else can use them. If nothing else, the methodology is interesting.
First, check out this page. It has a 10x10 table of syllables. To create a list of names, you need a d4 and a d10, or better yet, two d10s. Roll the d4 to determine how many syllables a name will have, and then, for each syllable, roll two d10s. Consult the table to see what syllable you get. Add it to your name. This language table gives results that somehow seem to be vaguely Japanese and Algonquin, yet not clearly either. Names like Kumewak, Sutaka, Keien, Wakpawon, Komewan, Sodewo, Heiwasso, etc.
Of course, you can make up your own syllables or name elements, and create your own language; this is just one of many I've done that I've been fairly happy with and retained.
You can also check out this zip file which includes a little application, helpfile, and language file I created years ago. The application was written by someone as an RPG aid, specifically for Traveller (although I've long since lost the vilani language file that it came with) and as near as I can tell, is completely abandonware (having never been other than freeware to begin with -- I can no longer find any reference to the file anywhere on line.) Open the application, load the included language file (ignore the stupid name Stronghold.lng; it once had meaning, sadly), change the number of names to generate to 12 (the maximum that will fit in the window) and hit generate. I've always considered this a good Orc or other harsh, gutteral humanoid language name generator. It gives results like Tsvuur, Ksaazktar, Kiar, Ktaaq, Tiarku, Tsauz and the like. You can also go mess around with the language tables the application uses, and create your own language rules; I've done about five or six language files, although this is the one that gets the most use from me.
Here's a couple of fantasy name resources I've used to get truly unique, yet interesting and realistic appearing names. These are unique to my campaigns, but what the heck, someone else can use them. If nothing else, the methodology is interesting.
First, check out this page. It has a 10x10 table of syllables. To create a list of names, you need a d4 and a d10, or better yet, two d10s. Roll the d4 to determine how many syllables a name will have, and then, for each syllable, roll two d10s. Consult the table to see what syllable you get. Add it to your name. This language table gives results that somehow seem to be vaguely Japanese and Algonquin, yet not clearly either. Names like Kumewak, Sutaka, Keien, Wakpawon, Komewan, Sodewo, Heiwasso, etc.
Of course, you can make up your own syllables or name elements, and create your own language; this is just one of many I've done that I've been fairly happy with and retained.
You can also check out this zip file which includes a little application, helpfile, and language file I created years ago. The application was written by someone as an RPG aid, specifically for Traveller (although I've long since lost the vilani language file that it came with) and as near as I can tell, is completely abandonware (having never been other than freeware to begin with -- I can no longer find any reference to the file anywhere on line.) Open the application, load the included language file (ignore the stupid name Stronghold.lng; it once had meaning, sadly), change the number of names to generate to 12 (the maximum that will fit in the window) and hit generate. I've always considered this a good Orc or other harsh, gutteral humanoid language name generator. It gives results like Tsvuur, Ksaazktar, Kiar, Ktaaq, Tiarku, Tsauz and the like. You can also go mess around with the language tables the application uses, and create your own language rules; I've done about five or six language files, although this is the one that gets the most use from me.
