Gygaxing people's names

[Wik]

Yeah, Lavicrep Evad is not a great Gygaxian name. But I could go with a scramble, and get Dvae Percaivl. That one I can get behind.

 

[Agamon]

If you name yourself that, people will think you're a red sox fan.

"NOMAAAA!"

LOL! Gnomaa Gahciapah? There's an NPC name!

But then, my friends know better than to confuse me with a Boston sports team fan. They don't even joke, it would be painful for them.

 

[Agamon]

Yeah, Lavicrep Evad is not a great Gygaxian name.

I'm not so sure about that, sounds right to me.

But I could go with a scramble, and get Dvae Percaivl. That one I can get behind.

But that's way too close to your real name, not enough scramble, IMO.

 

[jmucchiello]

While I admit to only one Eoj ever gracing a character sheet before me, there is just no hope for Olleihccum.

Amusingly enough, my wife (who knows nothing of Gygaxian names) has on occasion called me (in mock anger) Jophus. (Back story: A child in daycare referred to himself as Jophus in that manner only 3 years can though he really was Joseph.)

(I seem to have caught a case of parentheses. (cough))

 

[Desdichado]

Wow, is it just me who always thought that "Gygaxian" names were absolutely terrible?

I'd never turn a real name backwards to get a character name. I usually keep a list of names handy when I need NPC's on the fly; if I use one, I cross it off. Making up good names on the fly is hard. But I guess I don't consider stuff like Zagyg or Drawmij to be good names.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

One of my players has a character called Eoz Enaj.

 

[rossik]

my name sounds elvish to me

Leafar

or maybe arabian


i like to put "H" and "K" in names, so lets say
"Leahfar", or "Leafahr"

 

[Aaron L]

I used an anagram generator utility with my real name for my latest character (for a 1E Greyhawk game no less!) to get a nice Gygaxian name. I picked Izar Talon from the list of possibilities (from Aaron Litz.) I think it sounds rad

My brother, Austin, has used the reverse of his name, Nitsua, frequently.

As an aside, we once used an anagram of a character's name once. The character had been killed and resurrected and cursed in the process, magically scrambled. His name was Lord Whistlingwind (his first name was actually Lord) but he was reborn for a time as Roldwhin Stilwingd. When the character finally realized that his name had been altered (Lord was a legendary figure in the world and his name was widely known, and there were scattered hints that "Roldwhin" didn't really exist) the curse was broken and he returned to his true self. It was a great game arc, and it didn't matter that me and Lord's player (my younger brother) came up with the whole anagram idea ourselves. The DM loved it and went with it.

Of course, we play a fairly interactive game, with the DM regularly asking what kinds of story-arcs and themes we'd like to have included for our characters... a lot like the old DC Heroes RPG with it's "sub-plot" mechanic, which includes the player coming up with story elements for his character to role-play out during the course of the campaign, and getting Hero Points (essentially XP and Action Points rolled into one) for successfully portraying and completing the sub-plot during the game.


Wow... I've really been tending to ramble on lately.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wow, is it just me who always thought that "Gygaxian" names were absolutely terrible?

That's not the point. They're vintage. A restored Edsel is cool, even if the Edsel at the time it was a new car was not.

 

[RFisher]

Wow, is it just me who always thought that "Gygaxian" names were absolutely terrible?

It depends on the tone of the game. Though I think I tend to prefer them to wholly alien names made from whole cloth. My biggest criteria for names in a game is that they be easy to remember & easy to pronounce, no matter how they were inspired.

Lord's player

I had to read that phrase twice. (^_^)