Inventing names is detrimental to my immersion

[Mishihari Lord]

"Hi! I'm Bob the paladin" ... and my immersion goes SPOING! I don't much care for real world names in fantasy unless the setting is closely related to a real world setting. "Gregory" and "Percival" are great in something that looks a bit like feudal Earth, like "A Song of Fire and Ice," not so great for me otherwise.

For a consistent feel in naming, I create a "sound palate" for each language/culture. In English the most common vowels are E and A, and the most common consonants are T, S, R, L, and N in that order. For dwarven, I might set the palate as long O and short U for vowels, and D, K, N, TH, and hard G for consonants. Other sounds get in there too, but sounds in the palate dominate. Then the players hear a place name like "Kon Gothud" and they're pretty sure it's a dwarven location even before they know what it is. IME this makes the names easier to remember too.

 

[steeldragons]

For a consistent feel in naming, I create a "sound palate" for each language/culture. In English the most common vowels are E and A, and the most common consonants are T, S, R, L, and N in that order. For dwarven, I might set the palate as long O and short U for vowels, and D, K, N, TH, and hard G for consonants. Other sounds get in there too, but sounds in the palate dominate. Then the players hear a place name like "Kon Gothud" and they're pretty sure it's a dwarven location even before they know what it is. IME this makes the names easier to remember too.

Almost identical to my "sound palate" for dwarvish names in Orea. Though I never knew/used the term "sound palate" before (I shall from now on! I have, apparently, always been using the idea.

 

[blargney the second]

As bad as Bob the Paladin is, you can awesome it up very easily: Robert the Fearless.
-blarg

 

[delericho]

It's a tricky one. If the game just uses modern English names (Bob the Paladin) then it kills my suspension of disbelief. If the game uses names that are just blatant nonsense (tX'erian of Ka''almd) then it will likewise kill my suspension of disbelief. A campaign really needs to find that middle ground where the names sound like they could be real, while still sounding appropriately fantastical and exotic.

(Also, I'm rather amused by J.V. Jones use of Castlemilk in her "Sword of Shadows" series, and the use of Cairngorm as an NPC name in Eberron. Both of those being places not far from here.)

 

[NewJeffCT]

Sure, a lot of people with Chinese names tend to rename themselves with English names, but I've come across Chinese with American names like "Apple", "Water", "Viking" and (my favorite) "Swallow"

Also, people from India usually do not change their names - my daughter has friends named Neetha, Haruni, Rhea and Ashwini, among others.

 

[Nellisir]

Sure, a lot of people with Chinese names tend to rename themselves with English names, but I've come across Chinese with American names like "Apple", "Water", "Viking" and (my favorite) "Swallow"
Also, people from India usually do not change their names - my daughter has friends named Neetha, Haruni, Rhea and Ashwini, among others.

Somewhat off-topic, I believe people in Thailand are required to take Thai names if they want citizenship. My wife grew up in Bangkok and many of her friends have two names: a Thai name and their "cultural" name. I believe the same has been true of Iceland (I'm not sure if that's the case currently) and possibly other countries.

 

[nijineko]

we have a mix. one character is called bob. another was steve. now it is "steve, the sorcerer, grelnic"... who is actually a rogue. (don't ask.) and we have a number of more pseudo-fantasy names too. we just go with it. and make swimming jokes about the ranger, bob. ^^

 

[Viking Bastard]

I don't really worry about it. I try to keep some consistency, so that say, all the goblin from that particular tribe have similar names, but that's as far as I take it.

I tend to use names as shorthand at characterization a lot, rather than as a tool in worldbuilding. I give obvious villains supervillainy names and larger-than-life heroes get larger-than-life names, while a lot of my peasants are named Bob or Harry.

But my games tend to lean towards the whimsical.

Somewhat off-topic, I believe people in Thailand are required to take Thai names if they want citizenship. My wife grew up in Bangkok and many of her friends have two names: a Thai name and their "cultural" name. I believe the same has been true of Iceland (I'm not sure if that's the case currently) and possibly other countries.

That used to be true here, yeah. Not anymore, but it's less than 15 years since that law was finally put in a sack and thrown into the sea.

 

[Gilladian]

For NPCs, I pick a national origin or ethnic type for names; all Woodsfolk have Germanic names; all 'Valers have Saxon/old English names; all Mirani have Roman-style names.

I use a whole host of different baby-name, SCA-name, and fantasy name generators to create them. Fantasy races I generally use a fantasy-name generator for. My elves all have Tolkien-style names, while my dwarves tend to have the typical clunky lots-of-k-and-u-sound names mentioned earlier. Clan names they tend to translate into "common" so they are pretty much descriptive. "Fire-heart" or "Blackstone" would be typical clan names.

Hobyts have names based on plants, the earth, food, etc... with occasional borrowings from whatever other racial culture they grew up near. Catfolk have descriptive names, because nobody can pronounce their names, so they always translate them into "common"... also, they use aliases a LOT.

Lizardfolk don't really "get" names, so they tend to be called "hey you!" or whatever someone dubs them during the first meeting. A lizardfolk will never GIVE you his name; you give him one, or someone tells you to "call him Mudbelly"... Grippli names are long croaking songs, so they tend to go with one-or-two syllable sound effect names like "Glib-pok" or just pick a "local" name they like the sound of.

Oh, and I forgot to say; PCs are "encouraged" to follow the same rules, but never forced. They can pick what they want, but I will offer options if asked.

 

[Zaukrie]

This is an issue for me. My players now mock me pretty much endlessly for the names I use....maybe if I actually planned what would happen better....