"It's a joke name, sir."

[Robert Ranting]

A few I've seen in games:

Mine:

Mitchifer Boozehound - My first D&D character, a drunken cleric of the Church of Hard Liquor and Loose Women.

Jackrow Bezling Stymquvf Ph.D. (Druid of Philosophy)- An illiterate Gnome Druid who signed his name with an X, the only letter not actually in his name.

Zardozan- A woodwrack dragon named for the movie Zardoz.

My players:

Guro- A samurai-ish Litorian Warmain. No one in the group knew what it was japanese slang for until after he'd already played the character for a couple sessions.

People I've played with:

Anubis the Scythe-a Sibeccai (jackal-anthro) fighter, who wielded said weapon.

NPCs:

Zelaf Flowercrusher- a Spryte Warmain (fighter) with Arnold Schwartzenegger's voice.

Pierre Lemonjello- a Paladin from a previous campaign who was mentioned as an NPC. One of over a half dozen -onjello characters from the same player, most of them currently cannon PCs of that DM's Ravenloft campaigns.

***

Regarding the advice on naming conventions, I think it's interesting that it advocates not using "The Adjective" surnames for the very reason that it is the standard naming convention for the entire Sibeccai race in Arcana Evolved...arrogance. Since Sibeccai essentially abandon their children to communal daycare at birth, and their society is based on merit, having a self-chosen adjective is really the only way for them to distinguish themselves. If it seems arrogant or self-aggrandizing, that's because it *is* and the whole culture is intended to come off that way.

***

As for real life, there was a 5th grade teacher at my old elementary school named Justin Case, and in my highschool graduating class there was a girl named Jade Green.

Robert "No My Real Name's Not..." Ranting

 

[Nightchilde-2]

For me, it depends heavily on the game we're playing. For instance "Fat Ho" is fine for Feng Shui or "Long Noodles Phac" for Deadlands.

In my group, I'm the GM and I'm responsible for most of the bad pun names, quite honestly. They tend to crop up when I need to come up with an NPC name on the fly..for instance...

Fat Ho (Feng Shui)
Jennifer Love-Ewitt (D&D)
El Perro Muerte (Rifts; more a bar name than a person's name, though)
Skids (nWoD..a character the PCs knew in high school, "Skids" was his nickname due to..ah..shall we say hygeine issues)
Spooky Cajun Man (Murphy's World)
Richard Tete (I forget which game, but nobody ever caught on)
And how could I forget our stagecoach driver in the Deadlands Reloaded game..."Driver."

 

[Wystan]

I have a friend named 'Richard Seiman', My mother is 'Dorothy Gail' and her friend was 'Alby Zalezzi' (Picture his poor wife and daughters)...

I tend to shy away from joke names, but I did name my most recent pets in WOW...
AteMyShoes and PeesOnDaFloor

 

[Chaldfont]

I've seen the following names in my games:

Hassan Bin Sobar (thank you Three Stooges!)
Bastert (a warforged named by his fellow soldiers)
Phineas County Jr. (Deadlands character)
Jefferson Davis Payne (another Deadlands character)
Filch (an AD&D thief)
Cabin Boy (actually an NPC henchmen)
Chan Jet Li (D&D half-orc monk)
La Choy and Bok Choy (D&D Oriental Adventures; brothers)
Phat Wang (halfling monk)

 

[Lanefan]

Whatever people want to name their PC's is fine by me.

Some good ones I've seen, in my own games and others:

Revelations (played by a born-again, and not for long)
Loser (a low-stat character, quickly slain in the field)
Knottwoor Thmutch (another one, ditto, and one of my all-time favourite character names)
Weir (when combined with its family name, not repeatable here)
Boris the Spider (a Thief, good at climbing)
Purity (a Monk, currently active)
Pearl Jam (a spectacularly successful Gnome wizard, still active)
Alain-x (player's name was Alain, character died ("x") before meeting party and before getting a name)
Uuhn (character was mute, "uuhn" was the only sound it could make, hence the name)
X (its real name went on forever, so it just went by its middle initial: X)

Some stolen ones from past and present:

Gandalf (very successful early-days wizard; most blatant of a number of LotR names used)
Hans and Franz (pair of brothers; fighter Franz died quickly; wizard Hans went on to a huge career)
Gino (barbarian named after 90's hockey goon Gino Odjick; in fact one DM named many of his NPC's after hockey players)

And, some variously unpronounceable names:

Aeliynelaure Turyavie (I don't know how to put all the accents etc. in)
Pnyum (currently active)
Afm Hec
Galadhremin Tarsilamende (doing this by memory; I think this is missing a few syllables, it seems short)
Que'flnrnl (I forget the last name but it was just as bad; a Dryad)
Y'Qaqestul (a short-lived Dwarf)

Lane-"I hope you can pronounce this"-fan

 

[pawsplay]

I myself have perpetrated Allo Lanolin, elf archer; Mister Mittens, abjurer; the Unstoppable Cat Basket in a Marvel supes game (we were intructed to play ourselves- woo, boy, I don't think he meant it); and Shasta Kovich, shadowrunner.

I've GM'd for a Byr (evil kobold shaman; Rick the Shugenja; Astin Martin (Malkavian vampire); Bob the Bunny (superhero); Nek Kravat (githyanki fighter); and Torg (elven palladin in a Palladium fantasy game, source of eternal confusion following our Torg campaign).

 

[Gnome Quixote]

My current PC, a gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold, is named Ebuferpaly Whitethatch Malpractice Bearscave Fancypants Potentloins. I suspect my DM let me get away with this because

a) I actually had a rational in-story explanation for the name (e.g. if you have a familly of gnomes who reproduce faster than drunken jackrabbits, what do you think society's going to name them?);

b) from prior experience, it was pretty well an unspoken understanding among the group that I was going to serve as the party's smartass comic relief, no matter what class or race I played, or what the character was named, as I personally come from the Xander Harris/Peter Parker school of adventuring and heroism;

c) also from prior experience, it was fairly well understood by the group that my PC would invariably possess an underlying emotional complexity that belied his 'surface persona' as a wisecracking misfit, as I personally come from the Xander Harris/Peter Parker school of adventuring and heroism;

d) I established pretty early on that the gnome in question actually had a secret name--a kobold name, in matter of fact--that he only revealed to those he trusted (only one other PC so far, although he's warming up to a second); and

e) when you get right down to it, it really isn't that funny to begin with.

 

[Knightfall]

The strangest PC name, that has become a canonized character, was for a paladin/skyrider that one of my players created. The name...

Sir Mojo Rising.

I didn't realize the reference until after he'd been playing the character for some time. It wasn't too overt, to me, so I've left the character as part of my game.

And for those looking for good websites that will help you create "good" character names, I suggest the following...

Behind the Name
http://www.behindthename.com/

Thousands of Names *
http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names.htm

*This site has A LOT more names but its interface is kind of clunky, IMO.

Another useful site, if you want to learn the Etymology of names (and other words) is the...

Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/

Cheers!

KF72

 

[Rogue765]

My all time best experience with silly names was a great roleplaying shtick by a player who is still in my games after nearly a decade of gaming. He played a rouge who would adopt a new name for every town he entered. He would keep a list and the other players would just write down what they were supposed to call him in that town. It became so much fun that the other players would help him come up with names to be used in specific locations. Things like Chip when in a forest village (for chipmunk), Dipper (while in a port city), Fleet (once when travelling on a merchant's cog between towns). This character was a riot. Unfortunatly he met his end by being rended into bite sized pieces by a Moss Troll in the Reelio Jungle... poor whositwhatsit.

"From then on, we just referred to him as Chewie."

 

[interwyrm]

I have a t.a. named Hung Wang.

Nuff said.