"It's a joke name, sir."

[Raging Epistaxis]

...a urologist named Dr. Foley (bit more inside humor there though).

Not that odd, when you consider that the Foley catheter was most likely named for the guy who invented it, most likely a urologist as well...

R E

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I've served with a Sergeant Sergeant, a Sergeant Major, and a Chaplain Blessing over the course of my career.

Luckily, in my game the joke names only stick to familiars and animal companions ... Red the Fox, Pony the Riding Lizard, etc.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I have a character named Fluffy . He's a half orc barbarian. He has that name because an elf decided to keep him as a pet.

I actually played a Shadowrun character by this name; he was a troll who'd had extensive "exotic" biomods. The name-- and the biomods-- were part of his background and explained a good deal of both his training and his personality.

Just because a name is silly doesn't mean it's a joke name; it just has to be justified in-game, and recognized as being a silly name.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

My friend made a character for a one shot who was named Pendulum. She threw burning cats at people.

I just noticed in my choir's program yesterday that a fellow choirmate and author of said program slipped "Michael Okkizbig" into the Bass I section...

I used Jack Daniels as the name of a merchant in one of my games.

 

[pogre]

Anyway, how do you deal with a situation like this?


Alternately, what names have you heard?*

I bong the name. Unless it is a silly themed campaign, I have no problem telling a player to forget a name for a character.

In looser campaigns I don't mind at all. Example: Wulf Ratbane played the infamous Shubba Goatboy through one of my adventures.

 

[Mad Mac]

For real life examples, I only have one. Somewhere in Illinois, there is a practicing male gynecologist named Dr. Grabener.

 

[Raging Epistaxis]

Thought of a couple more real life examples:

Dunno if he's still there, but there was an Anesthesiologist at UICVM when I was going through school named Dr. Tranquilli.

A classmate of ours last name was Payne. Haven't seen her lately to ask if she gets much grief for being Dr. Payne.

And my wife says a friend of hers had a therapist named Dr. Brain.

I wonder if his assistant's last name was Pinky?

R E

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Well, it seems that in many of the games I DM, I am the one guilty of coming up with bad names, mostly for NPCs.

Last campaign:
- Sir Santac Lawes (he appeared the session before Christmas... big jolly bearded soldier who was missing most of his teeth)

This campaign:
- Won Wei (NPC wizard, semi-advisor when PCs need help)


My players have also gotten into the mix as well. Last campaign we had a rogue named Shaun Dice (who constantly asked to be called Mr. Dice as he was a betting man). This session we have a rogue named Felonca... which often has the emphasis put on the first syllable...

 

[vulcan_idic]

I like puns, so no big problem there, but I prefer things that are tastefuly, silly or not.

I have a character in the game I'm currently running (we were short in players and they didn't mind) - a changeling character named Delta Morphous. It actually took me about a week and a half to realize his initials were DM due to the fact that I kept thinking of his name as a kind of scientific notation with the delta being the the greek letter (similar to the whole acceleration = delta velocity / delta time). I still think of him as delta sub M.

My mother knew a person when she was in school whose full name was Misty Morning Woods. I think she sounds like a druid or a ranger myself.

 

[sniffles]

"3. Don't be afraid to use English names.

For some reason, many people presume that AD&D character and place names should
consist of random, nonsensical syllables. What's wrong with good, old-fashioned English
names? What sounds better to you-The Knights of Gligathrax, or the Knights of the
Blood Throne? Similarly, Jason, Elaine, and Thomas are all perfectly good character
names."


I *hate* that!! It's one of my pet peeves. If I'm adventuring on Oerth or Toril I expect the names to sound Baklunish or Thayan or whatever, not American!

My group is starting a new Forgotten Realms campaign, and one of my fellow players has decided to name his character Roland. I've even given him lists of names, but it doesn't help.

Sigh.