"It's a joke name, sir."

[kenobi65]

Of course some people would include Verbobonc itself on that list as a pretty silly name.

It does sound vaguely like a euphemism for "doing it."

True. I think "Verbobonc" is a Sniglet for "doing it with a linguist."

 

[sniffles]

Okay, so I'm a horrible nitpicker when it comes to certain types of names in serious games, but I can go with a silly name or two under the right circumstances.

We're getting ready to run a nautical-themed one-shot this weekend. I was considering calling my halfling swashbuckler Fletcher or Ishmael, but after viewing a website on how to talk like a pirate, I've settled on Jolyon Rodgers.

 

[Vargo]

I'm running a female human druid named Liu Xie, who has kaledascope eyes - oddly enough, the character started off during development as a male with kaledascope eyes, WITH the name Liu Xie, but when I noticed the pun I'd made inadvertantly, I pretty much instantly switched over to female.

GM knows, and is fine with it. It's clever, and it's not overt.

 

[Cyronax]

I'm still reading through this entertaining thread, but I thought I'd relate two genuine embarrassing names that I've encountered over my life.

Mai Yung Ho (a poor Filipino who went to my college)

and

Mrs. Woodcock - I encountered this name yesterday actually, and I never caught her firstname.

C.I.D.

 

[Mogwaimon]

Vargo - I'm curious. How do you pronounce Liu Xie? The most Chinese I can pronounce is a spattering of names from RoTK, like Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and others.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

It's been about fifteen years since I allowed silly names to make their way into my games, but I remember a few from back then. Most notably, a sage named Professor Noeital... and I had a girlfriend who named a character Adolf Oliver Nippel... say it out loud... it's awful....

 

[Vargo]

Vargo - I'm curious. How do you pronounce Liu Xie? The most Chinese I can pronounce is a spattering of names from RoTK, like Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and others.

I pronounce it Leeoo-Shee, because of the inherent pun. I know that 'X' in Chinese is more of a cross between 'x' and 'sh'. I don't know much more about Chinese than that. Now, if you start me on Japanese, I'm all over that...

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Well I know of a guy named John John and I hope his parents weren't cruel to give him the middle name of John.

There was a threat of naming my grandniece either Mercedes Lexus or even worse Summer Eve. What's worse, it was my sister trying to convince them! If you can find it, there's a song by Shirley Q. Licker called "Who is My Baby's Daddy?" to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".

When I first entertained the thought of running an OA game, one friend wanted a character named Ped Xing. He's also the creator of Joelarryndave, a pc run by him and his brother (one always worked so the personality changed as did the character's tattoo) tho I can't remember others offhand. Another member of our group had all of his characters, regardless of race, have the family name Farrell while the first name was from a basketball player. IIRC, his favorite was Hakeem Farrell.

I had:
Opec Johnson, whipwielding tombraider
Klaatu B. Nikto (kender)
Akuna Atata (yeah, it was a passing phase so no worries)
the short lived Rupert Ignacious Pendleton III (also a kender)
Humperdink H(umperdink) Humperdink III, a high elven lineman from my Blood Bowl team
Mozzell Toff (I think), wood elf lineman
the wood elf brothers, Lawrence, Darrell and Darryl Kowalski (My name's Larry. This is my brother Darrell and this is my other brother Darryl)
my Chaos team had beastmen named after diseases and warriors named after antibiotics I think
one Skaven team was named after cheeses while another was named after the Draconians
Oh, I had to give my rat ogre a name to strike fear into my opponents so the most fearsome name I could think of was... Buttons!

 

[William Ronald]

I have seen some bad names, such as Typewriterus Ringerus and worse.

I think that the advice that Joshua Dyal gave from Ray Wenninger's Dungeoncraft articles was quite good.

Additonally, consider the Internet as a resource. I have a few naming related links in the Maps and Other Campaign Resources in my thread. In particular, I would like to recommend a very good linguistic web site: MyDictionary.com. The site has links to many foreign languages from around the world. Also, there are links for such artificial languages as Sindarin and Klingon.

Perhaps one consideration about names is one that applies to many elements of a good game: Does the name (or description, event) contribute or at least not interfere with the flow of a game. Some bad names will probably disrupt the feel of a given game. I realize there is a long tradition of bad names and puns in gaming products. (See the World of Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms for a few examples. ) Yet I like to think that it is up to a GM and the players to give a campaign a feel of fun and perhaps some internal consistency. So, having a party of Baklunish adventurers in Greyhawk with such names as Adnan, Turhan, and Vashti might give an air of the exotic. However, having a character with the name Hardli Ben Sober, Upchuk the Barbarian or Princess Oolala tends to distract from the adventure. (The first name is from an old Three Stooges short, and the last two are from an old Dragon article on names that I remember reading ages ago. Some problems in gaming seem to be chronic.)

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I'd be much happier with a "Hardli Ben Sober" in my campaign than some nigh-unpronounceable Klingon name. Klingon? I mean, I like Star Trek, don't get me wrong....