Lighthearted character names?

[EricNoah]

I don't mind a silly name. I do mind a lazy name. Don't care for D&D characters named Larry, Bob, Bill, etc.

 

[Gez]

Not even Larry the Kobold, Darryl the Xvart, and Darryl the Tasloi?

 

[EricNoah]

Heh. They're ok for the DM because his NPCs are going to die quickly. But for PCs ... the whole group has to tolerate hearing or saying the character's name for a long, long time.

 

[Romnipotent]

Some games have weird name meaning, like being called Phenoix, bad spirit mojo!
Some games you intend to die quick, but dont, and have this silly name.
I always have proper names, well sorta, they aren't silly intentionally.
in my wednesday game, we are in Kalamar, and dejy, which leads to hard to remember placed "k"'s in the middle of normal names

 

[Crothian]

As long as it is not over done I don't mind them. But a party filled with silly names can alter the seriousness of a game fast, not thjat that is always a bad thing.

 

[Richards]

Sometimes it just doesn't matter: even if you get decent names out of the players for their PCs, in-game they pick up ridiculous nicknames. Like our gnome thief, Jonik, who inexplicably became "Big Daddy J."

Johnathan

 

[ukgpublishing]

Personally, I believe that for a serious campaign, then silly or comedy names can wear thin and ruin the session for others after a while. That said, the odd NPC with an odd sounding name can inject a little humor here and there. And lets face it we come across people with names that make us laugh in the world, so why not in our campaign worlds.

For a shorter game, or one with a fun value, they can be excellent, except that it takes a good comedian to come up with a joke that all will find funny.

My personal favourite was Vlad the Incontinent, an NPC vampire of mine with a serious confidence problem and a tendency to faint at the sight of blood.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Hate. Hate. HATE.

Pseudo-medieval tying into character occupation is good by me, though. Hell, I'll even allow someone to use their class as an epithet if it works for them. Modern names don't bother me as much, though I'd prefer players used the full name and not the short form.

It's very rare that I'll outright ban a name, though. Happened once in the game I'm running now-- one of my players handed me name straight from a Marvel comics character, including the codename. Not cool.

edit: As for the "joke" names in the first post, I'd say the first few of those are cool, too-- up to, but excluding, Phat Masta P. Hell, if Father Tony would go by Anthony or Antonio, he'd be golden.

 

[Hanuman]

Silly names tend to get glossed over very quickly with our group. Sort of like the hippy kid with the name moonbeam or some such, soon gets shortened and ignored.
Clever names on the other hand are always welcome.

 

[Dark Jezter]

"Most really silly names for characters are given to elf PCs by gamers attempting to be artistic." --Gary Gygax

In all seriousness, I'd much rather have a lighthearted/silly character name than a pretentious & over-serious character name like Donovon Darksoul or Felieiele Moonblossom.