Names in fantasy RPGs

[Mercule]

I've been told that I've got a good mind for creating names. Most of the time, though, I do just what Sir Elton (and Monte, apparently) suggest. For instance, the city of Provic is a bastardization of "province" and the Jorae elves were named when I decided to "trace the etymology" of "grey elf". It can even be done with fantasy names: I saw the module "Under Illefarn" and soon named a nation Illfandar.

If I'm in a creative mood, I can often come up with some random syllables that sound okay together -- and may even be passible as part of a dialect. I usually do that by getting into character and introducing myself or talking about something. For example, the hobgoblin hero Kalak hails from the city of Rcolth in the nation of Dtheklgar. Or Sawene Galalmathien is a Jorae elf from the city of Celinathin in Lithselinori. Hobgoblins are more fun than elves, though -- I get to growl.

Oh, and I usually run through a couple of phonetic shifts when I'm throwing random sounds together. That means I usually only do it in would-building or adventure planning. I also try not to be around too many people because I actually gesture and speak "in character".

 

[ssampier]

Great ideas

I've been told that I've got a good mind for creating names. Most of the time, though, I do just what Sir Elton (and Monte, apparently) suggest. For instance, the city of Provic is a bastardization of "province" and the Jorae elves were named when I decided to "trace the etymology" of "grey elf". It can even be done with fantasy names: I saw the module "Under Illefarn" and soon named a nation Illfandar.

Hmm, interesting. I like that.

Monte Cook thought of an ingenius way to make first names or even surnames sound authentic. He said to transpose one letter in the name (or two) with another letter. He did this with the name "Jessica," changing it to "Jevicca."

Neat! I'll try Elton: Elbon, Ezton, Alton, Balton, LOL. It works. Seriously, thank you.

When I first started my games, I found several very local maps of English counties and just started lifting names of villages. Some of them sounded very odd to an America ear, but were just within the range of believibility and consistency to satisfy the group.

Nowadays, I hijack names from almost anywhere.

I love these forums--everyone is creative... at stealing.

Seriously, that rocks. I have a few period maps, but I thought it wouldn't be consistent.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Seriously, that rocks. I have a few period maps, but I thought it wouldn't be consistent.

If you want more maps, check this site out.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_europe.html

 

[shilsen]

Monte Cook thought of an ingenius way to make first names or even surnames sound authentic. He said to transpose one letter in the name (or two) with another letter. He did this with the name "Jessica," changing it to "Jevicca."

I didn't know about Monte having mentioned that, but I was just about to post with the same advice when I read yours. I used to have a very bad time with names, but ever since I came up with that approach a year ago, it's worked brilliantly for me.

 

[nopantsyet]

I come up with a set of phonemes for a region, including suffixes by gender for person names. Then I spend far too much time coming up with combinations that evoke something the way a name should. So for villains, I try to go for something that the players can spit out with distaste, but that is not inherently villainous sounding.

 

[lotuseater]

someone mentioned language translators. that's what i often use. yahoo reference has a section for dictionaries. just pick a language for a culture, and start putting in english words and find their foreign equivilant. i find it works very well. for example, fire in sanskrit is agni. so voila, the agni mountains.

 

[JoeGKushner]

http://www.20000-names.com

Good source.