Names - What are the best you've used or heard?

[rbingham2000]

Chris Pound's Generators are also good for names.

My current character for Feng Shui (in Corlon's PbP campaign on this site) is One Eye Tsui, a maverick cop. Believe it or not, that one eye ties into his melodramatic hook, involving a brother in a major Triad gang.

I was originally going to call the guy Jack Savage (just a kickass name in general), but I couldn't figure out a plausible way to have an American cop on the HKPD.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Favorite character names (only two were originally mine):
Derval Dirtbuster (gnome fighter-cleric)
Sunstorm Steppenwolf (elven fighter)
Burford (large human cleric)
Reaver the Diseased (mage)
Greyflame (monk)

Favorite real world name:
Fellow Engineer who just just retired at my company is named Wally Flower. His parents must have had a sense of humor.

For random name generation in dozens of cultures/categies/genres, you can't beat EBoN, the Everchanging Book of Names.

-Dave

 

[wizardoftheplains]

The following is from a long running character of mine...he apprenticed in an underground wizard school beneath a dwarven smithy...lost his hearing and all that.

In a shower of sparks and blue smoke he enters.
Coughing slightly as the smoke dissipates, you see six and a half feet of dark blue robes and floppy pointed hat (making him 5' tall at best) standing near the entrance to the den. A gnarled staff entirely covered in runes held tightly in the crook of one arm. He eyes all from beneath a thick curly uni-brow. A full unkempt moustache and beard covers his wisened face, twitching constantly in a little dance as his mouth ruminates on something.

TONTINE MEMBERS", the old man belts out," IT IS I, (spit) PARAFIN THE LOUD, SLAYER OF ZEZOOS, PROTECTOR OF THE AMULET OF ARRR, HOLDER OF THE KALAMARIAN TOME OF (spit) FATE, BEARER OF THE CORAL RING OF GANGI, TEARER OF THE SACRED TEXT OF MUSTAFIN, WALKER OF THE (hack) VOLCANIC FIRES OF OBAKASEK AND DOER OF THE SACRED VIRGINS OF BET REGOR (FOR WHICH NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN ABLE TO PROVE ANYTHING SINCE IT IS ALL HEARSAY.)
The old man lifts his hand causing one of the beers the Assistant Keeper has just brought in to float over to him. He grasps and downs the lager with one long (noisy) gulp.

"HOPE YOU DON'T MIND," he bellows, " IT'S BEEN A LONG JOURNEY!"

To The Gnome: "WHO'S THE CHICK?" His brows go up as one.


gary

 

[billd91]

Character names can be kind of fun. Some of my favorites are:

Marn Jasper - a paladin of mine, name was actually created by a friend but I thought it was pretty cool

Robyn Feldspar - good bard or swashbuckler kind of name

Filbert the Nimble - hobbit thief (from Warhammer)

Grath Giantkiller - half-orc bounty hunter

 

[Cedric]

Hayden Solistian - Grey Elven Cleric/Wizard/Mystic Theurge 3/3/5. (Began life as a 1/1 Cleric/Magic-User in 1st edition). If I keep playing him long enough, he might reach adulthood. I rolled low on his starting age...so affectively he's about 12 now.

Arnwolf Magnuson - Part of the Magnuson family, which myself and several friends formed as a Barbarian family on the Erollisi Marr server of EverQuest. Consists of:

Warren Magnuson
Arnwolf Magnuson
Uruz Magnuson
Lyndyra Magnusdottiir
Sylteena Magnusdottiir
Wycliffe Magnuson...and a few others.

Jedidiah Stone - One of several characters in a rolemaster game who had sold their souls to the same devil. We were busily trying to get our souls back. Stone wasn't really a good guy. He had good intentions...but at the same time, was also tasked by a war demon with certain duties of death and destruction. He would basically show up at villages when told, summon an undead horde and raze the town. The bounty on his head finally reached a Barony. Nobility to whoever brought him, dead or alive.

Cedric

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Sir Draken Shatterstone, Knight of the Rose (eventually) and one of my longest running characters ever. The surname was ancient and so where his ties to the Knight of Solamnia as his great grandfather, and knight, broke apart a boulder on one occasion with his closed gauntlet fist... Of course the real secret was the girdle of giant strenght... The great grand father was buried with the girdle long ago but his actions stuck and so did the name... young Draken eventually was able to break simular boulders with a simular girdle... It's a name I use now. (In my handle) and a surname I will again use in the future...


To Answer your question I would say heroic actions and not names, as I've had a 'Lisa" that was very heroic, way more so than her common name would suggest.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

The most agonizing I ever did over a name was for my real life daughter's name... Nothing compared to a character name knowing that a real person is most likely going to be stuck with this label for the rest of their life. And then the feeling when that person grows into and BECOMES that name... pretty cool.

 

[Demmero]

Antonio Banderas - just a great sounding name.

SOOOO true! I named a wererat Wiz/Rog of mine after him (Bandero the Sly).

Other names I like:

Djorn Thorle (human Ftr/soon-to-be Sor) in a current game (must be something in the Boston water that makes us create character names that start with "Dj"

Jennililly (a half-elf arcane archer I played in a past game). At first I couldn't make up my mind as to whether this was a silly name or not, but the more I think about, I believe it's a great-sounding half-elven name.

Gaaa! Going WAAAAAY back...a couple of my early human fighters were Wrathmore and Manlius (heh--not sure if I'm proud of or ashamed at the Manlius one

Freebold (an old halfling Ftr). Love this one; must re-create him in 3E/3.5 terms!

Sasharan (semi-crazy human Sor): another one that grew on me over time.

 

[Dirigible]

Best NPC name : Aulundor Rage, archmagus. I hate this guy so very much, but he still has a wixxed name.

Honourable Mention : Once upon a time, one of my PC's was exploring a ruined castle in which beastmen had taken up residence. As he was heading down a corridor, there was a very small explosion from one of the walls, blosing away a small chunk of masonry. From out of said hole emerged a gnomish head an shoulders, which it turned out were just a little to large for the hole.
The gnome looked at him. He looked at the gnome.
"I'm Stuck !" the gnome cried.
I stared at the GM for a long time. My PC stared at the gnome for a long time.
"Is that your name, or your predicament?" I ventured.
"BOTH !" wailed the gnome.

 

[Mercule]

I'll preface this by saying that I'm an elf fanboy, so deal with it.

Characters:
Mercule Corin - A pacifistic and very CG elf. In 2E, he was a Ranger, but in moving to 3E he got "reinvented" as a Rogue because he's really a very skill oriented character. Maxed out social skills and several knowledges.

Jedan Corin - brother to the above. Equally Chaotic, but no real morals (CN). Very prone to get into uncomfortable situations, but with his Charisma, he's rarely alone there. A Sorcerer with almost no offensive capability, but great with materials and transmutations: he has three versions of the Shrink Item spell for various purposes (including a 5th level version that is permanent). His Items become cards rather than bits of cloth and he carries around something like a dozen decks of various "things" (including a feather bed and many banquet dinners -- both very handy in a dungeon expedition).

Khorad ip Ehsan ip Farjad - A Baklunish (Arab) athlete (Thief-Acrobat). Third son of a well-to-do merchant who has sought an adventuring career because he is a non-inheritor for his family business.

Crunch - Not my character, but memorable, none-the-less. Pretty typical dumb barbarian with good leadership abilities. I like the name because, whatever other people's experience, I've rarely seen names like this on characters. Oh, and I have to mention Crunch to mention his intelligent sword named:

Sword (no silent letters) -- Intelligent +4 defender bastard sword. Has a 17 intelligence and is utterly fearless -- a trait learned from its first wielder, Crunch. Another, related, trait learned at the same time is the habit of chanting, when bored, "DemogorgonDemogorgonDemogorgonDemogorgon" in hopes that the demon prince would hear his name and come to investigate. Because this was a very real possibility, it was usually best to keep Sword amused.

Places:
Lithsellinori -- Elven nation.

Selinathin -- Capital of Lithsellinori.

Deshorah -- Another Elven nation.


As far as what makes them good names, mostly, it's just something that evokes an image or is phonetically pleasing. Or, better yet, both.

Khorad, Crunch and Sword all paint a picture. Who really needed me to say that Crunch was a barbarian or that Sword is going to be straightforward. Likewise, it should be fairly easy to picture Khorad as an Arabic person.

Khorad and most of the others are phonetically pleasing, at least to me -- and I've been told I'm good at making authentic-sounding gibberish words/names. The place names, especially are soothing to my ear, which, in turn paints another picture -- that of a peaceful land.