Names

[Moe Ronalds]

Depending on the name I don't think I'd have a problem with it. No Chucks or Bobs, but perhaps an odd Stephen or Gabriel.

Heck, even in a world with people named Wedge, Chewbacca and Qui-Gon "Luke" isn't seen as overly odd.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

In my current game my players are named Beleth, Tobias, Gunther, Muadib, and Saryana.

Muadib...heheheh...I think I'd get hit if I ever tried that. I got a Paul through a couple of times, but I wouldn't be THAT blatant.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Bob, Ranger Bob. I don't know if the player was being funny or not as this was a 1e game.

 

[d4]

i also use the "different cultures use lists of different names" schtick in my homebrew, except all the lists are from real-world cultures.

so Subays all have Arabic names, Cormayans have French names, Pretans have English names, Ristalians have Spanish names, Sakashians have Turkish names, etc.

it gives a nice feeling of consistency to everything.

i personally wouldn't have a problem with a PC named David (as long as he came from a culture where such a name is common ). however, since this is your campaign world, i also don't have a problem with you telling the PC to pick a name more suited to the world the character actually lives in.

i've only had the chance to run two characters in 3e, both dwarves, and i chose Scandinavian names for both of them because i felt it sounded "right" for a dwarf.

the first was Thorfinn the Hammer Priest and my latest has the carefully-earned and wholly-accurate name of Hrothgar Ratbane Bearkiller Girallonslayer the Twice-Dead. (he earned the "Twice-Dead" moniker in Nightfang Spire...)

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Well Djeta isn't really a fantasy name. And my last character was named Lily. I once played a character named Anya. While none of these are fantasy names, they are not really common names either. But I wouldn't hesitate to name a daughter that, if I had one.

Everyone else in my main group has fantasy sounding names. Everyone in the group "Lily" was a part of had common names (because no one really cared, which was terribly annoying and caused the game to cease). There was a Robert and a Larry in that group.

I also know a group of people who play Mage and one of the guys characters name was Michael.

 

[Magius del Cotto]

I like my characters' names to mean something. I make liberal use of http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran, usually translating an english phrase into latin(for my latest character, 'Nature's Way', or 'Vyce(Vis) Mudus'). I don't expect the people that play in my campaigns (or that I play with) to do the same, but that's how I handle things.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

With a name like "Bloodsparrow" what do you think?

As long as the name of the character is pronounceable with a human mouth, isn't YOUR name, doesn't involve the use of a word I don't say, I don't really mind what you call your character.

There was one time where an NPC was named "Galahad", except he was bookish and weak. The group rather rebelled against it and, since he was a follower to the (then) only female character in the group, they all called him "Galead". (KotDT reference) I didn't play with them at that time...But I heard a lot about it. I recently totally embarrassed myself when I corrected the guy who had been running that game that Abby's (Short for "Abyssinia") follower had been named "Galead"... and then I was like... "Oh, wait... That was YOUR NPC, he WAS Galahad..."

I suppose THAT might be a problem... Don't go and name your character "Galahad", or "Frodo", or "Elric", or "Khal Drogo", or something obvious like that... Unless you want me to make fun of you.

Names of characters I've played recently...
- Fie (An excplative... Like "Damn". Old English)
- Shawe (Mohekan (sp?) for "Racoon", roughly translates to "Touches things".)
- Timkin (Sort of broke my own rule, named after a character in a book I read in Jr. High. But nobody else seems to have read that book... So it's not obvious!)
- Jael (From the bible... Drove a tent spike through a Cainite genneral's head after giving him drugged milk.)
- Robynne (Normal, except for the spelling.)

 

[Aaron L]

I had a fat wizard who wore a plaid robe named Chester once...

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, bad names can really ruin a game for me. I feel your pain.

 

[Richards]

David the minotaur? Isn't "David" a traditional gnome gname?

Johnathan