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<blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 5011426" data-attributes="member: 40177">Easy way to do it - take a place name you're already familiar with, and either add or change a consonant or vowel.&nbsp; For example, David can turn into Dawid.&nbsp; Or, taking it a bit further, you can get Dawit, or Doved.&nbsp; Add a vowel on the end of a male name, and you can make it female - Dovedda, for example.&nbsp; It may look silly in print, but phonetically, your players will probably not notice what you've done - and when it gets to be time to actually write the word down, &quot;Dawid&quot; can turn into &quot;Dahwidh&quot; or something.&nbsp; And if you start changing the emphasis and pronunciation of vowel sounds, &quot;Peter&quot; can turn into &quot;Ketter&quot;, and &quot;Jack&quot; can turn into &quot;Jaisque&quot;.&nbsp; For place names, pick a place that might not be instantly recognizable, and do the same thing.&nbsp; Or, a personal favourite of mine (and, apparently, wotc) is to take random words and put them together.&nbsp; For example, my campaign world has a few place names along those lines - The Bronze Shore, Tasker's Island, Slave's Landing, the Black Hills, Devil's Kiss, the Iron Cliffs... and so on, and so forth.&nbsp; Also, if you develop naming conventions beforehand, you get away pretty easily.&nbsp; For example, if every Tiefling city starts with the same noun (&quot;Kael Turath&quot;, or &quot;Kael Baerin&quot;, in my campaign), or every Goliath clan begins with one of three specific honorifics (you could have the &quot;Tor Godfathers&quot; tribe existing alongside the &quot;Tor Rockfallers&quot;, and neither likes those nasty Dur Bloodwalkers or the Dur Sincallers), you're already halfway there.&nbsp; &nbsp; In my campaign, there are definitely a few naming honorifics.&nbsp; Halflings all use names taken from the natural world, and they make it a point to translate that meaning into the language they're speaking (So &quot;Sparrow&quot; could be pronounced as &quot;Spelvuri&quot; in Elven, &quot;Kunnik&quot; in Orcish, and &quot;Iasta&quot; in halfling Wavespeak - her name will change depending on the language that addresses her).&nbsp; Tieflings use random words to define themselves (as per the PHB) if they are low-born, or their ancient family names if they are highborn.&nbsp; Humans in the shattered isles either adopt simple names (I secretly take the names of Hockey Players, and change their pronunciation), or very long and complex names (usually a good way to tell if someone is descended from slave stock).&nbsp; Oh, and it's a great idea to just take names from the real world.&nbsp; Imagine if, at the start of your game, you said &quot;okay, every human has an English style name&quot;.&nbsp; Then, holy crap - you would never have to invent a name again.&nbsp; You could just instead name your NPC &quot;Michael&quot;, &quot;Frank&quot;, or &quot;Adam&quot;.&nbsp; And, if you're really stuck, you can just go with the standby, &quot;John&quot; - who cares if there are ten NPCs named John already?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wik, post: 5011426, member: 40177"] Easy way to do it - take a place name you're already familiar with, and either add or change a consonant or vowel. For example, David can turn into Dawid. Or, taking it a bit further, you can get Dawit, or Doved. Add a vowel on the end of a male name, and you can make it female - Dovedda, for example. It may look silly in print, but phonetically, your players will probably not notice what you've done - and when it gets to be time to actually write the word down, "Dawid" can turn into "Dahwidh" or something. And if you start changing the emphasis and pronunciation of vowel sounds, "Peter" can turn into "Ketter", and "Jack" can turn into "Jaisque". For place names, pick a place that might not be instantly recognizable, and do the same thing. Or, a personal favourite of mine (and, apparently, wotc) is to take random words and put them together. For example, my campaign world has a few place names along those lines - The Bronze Shore, Tasker's Island, Slave's Landing, the Black Hills, Devil's Kiss, the Iron Cliffs... and so on, and so forth. Also, if you develop naming conventions beforehand, you get away pretty easily. For example, if every Tiefling city starts with the same noun ("Kael Turath", or "Kael Baerin", in my campaign), or every Goliath clan begins with one of three specific honorifics (you could have the "Tor Godfathers" tribe existing alongside the "Tor Rockfallers", and neither likes those nasty Dur Bloodwalkers or the Dur Sincallers), you're already halfway there. In my campaign, there are definitely a few naming honorifics. Halflings all use names taken from the natural world, and they make it a point to translate that meaning into the language they're speaking (So "Sparrow" could be pronounced as "Spelvuri" in Elven, "Kunnik" in Orcish, and "Iasta" in halfling Wavespeak - her name will change depending on the language that addresses her). Tieflings use random words to define themselves (as per the PHB) if they are low-born, or their ancient family names if they are highborn. Humans in the shattered isles either adopt simple names (I secretly take the names of Hockey Players, and change their pronunciation), or very long and complex names (usually a good way to tell if someone is descended from slave stock). Oh, and it's a great idea to just take names from the real world. Imagine if, at the start of your game, you said "okay, every human has an English style name". Then, holy crap - you would never have to invent a name again. You could just instead name your NPC "Michael", "Frank", or "Adam". And, if you're really stuck, you can just go with the standby, "John" - who cares if there are ten NPCs named John already? [/QUOTE]

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