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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6098595" data-attributes="member: 4937">I agree with JM.&nbsp; Unless you are Tolkien and have a life to spend on it, the best results are going to be mining real world languages for names.&nbsp; That way you have names that sound like they belong together.In my own campaign, I have several ethnic groups:Har use fantasy first names taken from a random name generator set to produce medium length English sound groups and English last occupational last names - Smith, Thatcher, Tiller, Turner, etc.Tumesi use Romanian inspired names.Concheeri use Cornish/Welsh inspired names.Drestians use Norman inspired names.Tethryns use Italian inspired names.Elfs use psuedo Sindarin, which is psuedo Welsh IIRC.Drawfs use psuedo Drawven names, which is I think psuedo Old German.It won't necessarily help you with your immediate problem, but another good convention is to start naming your places, and then create last name naming conventions based on being from that place.&nbsp; So, if you have cities like 'Anzio' and 'Amalteen', you might have a common family name in the region be name variants like Anzurb, Anziurb, Amalurb, Amalturb, Amalteenurb, etc. - all names that are common language corruptions of 'Inhabitants of X'.&nbsp; In in the local culture I also have a variaty of complex stems that indicate station.&nbsp; So 'Amrantiad Bel-Anziurb' means that he is the current patriarch of the family Anziurb, a family that originally came from the land around Anzio (which was founded as a Tethryn military output).&nbsp; His first name is Concheri, so he probably has red or brown hair and blue eyes, and his friends might call him 'Ran', and his wife might call him 'Amry'.&nbsp;&nbsp; Depending on his station, people that don't know him well will call him Master Bel-Anziurb (guildsman), Goodman Bel-Anziurb (serf or other tenant), Squire Bel-Anziurb (free holder), or Lord Bel-Anziurb (noble).&nbsp;&nbsp; Master Bar-Anziurb calls him 'Dad', and Mister Ap-Anziurb calls him 'Bro'.&nbsp; And there are probably hundreds of locals running around with the same name, which helps you set up relationships when you can't think of a new last name to use.&nbsp; (&quot;Oh yeah, that's me cousin.&nbsp; How do you know old Ran?&quot;)I try to avoid over using names that have common usage in modern America, but I'm don't work that hard to avoid it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6098595, member: 4937"] I agree with JM. Unless you are Tolkien and have a life to spend on it, the best results are going to be mining real world languages for names. That way you have names that sound like they belong together. In my own campaign, I have several ethnic groups: Har use fantasy first names taken from a random name generator set to produce medium length English sound groups and English last occupational last names - Smith, Thatcher, Tiller, Turner, etc. Tumesi use Romanian inspired names. Concheeri use Cornish/Welsh inspired names. Drestians use Norman inspired names. Tethryns use Italian inspired names. Elfs use psuedo Sindarin, which is psuedo Welsh IIRC. Drawfs use psuedo Drawven names, which is I think psuedo Old German. It won't necessarily help you with your immediate problem, but another good convention is to start naming your places, and then create last name naming conventions based on being from that place. So, if you have cities like 'Anzio' and 'Amalteen', you might have a common family name in the region be name variants like Anzurb, Anziurb, Amalurb, Amalturb, Amalteenurb, etc. - all names that are common language corruptions of 'Inhabitants of X'. In in the local culture I also have a variaty of complex stems that indicate station. So 'Amrantiad Bel-Anziurb' means that he is the current patriarch of the family Anziurb, a family that originally came from the land around Anzio (which was founded as a Tethryn military output). His first name is Concheri, so he probably has red or brown hair and blue eyes, and his friends might call him 'Ran', and his wife might call him 'Amry'. Depending on his station, people that don't know him well will call him Master Bel-Anziurb (guildsman), Goodman Bel-Anziurb (serf or other tenant), Squire Bel-Anziurb (free holder), or Lord Bel-Anziurb (noble). Master Bar-Anziurb calls him 'Dad', and Mister Ap-Anziurb calls him 'Bro'. And there are probably hundreds of locals running around with the same name, which helps you set up relationships when you can't think of a new last name to use. ("Oh yeah, that's me cousin. How do you know old Ran?") I try to avoid over using names that have common usage in modern America, but I'm don't work that hard to avoid it. [/QUOTE]

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