Share your naming resources.

[Benben]

My primary name resource, the Onomastikon, has been retired. I used this site religiously. If I need an authentic name for a femal mongol shaman I knew where to go. If I need a listing of late Medieval English names, I knew where to go. Just about any culture I wanted was there and waiting for me.

It's gone now and I'm without a good set of resources. My home brewed world is *stongly* based on pre-existing Earth cultures, so I'm in dire need of: Chinese, Old Norse, European, Arabic, Aboriginal, Mongol, Farsi, and Greek names.

This thread is a call to DMs and players to share their secret internet sites full of names and cultural tidbits. I'll start.

http://www.pantheon.org
This is a good site with a smattering of mythology from around the globe.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I can't believe I'm giving this one away....

http://www.wehali.com/tsalagi/

A Cherokee/English dictonary. I pick a word that describes the NPC (e.g. smelly) and get the Cherokee version of the word (i.e. ga-wa-sv-gv). I pronouce it as best I can. Instant name for the NPC.

Of course this only works for one culture of my game world. You can't have two NPCs from radically different areas have similar sounding names.

 

[Benben]

Fantastic!

This is just the sort of thing I'm looking for!

I'll share again:

http://www.omniglot.com

Not really a naming site, but it has writing samples from just about every known human language. Fantastic if you need an authentic looking script.

Some don't even look real, check out written Burmese:

 

[DM with a vengence]

For names, I just use the index at the back of the Song and Ice and Fire books (Storm of Swords is best.)

You may know who Tywin Lannister is, but who's the second stablehand at Winterfell, who's the master-at-arms at Storm's End.

1000s of great names right there in those few pages.

 

[sotmh]

For my near-earth setting I use the "Melting Pot Book of Baby Names".

sotmh

 

[Conaill]

Kabalarians.com:

http://www.kabalarians.com/html/surf-by.htm

Over half a million names, separated by ethnicity!

Female Mongol shaman, you said?... http://www.kabalarians.com/female/mongol-f.htm lists about 160 options. I kinda like "Gutchluk" personally. Hmmm... or maybe "Tikhtamysh"?

 

[Benben]

Excellent.

A good replacement for the onomastikon.

Thank you.

 

[Black Omega]

As funny as this will sound...

Since my Rokugan game uses mostly Japanese names, I carry my copy of the 1999 Weekly Pro Wrestling MOOK, a sort of Magazine/Book. Color photos, names in English and Japanese text. If I ever need a name fast I just flip through it and pick something. Preferably, something with a mnemonic for ease of remembering.

 

[Mayhawk]

For years, I ran a campaign set in King Arthur's Britain about a generation prior to his birth. I own a paperback English translation of the Welsh Mabinogion. The story entitled "How Culhwch Won Olwen" has a section of about four pages that lists all the heroes who are present at this grand feast Arthur throws. That is a wonderful source for Welsh sounding names.

An early issue of Dragon magazine (now available on the Dragon magazine CD archive -- still useful even in the new 3e/d20 days) has a table of Anglo-Saxon name elements you can use to create a Germanic name. It even has meanings for each element so you can put a name together by applying the meaning of the name to the description of the character. I think that the issue number was #101 or 102 or something in that neighborhood. Even if you have no clue what you're trying to describe in the name, the table has a d% random generation system to help you to come up with a name randomly on the spot.

 

[Ziggurat]

Fantasy Name Generator

Simple, often ludicrous but sometimes just right.