Silly Character Names

As a DM I dissalow any name I find not in keeping with the tone of the game I choose to run. This stems from the annoyance I felt playing MMORPGs, where some folks would name their characters following the guidline for particular cultures (I'm thinking Asheron's Call here) and the rest would name themselves after fantasy novels of just plain dumb names like Who's Yo Daddy or Johnny Beatstick. Some folks might be fine with that, but it ruins things for me.

As a player, I try to do my part to create names for characters that fit the world, regardless of the other PCs; but I find my efforts muted when a DM lets another player play a monk named Wu Tang. I could overlook Wu Tang as a monk's name, if he didn't insist that his character fights using the RZA style taught to him by his master Old Dirty Bastard. At least it's not another damn drunk smelly dwarf named Pwent.
 
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Do, a deer, a female deer,
Re, a golden drop of sun,
Mi, a name I call myself,
Fa, a long, long, way to run,

So, a needle pulling thread,
La, a note to follow "So".
Ti, a drink with jam and bread,
and that brings us back to "Do."

You're right, that is a silly song - too bad a 3rd grade music teacher burned it into my brain at age 9. :)

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The two silliest names for characters in recent games have been the Half-Orc Barbarian Darmok, and his horse Tenagra, followed by a human named Westin Undone. I could live with Darmok, but just had to change Westin's last name to Undon, to keep from cracking up all the time.
 


Henry said:
Do, a deer, a female deer,
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That brings to mind the Simpsons episode with Stampy the elephant. Homer's chasing after Bart (on the elephant) and hits a statue of a deer.

Homer: DOH!
Marge: A deer.
Lisa: A female deer.

Sorry. Back to the thread. I admit I've had some odd names but I don't think they were that bad but I usually try to keep a theme going like Rygel and Dargo are Farscape characters, etc.

Brother Will (totally forgot what his last name was) - 2E human cleric
Klaatu Barada Nikto - 2E kender handler
Dante Mephistopheles - 2E human swashbuckler
Brother Peldin Thistlefoot of the Order of the Black Lotus - 3E halfling monk
Rygel Quinn Dargo - 3E halfling rogue (possibly future arcane trickster or temple raider)
Orlando Dimitri Farrell - 3E human cleric (Farrell is continuing a friend's running joke)


I do admit I had a string of characters named Dirk the (whatever class) back in Second Edition. All were apparently related too and probably a result of too much Dragon's Lair. The Farrell family was originally all from some hugemongous family that all were named after basketball players like Hakeem Farrell, etc. I do admit I once had a elven cleric named Friar Puck and in an Oriental Adventures campaign I was going to start back in 2E, a player was going to be named Ped Xing.
 
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tarchon said:
Beatrice of Aa?
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Isn't there a St. Aa in Cornwall? ;)

The silliest and yet still legit name I ever made was a dwarf fighter named Kurt Loderr. But, hey, Loderr was one of the dwarven clan names in the PHB and you know there has to be some dwarves named Kurt.
 

It really depends what kind of atmosphere you want, sometimes a "light" fun hearted game can be a break from any serious deep campaigns you are doing.
I sometimes pause a long term games for a week or so and play a more relaxed setting (makeing sure of coures to keep the games seperate) just so the game stays fun.
 

I named my current character, a half-orc monk, Fezzik.

I know it's a bit silly but it does fit the character quite well.
 

I will say 1 thing....look at the G1-3 series pregenerated PC's...Gleep Wurp the Eye-biter....nuff said

I will have to tell you about a time I sat and played a character until 4 in the morning and still could not come up with a name, until in my buzzed state of a 12 pack of Michelob, it dawned on me.....

Bolehcim Reeb.....yes...plagarize away...Michelob Beer spelled backwards...it has lived in infamy ever since
 

tarchon said:
! Have you ever heard any real Medieval names? Roger Bacon, for instance? Skull-Grim? Harald Bluetooth? Odo? Ivar the Boneless? Brian Boru? Sichelgaita? Amalasuintha? Beatrice of Aa? Liutprand? Clovis? Cnut? You'd probably nix most of those right away. I suspect the only reason you don't think most Medieval names are silly is that you don't know very many and you don't know what they mean.
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Obviously you are absolutely right. I must not know anything about Medieval names, because I am an idiot....oh wait. No I'm not.

The guidelines I posted earlier are standards to be sure that we don't get any characters with names like JeanLuc Picard, Gandalf, Akira, 1337lOv3r, etc. While the names Slasher, Basher, and Mauler may be appropriate for the lost brothers of the 7 dwarves, they're really not appropriate for the kind of fantasy environment the founders of this game were trying to create. This is not to say that they are universally applicable for DnD or any other fantasy game. I was just trying to be helpful. The names Roger, Harald, Ivar, Boru, Sichelgaita, Amalasuintha, Beatrice, Liutprand, Clovis, and Cnut woul all be fine names for this game (we only use first names.) Skull-grim would be out of place for the campaign setting. Odo would be debatable because of the DS9 reference, but is a common enough name that it would probably be accepted.


The two silliest names for characters in recent games have been the Half-Orc Barbarian Darmok, and his horse Tenagra, .
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Wow. I can tell I've been watching too much TNG because I didn't even have to think about this to get the reference.

Shaaka when the walls fell.
 


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