Silly Character Names

My Paladin has a follower whose specific purpose is to find, train, and take care of the mounts...

He's got a bajillion ranks in handle animal and all sorts of fun stuff like that... when I showed the DM his NPC sheet he says, "So, he like The Horse Whisperer?"

I chuckle and point to his name, "Horace Whisperer"....

It's silly... but, I get a kick out of it EVERY time!
 

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We have had our share of silly names in our campaign. I usually forbid anything sounding remotely inappropriate.

But we also have some characters that have transcended their silly origins and 'normalized' the name by their reputations. Just by playing them seriously for long enough.

For example, I have had:

- Usurpator
- Moradin
- Denethorn

All of which are now more tightly tied to the character in question than to their origins.

Has this happened to anybody else?
 

I allow any joke name into my game that either 1) I don't get. or 2) can be justified away.
e.g.:
-Phillip De'Nevall is a name that my good friend, who posts here as Nargtuth, came up with. Phillip De'Nevall comes from some historical reference too obscure for any non-history-buff. I don't get the joke, so, to me, it's not a joke.
-Captain Lavat, or just "Cap" for short. Yes, Lavat is Latin for he/she/it cleaned, and so yes, this character, based in large part on Captain America, is called Captain Clean, but in fact, Cap is a veteran of the Imperial Army's campaign of suppression in the Goblin Lands. He is (or rather was), in fact, a Captain in the Imperial army.

-My wife created a random name generator:
1. pick a number of letters
2. roll a d6 a few times for A, E, I, O, U, or Y
3. roll a d20 a few times for consonants
4. arrange as seems pronouncable
results include: Lujon (j is like h here), Molic, Dia,

I've had too much experience with silly, go nowhere games to ever again allow PC names like Drunkov Myaz and the ilk to derail me again. I encourage players to create fantastic, pronouncable names, and I do my best to treat those name with seriousness and respect. My first group had an otherwise excellent DM who found a way to make fun of every PC's name, and, for a while, I fell into the trap of doing the same. I quickly realized, though, that it is my job, as DM, to set the tone for the game, and that if I don't take the game seriously, I can't expect anyone else to do so either.
 

Let's see...

I had a character who was a Kender wildmage back in 2e (yes, I made her just to be annoying... But oddly enough, it didn't work...) Her name was
"Sherbert HitTheDirt"... She had a familer that was a fairie dragon, it's name was "Banaca". Banaca had a big sister... A Great Wyrm fairie dragon named "Bong".

In a WW:TA game, a friend played a Lupis Fionna Ragabash named "Pissed-As-A-Newt"... His homid name was "Angstn McGroyn".
 

I used to run a Star Wars game and when the party wanted to be a bit quasi-legal, the "alter ego" for the party's freighter was the S.S. Crunchy Frog, piloted by Captain Glowrod.

I used to run another Star Wars with a Lance Skystalker and Ruprect deSolo.

Believe it or not, both games were serious.

:confused:
 

My first real RPG character was a dwarf in Warhammer FRP called Arman Hammer.

The only other name I can think of was a halfling in a game I played in called Chase Hairybush.
 

Xath said:
The basic guidelines for unacceptable names are:

* Names or attributes of deities, angels, demons, or any other major figures
in world religions (Jesus, Satan, Beelzebub, Buddha)
Click to expand...

Wish I had that rule in place when I DMed Jesus (aka Just Jesus) and Mohammed....
 



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