Elves are the easiest. First you take something whispy sounding for the first name, add some extra vowels and possibly an unneeded apostrophe. For the last name you combine any two of a precious metal, stellar object, weapon, and part of a tree. This gets you proper elvish names such as Goldstar, Silverleaf, Starbow, or Moonsword.
So, how do people come up with character names, anyway?
- Thread starter cignus_pfaccari
- Start date
Sometimes I see a syllable or word that catches my eye, and a few days later see something else on a road sign or something and morph the two. I spent two months in Hawaii once, and created the name "Kea'lios", which over years of use on BatMUD, Everquest, a dozen RPGs (computer, playstation and pen&paper), has become Kealios, "my" name.
Would any of you with those word files of names be willing to share? kealios@sbcglobal.net is my email. Thanks in advance.
Would any of you with those word files of names be willing to share? kealios@sbcglobal.net is my email. Thanks in advance.
Jeff Wilder
First Post
Generally I start with the character's race and other aspects of the concept and, as the original poster said, play with syllables until I find some I like. If I'm planning on doing a "voice," as with my current dwarf character, I make sure the name fits the voice. I also like sobriquets or other indicators of class, origin, and so on. Some of the names I've used recently:
Tokorov Garakdûr-kût -- Dwarvish is full of hard sounds, so I made the name sound like gravel. I invented the "-kût" suffix to the clan name to indicate "extinct." I do a gruff voice in a Dwarven accent (Russian analog), so I made a pseudo-Russian given name.
Quayjaer Darkshriek -- Pronounced "Kee-JZAIR." A Drow evoker, specializing in sonic spells. One of the few characters I've ever deliberately munchkined, so as to survive RttToEE. All Drow in our worlds have the "aer" syllable somewhere in their names.
Kamjen of the White Well -- Not much to this one. He's a human cloistered cleric/necromancer/mystic theurge, so I wanted him to be a little mysterious and creepy. None of the other PCs yet know what or where "the White Well" is ... mainly because neither do I.
Titus the Unfated -- A half-orc barbarian "created" (along with the other PCs) from memories of heroes from the distant past by a remorseful Tatiana to save Strahd from his vampiric fate. During the mini-campaign, we discovered we all shared Tatiana's soul, and weren't "real." Titus is very intelligent for a half-orc, and raged (sometimes literally) against this, becoming quite the existentialist in the process, and earning the addition to his name. (In the last session, he had to take a quite literal leap of faith to propel the mission forward.) Since we all lost our memories on being woven from nothing, Titus named all the PCs ... since orcs in our games speak a Latin-analog, we all ended up with Latin-ish names: Maximus and Fidelis are two of the others.
For quick NPC names, I typically just take a common real-life name and give it a little twist to make it sound less modern, but still clearly a name. "Scott" might become "Escot," or "Kevin" become "Kevil."
Tokorov Garakdûr-kût -- Dwarvish is full of hard sounds, so I made the name sound like gravel. I invented the "-kût" suffix to the clan name to indicate "extinct." I do a gruff voice in a Dwarven accent (Russian analog), so I made a pseudo-Russian given name.
Quayjaer Darkshriek -- Pronounced "Kee-JZAIR." A Drow evoker, specializing in sonic spells. One of the few characters I've ever deliberately munchkined, so as to survive RttToEE. All Drow in our worlds have the "aer" syllable somewhere in their names.
Kamjen of the White Well -- Not much to this one. He's a human cloistered cleric/necromancer/mystic theurge, so I wanted him to be a little mysterious and creepy. None of the other PCs yet know what or where "the White Well" is ... mainly because neither do I.
Titus the Unfated -- A half-orc barbarian "created" (along with the other PCs) from memories of heroes from the distant past by a remorseful Tatiana to save Strahd from his vampiric fate. During the mini-campaign, we discovered we all shared Tatiana's soul, and weren't "real." Titus is very intelligent for a half-orc, and raged (sometimes literally) against this, becoming quite the existentialist in the process, and earning the addition to his name. (In the last session, he had to take a quite literal leap of faith to propel the mission forward.) Since we all lost our memories on being woven from nothing, Titus named all the PCs ... since orcs in our games speak a Latin-analog, we all ended up with Latin-ish names: Maximus and Fidelis are two of the others.
For quick NPC names, I typically just take a common real-life name and give it a little twist to make it sound less modern, but still clearly a name. "Scott" might become "Escot," or "Kevin" become "Kevil."
moticon
First Post
name selection?
Two methods for me:
Method #1:
I like to think of the key characteristic of the PC or whatever is being named, and then I go to my greek/hebrew lexicon and start looking up the words that are greek or hebrew for that word.
Example : For a Living Greyhawk barbarian I figured on anger, rage, or Sword and after looking those three words settled on a phonetic version on a word pronounced "baraq". His name became "Baraq the Barbarian".
Just last weekend I was creating a new Eberron character, a warforged Artificer. I looked up favorite robot names and ran across the character from Star Trek "Lore", which applied very nicely, and then I looked up greek word for Iron and came up with Sidorius. I immediately fell in love with it and his name became "Sidorius Lore".
Method #2
I just look at the things around me, on books, in magazines and eliminate spaces between words in my head. Recently I needed a new wizard name, a wiry fellow who would be a conjuror... I started looking around the room and saw a book "Computer Networks". Dropping the space I saw "Ternet" in the middle of "compuTERNETworks", and that became his name. Ternet the Conjurer.
Moticon
Two methods for me:
Method #1:
I like to think of the key characteristic of the PC or whatever is being named, and then I go to my greek/hebrew lexicon and start looking up the words that are greek or hebrew for that word.
Example : For a Living Greyhawk barbarian I figured on anger, rage, or Sword and after looking those three words settled on a phonetic version on a word pronounced "baraq". His name became "Baraq the Barbarian".
Just last weekend I was creating a new Eberron character, a warforged Artificer. I looked up favorite robot names and ran across the character from Star Trek "Lore", which applied very nicely, and then I looked up greek word for Iron and came up with Sidorius. I immediately fell in love with it and his name became "Sidorius Lore".
Method #2
I just look at the things around me, on books, in magazines and eliminate spaces between words in my head. Recently I needed a new wizard name, a wiry fellow who would be a conjuror... I started looking around the room and saw a book "Computer Networks". Dropping the space I saw "Ternet" in the middle of "compuTERNETworks", and that became his name. Ternet the Conjurer.
Moticon
Calico_Jack73
First Post
I use the Everchanging Book of Names.
Pbartender
First Post
http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm
1. Renaldo Cristelli
2. Zack Lickfelt
3. Tuan Mccarns
4. Warner Jurin
5. Isreal Loffelbein
6. Clementina Barrete
7. Filiberto Fonteboa
8. Hudnut
9. Myrtie Blosfield
10. Dorsey Levers
11. Janeth Gremler
12. Rhett Cormican
13. Jennefer Hammet
14. Song Gravenstein
15. Winford Arking
16. Nga Muraro
17. Deeann Kolts
18. Vinnie Dickins
19. Hosea Delre
20. Dania Molliere
21. Leandro Isenbarger
22. Caprice Gerlock
23. Nicky Diemoz
24. Man Frietsch
25. Cortez Corsilles
26. Elayne Fusselman
27. Caprice Barera
28. Santana Ferentz
29. Tawny Hasencamp
30. Leif Mildenstein
1. Renaldo Cristelli
2. Zack Lickfelt
3. Tuan Mccarns
4. Warner Jurin
5. Isreal Loffelbein
6. Clementina Barrete
7. Filiberto Fonteboa
8. Hudnut
9. Myrtie Blosfield
10. Dorsey Levers
11. Janeth Gremler
12. Rhett Cormican
13. Jennefer Hammet
14. Song Gravenstein
15. Winford Arking
16. Nga Muraro
17. Deeann Kolts
18. Vinnie Dickins
19. Hosea Delre
20. Dania Molliere
21. Leandro Isenbarger
22. Caprice Gerlock
23. Nicky Diemoz
24. Man Frietsch
25. Cortez Corsilles
26. Elayne Fusselman
27. Caprice Barera
28. Santana Ferentz
29. Tawny Hasencamp
30. Leif Mildenstein
Last edited:
ninthcouncil
First Post
8. Long NazelrodPbartender said:
10. Patience Kniceley
11. Cortez Fairy
20. Gaylord Laundree
Similar Threads
