So, how do people come up with character names, anyway?

[Altamont Ravenard]

Hm.

I've compiled a small (~200-300?) list of "cool" sounding names, that I have taken from 2 main sources, the first one being a list of European villages, and the second, the HR database where I work.

Also, names come to me when I least expect it, in the form of a derivative of something I see or listen too. "Altamont Ravenard" is simply taken from a Tricky Woo song, "Altamont Raven".

When it's time to actually choose a name, I'll probably scan my sources, pick out the base, and work it in my head until it sounds just right. I try to have names that sound good, aren't "pun-able" (too easily), and aren't hard to pronounce (unless the circumstances call for it).

AR

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Inspiraration stikes me from from multiple angles, kinda like JFK...

Hehehe... that was funny... made me laugh out loud... and now all of my co-wokers know I'm slacking off..

Anyway... I generally use an english to latin dictionary to start for fantasy games... however, I also end up with silly names (my Paladin's name is Justice) for no better reason than I got lazy...

For modern, I study the region/use a dictionary of their language to find something with significance.

 

[CalicoDave]

As I'm writing this, I'm also thinking "Calico Dave" would be a cool name for a foppish pirate on the Spanish Main.

Foppish pirate. That's funny!

If you need a background for him just check out a real pirate named Stede Bonnet.

 

[shilsen]

Because, man...wouldn't Two Dogs FIGHTING have been a wonderful name?

Why, yes, yes it would

 

[Kalendraf]

I often look at mundane writing, such as names of objects, titles of books, headlines of newspapers and draw from them a jumble of letters. Then I start bouncing them around in my head and come up with stuff. Here are some examples:

On my desk was a pencil and some magazines and newspapers. I spotted the name Robert Taylor. I basically cut out some of the letters from those two and wound up with Pen Rylor. He wound up being a smaller than average human ranger who was like a horse jockey.

Another time I used letters from the word algebra to get Agral, and changed Marty into Tymar, and put them together to make Agral Tymar.

The nickname I'm posting under comes from a similar method. Started with Calendar which became Calendra. I thought that sounded feminine, so I tried other letters tacked on the end, and like how the F sounded in Calendraf. Eventually, I opted to changed the C to a K just to make it look cooler. Final result was Kalendraf. In case you are wondering, the original Kalendraf was a 1st edition bard (Fighter 7, Rogue 8, Bard X) and I have very fond memories of playing him.

 

[DaveStebbins]

It's only been mentioned once, and didn't have a link, so I'll talk about my favorite name generation method. EBoN. The Everchanging Book of Names is a Windows shareware program which uses seed names to build rules and create new names with similar cadences, rhythms and sounds. It has dozens of categories from fantasy and real world cultures. It has never let me down. I especially like it as a DM because I can use different categories for NPC names in specific areas. That way, all the NPCs from the same country sound like they belong and sound different from the visiting PCs. I create hundreds of names from each category I use and export them to a word processor so I can print them out in multi-column format. Any time I need an NPC name, I have dozens from various countries in my campaign, right in my binder.


http://ebon.pyorre.net/

 

[Ironclad]

I remember naming a character from the name of one of my students....

Tamdratha seemed like a pretty good name for a Fallen Jedi

 

[Greylock]

Virtually all of my char's names have been inspired by a forty year old translation of Welsh lyric poetry called Medieval Welsh Lyrics, translated by Joseph Clancy.

I twist, mispell or respell names from the book, or find good ideas in it and use them as jumping-off points. It usually works and the names seem neat and original. Sometimes it backfires. My current char was named this way. Imagine my dismay recently when I pulled a long unread book off the shelf and realised I'd mispelled my way to a well-known personage of Dark Ages Wales. A bard even, and my char a STR/DEX fighter. ;p

 

[eris404]

A nice trick that I sometimes use is going through series of credits, such as at the end of a film or a book.

Humans have a wide variety of names already. Might as well make use of em.

Agreed. I normally use "real-world" names: Claudia Grey, George Barleycorn.

When I was really stuck for something new for a Forgotten Realms game, I rearranged letters in my own name and came up with Ruby Ashar. Someone here mentioned using the fake sender names from spam as character names and using this method I came up with an NPC named Pingrey Tollman.

BTW, when I ran a Star Wars game, some of the players actually used the Jedi name trick to name their characters. Worked surprisingly well.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

I usually try to have some meaning in the names I select for my characters... Sometimes the meaning is purely personal, sometimes not.

For instance, in a game that just started recently, I somehow got talked into playing a Barbarian... But I'm playing an Elf Barbarian. Now, I usually start with a name and build a character from there, but in this case I made the character before I had a name... Or even a concept for this character other then "Elf Barbarian".

In the end, I take my inspiration for this character from three places...

- A little bit from the "Grugach" tribe of wood elves in the Standing Stones module.
- A little bit from the character "Zula" in "Conan the Destroyer".
- And a whole heck of a lot from the character of "Gaz", the sister in Jonan Vasquez's sadly short lived cartoon "Invader Zim" on Nickelodeon.

Gaz, I think, is the perfect example of what elfin rage would be like...

Slit-eyed and smarmy for the most part, and angry pretty much all the time, but goes from smoldering to white hot in point-zero-five seconds. Drink the last soda and you will pay...

And thus, I am "Gaz of the Grugach".