Specific sounds in NPC names

[Mouseferatu]

Okay, am I the only person who does this?

Looking back over all the campaigns I've run over the years, all the stories I've written...

I've noticed that I tend to follow certain pattens in naming my NPCs. For instance, most--certainly not all, but most--of my major villains have a "th" in their name. (I.e. Ilkuthsra, from SSS' Serpent Amphora trilogy.) Not quite as common, but still notable, is the fact that most of my major villains have three-syllable names. (Also i.e. Ilkuthsra.)

Does anyone else do this with their villains/NPCs? Do you find yourself, completely unintentionally, repeating sounds or sound-patterns (on at least a notable basis, if not constantly)? Or is it just me?

(For the record, I know why I do this--I just think certain sounds have an evil or powerful "feel" to them. But I still don't do it consciously.)

 

[Reprisal]

Female Names

A lot my female NPCs' names usually end with the letter "a" in some way, shape or form.

Jaena, Vanazha, Atayla... etc.

I sometimes find it hard to get away from that... I've been aware of it for a while, so I've been trying to use a different form.

- Rep.

 

[Drawmack]

I can attest that you're not alone. As a student of poetry I have learned that certain sounds evoke certain almost emotional responses.

For example:
The victor peared out over the carnage of the battle with the pride of valor.

The last man standing looked over the red sea of men's bodies on the field with a heart full of pride.

These say the same thing but evoke different emotions mainly because of the word choice involved. The neat thing with fantasy in the english langauge is how much rests upon the pronunciation. Two people can read the same work and derive two different meanings from it based on how they pronounce the words in it.

Let's take an example from my round I ceramic DM entry.

Lagiriand, if this is pronounced with the accent on the first sylable and a soft g it sounds very peaceful and poetic, however pronouning it with the accent on the last sylable and a hard g makes him a diabolical scoundrel.

 

[Sixchan]

I can attest that you're not alone. As a student of poetry I have learned that certain sounds evoke certain almost emotional responses.

For example:
The victor peared out over the carnage of the battle with the pride of valor.

The last man standing looked over the red sea of men's bodies on the field with a heart full of pride.

These say the same thing but evoke different emotions mainly because of the word choice involved. The neat thing with fantasy in the english langauge is how much rests upon the pronunciation. Two people can read the same work and derive two different meanings from it based on how they pronounce the words in it.

Let's take an example from my round I ceramic DM entry.

Lagiriand, if this is pronounced with the accent on the first sylable and a soft g it sounds very peaceful and poetic, however pronouning it with the accent on the last sylable and a hard g makes him a diabolical scoundrel.

Hmm...I've noticed something similar.
Many of my stories set on a particular world have a character called 'Andreil' as a protagonist or supporting character.
Pronouncing it An-dreyl (dreyl as in Grail) gives a feeling of rougish mystery (for me at least)
Hearing it pronounced An-dreel (dreel as in feel) makes me angry and gives me a desire to wring the person's neck.

And similar things for Dr-aow and Dr-oh-w are felt by others...

 

[Snoweel]

As Drawmack says, we have been conditioned (I assume it's due to conditioning) to equate certain emotions with certain sounds.

As for female names ending with -a, that's a pretty universal naming convention amongst Indo-European languages, so it's natural to name your NPC's that way.

Actually, one of the cultures IMC has male names ending with vowels, and female names ending with -et or -es.

I found it interesting that my players had trouble picturing a man when they heard the names of such badass male NPC's as 'Apra', 'Kali' and 'Roma'.

 

[Taloras]

As a first time DM(still working on the campaign), i havent set anything yet, but i dont think there will be much thats the same. Its going to be a Norse world, so there will be Norse names....now if there is a common thread in norse names, then ill use it, but every NPC will have a Norse sounding name.