stupid PC names

[Rel]

I am fortunate in that my group of players if fairly mature and doesn't come up with silly names. Actually, on reflection, my group of players is not mature whatsoever and the reason that they refrain from silly names is that their fellows will mock them mercilessly and draw similarities between a character's name and any sort of bodily excretions, buttocks or rude sexual acts that they can think of. In any event, they stay in line (more or less).

However, if we look back to the origins of the game we know and love, I must admit that the designers of the rules and various modules were hardly above what most would consider a silly name. I draw your attention to:

Honkin Foddywinks (or was it Fonkin Hoddywinks? I can never keep that straight)
Gleep Wurp The Eyebiter
Gutboy Barrelhouse

And a host of other names of questionable silliness.

 

[Terraism]

Yeah, I've had that...The only strange name I routinely allow is anyone with the lastname Fernow, in any variation... Fernow, McFernow, XXXX of clan Fernow, etc...

Wow. I like that - thanks for sharing, Tsyr. Gads, that's good.

 

[Tsyr]

You know what's more annoying than stupid PC names. Stupid DM naming conventions.


Nothing motivates me more to make the lamest name I can get away with than a bunch of crap about how my character should be named something like X,Y, or Z because I'm a dwarf/elf/human from whatever land.

I mean while you at it telling me what should call my character, why don't you tell me my personality, class, feats, skills, actions, and what I roll as well.

Sure if soemone wants it give them a list of common names for their race/region. But if life has taught you anything you should of figured out by now that their are some weird anmes out there and some cool ones as well. Like Bird with broken wing shall fly again Danielson, or a cool one 3 not three but 3. Heck considering my opinions on kids I figure if I ever have one its my sacred duty to give them a name that sucks to live with, though I proably wouldn't be so cruel as to name a boy francis just so he can get his butt kicked at school every day.(cause that will learn him for being born)


Honestly I suspect the DMs who get the most greif with crappy names are the DMs with crappy policies on naming.

Oh god forbid we want names to make some iota of sense... How terribly unfair of us we don't want "Sammual the Knife" running around in a culture that is supposed to be pseudo-norse, or something.

Like I said. If they can explain it, and it's an actualy explanation (Not, say, "Because my parents were drunk when they named me"), I'll allow it.

And I do provide lists of "sample" names, for both genders, and last names.

 

[Drawmack]

Honestly I suspect the DMs who get the most greif with crappy names are the DMs with crappy policies on naming.

Acctually I will say that this is a usually type deal.

I have two races in my campaign that have naming conventions but both of them are well justified by flavor text.

1) Ferale - who's names sound like animal sounds so that they can call to each other in the jungle without alreting other's near by to their presence. This race even gets a free langauge called Ferale Sign so that they can communite in without words when they want to be covert.

2) Dwarves - Dwarven names are three sylables long. 1st sylable is given to you by your parents at birth. 2nd sylable is given to you my the patriac of the city you come from when you reach the age of maturity. 3rd sylable designates your profession and is also bestowed upon you by the patriarch of your city when you reach maturity within your profession.

No players have given me any trouble over these.

 

[dshai527]

No matter what group I DM , I always have the one guy who wants the wierd name. I usually don't mind as long as they are roleplayed fine and the name doesn't upset gameplay. One example would be a Paladin of TYr with the name....Hanover McGroin, this is also the guy who calls every halfling whether he plays it or not Burrfoot.

I have seen worse but he was the most memorable. The player actually apologized about the name later because it turned out to be his favorite character of all time, but he was stuck with a stupid name. Once he had fame he couldn't change it.

 

[RSKennan]

This is a personal pet peeve of mine.

Some of the worst names I ever let into the game (I knew it wasn't serious) were from the same party, which consisted of Oat Flake the Elf, Xavier Assbuster the human Fighter (2E-he was pretty much a barbarian), and a gnome with a two page string of expletives as his name. Other notable names include "Squench"- another human barbarian (this time from 1e) and Bubba the Orc.

The guy who played Oat Flake eventually began insisting on playing a kender regardless of the game world. He liked the top- knot and began wearing one. Funny thing, he wasn't even all that die hard. He was a closet gamer, and school basketball star.

The gnome became a commercial actor out in Cali. He was the "cool kid" with the crazy hair from the old Arizona jeans commercial. Tom Green spoofed him with a wig when his show was starting up.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

I played for a few years in Wizardru's Barenshar campaign (G.U.R.P.S.) as Pharran Hytte (Fahrenheit) the elven fire mage.
Most of the players did not understand the joke untill I said his name out loud.
The other one was Paladin named Krystall Sherman.
Thats right I did it just to say "Shermon on the mount."

 

[Henry]

Having grown up with some of my best AD&D years in the 1980's, I've gamed with Angus the Cavalier, Slash the fighter/thief, H.J. the ranger (I'll let you figure that one out), Nugent the wise, Axel the thief, Vantáge the Cavalier (after the cigarettes), and Li'roth the Barbarian. (Some of our group was REALLY into Metal and Hair Bands.) Even a bard named Yuyella! ("You Yellow?")

 

[smetzger]

Its hard to complain about PCs names when so many names in the game are silly.

Meepo
Duchy of Geoff
Gnarley Forest
Elmo
Valley Elves
Clangedin

They did pretty good with the iconic names, but I bet you can find at least one silly name in every WOTC product.

 

[Y.O.Morales]

Worst PC names ever heard?

Sunny (human wizard) (I often called him Sunny Delight)
Tirex (elven ranger) (we joked by calling him Tilex and T-Rex)
Flea (half-orc fighter) (after the Red Hot Chilli Peppers member)

Worst NPC names that I have used?

Eric, Mario, Benjamin, Ricardo, and more.

They were common names for a bunch of commoners that I had to create on the fly.