stupid PC names

[tleilaxu]

how would you react if one of your players wanted to name his character "Dinky McPoophead", "Ghandalv", "Pinky the Brain" or something like that?

Do you just let them?

Do you suggest them to choose another name?

DO you disallow the name completely?

Addendum: What is the stupidest PC name you have ever heard?

Mine: One of the players named his character Ray, which was the name of one of the other players, so we never knew if he was talking about his character or the other player. He did this on purpose.

 

[Buttercup]

This hasn't ever happened to me. However, if a player named their character in such a way that they disrupted the game, I would tell them to rename their character, or I would do it for them. What would I consider disruptive naming? Your first and third examples certainly are. The second one is more a symptom of a lack of creativity. I'd probably insist they pick a new name for that one, too.

So tell me, how old are these players? Especially the McPoophead one? That sounds like the humor of an 8 year old.

 

[tleilaxu]

oh, that was just me... nobody actually named their character that. that was just the "worst case example"

 

[Tsyr]

Yeah, I've had that...

One guy was hell-bent on making his dwarven psion have the name "Deathmonkey"...

Normaly I just axe it and tell them to try again. I'm pretty strict when it comes to names, though... I even enforce certain cultural naming standards for the different cultures in my world, unless the players can come up with a good reason why their name is "strange".

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

It's part of a sort of running joke... one player, who is pretty bad with names (He just can't think of them, not that he tries to pick bad ones) was trying to come up with a name still for his character when a character adressed him... and asked him his name. He sorta stumbled for a minute then said "Uh... Bob, for now...".

His name quickly became Bob Fernow. There is now a whole hoard of Fernows... Since he never seems to come up with a name he likes until the halfway through the first or second session. Sometimes he just keeps his random name, if it's not to bad... He had a character named Elly Fernow in a Fading Suns game that he kept for the entire (mid-sized) campaign. And Fernow is sorta just an accepted "Don't make me think any more right now, my brain hurts!" last name, around here, anymore.

 

[Fenes 2]

I don't let players choose inappropriate names - and I consider anything inappropriate that I would hate to use in my campaign as an adress. I am pretty tolerant however.

As far as the most stupid name I ever encountered (and the first and so far only I banned), here is the story:

We were (and are) playing a campaign in the Mulhorand/Unther region of the Forgotten Realms, heavily modified. The culture is very much sculpted according to historical egypt, only with real gods walking the earth, or at least residing in the city of gods. The priest-caste and the churches dominate Mulhorand and the occupied territories of Unther, running then governement under the pharao and the army. Priests of other faiths than those of the Mulhorandi pantheon may not attempt to convert the people or risk th death penalty (and diplomatic incidences among the gods).
The players have close ties to a faction of the church of Isis, with one PC a (fresh converted and therfore multiclassed) priestess of Isis in high standing. The rest of the PCs is in her employ.
Enters a new player, fresh from Neverwinter Nights. The background is known, at least to the player and occasional DM that helps him with his PC. Still, what they came up with:
A rasta-headed priest of "Jah", a nature god from Jamaica (sic!), named "Mr. J. Jackson".

To add injury to insult they were unable to understand why I did not want that name to sully my campaign.

(We renamed the PC Moses, priest of Osiris for the few sessions he attended.)

 

[Vuron]

I think PirateCat is a stupid name

 

[Mark]

I think PirateCat is a stupid name

That's gonna cost ya...

I draw the line at Doltus Dumass duh T(h)urd (when the "h" is silent.)

 

[Bob5th]

How about Bob, Bob Jr. Bob III, Bob IV, Bob V? Anyone who thinks I'm joking should think again. All have been clerics. For third edition it's Robert Amakir VI.

 

[Azure Trance]

Old game I played in last year had a PC named Yie Me (Why Me). What's your name? Why? I want to know your name, that's why. Yie Me? His second character was Who Me.

Bla bla bla.

I play with another group now.

 

[JeffK1966]

Normally, we don’t have too many problems with inappropriate names in our group, but a few times, newbies to the group have tried those types of things. We had one guy that wanted to play a large breasted female kender paladin thief based on Batman. The DM nixed that idea, but he named his regular paladin “Bwayne” short for Bruce Wayne. Needless to say, he did not last in our group. Most of the time, people will have trouble coming up with names, but it is more that the name might not be culturally appropriate. We had a guy try to give a human barbarian what would have been a great name for an elf. But, that was not intentional.