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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Peni Griffin" data-source="post: 3754018" data-attributes="member: 50322">You're all overlooking the most important thing - what naming conventions does the DM have in place?  Does he have a source culture on which he's modeling the campaign society?  Where does Edmund fit within that culture?  Is he intended as an archetypal wizard, as a kid who struggled to break into the elite, as a bumpkin planning to take the world by storm, what?Surnames exist in order to distinguish between individuals with the same name.  Their codification into family names is a relatively modern development, and even now some societies have names that change from generation to generation - the sons of Edvard Larsson and Gertrude Lavransdatter will have the surname Edvardson and their daughters will be named Gertrudesdatter.  In a fantasy setting, a surname will either be individual rather than familial (Edmund Hill to distinguish him from Edmund the Dark, Edmund the Old, Edmund Vale, Edmund Shoemaker, and his cousin Edmund the Drunk) or will be associated with some ancestor - Edmund Robinson, when Robin was his grandfather - or some other family association - Edmund Dalefarm, Edmund Pigherder, whatever.  The more pretentious fantasy names - Moonleaf, Windreacher, etc. - can be based on family history or heraldry, or be the result of a taste for poesy dressing up ordinary occupation names.  A family of sailors may feel it more elegant to call themselves Windreacher than Sailor, for example.If you really care about the name, consulting with your DM and establishing a naming convention is an important step in the character background and development, and the process of integrating the character into the campaign world.</blockquote>

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