What's in a name (WotC Article)

[Henry]

It's sometimes worth noting that, like the focus of this article, it can be tough for some players to come up with a good character name. I've known plenty of players who named their Cavaliers after cigarette brands (Vantáge Mentol) or Soft Drinks (Yuyella the Bard after looking at a Mellow Yellow bottle) or rock stars (MORE than one character named Angus, Slash, or Duff).

Sometimes, we can't even keep 'em straight ourselves when talking about them:

It could be a rhyming pun like Danger Ranger, a comedy character like Ed O’Neill, the beer-swilling dad from Married with Children.

Ed O'Neil will be pleased that he's better remembered than even Al Bundy.

Anyone have their own sources that weren't mentioned in the above article?

 

[Crothian]

I know people that use phonebooks and books of baby names. I like Troll Lords book of Names and another smaller list of names I got somewhere. Though the best for names was an old friend of mine with a degree in the Classics and Linguistics. He could put together some of the coolest sounding names ever. Of course as players we could never spell that darned things!!

 

[Rhun]

I usually put some amount of actual effort into naming my PCs and important NPCs. But I'll often use random online name generators and then modify them from there. I prefer names that sound kinda cool and aren't very common.

 

[Heckler]

I've pulled some names from the theatre (outside of Shakespeare). I've played characters named Vaclav Havel and Dario Fo(both playwrights), and my most recent character is named Pozzo (character from "Waiting for Godot).

 

[Chaldfont]

For a long time I named all my D&D characters <somebody> the <adjective>. It helps to have one single personality trait to fall back on. Two of my favorite PCs were:

Elleroc the Efficient
Thorglaak the Unpredictable

Other naming methods I've seen over the years:

Random cool words: Malathion, Scrimshaw
Random odd real names: Giacomo, Mordecai, Grignard
Player's name reversed--my name reversed is lame, but this method is a classic
Draw a random number of Scrabble tiles and arrange them to make a name

 

[RodneyThompson]

While I personally put a lot of time and effort into coming up with good character names, we've got a couple of players that just can't take it seriously. In our fantasy Egypt D&D game, there was Id Al-Bundi (named after the aforementioned Ed O'neill character, Al Bundy). In a game I play in now, we have Louis Tully (Rick Moranis' character from Ghostbusters). He's also played Kong, an anthropomorphic ape barbarian.

Yikes.

 

[Pbartender]

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

Especially this one... http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickname

 

[lukelightning]

My current character is Orly Yarly. Inspired by Fark.com

 

[Chaldfont]

While I personally put a lot of time and effort into coming up with good character names, we've got a couple of players that just can't take it seriously. In our fantasy Egypt D&D game, there was Id Al-Bundi (named after the aforementioned Ed O'neill character, Al Bundy). In a game I play in now, we have Louis Tully (Rick Moranis' character from Ghostbusters). He's also played Kong, an anthropomorphic ape barbarian.

Yikes.

Gag names always pop up. It's part of the fun of the game. One of my favorites was Hassan ben-Sobar, a name stolen from a Three Stooges picture and given to a Failed Jedi from the old d6 Star Wars game.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Anyone have their own sources that weren't mentioned in the above article?

Spam!

Definite D. Multifarious was my personal favourite

-Hyp.