What's in a name?

[Hairfoot]

Nightfall's Pathfinder map thread has strayed into a discussion on the merit of fantasy place names like "Skull River" and the "Mushfens".

So, how important are names to the quality and feel of a fantasy product?

One thing that struck me about the 3.0 PHB was the (IMHO) tackiness of the iconic's names. Regdar? Ember? Tordek? Surely they can do better than chucking 2-syllable word-sounds together. Lidda I can deal with because if you pronounce it Gaelic-ish, it sounds like "Litha".

By contrast, I quite liked the names used in the Castles & Crusades PHB, which almost made up for the appalling typos and proofreading errors.

For me, clunky names detract from the quality of a product, and make me feel like I'm reading a 14-year-old's "733t D20 anime conversion OMG!!!!" on the web.

Am I being a snob? What names do you like or not like, and which publishers do you consider repeat offenders or cutting-edge fantasy-nominists?

 

[shilsen]

Am I being a snob?

Yes. There's nothing intrinsically wrong about names like Regdar and Tordek, any more than there are about Sauron and Gandalf. That being said, I'm not at all surprised at your reaction. Highly implausible and unrealistic things go unremarked on if they happen in the real world but send gamers into a tizzy if they happen in a game. Similarly, the real world (now and as far back as we can go in history) is full of names that are nothing but random sounds smushed together, and which sound clunky and silly if one actually sat down and considered them, but if such names show up in a game some people are highly critical of it. Personally, names don't bother me in the least. A rose by any other name is still a weirdly colored reproductive organ of a plant.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Are Rath, Delsenora, and people's names spelled backward any better? Should we be using 13th Century European names for authenticity in a world that was never 13th Century Europe? Is Elminster anything but random syllables? Emirikol?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I just want there to be some logic to it. For instance, my 18 month old campaign has been based in a setting with three major influences:

1) Prustan humans, who have a typically Germanic naming system (although I didn't know this when I started designing the first area of the setting, a tiny Barony that's English-inspired instead),
2) Grailwarden dwarves, who are traditionally dwarven, but when I need a cultural reference, I'm going with Appalachia instead of traditional European mything stuff,
3) Ancient Kemite sorcerers, who are all wiped out, but whose ruins dot the distant south. Corruptions of their words show up sometimes in place names.

When I need a person's name, I consider their origins. A Prustan human gets a Germanic name (I modified a list of medieval Germanic names for this purpose -- it's available on the Delvers' Square Web site, if others want to use it), preferably with a surname based on their profession or place of origin. A dwarf gets something comparable (I use the Races of Stone name generator for the dwarves to make the names uniform) except in special cases, like the various mountain kings.

For place names, if it's an imperial settlement, I go with a name in Imperial Common -- English. The names tend to be rather simple and straightforward: Maidensbridge, Goblin Falls, Blackberry Ridge, Stonecrown.

Dwarf settlements get an Imperial common name -- typically the name of the mountain -- while the dwarfhold inside gets a dwarf name (again based off of Races of Stone).

There's a realistic blend of names and if it sometimes seems a bit mundane, that's made up for by trips into Kem, which are highly exotic. Even the names are exotic, which are either corruptions of ancient names or, more commonly, the names given to them by more recent explorers.

 

[James Jacobs]

For many of the names in the map of Varisia, there actually is a logic. Taking Skull River as an example... it got that name because the southern end of the Storval Deep is blocked by an ancient and immense dam covered with skulls (a place called Skull's Crossing), and the overflow of the water pours through the mouths of several of the larger skulls. Therefore... the river that runs south of the dam is known as Skull River.

Anyway, rest assured that most, if not all, of the locations on the map were given for reasons. May not save them from sounding lame to some folk, sure, but there certainly is a method to my madness in the naming conventions for this region.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I want to see Skull's Crossing in some upcoming art!

 

[Hairfoot]

Anyway, rest assured that most, if not all, of the locations on the map were given for reasons. May not save them from sounding lame to some folk, sure, but there certainly is a method to my madness in the naming conventions for this region.

Please don't construe any of this as criticism of the map, which is of the highest quality.

 

[blargney the second]

I'm almost utterly ambivalent about names. As long as they're vaguely pronounceable, I don't really care what they are. (Although needless apostrophes do irritate me. Xen'drik, I'm looking at you.)

 

[Khuxan]

I'm reading Into the Darkness, which uses real-world naming conventions for its fantasy world. Ironically, before I knew that this was what Turtledove was doing, I got quite annoyed at the stupid names he was using. They sounded like random syllables strung together. "Algarve"? Now he's just stringing random syllables together, surely.

 

[Jesus_marley]

names are strange things. even in the RW, naming conventions vary widely, mostly seen in different cultures.

As long as a name is pronouncable and doesn't contain 17 apostrophes I won't have a problem with it.

as for strange names, I remember reading an article on name origins and there was a girl in 13th century England who was graced with the name of Diot Coke. I kid you not.