Where do YOU steal your names from?

[Corsair]

Let's be honest. Coming up with good believable names for NPCs, unique creatures, etc, is a chore at best, and nearly impossible for some people at worst. Many of us steal names from other sources. Where do you as a GM/DM steal yours?

For fantasy games, I like to steal good names off of forums like this one. "Alzrius" for one became the name of a mythical two headed ice beast in one game I play in. (Mechanically, it's a hypogriff with a two-headed cryo template)

For modern/sci fi games, I steal names of character from obscure TV shows, sometimes complete with personality when it comes to making NPCs.

 

[Crothian]

I have TRoll Lord's Book of Names and it is really good.

 

[Andor]

Watch movie credits. They contain thousands of names, and some of them are things you would never have thought of in a million years.

 

[Hairfoot]

I just chuck syllables together. "In the tavern you meet...Asbiderk Bikkle from the town of...Leplomek."

Yes, they're better when I take time.

 

[Glyfair]

I have Judge's Guild's Treasure of Archaic Names. Personally, I hate the "random syllables thrown together" style. Actually, Troll Lord Games is the biggest offender in my book. I haven't touched some reasonable adventures they put out because they include names like "Dzeeburg" and other strangeness.

Usually, I'll choose real world names with an appropriate feel. While Mikey and Mike wouldn't fit, I have no problem with a character named Michael (as long as player isn't named Michael), Stephan, Amber or the like.

 

[domino]

Often it's random syllables from things I find lying around, hacked together names from authors of books, or actors or actresses.

Sometimes I'll just blatantly steal the whole character concept if I can be confident nobody else knows where it came from. Or first name from one character, last name from another in the same series, if it sounds good.

Or sometimes I'm just shameless, and use a real name, and tell people that I'm using it because it sounds so cool. As I did with Thurl Ravenscroft.

 

[Glyfair]

Or sometimes I'm just shameless, and use a real name, and tell people that I'm using it because it sounds so cool. As I did with Thurl Ravenscroft.

Usually I don't mind such "easter eggs" when I notice them as a player. Unless of course I get information I shouldn't from that (like we are looking for a were-tiger...hmmm, who could that be).

 

[Thetford]

I use a road atlas from europe, lots of names I never would of thought of and some I can't pronounce.

 

[ForceUser]

Let's be honest. Coming up with good believable names for NPCs, unique creatures, etc, is a chore at best, and nearly impossible for some people at worst. Many of us steal names from other sources. Where do you as a GM/DM steal yours?

For fantasy games, I like to steal good names off of forums like this one. "Alzrius" for one became the name of a mythical two headed ice beast in one game I play in. (Mechanically, it's a hypogriff with a two-headed cryo template)

For modern/sci fi games, I steal names of character from obscure TV shows, sometimes complete with personality when it comes to making NPCs.

For humans, humanlike creatures (such as frost giants) and human society, I lift names from historical and mythological sources. For everything else, I tend to make up my own names.

 

[Mercule]

Random syllables, mostly. I've been told by a couple of people that I have a knack for doing so without sounding dumb. Most languages have patterns that you can pick up (or create), if you're paying attension.

My major flaw, though, is probably that I prefer gutteral languages, so even my faux-French kindgom tends to have a lot of hard sounds in place names. In those cases, especially, I tend to steal shamelessly from Earth names. Sometimes, I at least have the decency to twist a sylable (or even a single letter) here and there.